Interlude: Charlotte, NC

My hotel room is HUGE, the size of a good-sized 1BR apartment.









I wrote Ama that I suspect that this is the Diamond Level status talking. Well, when in Rome I guess.

But I'm not in Rome, I'm in Charlotte. I'm helping Janine with the only NPD in the whole state of North Carolina tomorrow. I've flown through Charlotte many-many times on the way to Pensacola (and back) but this is the first time I've stayed the night. After being turned away at Chili's (which was our first choice only because of proximity to the hotel) in a bizarre scenario that involved everyone's mother, brother, and uncle trying to having dinner at this way-way off downtown location and experiencing 90 minute wait times for tables and 40 minute delays on their food (In short, they were saying they were incompetent) Janine and I had dinner at local Villa Antonio instead. It was rather fancy: we had wine, and chilled forks for our peach/pecan/goat cheese salads and a sorbet inbetween courses to "cleanse our palates". Ha! We couldn't stop laughing. Take that, Chili's!


It was so surreal to NOT check luggage: I feel like I've been programmed to do it. I printed out my boarding pass yesterday, so there was no need to go to the ticket counter: it was straight to security and to the gate. Is US Airways the only airline at BWI that you board from the tarmac? That's also surreal. The flight to Charlotte was going on to Pensacola; Janine said that yesterday at the Atlanta NPD she talked to a student from Pensacola, and got all excited because as she told the student, "one of our other admission counselors is also from Pensacola!" Hey, it's a prestigious honor to come from a place in Florida that is so far west it's practically Alabama, with a name that sounds like a soft drink.

(The next afternoon)

So, Janine and I are DONE!




Charlotte was small, but we still did 13 and 14 reviews, respectively. 27 is a decent number.




We're sitting here at the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, at the first gate past the "No Restrooms Beyond This Point" sign. I think this is the first blog portion I've done in real time. We saw the mix of crazy kids, kids who are not ready for art school, kids with the exact same appointment-based portfolios, and a few gems. We think that it's much better to travel with a buddy, because you are less lethargic, and you can go to the bathroom at the airport without having to schlep all your bags only to get stuck in a stall where the door opens in!