Rocha-chatter

Sometimes you have to leave home to meet someone across the street.

This weekend I was in Chicago... attending and working a lab session at the BlogHer Conference. BlogHer is an online community for women bloggers. The conference is for everyone to get together and share stories, learn more about blogging and hang out.


I was sitting in a session called The Art of Storytelling, chatting with the woman next to me, when I mentioned that I live in Rochester. A woman in front of me turned around and asked "You are from Rochester? I am from Rochester!" Turns out Donna and I live only a few blocks from one another.

What are the chances of that?

Small world. Really small blog world.

(Chicago is fun, by the way)

Crown Fountain at Millenium Park

Cloud Gate at Millenium Park (the Bean)

Labels: blogher

Last friday I could see fireworks from the end of my street. They were for the official completion and renaming of the Troup-Howell bridge.

I think the bridge looks great. Just like the dome/arch construction worked well for the VW Beetle, the huge curving arch looks nice with the city's skyline.

I would like to position my own VW Beetle somewhere that I could get a shot of it replicating the curve of our new bridge.

Now about the renaming part. I think it is great that we are honoring two local historical figures. Awesome. But am I the only one that thinks that name is a tad bit long? How will they refer to it on the news? "Here is today's traffic report... 590 is clear, 390 looking good, but there is a back up on the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Bridge!"

We could call it the FDSBA Bridge. Or we could use the name my co-worker Tom Hoehn came up with... the Freddy Sue Bridge. I like that one.

Labels: bridge, rochester

When I have to travel by plane I stress out. I can feel my neck tensing and my brow furrowing. It's not that I am afraid of my plane crashing. Oh no... I am afraid of flight cancellations, long lines and missed connections. Being stranded in an airport is what makes my hair stand on end. Last January, I sat in Chicago for seven hours waiting to continue my flight to Las Vegas. The flight into Chicago was 10 minutes late and although my plane was still at the gate I couldn't get on it. They had already given my seat away. I spent the rest of the day trying to get on a standby flight.

My friend Aprille slept in the San Franciso airport trying to get home after her plane was overbooked BY 100 PASSENGERS!!! The hotels were booked... so they gave her two food vouchers and wished her luck. They could have at least ordered in a few pizzas like in this story.

I just traveled to Atlanta for work and as I sat in a huge yet crowded Atlanta airport where the announcements came across as "Mirp mir muh puh puh duh too dah!" (which probably said "flight 123 gate change to gate 99, be there now or miss the plane") I started to realize how much I appreciate our little Rochester airport. Some people complain you can't hop on a direct flight to London from our airport, but it's got a lot going for it.


1. where else can you get to the airport in under 20 minutes? - I crack up when out-of-towners look at their watch and say "Welp, my flight leaves in five hours, I better head to the airport!)

2. you can park RIGHT NEXT TO THE AIRPORT - at other airports that is crazy talk. I am always amazed when I can walk right out of the airport into the garage and drive away. If you rent a car... it is parked RIGHT NEXT TO THE AIRPORT!

3. picking up friends and family on arriving flights is painless - If you are picking someone up you can either park, walk in and meet them or time it just right that you can pull up at arrivals and they can hop in. If you are quick about it and can get in and out in under half an hour the parking is free.

4. there are only two concourses - don't you love getting off the plane for a layover and realizing your connecting flight is at concourse F and you are parked at concourse A? Oh the shuttles, moving sidewalks and monorails... once I even got loaded into a giant room on tracks that rolled across the tarmac like an AT AT Walker from The Empire Strikes Back.

5. baggage claim - panic sets in when I don't see my bag coming around the conveyor belt of one of many huge luggage carousels at other airports. At ours it's like picking an apple from a farm stand.

Of course, being a small airport, there isn't a lot to choose from food wise when you are passing through. But remembering back to the Popeyes Chicken and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream consumed at the Atlanta Airport, maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

Labels: airport, travel

Kodak building #9 (where else do people recognize buildings by a mere number?) was imploded on Saturday and I was there.

There was a countdown, a series of boom boom booms, a long pause, the building crumpling in on itself and then a billowing dust cloud rolling across the parking lot. Wow!

Labels: video