Catman HOSTS Manhattan
Jul 14, 1999 | 1:35 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 675
Catman HOSTS Manhattan
Here's a story of how Catman and wanderlust met at the top of the world to watch New York throw the most brilliant July 4th Firework display ever!! (Sorry for the delayed post, Catman. I'm sure you've had plenty of "catcalls" from the stands. No, I'm not his imaginary friend 
.)
The weekend of July 4th comes quickly and I look for a quick escape. My new good buddy Catman comes to the rescue! My preference, as of late, United, deals out some great independence day fares and like a deer caught in the headlights, I hypnotically draw out my AMEX and book online. After all, I have a name to live up to! Throwing caution to the wind, I set out on a roadrunner weekend adventure, no business involved (well, maybe a little) and let Catman do the hosting!
It's Friday night, July 2nd and I need a stay in Grand Junction. The only sane choice, believe it or not, is the Holiday Inn. My Priority Pass has fallen into gross disuse, but after smelling the Ramada next door and finding that TWA is Adams Mark's only airline friend, I dig out my tattered blue card and check in (providing my MileagePlus number, of course).
I've gotten into the habit, as many of us have, of not carrying cash. It's the miles, you see. Perhaps that's foolish, perhaps not. But what you'll soon find out, is that it can have it's own humble advantages. It's late. The club downstairs is hopping but I need a bite. I'm sent away by a curt little Holiday Inn waitress who points to a closed sign so I order a huge greasy cheeseburger at a nearby bar & grill. I grab the to go container, dreaming not unlike Homer Simpson, of a quiet night in front of the tube, dripping grease on my sheets. Mmmm, greasy. I whip out my trusty 'ol AMEX which draws an immediate frown from the proprietor. "Our machine went AWOL and no one seems to know when to expect it back." "I have no other means of payment," I say humbly, "and no pin for an advance." After a good faith attempt at a cash advance at the hotel front desk, the proprietor shrugs and gives me the greasy sandwich. "Tell your friends and your enemies, just don't tell my wife." We exchange grins and I turn back to my hotel and my waiting sheets. I'll be back.
The free, and quite generous, PriorityPass member breakfast takes more time to down than I'd anticipated, so I'm not exactly early checking in for my flight to Denver. The airport is small. There is no 1st class check-in line. I see Mrs. Check-in lean over to a waiting customer and mumble something about not looking forward to this. Her announcement is quick and to the point. "There will be no 11am flight to Denver. It has been cancelled." Within three seconds, every passenger in the building piled in behind me, hurling insults and abusive gestures at everything that resembled a United logo. Me? I'm on holiday. No worries...
To be continued.
------------------
Mahalo brudda!
www.hotshirts.com
.)The weekend of July 4th comes quickly and I look for a quick escape. My new good buddy Catman comes to the rescue! My preference, as of late, United, deals out some great independence day fares and like a deer caught in the headlights, I hypnotically draw out my AMEX and book online. After all, I have a name to live up to! Throwing caution to the wind, I set out on a roadrunner weekend adventure, no business involved (well, maybe a little) and let Catman do the hosting!
It's Friday night, July 2nd and I need a stay in Grand Junction. The only sane choice, believe it or not, is the Holiday Inn. My Priority Pass has fallen into gross disuse, but after smelling the Ramada next door and finding that TWA is Adams Mark's only airline friend, I dig out my tattered blue card and check in (providing my MileagePlus number, of course).
I've gotten into the habit, as many of us have, of not carrying cash. It's the miles, you see. Perhaps that's foolish, perhaps not. But what you'll soon find out, is that it can have it's own humble advantages. It's late. The club downstairs is hopping but I need a bite. I'm sent away by a curt little Holiday Inn waitress who points to a closed sign so I order a huge greasy cheeseburger at a nearby bar & grill. I grab the to go container, dreaming not unlike Homer Simpson, of a quiet night in front of the tube, dripping grease on my sheets. Mmmm, greasy. I whip out my trusty 'ol AMEX which draws an immediate frown from the proprietor. "Our machine went AWOL and no one seems to know when to expect it back." "I have no other means of payment," I say humbly, "and no pin for an advance." After a good faith attempt at a cash advance at the hotel front desk, the proprietor shrugs and gives me the greasy sandwich. "Tell your friends and your enemies, just don't tell my wife." We exchange grins and I turn back to my hotel and my waiting sheets. I'll be back.
