Stuck in a Bathroom

I must have typed this first line ten times before I finally decided to leave it at this. The first several attempts said things like, "This is my first blog..." or "I've never done this..." and so on. I'm not a constant blog reader, so I'm really not sure if other first-time-bloggers use this type of opening though I imagine many of them do.

I am a habitual business traveler, and have some potentially educational stories to share.

So, I'd like to start off by defining what I mean by "business traveler." My profession doesn't so much keep me moving all of the time as it keeps me gone all of the time. Don't get me wrong, I consider myself an expert in navigating an airport, picking out the best seats on a plane, and finding the rent-a-car counter quicker than anyone after the flight. I just happen to spend more time at job locations and in hotels than I do on a plane or in a car.

Tomorrow I will be driving three hours, training a customer for seven hours, sleeping for six, then driving back. Yeah, I know, not very interesting. In fact, I'm going to have to say right now that many of these stories will be down right boring. Rest assured though if I feel the need to tell you about it, it will be worth it to me.

The first story I'd like to share is one of my first (though not the first) plane trips. I flew from my home state (Oklahoma) to New York. It was while I was a freshman in college and I went with a group of trombone players, and we were playing at a Trombone Convention. Being in Manhattan as a freshman in college having grown up in Oklahoma can be a bit of a shocking experience. There are only a few things I really remember from the trip:

1. It was before 42nd street was cleaned up, and was still lined with porn shops and strip clubs (I was hustled by a very large and intimidating guy out of $10.00 which is a story in itself which I will tell later).

2. I went to my first strip club and it was a horrible experience

3. I got locked in my hotel bathroom for about 30 minutes because the doorknob came

off when I tried to pull the door open

4. The flight attendant bumped into me while I was taking a drink of coffee and laughed

right at be because I spilled the coffee all over my crotch

The bathroom story is actually kind of funny because of the situation. The guy sharing a room with me was out doing whatever, and as I said above, the doorknob came out in my hand as I tried to exit. Luckily, there was a phone in the bathroom, so I was able to call the front desk. For some reason though, this was not the first thing that I did. I proceeded to yell as loud as I could to try to get the people (whom I did know) in the next rooms attention. I also banged as loud as I could on the door. I then sat on the toilet for about 10 minutes and waited. Finally it dawned on me to call the front desk using the phone on the wall not one foot from my head. It was a bit awkward telling the front desk personnel that I was locked in the bathroom, and frustrating when they told me that they'd be up in about 15 minutes. My roommate actually showed up about 5 minutes later and freed me. When I called the desk again to tell them that I got out, they actually asked me if I broke the door down.

So, there's my first story and here's my first traveler's tip.

When you are on a plane, don't mess with the tray table any more than you absolutely have to. It can be extremely irritating to the person in the seat in front of you. Especially if they are trying to sleep, or are just trying to relax in their own thoughts.