Assorted Irritations
May. 1st, 2010 03:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxklore1) There are some very nice dresses for sale at various stores now. However, they are all sleeveless. I consider this inappropriate for work. And, even if I didn't, it is too bloody cold in my office (and nearly every other office in the known universe) to wear a sleeveless dress without a jacket. None of those nice dresses had matching jackets. Well, actually there was one that did. But it was pink, which is, of course, evil.
2) If I have to prep a senior level person for a meeting (and accompany that person as his tame technogeek), it would be really nice if the meeting agenda mailed out beforehand actually bore some relationship to the real meeting agenda.
3) Road signs in Washington, D.C. suck. I have a lengthy rant on Virginia road signs (the gist of which is that if they accidentally screw up and put up a helpful sign, they plant a tree in front of it so you can't read it), but D.C. signage is even worse. If the arrows along the way are pointing me to 295 north, the actual freeway entrance should not give me a choice between "295 South" and "95" and "East Capital Street." I had to loop back around in a moderately scary neighborhood. (Normally, I'd have gotten on 295 from Pennsylvania Avenue, but that exit from 395 was at a complete standstill, so I thought I was using a clever alternative routing. Of course, if D.C. had actual freeway interchanges, the whole issue would never have arisen.)
4) I believe it is not asking too much for a hotel to publish directions on their web site which don't tell you to turn onto a street that is closed. (This has to do with the "game day" directions from 295 to the Hampton Inn next to Camden Yards, which tell you to turn left onto Washington. There's this little detail of a row of traffic cones blocking the turn, aside from several hundred Baltomorons meandering aimlessly down the middle of all streets, including the ones that are open to traffic. So far as I can tell, there is not actually any legal way to get to the hotel during a game and I resorted to a turn of dubious legality at the other end of Washington.)
5) I also believe that hotel front desk personnel should be able to give basic directions to major roads. I think there was a more direct way to the Baltimore Beltway (695) this morning than by going back south on 295, but gave up when the desk clerk had apparently never heard of that road by either name. (She kept asking if I had an address I was going to. I'm not convinced that an address four counties away would really have helped.)
6) I was in Baltimore in the first place because it occurred to me on Thursday that it was not actually impossible for me to see my Red Sox play the Orioles this weekend. I have mixed feelings about John Lackey. His pitching was just okay, but he made some nice fielding plays. Both J. D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia had good offensive outings, but Youk and Papi both did nothing. It was an exciting game, even if the Sox did lose (in the bottom of the 10th). If I have to deal with traffic and the hotel directions fiasco, the Sox should really reward me by winning, shouldn't they?
7) The reason I stayed overnight in Baltimore was that I was doing a volksmarch in Manchester, Maryland today and it was just more restful not to spend an hour or more driving home and then an hour and a half back north. I was right about that. The walk was very pretty, but it was more difficult than I expected, with a lot of steep natural surface trails. Hiking boots (instead of sneakers) and/or a walking stick would have been good. It was also a bit tricky to follow the route (marked with ribbons on trees in the woods) at some points.
2) If I have to prep a senior level person for a meeting (and accompany that person as his tame technogeek), it would be really nice if the meeting agenda mailed out beforehand actually bore some relationship to the real meeting agenda.
3) Road signs in Washington, D.C. suck. I have a lengthy rant on Virginia road signs (the gist of which is that if they accidentally screw up and put up a helpful sign, they plant a tree in front of it so you can't read it), but D.C. signage is even worse. If the arrows along the way are pointing me to 295 north, the actual freeway entrance should not give me a choice between "295 South" and "95" and "East Capital Street." I had to loop back around in a moderately scary neighborhood. (Normally, I'd have gotten on 295 from Pennsylvania Avenue, but that exit from 395 was at a complete standstill, so I thought I was using a clever alternative routing. Of course, if D.C. had actual freeway interchanges, the whole issue would never have arisen.)
4) I believe it is not asking too much for a hotel to publish directions on their web site which don't tell you to turn onto a street that is closed. (This has to do with the "game day" directions from 295 to the Hampton Inn next to Camden Yards, which tell you to turn left onto Washington. There's this little detail of a row of traffic cones blocking the turn, aside from several hundred Baltomorons meandering aimlessly down the middle of all streets, including the ones that are open to traffic. So far as I can tell, there is not actually any legal way to get to the hotel during a game and I resorted to a turn of dubious legality at the other end of Washington.)
5) I also believe that hotel front desk personnel should be able to give basic directions to major roads. I think there was a more direct way to the Baltimore Beltway (695) this morning than by going back south on 295, but gave up when the desk clerk had apparently never heard of that road by either name. (She kept asking if I had an address I was going to. I'm not convinced that an address four counties away would really have helped.)
6) I was in Baltimore in the first place because it occurred to me on Thursday that it was not actually impossible for me to see my Red Sox play the Orioles this weekend. I have mixed feelings about John Lackey. His pitching was just okay, but he made some nice fielding plays. Both J. D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia had good offensive outings, but Youk and Papi both did nothing. It was an exciting game, even if the Sox did lose (in the bottom of the 10th). If I have to deal with traffic and the hotel directions fiasco, the Sox should really reward me by winning, shouldn't they?
7) The reason I stayed overnight in Baltimore was that I was doing a volksmarch in Manchester, Maryland today and it was just more restful not to spend an hour or more driving home and then an hour and a half back north. I was right about that. The walk was very pretty, but it was more difficult than I expected, with a lot of steep natural surface trails. Hiking boots (instead of sneakers) and/or a walking stick would have been good. It was also a bit tricky to follow the route (marked with ribbons on trees in the woods) at some points.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-01 08:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 12:00 am (UTC)From your description, it sounds like you were very close to my neighborhood! It's not that scary. A bit questionable, sure, but there hasn't been a murder in months, and the carjackings seem to have completely died down.