So upon returning from the Lone Star State I came up with a plan for all future travel. Take time to study maps, points of interest, and information in general, if you can. I did that, to a degree, but evidently I did not go to the right website. Last night, in an attempt to defend and further explain the deserted streets of downtown Texas I, once again, Googled Houston, Texas. Google Maps, and http://www.visithoustontexas.com. Bingo!It takes some digging around, but when you click on Special Offers and then click on the Houston Neighborhoods link...this is where all my questions (well not ALL my questions) were answered.
Evidently, if you're downtown during the week...which we were...the streets appear deserted! (Did I say that?) It is not a figment of my imagination..it's for real!! Everyone is UNDERGROUND! That's right, there's a 6.3 mile UNDERGROUND TUNNEL network connecting office buildings with all the sidewalk stuff you usually find in largewr cities such as New York and Boston. I wish I had known that! How bizarre, but how perfectly rational.
My friend compared Houston to Montreal ( the Galleria); little did we know how much like Montreal it really was.
On another note, there are a lot of Apple fans in Houston. HP's headquarters is also located in Houston. The Apple store did come through for us. Not so impressed with MacEdge in Portsmouth. I wonder what qualifications you need to become an authorized Apple reseller.?..obviously you do not need to be a rocket scientist...which, by the way, according to Iaonnis Maoulis, President of the Boston Museum of Science, there is no such thing as. If you design rockets, you are an aerospace engineer. Cool.
One last karmic thought... how random is it to call a 1-800 number to activate a credit card and to hear "You have reached Microsoft's Technical Blah, blah, blah " on the other end of the phone? Someone is definitely keeping track of things around here....
Showing posts with label Houston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Houston. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
Missing Anything?
So for those of you who have had the pleasure of traveling with me, you know I have a hard time keeping track of my stuff. I make a list, I pack, I organize, and then, presto, it's gone! Subconsciously I am not aware of where I put stuff, because my head is off somewhere else. My brain just doesn't pay that much attention to what my body is doing.
So, they say things happen in three's, and it's true. Number one: I arrive at the hotel in Houston and go to get my camera. Which is not in my computer bag, nor is it in my back pack. Nope, it is in the seat back pocket of Continental Airlines 7flight 374 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Or on its way to some exotic location....without me. Damn. No camera. That sucks. But I can deal, because for some reason unkown to me I have taken the SD card out of the camera and it is safe.
Number 2: Day 2 of the conference and I have spent time with Alan November, of November Learning, the President of the Boston Museum of Science, and this really cool science teacher from Colorado. I have handouts and have taken copious notes. I have tagged my pages and marked the sessions I want to attend. Somewhere between buying a T-shirt, getting my picture taken in an astronaut suit and visiting the Women's Room, I have managed to misplace my session book. Nowhere. I retrace my steps..."Did you happen to find a book laying around?" "Yes, is this it?" "Nope," Boy, a lot of misplaced session books....everyone I asked had a book someone had left behind, but none of them were mine. Damn. All those notes.
"You do know things happen in threes," my friend said over dinner. "Are you sure you haven't misplaced anything else?" "Nope, I don't think so....but I don't know." How would I know? If I knew I misplaced something, it wouldn't be misplaced, right? I started imagining I had lost my ipod..."Where is it?" I think I left it in the car. "Where's my thumb drive?" I must've left it in a pocket..."Have you seen my room key?" AHHHHH!!
Number 3: So we're in the airport at the gate and I am looking through my computer bag. No laptop power cord. "I'm sure you have it, don't worry," my friend says. "I don't remember packing it," I say. "It'll turn up," she says. "When you get home and unpack everything, I'm sure you'll find it." I don't feel sure.
Today I am home. I unpacked everything and put things away. I emptied the computer bag, the Hawaiin backpack on wheels, and the Samsonite. I no longer have to worry about the third missing item. Back in room 372AB at the George Brown Convention Hall in Houston, Texas, you will find my power cord. The session book? No clue, but someone got some good notes. And the Kodak? I'm still hoping to have my faith in humanity restored....in some airport, somewhere, someone has turned in a black camera case to Continental Airlines Customer Service, where the item has been logged into the computer system with the hundreds of other items that get left behind every day. Missing anything lately?
So, they say things happen in three's, and it's true. Number one: I arrive at the hotel in Houston and go to get my camera. Which is not in my computer bag, nor is it in my back pack. Nope, it is in the seat back pocket of Continental Airlines 7flight 374 at Bush Intercontinental Airport. Or on its way to some exotic location....without me. Damn. No camera. That sucks. But I can deal, because for some reason unkown to me I have taken the SD card out of the camera and it is safe.
Number 2: Day 2 of the conference and I have spent time with Alan November, of November Learning, the President of the Boston Museum of Science, and this really cool science teacher from Colorado. I have handouts and have taken copious notes. I have tagged my pages and marked the sessions I want to attend. Somewhere between buying a T-shirt, getting my picture taken in an astronaut suit and visiting the Women's Room, I have managed to misplace my session book. Nowhere. I retrace my steps..."Did you happen to find a book laying around?" "Yes, is this it?" "Nope," Boy, a lot of misplaced session books....everyone I asked had a book someone had left behind, but none of them were mine. Damn. All those notes.
