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Because I don't want to get caught without my paper list again, I'm typing it up.
Things I Need To Do Before I Go To Phoenix This Weekend:
- purchase small bottles (less than 3 oz.) of contact cleaner, saline, and face wash (possibly also shampoo, need to see what I have)
- pack all my liquid less-than-3-oz. toiletries in a large plastic ziplock bag
- pack two nice outfits for the weekend (outfits should be able to transition from air-conditioned hotel conference room to desert heat to air-conditioned restaurant)
- pack a sandwich-sized ziplock with all the useful items from the Planning Meeting informational handout (i.e., paperclips, business cards, some rubber bands, post-its, flags, etc)
- don't forget the stack of papers from the office (meeting agenda, book TOC, flight and hotel info, etc)
- don't forget corporate card!
- figure out how I'm getting to and from the airport
Airport transportation is something significant to figure out. My flight to Phoenix is at 6:15pm on Friday night. Easy enough to get there: I can just take the R1 train from my work right to the airport. I could take the 3:30 R1 and arrive at terminal B at 3:50, or the 4:00 R1 and arrive at 4:20. No problem.
No, the problem is with getting home on Sunday night. My flight from Phoenix lands in Philadelphia at 10:33pm. It's possible I could catch the 10:42 R1, but not likely, so I would probably end up catching the 11:12 R1 instead. That would put me at 30th Street Station at 11:30pm, when unfortunately, the last R5 to Lansdale leaves 30th Street at 11:15. If by some miracle I was able to get off my plane right at 10:33 and book it to make the 10:42 R1, I would be in time to catch that last R5 from 30th Street, but that's just not something I can count on.
Okay, so the train won't work for getting home. And I refuse to ask one of my parents to pick me up at the airport at 11:00 on a Sunday night when they have to get up at 5:30 Monday morning. That's just not fair--my company's not paying *them*, after all. I could take a taxi, which the company would pay for, but 40-some miles in a taxi is crazy and would be ridiculously expensive. And I don't really want to sit in a taxi for an hour to get home. My mom suggested I get a room for the night at the airport Microtel, and just pack enough clothes for Monday at work and take the R1 right to work Monday morning. That's an option if the company will pay for it--it'd probably be cheaper than the taxi but I think they're less likely to pay for a hotel room than a taxi just on principle. According to the website, a room for one night at the Microtel would be $70-80.
Another option would be to revise Friday's transportation arrangement so that I would be driving to the airport and parking my car there, where I can get it on Sunday and then drive myself home. So on Friday, instead of leaving at 3:30 and going directly to the airport on the R1, I could instead leave at 1:20 and ride home to Lansdale, arriving at 2:15 to get my car, which would leave me two hours to get to the airport if I want to get there at 4:15 (two hours before my flight time), which would be more than enough time if there is no traffic and just enough time if there is traffic. The 1:20 train back to Lansdale is the only one that would be a viable option, since they go on the hour during the day and a 2:20 train would get me back at 3:15, which would leave me only an hour to get to the airport with no wiggle room in case of traffic. And yes, I want to get to the airport a full two hours before my flight leaves, because I do NOT want a repeat of the nightmare experience I had last time.
The company will pay to park my car at the airport all weekend, so that's not an issue. Other options might be driving to work on Friday and then driving directly from work to the airport (which I don't want to do because it would involve driving, and parking, in center city Philly, which I just am not willing to do), or at the outside of ridiculousness, driving to the airport before work on Friday, parking my car in the long-term lot, taking the R1 to work, and then taking the R1 back to the airport at 3:30. But I really don't want to do that either--I don't think anyone should have to visit the Philly airport more than once a day, and besides which I'd have to get up stupidly early to be able to do this. Ugh.
I'm leaning towards taking the 1:20 train home on Friday and then driving to the airport so I can drive myself home Sunday night, but I'm going to ask my boss what she thinks. Maybe there's some awesome company-approved car service I could book that will take me home. That would be ideal.
