Hotel Life – Driven Outside

I spend 1/3 to 1/2 of my work life on the road and away from my wife and hearth: Crappy food, shitty airports, empty hotel rooms, taxis, trains, assigned to the middle seat in the plane, another awful airport, missed connections, terrible coffee, jet-lag, missing luggage, etc, etc, etc… It was all very exciting when I started this 15 or so years ago, but it has gotten very, very old. Most of the time when I travel I get to see the inside of meeting rooms, lounges, and hotels, but every so often I get out to see some local attraction and one of my first reactions is ‘I wish Stamps-With-Foot was here to see this…’ Traveling alone when you love your wife sucks. There is a bright spot every so often though – when my schedule and our finances work out so Stamps-With-Foot can come along.

A couple of weeks ago the stars aligned and we bought a super cheap (somewhat uncomfy) flight to Istanbul for her to spend a couple of days there while I was working. It was fantastic. We got to tour some sites together after work, do a little shopping, make some memories, and neither of us was all by ourselves waiting on the other.

Istanbul was on both of our bucket-lists and we only had a few hours each day to cram stuff in and although it was cold the whole time and pouring rain one day, we made it all work out:

A tour of the Blue Masque
Raw honeycomb every morning with breakfast
Tour of the Hagia Sophia
Late night Carpet shopping
Criss-crossing the Bosphorus – back and forth between Europe and Asia
An accidental trip to the Egyptian Bazaar
The full Grand Bazaar experience – sites, sounds, and lots of haggling
My wife attempted to buy all the scarves in Turkey
Little souvenirs bought for people we love
I ate a TON of pistachio Baklava
Great food was eaten
Serious snuggling in a king-sized bed sans puppies

Dear thieving bastard;

While I can understand a want/need in life and lacking the sources to make it happen – I really can: I once lived in a shack on the edge of an alligator and snake infested swamp with no job, no car, an absent partner, a negative bank balance, three cans of chili to eat, and a crying baby. I can see how my computer just sitting out in the open, behind my locked hotel room door, could be tempting for you. If you stole my computer to feed your children or buy medicine for a loved one, then please ignore the rest of this letter and may God hold you and keep you. I pray that my laptop, or the proceeds from its sale, is the catalyst, the first step, to a better life.

If that is not the case and you jacked my shit because you wanted a quick buck, well then… I hope that this theft is part of a life of petty crime that will eventually lead you to a small cell in a damp prison with a very large cell-mate that has aggressively amorous intentions for the part of your anatomy that you are currently sitting on. I wish this from the bottom of my deep dark soul due to the headache, frustration and lost time/effort you have caused me. Almost two months of work -12 hour days – gone. Hours that will be spent filling out paperwork, the finger wagging disapproval from the powers that be and my J-O-B. You son of a bitch…

Sincerely yours,
Matt Talley

Driven Outside

Tag: Hotel Life

A trip to Istanbul with my wife

Computer gone… Life harder