TRAVELING LONLINESS

I experienced this lonliness a couple of years ago and it was only for about 7 days then. I was traveling through Mexico alone. Going from one state to another and arriving early in the morning when there is no one on the streets, but cabs and drunks.
Here in Detroit at least I have familiar faces, but it is still lonely. Yes we work together and share meals and some fun together, but at the end of the day we all go back to our rooms. These are our homes for the next 14 days or so. It's been our home on and off for the last 3 weeks.
What makes it harder is that I am so far away from my family. We talk on the phone frequently but it is still lonely.
I am not whining.
It is a feeling that though I may be enjoying certain aspects of the trip; like the trip to the game, the gourmet dinner at a fine dining place, etc. Nothing is the same if I don't have my family here.
This is a great experience for me in terms of my professional career and I would probably do it again, perhaps not for this length of time.
I suppose that the more you do it, the more you get used to it. In the meantime, like Melissa, I am counting the days.
14

Lookin out my window

Lookin out my window
Originally uploaded by Ciscokid1

Here I find myself after a short day at work. (7 hours). Once again I am tired and it is nice outside. I decided to show you what my view consists of.

Days 4 through 9

It has gotten very busy with work here. Working 6 days a week with a lot going on in between.
In between, I have moved into the new hotel, I have moved out of the hotel and back into the old one.
On Sunday we went to see the Detroit Lions play, they won the opening home game, it was good with the result being decided in Overtime.


Over the weekend we also found "Mexicantown" with not very good results. 4 of us went to dinner and we happened to walk into a restaurant with a DJ on the lower floor and a small dance floor. However through the "grapevine" we found out that there was a third floor where there was another DJ with a much larger floor for dancing and sitting. we went up there and it turned out to be very much like the place that I work at in Vegas. On the way back, there were no cabs that would come to pick us up, so we ended up walking back to our hotel. If you've been to Detroit you will know that there are some areas that not even the devil would walk through. However we made it safely back into a major avenue where a passing taxi picked us up.
The same attitudes prevail amongst the "snobs" that I wrote about last week. There are some people that I have talked to one evening over dinner or at the bar and the next day they don't even glance your way even when you are standing in front of them.


I have also found that there are a lot of good people here in this town despite the prevalent look of depression around the city.
I have yet to venture out into the suburbs, then again after working 10 to 12 hours sometimes, the only thing I can do when I get back to the hotel is pass out from exhaustion.
A couple of nights ago while we were in the new hotel, the fire alarm went off at 4:00 AM. We had to evacuate the hotel, luckily I was on the sixth floor. Though it is kind of strange to be with a bunch of strangers in the middle of the night while dressed in the first thing the could get their hands on. It turned out to be a false alarm. It was hard getting back to sleep and to top it off, the alarm went off again at about 5:00AM. This time we all stayed put.


Oh yeah!. The TVs did not work in the hotel and there were no services or anyplace to go after work.

The highlight of trip since I've been here was the following.
6 of us were invited to one of Michael Mina's Restaurants to sample a "tasting". He has two in the hotel; Bourbon Steak and Saltwater. The invitation was for the steak house but when we got there, they were busy with people also attending their invitation to try out the new menu as well as to train their staff. So we ended up walking next door to Salt water, their seafood restaurant. They were also training but none were eating, so they sat us at a long table close to where their staff were going over their menu.

The tasting was wonderful. After eating bar food, fried food and mostly anything else out of our hotel's cafeteria, sampling such succulent dishes was heaven sent.
We had; foie gras, figs with prosciutto, perch, salmon, scallops, terrines with caviar and to top it off, since we had been originally invited to the steak house, the chef from Bourbon Steak brought us a flat iron kobe steak to finish our meal. The steak was not a "tasting" size it was a full 16 oz of perfectly cooked juicy and tender piece of beef.
That made up for everything else.
I talk to my family everyday at least twice a day. However I still miss them all every moment of every day.
Till next time.

DAY 3

So far so good.
The place looks great and the management team looks strong enough. We have been received with open arms so that helps towards achieving our goals. The place opens in about 3 weeks so we have a lot of training to do.
The more time I spend with my co-workers the more I learn about them. These are people that I have been working with for the last two years without them knowing me or me knowing them. It is all in passing. we know faces but not our names. Yet while we are all stuck with each other here, we are "forced" to deal with each other, whether we want to or not. The exception are the "snubs" who get in their little groups and end up doing their own thing day in and day out. Then again, maybe they feel left out because we do not ask them to go with "us". Not that I'm invited either but I just tag along. I think I have more of a bond or attachments with the "back of the house" staff than the "front of the house" staff.

Detroit is quite a unique town. We are staying in a hotel in downtown and everything around us is empty and "dead" It seems as though the plague went through town and left all these old and new buildings completely empty. There are some where on their roofs, there are trees growing on top of them. They almost look like Italian Terrazzos, with plants and trees growing on top of their roofs, but they just have been abandoned for a long time. There are signs of construction and improvement, which is the reason why we are here, but I think it still is going to be a while before this whole areas comes back to look like Manhattan or downtown Chicago.

Till then, enjoy the pictures.

Day 2

This morning I was woken up by a furious tapping on the window, which initially I thought it was a ghost typing on my laptop. It turned out to be rain. Rain of the kind that you don't see in Las Vegas.

It was a cool day 7o's average. What a difference that makes for someone who's been dealing with 100+ for the last 2-3 months.
I met some noew people today at work and aside from the ones I am working with, I ran into someone I used to work and knew about 22 years ago. There was an awkard silences as we looked at each other and tried to figure out who this persaon was. I was first to remember his name. He had to get my help. All I had to mention was Westin Bonaventure, Skiing and Palm Springs, since we used to hang out together. This was before I had even gone back to school, when I was just living "La Vida Loca" Now it turns out that he is a VP of a company that consults with our company.- Definitely a small world.

See you!

DETROIT ROCK CITY

So I find myself in a new strange land without my family.
I am in Detroit, Michigan. A mere 4 hours from home and yet so far away. I am on work assignment and will be here for a "few" days. I rather look at it like that as opposed to weeks or months. My little family was left behind but it's all for the good of the family.

I will be taking pictures and posting about the working trip so stay tuned.

Family......I love you and miss you already.