2/19/25

 I got to the airport early this morning. The lines were long. Lots of people vacating Rochester. 

The TSA process went smooth. No issues.

I boarded the plane and then sat and sat and sat. There were only a “few” de-icing trucks.  With several planes taking off, and frigid temperatures, it seems logical to only have a “few” de-icing trucks right? * sarcasm*

As a passenger that knows very little about the airline industry, I also don’t understand the boarding process. To me, it seems like it would be more efficient to board the back of the plane first. But who do you inquire to find out the reason?

On my second portion of the flight I had a window seat. When the girl next to me sat down, I was engulfed in a cloud of onion, bacteria and filth smell. Oh god! I have to sit next to THIS for the next hour and change?🤮 I practiced mouth breathing, but it is not natural to me. I leaned away as far as possible but this smell was dancing around me like pig pen’s dust cloud. I tried to turn the air blaster on full speed to create an air wall, pushing the smell down, away from my nose.

Could there be a mandatory shower clause for travelers? Must use soap and deodorant for travel? I sat stewing and angry, trying to figure out how to get a refund for this. It was a full flight and I couldn’t relocate my seat. Grrrr.

Everytime this woman raised her arms to play with her hair, was her way of burping her armpits.  Fluffing out concentrated stink like a smoke signal right to my nose. It was turning the air green.

My coworker had texted me and let me know that her flight was delayed for mechanical issues and she was going to drive the 5 hours instead. 

While driving is not the worst thing in the world, I don’t enjoy it. I feel bad for my coworker because this is her first conference and I was really hoping things would go smooth for her. I am not sure if I would prefer to drive or smell this heinous body odor? 

I decided to be thankful I didn’t have to drive. I can stew about the stinky person next to me but I don’t have to love it.

I arrived, and so did my coworker. I found this cool restaurant right around the corner from the hotel. It is called Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus.

This place was so cool. It had a painted tin ceilings. The tile was ornate and patterned. The front looked like an old movie theatre. There was a small amount frontage but it was very long. There were lots of stained glass windows.

We spoke to one of the employees that shared that this building was built in the 1800’s. The stained glass was purchased from a church during the prohibition. The current ladies room used to be a distillery.

The restaurant used to be a pool hall. The ground floor was a distillery. The 2nd and 3rd floor was a pool hall and the 4 th and 5 th floor used to be a brothel. 

https://www.elevatorbrewing.com/

I put the link in if you want to check out the pictures of the brewery.

We then headed over to the convention center to unpack our giveaways, flyers etc.

Our booth was a blank space on the floor. Nothing. No rug, no curtain, nothing.

I inquired about our booth. There was no record of any booth package. We purchased one and paid to have it set up, but the company had a “glitch” and lost all of our paperwork.

After a few HOURS of troubleshooting, we got a rug, table and chairs and some people assembled our booth for us. 

We unpacked our merchandise. There weee no flyers or flyer holders. I had to send communications to the events team.

After several hours we finally just left with things unresolved!

I ran into a previous coworker. We now have dinner plans for tomorrow. It is the first time I met her in person as well. I really liked her and she taught me a lot.

Tomorrow we are walking into this conference without any materials. It will be a long day.