just don't take the elevator

Ah New York City. Such a nice change from Miami, which is one of my least favorite cities ever. People walk slow there, have hair trigger tempers, and don’t care what language you speak. I used to always wonder why people were so jingoistic about Spanish speakers and it wasn’t until I was in Miami that I realized what might be causing part of the stress.

In a foreign country, or in most states, if you speak a different language than the person you are trying to communicate with there is normally an effort on both sides to try to be understood. Not so in Miami. There people were like “I’m speaking this language and don’t be waving your sign language at me mother fucker. I’m going to keep saying the same thing over and over and not trying to understand you in the hopes that you will go away.”

So, a few interesting things about my engagement here. I am working in the building that had the infamous elevator incident where the guy got locked in an elevator for 2 days. I looked the story up on the New Yorker and found out it’s one of the elevators in the bank that I take. I’m avoiding that elevator.

Also, Howard Stern works in my building. I really dislike that guy. Also working here is a David someone or other who has a TV show that lots of people know about and like to watch, according to my customer anyway, who expressed dismay that I had not heard about that David guy. I can’t remember his last name.

And finally, I love my hotel room at the Times Square Hilton. Since I have a crackmillion points with Hilton they upgraded me to a suite on the almost top floor (though off the top of my head I can’t remember which floor, and just realized I accidentally washed my room number off my hand…will have to write it down before I leave if I go smoke tonight) with an amazing view. The other consultant who was working this engagement got stuck in a lower floor room overlooking a giant hand coming out of Madame Tussard’s Wax Museum. He must have been bitter about this because he brought it up 5 times to me.

The only problem is, I’m supposed to be heading to a new hotel tomorrow night and flying home Saturday morning. But, um, we’re supposed to get 6 inches of snow tomorrow which is a lot, I guess, for this town. So, I wonder if I’m going to get stuck. Should be interesting.