Some are city people, some are not...

Speaking of awards, Karen and Bret need one for living in Houston.

Holy crapola.

As you may remember, I’m in Houston this week. And today, one of my customers called and reminded me we were supposed to partake of dinner together tonight in the big H town. They called when they arrived at Houston Hobby, and said they were going to go check in, and would call me when they were ready to go eat.

They are staying at the Houstonian. I’m 20 miles away, at the Wyndham Gunspoint. I mean, Greenspoint.

They are in a lot safer location than I.

We made arrangements to meet at Jimmy G's , a great seafood restaurant, which happened to be closer to my hotel. But hey, they have guys with them, while I’m just a poor traveling alone account representative with an expense account. I offered to e-mail them a map with directions, but they said they’d just consult with the concierge.

We’re scheduled to meet at 6:15. I’m going to go get a table.

I walk into the restaurant, and they call. They have a table. Jimmy G’s is famous for its seafood and ambiance…but it’s not that big. I can’t find them.

I call them back.

They. Are. At. Willie G's. (another great seafood restaurant.)There are four of them. One of me.

20 miles from me, and 5 miles from their hotel. So, off I go. Plug the address into my Hertz Neverlost. Take off, in high traffic.

And. Immediately. Get. Lost. (MLH calls these juicy little GPS' the Hertz “alwayslost”.)

10 minutes later (I screwed up at the Beltway 8 / Hwy 45 interchange and that was so much fun to fix) I’m finally on the right road, heading towards the Galleria area, and there is an accident on 610. It must have been a bad one, judging from the way the traffic was backed up.

At this point, I could care less about seeing my customers, much less eating. I just want to go back to the hotel. I am less than 6 miles from the restaurant, and it takes me over an hour to get to them from this juncture.

Cars start taking the exit to the frontage road, and I’m just goofy enough to follow them. Maybe, I’m thinking, I can get there quicker and bypass the accident. (See why I laughed when I got the Thinking Blogger award?) Stupid girl. The accident ended up being on the frontage road. I have absolutely no place to go. I don’t know why the traffic got so backed up, probably people just rubber-necking, or the accident was on both 610 and the exit ramp, I’m not sure. I never saw it. I pray everyone is okay.

I got to the restaurant at 7:15 p.m. We ate. I drove back to the hotel (safely) in 18 minutes. The food and fellowship was good.

God bless you, Karen and Bret and all you Houstonian drivers. I think I would self-destruct.

I am so spoiled by the lack of traffic in Midland.