Saturday, March 17, 2001
We ended this crazy week with a lovely smooth day. We played with 3rd graders mostly. Then ciro took us through DC and Baltimore before rush hour and successfully got us through Philly and into NYC while i napped and he played with rush hour traffic that actually moved pretty good. It meant that we arrived at our weekend hotel in time to eat dinner and relax before crashing on this Friday night. Friday, March 16, 2001 Every once in a while it is necessary to sit down to a meal you eat with your hands. I didn't get around to mentioning it, but last night after our trials with hotels we settled down to a nice simple dinner of crabs at the Crabhouse. It's very simple, you can order beer or soda and the regular, medium, or jumbo crabs by the dozen. It felt kinda good to take out our frustrations on a bunch of dead crustaceans. By the time we were done eating we were too tired to be frustrated any more. Boy was it tasty though! Thursday, March 15, 2001 Hotel smotel...some folks are just awful at customer service. We arrived at the Econolodge to check in tonight because that's where i'd booked us. They said they didn't have the payment from our office. Did she look for it? No. She just said she didn't have it. I called our office. They had confirmation that it had been sent. Did she look for it then? No. She asked them to resend the fax. So they tried...for 45 min...at 2 different numbers she gave us. It never came through (even though it was confirmed on their end from 2 different machines). Did she ever check the fax machines to make sure they were turned on? No, nothing. We talked about leaving and all she did was inform us that if we left the rooms would be lost since they didn't have payment and it was after 6pm. Well...i guess they didn't want our business. It became a bit of a hassel because the Wellesley down the road is booked for tomorrow night. But, they were happy to have us tonight. In the end we found ourselves lodging for about the same price at another hotel closer to Friday morning's performance who was happy to have us for tomorrow night. Why should we stay someplace (that is a bit divey looking to boot for it's $85/night regular rate) where the staff is rude to us before we even get checked in. Maybe i shouldn't have watched the Dateline special last night about "customer service" for airlines where they showed what kind of misinformation and rudeness customers are given when they try to travel by air. (By the way, look for Midwest Express if you're planning to fly. It looked like their planes were actually very customer friendly.) Now i know that everybody has bad days, but if your job is customer service isn't part of your professional responsiblity to put on a smile and help other people resolve their problems, not create new ones? I don't know, maybe i'm being too demanding to ask that people use their brains and communication skills on occasion. But, i've gotten enough good service to know that it's possible. If you can get my tired bleary eye body checked into a nice clean room for the night swiftly and even get me to giggle a little in the process you can be sure i'll return to spend money there again. Piss me off and not only will i never set foot in your business again, but you can be sure i'll tell my friends and family to avoid you as well.~w Wednesday, March 14, 2001 Hmm, I don't know what to say except it's been a crazy day and my back hurts. It all turned out okay in the end, but i'll tell you how it started... Monday, March 12, 2001 The 4th graders in Farmingdale were fun today. I was beat though by the time we were done. I slept most of the way to New Jersey even though the sun was shining on the water and the city looked beautiful. Tomorrow we have shows in the Piscataway Schools cable studio. The focus is Shakespeare, which will be weird since our Shakespeare pieces usually involve audience participation. Actually, 2 of the 3 shows will have a small audience, but it will be strange performing for cameras.
Laundry Day! Slept late, did laundry, ate dinner with Tanner and Margie (also in Poetry Alive! and stationed on Long Island this week). It was fun to swap stories with people who know what we're talking about for a change. Tanner is gadget man and has added an Iomega CD-RW (just like mine) to his group of toys. So, after dinner we went back to there hotel where Tanner could play mix-master DJ for our future driving entertainment. This got me to thinking...isn't napster like radar detectors and CDRW's? The product itself doesn't break the law, it's the users who break the law. But i suppose it's easier for the record labels to attack the company who made the software to network music lovers rather than targeting some 50,000+ users (or however many there are...) who are breaking copyright law. Hmm, i wonder, do the artists get paid each time their song is aired on the radio? I can't remember how that ever worked out. I remember back in the "dark ages" of recording audio how it was common for people to make mix tapes off the radio. VCRs allow us to tape shows and movies off of television. Besides don't those devices just help the popularity of those productions? Rumor has it that Metallica was big before they were record-label-BIG due to the number of bootlegs that had been produced and distributed. How many albums have been sold because a friend shared the music with a buddy and so that buddy went out and bought the album themselves? Perhaps it's the scale of the thing that's scary to producers. Who needs a promoter when you can market your music yourself online? Not that i'm saying we should all go out and break every copyright law in existance and never pay artists for their work. I can tell you i'd be ready to kick some major booty if i found my poetry showing up in books or on other websites when i hadn't given my permission. Still, i've posted my poetry on the internet because i'd rather it be read than collecting dust in books on my shelf (but if i hear it in a movie or on tv you can be sure i'll be making some phone calls fast...if somebody plans to make money with my work they better be talking to me first). I suppose that's the problem, it's a fine line between publicity and theft. Sunday, March 11, 2001 Well, we made it to Long Island today. Ciro wasn't feeling well so we didn't go out in the city tonight. We did however watch a really great documentary on PBS about the development of Jazz in America. Let's see, other than that we just found the school for Monday morning and got the car washed. Nothing much exciting, i guess this is what you'd call a "down day." If i was at home i probably would have just puttered around the house fiddling with this and that and not doing much of anything. Spending hours browsing the internet is out though. This hotel charges per minute for local calls. They can't tell us exactly what the rate is, but a "normal" call is about 60 cents. I think he defined "normal" as 5-10 minutes. You know, if i'm going to be nickeled and dimed to death, i'd at least like to know what the rate is going to be. So, instead of bothering with that i figure i'll just use the 800 number briefly since there's no extra charge from the hotel for that and i know what earthlink is going to charge me. This hotel also has a metal roof which means that the cell phone is tweaky in here. It works just fine in the parking lot though. Oh, speaking of parking lot, i locked the keys in the car with it running today. Arrgh! Dumb thing to do, but i thought i hit the unlock button and obviously i hit lock instead. It's the same button afterall and makes the same sound. I waited forever to get through to AAA about sending someone out and they told me it'd be up to an hour. Then i got smart and found the number for Hertz (in the white page business listing, but not in the yellow pages where i assumed it would be) and they were able to give me the "key code" for the door. Coool! The little number pad on the door opens the car if you know the combination. I'll never lock us out of this car again!!! Of course, but the time i got through to AAA to cancel the service (20 minutes) the guys had already come by to try to help us and i had to send them away. Oops. Just not my day for anything mechanical i guess.
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words, poems, & other scribblings made while traveling the United States performing poetry for students with Poetry Alive!
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