The free, and quite generous, PriorityPass member breakfast takes more time to down than I'd anticipated, so I'm not exactly early checking in for my flight to Denver. The airport is small. There is no 1st class check-in line. I see Mrs. Check-in lean over to a waiting customer and mumble something about not looking forward to this. Her announcement is quick and to the point. "There will be no 11am flight to Denver. It has been cancelled." Within three seconds, every passenger in the building piled in behind me, hurling insults and abusive gestures at everything that resembled a United logo. Me? I'm on holiday. No worries...
To be continued.
------------------
Mahalo brudda!
www.hotshirts.com
Jul 14, 1999 | 12:51 pm
#2
Commander Catcop
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 10,259
I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for the next chapter in "Wanderlust takes Manhattan"
Or "as the airplane turns!"
Even though I was there I want ot know what happened (short term memory!)
Great award winning report so far W-L!
Or "as the airplane turns!"
Even though I was there I want ot know what happened (short term memory!)
Great award winning report so far W-L!
Jul 30, 1999 | 4:24 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 675
Aside: I should get some kind of award for the longest delay in continuing a post. Kind of like a season cliffhanger...
After twice counting the 643 ceiling tiles, with a grand sigh, the disheveled Mrs. Checkin motions me to her. I smile and say, "You know, I have enough for an extra ticket if you'd like to come with me..." She looks up from her computer screen and, ever so slowly, returns my grin. By the time it's over, I'm booked first class to EWR in two hours. Not bad for a $180 e-ticket. A quick call to Catman and everythings fine. "No worries," he says. "That's better than JFK anyway. They won't let non-flyers past them so I'll be just outside the metal detectors in my old Hawaiian Shirt." I knew I'd soon be fixing that!
The new future Mrs. Wanderlust had given me an open tab at the coffee bar so I help myself to a tub of mocha breve and plug my glossy new G3 laptop into a nearby socket. Within an hour, I've mastered the DVD player so I approach Mr. Gatekeeper and ask him if I might possibly get onto the ealier flight to Denver. "No promises," he says, "but I'll see what I can do." Apparently, every waiting passenger had made the same request before me. But after the plane had loaded, only one standby passenger was called. I'm beginning to see the benefits of having premier status.
As usual, the ride over the rockies is bumpy in the 19-passenger flying ceiling fan 1900, but I know I have another two hours to heal from the bruises before the flight to EWR. And as we descend out of the lowering holiday clouds, it occurs to me just how similar the runway layout at Denver International Airport is to a giant schwaztica.
Quickly shaking that realization off, I find the Red Carpet Club West. Over a relaxed drink with QuantumLeap a month earlier I had decided that once a Premier, I'd take advantage of the modest discount and enjoy the welcome escape. I feel a slight tinge of awkwardness pulling from my taxi wallet my Delta Skymiles card. Like a timid child I hesitate; glancing about I see groups of PremEx's and 1kers staring up from their laptops, showing their disapproval, furrowing their brows and slowly shaking their collective heads. But before I can slip it home, Mrs. Deskagent, in one efficient desk-agent type motion, grabs the card from my clammy hand and swipes it through her beeping machine. And all at once, it is done. I feel I have somehow graduated. I remember as a youngster passing those secret doors and mysterious elevators, wondering what "club members only" was all about. Tuxedo-clad James Bond-type businessmen holding martinis, oggling beautiful women around spinning roulette wheels? Hmmm. Well, it's not all that. But the martini's can be had for a price.
I move into the first class cabin and sip at a cold soda, glancing discretely at the faces around me. Mostly men, business attire, bent over their Forbes magazines. A voided motley crew concerned only with their favorite stock. Not much in the way of conversation, I decide, so I dig out my Forbes magazine, bend over it and look up DIS. The flights I take are usually aimed at the west cost, so a movie on a domestic flight is a nice diversion. The Barbeque dinner is above average, the service quite reasonable as is the bottle of 1996 Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon one stewardess carefully wraps and hands to me as we arrive in Newark. The only thing keeping the flight from getting an "A" was that despite sitting in my assigned seat, the crew, even after referring to the seat manifest, kept calling me Mr. Yonardo.
