As Rebecca explained, I had to travel for business over a couple weeks. I had no idea it was going to be as hectic as it turned out to be. Initially, at work, some of our product management told me that they were going to arrange for me to go out to Rochester, New York, to meet with our developers, and receive one-on-one training for them for a week. When they finally told me the date they arranged, 24-27 January, they also explained that they would be holding a “Transfer of Information,” the “TOI” for my product, on Wednesday of that same week, giving me a chance to be there in person for the event. Basically, it’s the training the developers give the support staff on how to actually support a product. I arranged the travel for that trip, going out Monday and coming back Saturday, to give me Tuesday through Friday on-site.
In addition to this, as one of our department’s top performers, I had been recommended to take a training course normally meant for management. I had decided on the first Thursday and Friday in February, to attend the training in our Springfield, Oregon office, thinking it would give me a week back between the Rochester trip and this training trip. I didn’t realise until I signed up for the class and booked the flights, that it was the week directly following the Rochester trip, but at least I would have a few days at home, flying out on Wednesday afternoon and coming back on Saturday.
Then, the week after I booked the flights and hotel stays, I found out that my product management had arranged for an internal meeting about my product, on Tuesday and Wednesday of the same week as the TOI, but in Waltham, Massachusetts. When they told me I needed to attend this, I felt annoyed that they scheduled this on the same week as the trip they asked me to make, and asked if they would reschedule this meeting, but they explained that everyone else had already made the arrangements to attend this one. (Made me feel like inviting me was an afterthought, sadly.) So, after talking everything over with management and verifying this was the final change, I made the arrangements to travel out on Sunday afternoon, to be in Rochester on Monday, then added a flight Monday night from Rochester to Boston, and a flight back from Boston to Rochester on Wednesday night, moving the TOI to Thursday and changing the hotel stay in Rochester and adding one in downtown Boston, which claimed to be seven miles from the office I needed to be at for the meeting.
The day after that change was finalised, my manager asked if I could change my flight to Springfield to fly out a day earlier, to arrive as soon as possible that day, and spend as much of that Tuesday, and all of that Wednesday, in training with one of my colleagues in Springfield. So, once again I called the travel company and made the changes to the flight, hotel, and rental car reservations, but at least didn’t have to add another trip into the middle of this one, and would still come home at a reasonable time on Saturday.
The complications arose as we drew closer to the week of my first travel, as my manager was able to hire two new frontline support techs to work on my team, and in addition to my busy customer load, I also had to try and get them up to speed with both the product and general company policies, and get myself ready to be gone for the next two weeks. That in itself was hectic, and I doubt I did everything needed, but at least felt that they had enough to stay busy with whilst I was gone.
When I originally booked the Sunday flight, I figured to make it late enough that I would be able to leave after church, but with preparation time and the new security at the airport, I ended up leaving first thing in the morning to get to the airport, and then had over an hour to wait for the flight to start boarding. The trip was pretty uneventful, although I was overly nervous on the first leg of the trip, being years since my last flight. With a layover in Detroit, (never been there before, so I figured I would do that one), eventually arriving at the Rochester airport around 7:00pm on Sunday. After getting my bag and rental car, I asked the rental car clerk what kind of food I could try to experience “Rochester,” not wanting to simply go for a place I would recognise. The man suggested I try the “garbage plate,” which I turned my nose up at, like any sane person would.
He laughed and explained it wasn’t anything bad or scary, but explained it was more of a meal students would try, being relatively cheap and filling. It was basically a whole meal combined together, with fried potatoes, macaroni salad, meat, and multiple sauces including a local special hot sauce. I asked where to find one, and he suggested “Henrietta Hots,” which turned out to be a block from the hotel I stayed at. He also suggested another place, if I couldn’t find Henrietta Hots, but said it was more known for police issues, so I settled for his first location. Walking inside, it was a simple establishment, with a couple tables full of high-school aged kids sitting and eating. I looked at the menu, which was like any small local joint; full of dozens of various options. The woman behind the counter was nice and asked if I needed anything or had any questions, and I explained that I was told to try the Garbage Plate, not finding it listed on the menu. She pointed to the section called “plates” and said all of those were them, which was around 15 different options. I asked what the best one would be for a visitor to try, and she recommended the cheeseburger plate, which I ordered. When it came, in a styrofoam take-out box, it felt heavy and smelled good. Obviously not the most posh food around, but considering it was a large portion of hot fried potato cubes, a similar sized portion of cold macaroni salad, with three beef and cheese burger patties on top of that, all smothered in mustard, signature hot sauce, and onions. I ate half of it there, then finished it at the hotel over the next couple hours.
From what I could tell, I was actually in Henrietta, seemingly a suburb of Rochester, as it wasn’t overly crowded or difficult to navigate in. I had no problem finding where I needed to go, and everyone I spoke to was overly kind and friendly. The area was green and mild, which seemed similar to the mild winter we’ve had so far. I got to the office and met everyone I would be working at that day, and later that week. One thing that struck me was that nobody I spoke to had the typical New York accent I had expected from my mom; it seems Western New York is a much different place than the more typical New Yorker would be from. We started getting deep into my product, and had to call it quits on time for me to get back to the airport and head to Boston.