Home Sweet Home

I am back from Omaha, NE.

It was a productive trip, but very tiring, as business trips tend to be, especially training trips where one needs to be "on" for 8-9 hrs standing in front of people. Luckily my colleague and I tag-teamed it so we were able to take care of a few quick work emails during the day.

Of course, all hell always break loose just when one is away with intermittant access to email and phone :-(  So we ended up working an additional few hours daily from the hotel after dinner.

Then yesterday our IT guy decides to migrate our email accounts, right in the middle of us both being off-site and travelling. He could not have chosen a worst time!  We tried to make a case against it, but he went ahead anyway. Luckily it was not too bad and I got my email working quickly. My blackberry only got synced today so I had a day with no mobile access to email.

I was teased to no end by my colleagues when they learned we had a trip to Omaha!  They were saying things like "well that is going to be exciting (insert sarcasm)" or "we cannot imagine you in Omaha" (I guess becuase I have lived on three continents). My colleauge who came with me has travelled there a lot since her husband is from Omaha, so she had told me alll this stuff about it being middle of nowhere etc. Anyway, I had gone with much trepidation, thinking it would be awful.

But Omaha is nice, in a quiet laid-back kind of way. Its very lush which I really like and it has a nice river. It has the smallest commercial airport I have ever seen. I literally took 20 steps from the gate and I was outside. When I went out there was only one one cab, which completely threw me off. Normally one sees a slew of cabs at the airport, but they have some system where only one cab stands there until its taken.  Not much claim to fame that I know of, except it is one of the top ten places in the US to raise a family which is quite an honor, and of course Omaha steaks.The freeways were practically devoid of traffic the majority of the time, and it completely quieted down by about 9pm most days. We were driving on the freeway at 6pm yesterday and all three of us commented how in our cities it would be gridlock at that hour, and there were maybe 10 cars on the freeway.  We did drive through downtown this morning to get to the airport and it was small, but had some very nice buildings and parks. I can see why people would want to live there -- its a nice quiet pace of life.

I was however very pleasantly surprised with the restaurants we went too. All our meals were exceptional.
On Tuesday we went to an Italian place near the hotel and the food was surprisingly good.

Then Wed our host took us to a popular cafe for lunch, It had a very nice decor and the food was great I had a very unique twist on a classic BLT with honey bacon, tomatoes drenched in balsamic vinagar, assorted greens and a garlic aioli on cibatta.  Excellent!

Then for dinner my colleauge and I went to a sushi place recommend by our hosts which was awesome - both food and ambiance. Of course having a super cute young waiter really helped :-)  He had the most gorgeous smile and body to match and was really attentive to my colleague and I since we mentioned we were out of town. The Manager (another cutie) came and introduced himself and we chatted about the place and what inspired the decor etc. Very friendly people in general, I have to say.

Sitting in that restaurant we could have been in any upscale city in the US. It had super modern vibe and was really busy for a Wed night with people drinking cocktails and the bar next doors was packed as well.  We sat at the sushi bar and the sushi chef made us an awesome plate. We took a picture - it was just too pretty!  Its tuna, salmon and yellowtail sashimi. I love raw fish!

Then yesterday we went for steaks (of course) with a third colleague who flew in Wed night. We drank martinis and the food was great. Next doors was a bar with a live band and dancing, and when we left the restaurant around 8pm it was busy - again not what I expected :-)

The downside of the trip was that I had awful cramps on Tue morning before my flight and then later at night. I was surprised since the intensity was like the failed cycle type AF cramps but this was a break cycle, so who knows.  AF showed up that night, so Wed was generally a rough day. I am wondering if the fibroids are back since my period was very heavy this time. I hope not :-(

When I landed today, I had to stop to pick up Popeye's for lunch. You know how much I love it, and its my treat after my trips if I land at a terminal where it is located. By the time I got to the baggage clain my bag was nowhere to be seen. There were two young girls (teens) whose bags were lost. The Dad seemed clueless so I took them under my wing and we determined that the bags had been pulled off the belt and put away. I had to wait a bit for mine but at least it was not lost.  Lesson to learn - no more stopping for Popeye's.

I plan to get back to normal eating after all the splurging this past week. So its back to fish and veggies and daily exercise.

Today we had a 4:45am wake up call so I am quite tired. I came home and slept for an hour before getting back to work. Will be turning in early today.