I gather my only bag from the over-head bin and march through the jetway before the herd has time to stampede. Waiting for me, just as he said he would be, wearing a coy grin and a very well-worn and faded Aloha Shirt, is Catman. And I knew that the fun was just about to begin...
...to be continued...
(Sorry, but I have a life outside FT too!!)
------------------
Mahalo mini-me!
http://www.hotshirts.com
After twice counting the 643 ceiling tiles, with a grand sigh, the disheveled Mrs. Checkin motions me to her. I smile and say, "You know, I have enough for an extra ticket if you'd like to come with me..." She looks up from her computer screen and, ever so slowly, returns my grin. By the time it's over, I'm booked first class to EWR in two hours. Not bad for a $180 e-ticket. A quick call to Catman and everythings fine. "No worries," he says. "That's better than JFK anyway. They won't let non-flyers past them so I'll be just outside the metal detectors in my old Hawaiian Shirt." I knew I'd soon be fixing that!
The new future Mrs. Wanderlust had given me an open tab at the coffee bar so I help myself to a tub of mocha breve and plug my glossy new G3 laptop into a nearby socket. Within an hour, I've mastered the DVD player so I approach Mr. Gatekeeper and ask him if I might possibly get onto the ealier flight to Denver. "No promises," he says, "but I'll see what I can do." Apparently, every waiting passenger had made the same request before me. But after the plane had loaded, only one standby passenger was called. I'm beginning to see the benefits of having premier status
.As usual, the ride over the rockies is bumpy in the 19-passenger flying ceiling fan 1900, but I know I have another two hours to heal from the bruises before the flight to EWR. And as we descend out of the lowering holiday clouds, it occurs to me just how similar the runway layout at Denver International Airport is to a giant schwaztica.
Quickly shaking that realization off, I find the Red Carpet Club West. Over a relaxed drink with QuantumLeap a month earlier I had decided that once a Premier, I'd take advantage of the modest discount and enjoy the welcome escape. I feel a slight tinge of awkwardness pulling from my taxi wallet my Delta Skymiles card. Like a timid child I hesitate; glancing about I see groups of PremEx's and 1kers staring up from their laptops, showing their disapproval, furrowing their brows and slowly shaking their collective heads. But before I can slip it home, Mrs. Deskagent, in one efficient desk-agent type motion, grabs the card from my clammy hand and swipes it through her beeping machine. And all at once, it is done. I feel I have somehow graduated. I remember as a youngster passing those secret doors and mysterious elevators, wondering what "club members only" was all about. Tuxedo-clad James Bond-type businessmen holding martinis, oggling beautiful women around spinning roulette wheels? Hmmm. Well, it's not all that. But the martini's can be had for a price.
I move into the first class cabin and sip at a cold soda, glancing discretely at the faces around me. Mostly men, business attire, bent over their Forbes magazines. A voided motley crew concerned only with their favorite stock. Not much in the way of conversation, I decide, so I dig out my Forbes magazine, bend over it and look up DIS. The flights I take are usually aimed at the west cost, so a movie on a domestic flight is a nice diversion. The Barbeque dinner is above average, the service quite reasonable as is the bottle of 1996 Carmen Cabernet Sauvignon one stewardess carefully wraps and hands to me as we arrive in Newark. The only thing keeping the flight from getting an "A" was that despite sitting in my assigned seat, the crew, even after referring to the seat manifest, kept calling me Mr. Yonardo.
I gather my only bag from the over-head bin and march through the jetway before the herd has time to stampede. Waiting for me, just as he said he would be, wearing a coy grin and a very well-worn and faded Aloha Shirt, is Catman. And I knew that the fun was just about to begin...
...to be continued...
(Sorry, but I have a life outside FT too!!)
------------------
Mahalo mini-me!
http://www.hotshirts.com
Jul 30, 1999 | 11:35 am
#5
Commander Catcop
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 10,259
So am I because that whole weekend's a blurr!
But I do remember this very friendly, supportive dude in a great Hawaiian shirt who I have adopted as BRUDDAR!
So come on Bruddar! When you get the time refresh my aging brain on what happened!
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 07-30-1999).]
But I do remember this very friendly, supportive dude in a great Hawaiian shirt who I have adopted as BRUDDAR!
So come on Bruddar! When you get the time refresh my aging brain on what happened!
[This message has been edited by Catman (edited 07-30-1999).]