November 15, 2007 New York City

The JetBlue Nightmare

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November 2007

So in January of this year, a good friend of mine from the Headway days opted to move to Raleigh, North Carolina. Yup - she went with them when I said "Hell, no!" and bailed for the job at Interactive Data. For the last year she's been BEGGING for a visit, so at the end of October I finally decided to go visit ... especially since she's moving back to New York soon. The plan was simple, fly down to Raleigh on Jet Blue, stay for a couple nights, fly home on Continental. Thus ... begins ... my horror ...

Understand this, when I am rich and famous (or at least, just rich) and ruling the world or maybe some island, I will never fly commercial airlines again. I will have my own plane, with my own airports, and all stupid people around me will be thrown out the airlock. This experience just underscored all of my elitist world domination plots and plans. Everything seemed to be planned so well. Zach was coming with, and we had a 9pm-somehting flight with plenty of time to get to the airport and board the plane. And then it started raining, which in New York means nothing leaves on time - ever.

Since the flight was delayed anyway, we took a little more time leaving for the airport, but when we did, it was hell just getting off Roosevelt Island. You see, we have these busses that run around the island. We were trying to leave around 8pm, when there should be at least 4 busses running. And there were ... except three in a row went off duty all at once. We were not happy. And we were wet. Eventually we made it to the airport, found the Jet Blue terminal, and found a seat. We figured we were all set - there were monitors with flight information and announcements being made regularly. We got some dinner, and sat to wait for boarding announcements common to all normal airlines...

...except Jet Blue. Turns out not only does Jet Blue not update their monitors with any useful information, at JFK, they've squirreled away six gates in some shanty-town annex terminal accessible only by shuttle bus, with no announcements in the main room. By the time we figured "we should head to the gate" and learned the situation, we were running for the gate, only to discover we'd missed the flight. It was the first time I've ever missed a flight (that was my fault). And it didn't help that the gate agent basically came bounding out the jet way yelling at us like a mad woman.

Having had enough of the hassle, the weather, the hoi polloi and being in public in general, I got us a car service home, where we slept a bit, and then car serviced it back early Saturday morning for the next flight. The flight home on Continental? Picture-perfect, as usual. Needless to say, Jet Blue is dead to me.

One Month In, The Job is Great

Well, I've been in my new job for a full month now, and I like it. Like all new jobs, the first little while was pretty slow with just a couple of small projects. But I'm excited about it all because there's lot to be done to build a really solid Interactive offering. I think I'm in a perfect place to bring a lot to the table - just working now on figuring out where to start.

But overall, I'm enjoying the experience. It really is quite a different life from my last one. Since I work for an agency now, I have to record where all my time goes - which is totally different from any other job I've had. Not only do I have to say when I work, but track where every hour goes, code it to a client (or to "admin" time), and make a note about what I worked on. Even with that, though, I find my stress levels have dropped significantly. I think in my last place there was a false pressure constantly in the air to perform or die, with little else but survival at stake. While there is no lack of pressure and sense of imperative at my new job, it's all tied directly to revenue and I feel like what I do really matters. Plus, I get along well with and find it easy to respect my boss and colleagues, which makes for a much healthier environment.

This week has been the first super-busy week so far and I'm enjoying it. Our first major campaign launched today - check it out here: WhatAreTheyDrinking.com

House of Leaves

House of Leaves

So I finally finished reading House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski this past weekend. It's a pretty good read, but it took me three tries to get past the first 50 pages. Once I did, the story gets pretty weird, but really intriguing. The real question by the end of it is, "Is any of this 'real?'" Of course its fiction but even in fiction there's the assumption that within the world of the novel, what's written is happening. With House of Leaves, the whole thing could be a complete farce, even within that world. It's a little disconcerting, really, but a good creative read unlike any other novel you've ever read.

On The Reading List

At Swim, Two Boys At Swim, Two Boys
by Jamie O'Neill
A re-read, but a great read.
Only Revolutions Only Revolutions
By Mark Z. Danielewski
The second US-released book from House of Leaves author.

The Holidays

The Christmas music is already playing at home and the decorations are itching to be set free! First, of course, we have Thanksgiving. Once again, Thanksgiving is being hosted here - and I'm doing all the cooking!

We still have some seats at the table so if you're interested or need someplace to go for Turkey, come on by! We will, of course, be playing a rousing game of Killer Bunnies - with all the decks! - before the meal.

With the new job, I won't be traveling this holiday season. But if anyone wanted to come visit NY, you're welcome! Christmas lists shall be issued soon (ew, sounds so official).

Previously on JEOFnet: August 2007 | September 2007