Things I Need To Do Before I Go To Phoenix This Weekend:
- purchase small bottles (less than 3 oz.) of contact cleaner, saline, and face wash (possibly also shampoo, need to see what I have)
- pack all my liquid less-than-3-oz. toiletries in a large plastic ziplock bag
- pack two nice outfits for the weekend (outfits should be able to transition from air-conditioned hotel conference room to desert heat to air-conditioned restaurant)
- pack a sandwich-sized ziplock with all the useful items from the Planning Meeting informational handout (i.e., paperclips, business cards, some rubber bands, post-its, flags, etc)
- don't forget the stack of papers from the office (meeting agenda, book TOC, flight and hotel info, etc)
- don't forget corporate card!
- figure out how I'm getting to and from the airport
Airport transportation is something significant to figure out. My flight to Phoenix is at 6:15pm on Friday night. Easy enough to get there: I can just take the R1 train from my work right to the airport. I could take the 3:30 R1 and arrive at terminal B at 3:50, or the 4:00 R1 and arrive at 4:20. No problem.
No, the problem is with getting home on Sunday night. My flight from Phoenix lands in Philadelphia at 10:33pm. It's possible I could catch the 10:42 R1, but not likely, so I would probably end up catching the 11:12 R1 instead. That would put me at 30th Street Station at 11:30pm, when unfortunately, the last R5 to Lansdale leaves 30th Street at 11:15. If by some miracle I was able to get off my plane right at 10:33 and book it to make the 10:42 R1, I would be in time to catch that last R5 from 30th Street, but that's just not something I can count on.
Okay, so the train won't work for getting home. And I refuse to ask one of my parents to pick me up at the airport at 11:00 on a Sunday night when they have to get up at 5:30 Monday morning. That's just not fair--my company's not paying *them*, after all. I could take a taxi, which the company would pay for, but 40-some miles in a taxi is crazy and would be ridiculously expensive. And I don't really want to sit in a taxi for an hour to get home. My mom suggested I get a room for the night at the airport Microtel, and just pack enough clothes for Monday at work and take the R1 right to work Monday morning. That's an option if the company will pay for it--it'd probably be cheaper than the taxi but I think they're less likely to pay for a hotel room than a taxi just on principle. According to the website, a room for one night at the Microtel would be $70-80.
Another option would be to revise Friday's transportation arrangement so that I would be driving to the airport and parking my car there, where I can get it on Sunday and then drive myself home. So on Friday, instead of leaving at 3:30 and going directly to the airport on the R1, I could instead leave at 1:20 and ride home to Lansdale, arriving at 2:15 to get my car, which would leave me two hours to get to the airport if I want to get there at 4:15 (two hours before my flight time), which would be more than enough time if there is no traffic and just enough time if there is traffic. The 1:20 train back to Lansdale is the only one that would be a viable option, since they go on the hour during the day and a 2:20 train would get me back at 3:15, which would leave me only an hour to get to the airport with no wiggle room in case of traffic. And yes, I want to get to the airport a full two hours before my flight leaves, because I do NOT want a repeat of the nightmare experience I had last time.
The company will pay to park my car at the airport all weekend, so that's not an issue. Other options might be driving to work on Friday and then driving directly from work to the airport (which I don't want to do because it would involve driving, and parking, in center city Philly, which I just am not willing to do), or at the outside of ridiculousness, driving to the airport before work on Friday, parking my car in the long-term lot, taking the R1 to work, and then taking the R1 back to the airport at 3:30. But I really don't want to do that either--I don't think anyone should have to visit the Philly airport more than once a day, and besides which I'd have to get up stupidly early to be able to do this. Ugh.
I'm leaning towards taking the 1:20 train home on Friday and then driving to the airport so I can drive myself home Sunday night, but I'm going to ask my boss what she thinks. Maybe there's some awesome company-approved car service I could book that will take me home. That would be ideal.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 11:16 pm (UTC)From:Also, sounds like taking off Friday earlier to get to the airport with your car would be reasonable, considering they think it is reasonable for you to burn your weekend on a business trip. Do they offer comp time for these trips?
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Date: 2006-11-14 01:12 am (UTC)From: