Stuck in Cleveland

All I wanted was to go home. I got my shit together and headed over to the airport at 1 p.m. to catch my 4:50 flight out of Cleveland to head to NJ, where I would then catch a flight into Albany International. To my surprise this is what I see when I walk into the airport....



Yeah...the flight circled is my flight. Fuck.

But thankfully the good folks at Continental Airlines put me on another flight. Only that flight doesn't leave until 7:00 p.m. Which means I have a lot of time to kill..lot's of time. But on a good note, it's a direct flight to Albany. So to kill some time I decided to explore the airport. That took about 45 minutes. Luckily you can get free rides on the escalators.



Escalator ride. Pure joy.

It was getting close to my new departure time so I headed over to my gate to board the plane. When I get there.....



Yep...delayed. Bullshit. My 7:00 p.m. flight was now at 8:50 p.m. Now what?



Escalator ride. Pure joy.

It'll Be Years Until I Ever Have Lasagna Again...Years.

I woke up this morning and saw this in the lobby. BMX bikes all over the place. The photo is a just a small sample of how many bikes where there because there was atleast 30 bikes in the lobby. Turns out the Mountain Dew DEW TOUR is in Cleveland this week and all of the riders are staying at same hotel I'm staying at. I rode the elevator with the tour medics. They were talking about how busy they've been. Yeah, I bet.

Today wasn't a very good day for me. As a matter of fact it was a pretty shitty day. The conference was moved to Oberlin, OH so we could tour the NACS office and warehouse. Then we were heading over to this fancy schmancy outdoors mall called Crocker Park to do a little bit of research on marketing. All was going well until we got to mall. That's when things went bad..well, not bad right away..things got bad when we walked into Pac Sun. Apparently I ate something during lunch that didn't agree with me (I think it was the lasagna....I swear, it had nothing to do with the nachos, hot dog...annnnd bratwurst from the night before) because all of a sudden I was overcome by the urge to throw up. I ran out of Pac Sun and puked all over the place. I remember the bus passing a pharmacy on the way into the mall so I thought I'd head that direction to get some Pepto or something to help calm my stomach. In my travels I managed to throw up in Barnes and Nobles, Borders, H&M, American Eagle, Dicks Sporting Goods, and in various bushes throughout the mall. I got to the pharmacy, bought a bottle of Pepto and then immediatly puked it up in the parking lot. Ever seen pink puke mixed with what I think was lasagna? I would have taken a photo if I wasn't traumatized from the fact that I was puking all over the place. Anyways I decided that it might be in my best interest if returned to my hotel room to puke some more and then relax with a little bit of HBO.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and then I'm heading home. Ugh...more air travel.

Cleveland Indians vs Chicago White Sox

We spent 9 hours in class today. I actually enjoyed it. I'm learning a lot of important stuff and the material is real interesting. Tomorrow we're traveling over to Oberlin, OH to check out the NACS headquarters and then do some research on mechandising and retailing.

We were going to return to the House of Blues tonight to see a band called Gogol Bordello but instead a bunch of us went to see the Cleveland Indians play against the Chicago White Sox. The game was pretty exciting and we had a lot of fun. We didn't stay for the entire game since we have another big day tomorrow but I can tell you the score is currently 5 to 5 at the top of the 11th inning. Our group left the game at the top of the 8th inning. On the way back to the hotel we ran into a guy begging for money with a cardboard box that said "Why lie - I need money for beer". I asked if I could take his photo but he said it was going to cost me 8 bucks. I figured I could write about it here for free. I ended up giving him a buck and went to my hotel room.


You really can't get seats any higher than the seats we had. Hi Gwen!!!


Go Cleveland.


Jacobs Field

Oh, by the way. The game just ended. Cleveland won at the bottom of the 11th inning.

I Put A Spell On You

Why do they always list my proper name? Why?

Part of the conference yesterday included a dinner at the House of Blues. It was alright. Sort of lame to be honest and the food was, at best, okay. It's really nothing but a huge ass tourist trap with trendy artwork all over the walls and a bunch of weird "private" party rooms to make you feel special. Of course there's a gift shop on the way out so you can buy your stupid HOB t-shirts and pint glasses. Lame.

Regardless what I think..here's some photos from the HOB to entertain you.


Some of the artwork in the dining room. I think a 13 year old did this.


A painting of Screamin' Jay Hawkins greets you at the enterence into the main stage for The House of Blues.

Cleveland so far...

I forgot how much I don't really enjoy air travel. It's not that I'm afraid of it, I just find it exhausting. Planes are never comfortable and somehow you always end up sitting next to someone who manages to bug the shit out of you just by sitting next to you. Go figure. Oh, but it's always nice when you get a window seat.

So I'm in Cleveland and I decided to go get a slice of pizza to hold me over until dinner. I figured the best thing to do would be to ask one of the locals about where I could go for a great slice of pizza. I went down to the lobby and asked the woman at the front desk and she said there's this wonderful place around the corner that makes great pizza and great garlic bread. So I'm thinking point me in the right direction and do it PRONTO. When I asked her what it was called, she said Domino's. What? Domino's? Really? Domino's, as in the place with the little red,white and blue domino logo and cardboard crust? Really? Are you kidding? Domino's? She even asked me if I've ever heard of them because they were very famous. Famous? I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't. I mean, if you look up the word famous in the dictionary, this is what it says:

fa·mous [fey-muhs] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. having a widespread reputation, usually of a favorable nature; renowned; celebrated: a famous writer.
2. Informal. first-rate; excellent: The singer gave a famous performance.
3. notorious (used pejoratively).


So here you go folks, the crown jewel of Cleveland pizza.


Bastards don't even sell slices. I had to buy one of those stupid teeny tiny personal pan pizzas. Cleveland sucks.

Look at what I just found on the web!

Awesome!!

Cleveland Bound

The bags are packed and the alarm is set for 4 a.m...yikes. I'm heading to Cleveland, OH bright and early tomorrow morning for a full week of College Bookstore Management-How To's put on by those funny kids over at NACS (National Association of College Stores). As a bonus I'll be treated to a concert by those NYC gypsy punks, Gogol Bordello (pictured below) at the House of Blues on Tuesday night. Hot stuff.

Booorrrrriinnggg!!!!

Geddy Lee circa 1983. Nice mullet dude.

Yeah, yeah..I know. I haven't posted anything interesting in awhile or ever for that matter. But nothing really interesting has happened to me in awhile. At least nothing worth writing about. Oh, except the other day my daughter and I met Geddy Lee from Rush. Which is pretty exciting..right? Yes? No? I mean..it's Geddy Lee of Rush...and yes, he talks just like a regular guy (hello, PAVEMENT reference).

I am going to Cleveland in a couple of weeks for a college bookstore conference. Perhaps that will provide me with some good internet fodder. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures because as you would suspect, college bookstore conferences get pretty wild and a photo is worth a thousand words. At least that's what I've heard.