May 17, 2012

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How Delta (Nearly) Ruined My Trip

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Warning: if you don’t like rants, then don’t read this entry…

It started out like any other cross-country flight, but somehow I could sense that things would go awry. I was flying home after visiting my parents (one of whom has been sick for awhile), so the last thing I needed was airplane drama. I told the flight attendants repeatedly that I was worried about making my connection and perhaps it wasn’t logical for me to sit in the far back of the aircraft with only 35 minutes until my next flight. They assured me I had plenty of time. Then we sat on the tarmac for awhile. And sat some more…

I called Delta’s customer service number to ask if my connecting flight was delayed. A very nice customer service rep named “Albert” told me it was running late and that in the event that I was unable to make my connection (the last flight of the evening, natch), Delta would make accommodations for the night. I thanked him and waited to deboard. We sat for an hour and eighteen minutes (the woman behind me timed it), so by the time I got off the plane, my flight to Boston had departed. I half thought about calling a friend from college to beg a spot on her futon, but the other passengers kept reassuring me that “Delta will take care of you” and “I’m sure they’ll put you up in a nice hotel.”

The person at my gate pointed me down a long hallway to get re-ticketed. The person at that desk had already gone home for the night (of course), but a nice janitor assured me that “Delta will take care of you” and lead me to the ticket counter, which turned out to be in the opposite direction. Well, unfortunately, Delta did NOT take care of me. They booked me on the 7am flight the following morning, and when I had the audacity to ask about overnight accommodations, they all but laughed in my face.

“But Albert said…” I stammered in disbelief.

Another customer service rep named “Lawrence” (no one in customer service has a last name so that no one can be held accountable for anything) told me it wasn’t the airline’s fault and therefore, they wouldn’t be making any hotel accommodations. Not for me, and not for the women who was seven months pregnant. We’d just have to tough it out in JFK airport for the night. He didn’t know, and didn’t want to discuss, “Albert” at Delta’s headquarters. Nor would he answer the question, “would you want your daughter to sleep here?”

I for one did not feel safe as a young, single woman sleeping in an abandoned airport terminal. (In fact, my family used to show up freakishly early for flights and I’d had nightmares about being that crazy homeless family wandering the airport; this was pre 9/11 of course.) So I thought, “I guess I better call my friend from college to beg a spot on her futon.” Seventy five dollars and an hour and a half later, I arrived on her doorstep sans deodorant, toothpaste or even a change of clothes, courtesy of luggage restrictions. She was a good sport about the last minute visit on a worknight and insisted that I sleep on her bed (for about two hours, then I had to go back to the airport).

My cab driver made fun of me for wasting money going to Manhattan. But I figured, “I have a futon, food and a friend downtown and if I stay at the airport, it’s dirty floors and, if I’m lucky, a stale bag of Sun Chips for dinner (all of the shops were closed and I didn’t have single bills for the vending machines).” You can guess which one seemed more appealing.

Hours of travel: twenty-two
Hours of sleep: two
Reconnecting with a friend during an impromptu sleepover: priceless

Still, I want my seventy-five bucks (and my beauty sleep) back!

Filed Under: musings on life, rants

Happy One Hundred!

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This post marks The Urban Muse’s one hundredth entry. I’d bake a cake, but I’d too darn tired (more on that later), so I’d just like to say thank you. My boyfriend doesn’t read this blog (he bravely admitted he prefers ESPN – typical guy thing to say!), my coworkers don’t read this blog (probably for the best), but YOU do. And I’m hugely appreciative of that.

Filed Under: anniversaries, shameless self-promotion

5 Q’s with Beth Gottfried

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Beth Gottfried is one busy girl. Between writing for several sites including Jewlicious and Bostonist while holding down a day job, Beth and her husband launched a new pop culture site called Amaldo.com. And did I mention she co-authored a book about The Apprentice a few years ago? Read on to learn more…

Urban Muse: How did you get started as a professional blogger?
Beth: Saying it was not the plan sounds cliche I realize, but it’s the truth. It was never my intention to be a blogger. I started out working an office job a few years back and finding myself bored and with plenty of time on my hands (ed. note: amen!). I was at that point in my professional corporate career (which everyone has) that I realized I didn’t constantly need to be stimulated by my office job and could be more creative with how I chose to spend the time I had where I wasn’t responding to work needs. I found an ad on Craig’s List for an entertainment writer for a great site: www.the-trades.com and started reviewing films and reality TV. I lucked out with the site and its visibility. Great supportive, responsive people there and a wonderful platform to just write whatever I wanted and more importantly be appreciated.