"You do know things happen in threes," my friend said over dinner. "Are you sure you haven't misplaced anything else?" "Nope, I don't think so....but I don't know." How would I know? If I knew I misplaced something, it wouldn't be misplaced, right? I started imagining I had lost my ipod..."Where is it?" I think I left it in the car. "Where's my thumb drive?" I must've left it in a pocket..."Have you seen my room key?" AHHHHH!!
Number 3: So we're in the airport at the gate and I am looking through my computer bag. No laptop power cord. "I'm sure you have it, don't worry," my friend says. "I don't remember packing it," I say. "It'll turn up," she says. "When you get home and unpack everything, I'm sure you'll find it." I don't feel sure.
Today I am home. I unpacked everything and put things away. I emptied the computer bag, the Hawaiin backpack on wheels, and the Samsonite. I no longer have to worry about the third missing item. Back in room 372AB at the George Brown Convention Hall in Houston, Texas, you will find my power cord. The session book? No clue, but someone got some good notes. And the Kodak? I'm still hoping to have my faith in humanity restored....in some airport, somewhere, someone has turned in a black camera case to Continental Airlines Customer Service, where the item has been logged into the computer system with the hundreds of other items that get left behind every day. Missing anything lately?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Ahh, Houston, We Have a Question.....
SO here we are, sitting in our hotel room, looking up random shit.Today was our first full day in the Lone Star State, as we await the National Middle School Annual Conference.and we managed to avoid trouble. I don't really know how....but we did. We managed to make our way to Galviston, which is an island, and back again, and got curious about a whole bunch of things which we are finding the answers to right now. Like, "Why is Texas called the Lone Star State? It's not as bad as Missouri, which is the "Show Me State." We are wondering if it has anything to do with the single star on the Texas flag. According to the boy Scouts..that's exactly why Texas is called the Lone Star State.
So another question we had was who plays at Reliant Stadium now that the Houston Astros play at Minutemaid Park? We were all around Reliant Stadium- home of the Houston Astrodome-way cool. Even cooler is Rice Village on the campus of Rice University. We spent some time on retail therapy this afternoon, hangin' out at Lot # 8, the boutique made famous by Project Runway winner Chloe.
And since we are right across the parking lot from the Toyota Center, we were wondering what was happenin there last night? Well, sure enough it was the Houston Rockets vs the San Antonio Spurs. Lots of Toyota stuff around here. Lots of One Way streets, too. Oh, oh. How many times can you go the wrong way down a one way street in an afternoon? Too many. Too confusing. Is this one way? Is it two way? Whcih way can you go? AHHHHHHH!
So on the way back to the mainland from Galveston we were hoping to head out to Houston Space Center, but we somehow missed the exit. Next thing you know we see a massive Mercedes car dealership with the name "Alex Rodriguez" on the side of the building. Large, really large. "Hey! I just asked my husband who A Rod used to paly for and he said he thought it was Texas. Do you think?......Nah......That is just way too coincidental." Sure enough, A Rod himself owns that baby. We're going back there to take a few pictures, for sure. Maybe I'll wear my Dustin Pedroia World Series T Shirt.
So we still have a few questuons to answer...and lots more exploring to do. Today was about getting online, setting up the projector, syncing my ipod on the macbook, setting up messenger on the macbook, converting the wmv file to quicktime, and shopping. And lots of shopping.
After a day and a half in Houston, the room AC is crap, the bed's ok, the cookies are good, the pool overlooks the parking lot and the freeway, the closest restaurant is Chinese or Vietnamese, and we have finally managed to learn our way around the block. Tomorrow morning we check in and check out our room to see if we have audio..then it's off to the office Store. Still to come..the Boot Store. We are, after all, in Texas.
So another question we had was who plays at Reliant Stadium now that the Houston Astros play at Minutemaid Park? We were all around Reliant Stadium- home of the Houston Astrodome-way cool. Even cooler is Rice Village on the campus of Rice University. We spent some time on retail therapy this afternoon, hangin' out at Lot # 8, the boutique made famous by Project Runway winner Chloe.
And since we are right across the parking lot from the Toyota Center, we were wondering what was happenin there last night? Well, sure enough it was the Houston Rockets vs the San Antonio Spurs. Lots of Toyota stuff around here. Lots of One Way streets, too. Oh, oh. How many times can you go the wrong way down a one way street in an afternoon? Too many. Too confusing. Is this one way? Is it two way? Whcih way can you go? AHHHHHHH!
So on the way back to the mainland from Galveston we were hoping to head out to Houston Space Center, but we somehow missed the exit. Next thing you know we see a massive Mercedes car dealership with the name "Alex Rodriguez" on the side of the building. Large, really large. "Hey! I just asked my husband who A Rod used to paly for and he said he thought it was Texas. Do you think?......Nah......That is just way too coincidental." Sure enough, A Rod himself owns that baby. We're going back there to take a few pictures, for sure. Maybe I'll wear my Dustin Pedroia World Series T Shirt.
So we still have a few questuons to answer...and lots more exploring to do. Today was about getting online, setting up the projector, syncing my ipod on the macbook, setting up messenger on the macbook, converting the wmv file to quicktime, and shopping. And lots of shopping.
After a day and a half in Houston, the room AC is crap, the bed's ok, the cookies are good, the pool overlooks the parking lot and the freeway, the closest restaurant is Chinese or Vietnamese, and we have finally managed to learn our way around the block. Tomorrow morning we check in and check out our room to see if we have audio..then it's off to the office Store. Still to come..the Boot Store. We are, after all, in Texas.
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