Tag: freedom

Traveling While Sick: Tips & Observations

The morning of my flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Frankfurt, Germany I started an earnest sinus infection/summer cold. Here’s what I did right and what I would change if I had to do it all over again…

This is what worked well:

  • Scheduled 24-hour layover in new hotel
  • Hall’s cough drops in a carry-on bag
  • Advil in a carry-on bag
  • Z-pack antibiotics (proactively prescribed from fantastic nurse practitioner)
  • Giant bottle of water to take on the plane
  • Best carry-on bag design
  • Cash
  • Shopping in airport
  • Very-close-to-airport hotel

What I would change:

  • Type of hotel
  • Should have been located near some restaurants

So, I stayed at a sister brand hotel– it was really new, and really cute. Hip. Trendy. Lower cost. Here’s why:

  • No in-room coffee
  • No executive lounge
  • No room service
  • No restaurant
  • No wi-fi in room

I learned on this trip just how spoiled I am with a full-service hotel, meaning the big, full service with a restaurant, a snack room, an executive lounge, room service, coffee-at-will in my room. In these big hotels, I can work in the room, in the lounge, in the lobby, but in these trendy scaled down hotels, it is designed for a different crowd. Folks who have kids, don’t work from their room, are not spending any time in their room except to shower and to sleep.

So, I dragged myself around the coffee bar/check-in a few times during the day, looking so pathetic, the guest manager/clerk helped me microwave my soup, find the spoons, and made me coffee. I ended up sleeping throughout the day and night, recovering from the crud that had ushered me out of Africa.

Moxy Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany
Welcome to the 2nd Floor!

Note: I have found incredible hospitality at the hotels that I have stayed at — caring people, ready to help. Because I have been a road warrior, I have had several instances of being quite ill during my stays throughout the United States and Europe. Here’s a shout out to every room service person who helped me with hot water and lemon, disinfecting the bathroom [don’t ask], the folks in the restaurant who prescribed lime juice with salt for my throat so I could deliver training to a crowd, and proceeded to procure it for me from the kitchen, and I could go on…Everyone at these places deserves to be treated kindly and with respect. I love you all in the hospitality industry!!!!

 

Shout out to the room decor designers! This is what I was waking up to when I was so sick in Frankfurt, Germany at the Moxy Hotel.

cute boy mural

Shoe Recovery

I know I am a quitter — I never finished my 100 pairs of shoes blog. I could have slogged on, I could have ignored the fact that I had only one or maybe two readers. But let’s face it, seeing crazy shoes that other people are wearing is just not as fun as seeing new shoes that we could be buying!

New shoes, buying shoes, collecting shoes, Imelda Marcosing. I don’t know exactly when I allowed myself to start going crazy over shoes — I do remember when I didn’t allow myself to purchase in excess. So, as the Byrds sang, and Solomon wrote, to every season…

A season to buy, a season to obstain. A season to wear sky high stilettos, a season to wear Dansko clogs. Here’s to a new and improved shoe buyer, shoe lover. One who buys the Goldilocks amount of shoes!

Why the change? Is it dreaded middle age? Is it bunyons, corns, or nerve damage? Why, why, oh why?

Well, self, I’ll tell you. Because at the age of XX, it’s time to grow up. Time to embrace maturity in its best sense. Time to –well–help two out of three offspring get through college. So here is the list that will help you get through this new unshoeing stage:

  1. Other women don’t buy a pair of shoes every week, you don’t need to either.
  2. You have almost 200 pairs of shoes, surely you can find one pair to go with that outfit.
  3. You don’t go to charity balls or cocktail parties on a regular basis, so you don’t need to “stock up” on satin Louboutins.
  4. People who judge you primarily on your shoes aren’t that interesting — but people who strike up a conversation over your shoes and move on are.
  5. Your feet are more than shoe stuffers.
  6. The money you save can feed a child in your city.
  7. The money you save can fund a plane ticket to Hawaii–to visit your University going child.
  8. You can buy more shoes next year.
  9. Boots count as shoes.
  10. You have shoes or boots that you still haven’t worn yet.

Keep focused and stay out of the shoe department!