UM: It sounds like you’re juggling a lot of different projects, as many writers do. How do you manage your time and prevent burn-out?
B: Who says I’m not burned out ;) Yes, I juggle a lot of projects. I recently started a new site. It’s my first major project with full ownership. Having written online for other sites (SuicideGirls (I just read that Daily Show correspondent Rob Cordrry writes for them now), Bostonist, Valleywag (part of Gawker), The-Trades, PopMatters, The Blogging Times, Jewcy, and now Jewlicious) I’m taking my years of experience and applying it to my own baby: www.amaldo.com. Actually it’s the brainchild of my very loving and patient husband. I work on it during the off lunch hour and after my day job. The site is a witty take on pop culture (film, tv, music, tech, sports) in video and blog format. It’s a definite learning curve, but I’ve learned so much about site design, style sheets, marketing, and how to find time to write when you’re not doing all of the above. Most of all, I’ve adapted to being more of a “process” person than a “product” person. This has been the major transition.

UM: I’m always interested in how writers collaborate when they’re co-writing a book. How did you find Anthony and what did your collaboration look like?
B: I didn’t find Anthony. He found me – at least indirectly. This is actually a funny story too. I was contacted by someone at Penguin Books who read my weekly recap for The Apprentice: Season 1 online for www.the-trades.com and she wanted to know if I had taped episodes of the book because they were putting together a book on the show and needed it for the co-author. By the end of the conversation, I was that co-author. I never met Anthony. Penguin compiled the book themselves with my social commentary and Anthony’s business insights on the show. You can still find the Amazon link online too.

UM: Where do you do most of your writing?
B: I write from home mostly. It’s where I concentrate best. I can’t do noise when I’m writing though so I’m greatly limited in my options. I love to go to a coffee shop and download music and pretend that I’m writing. For some reason when I lived in Cambridge, I used to get a lot of work done at Toscannini’s on Main Street. I could actually concentrate there too which is quite the anomaly.

UM: In your professional opinion, why has The Apprentice endured six seasons while other reality shows fizzle out after only a season or two?
B: I stopped watching and reviewing sometime around the third or fourth season. I have no idea why people still watch. I co-authored a book on the show and can’t even watch Donald Trump anymore. But look at people that watch Survivor. That show has been on longer and still has a mad following. I guess there’s no accounting for bad taste in reality TV (ed. note: ouch!). Wait, was that an oxymoron?

Thanks, Beth. Be sure to check back next Wednesday for more interviews with the Muse.

Filed Under: writers on writing

Short and Sweet

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So I’m visiting my parents outside of Seattle, and I finished up some front of book pieces (FOBs) during downtime at the airport. Each one has a maximum of 250 words, so it’s been quite an exercise in word economy. I figured out how to pack the most punch with the least words by using these techniques.

1. Avoid transitions with a chart or list. If I were writing this in narrative form, I’d probably use phrases like “another way to…” and “you can also…” A list makes these phrases unnecessary. If you’re comparing two or more things (brands of lipstick, types of writing, etc.) , a chart can work.
2. Minimize modifiers. Even articles like “an” and “the” aren’t always necessary. A stronger verb often replaces an adverb. And adjectives like “gorgeous” and “fantastic” are fine for blog posts but unneeded in shorter pieces.
3. Beware prepositions. I originally wrote “watch out for,” but “beware” is more concise. When I reread my first draft, I realized that I was wasting a lot of space with pesky little prepositions like “on top of” and “during this period,” so those were the first to go.
4. Use the second person (if appropriate). Since my FOBs (and this blog post) are instructive, the implied “you” stands in for the subject.
5. Shorten subtitles. I didn’t think of this when I was contacting authors for sources, but long wordy titles are a huge waste of space. I axed anything after the colon, so that When in Rome: 1001 ways to make the most of your first college study abroad experience would read When in Rome (I totally made that one up, don’t search for it on Amazon). Sorry, authors!

How would you approach FOBs?

Filed Under: grammar, musings on writing, writing tips
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