A harbinger of things to come?

After all the phone calls to FedEx, I ended up with no update callbacks (despite repeated assurances), but the passport was delivered to its destination today.

So I get a call from the end client saying they now need my flight itinerary ASAP (deadline: one hour) to submit with my visa application.

Unfortunately, my work environment may not allow that. I commandeered someone else's computer (as I am doing now) to check reservations from Durango to Moscow to get me there on the 29th.

Majorly no joy.

After screwing around for about half an hour, I call Delta and do a phone reservation from New York to Moscow, figuring I'll do the Colorado to New York leg separately. It turns out I have to leave on the 27th in the morning to make the flight from JFK on the 28th. (My "free" time to do translation assignments dwindled dramatically in 20 minutes.)

There remains the question of when and where I'll get my passport and visa. If the Russian embassy can turn things around today, I can get them via, um, FedEx (I guess) in Pagosa before I leave. Otherwise, I'll have to receive them at the hotel in New York where I'll be spending the night of the 27th.

I wonder if all of this skin-of-the-teeth stuff is simply standard with this client? Ye gods, I need a vacation.

Cheers...

By a route, obscure and lonely...

Haunted by...

...but we're not interested in knowing what it's haunted by... only that it was a Dreamland.

Which is where I felt I was today. FedEx started the whole process off by ignoring me. Then Delta picked up where FedEx left off by providing an agent who was way too talkative for my taste. At one point, when I said something that kinda-sorta hinted that I wasn't in the mood for a conversation, she said "Well, you asked, and I was only trying to provide an answer to your question."

If the truth be known, I had not asked a question, but simply made a statement (perhaps too fine a distinction, but I don't expect my every word to be the subject of discourse when I'm under the gun to order airline tickets). Anyway, today was one of those days when I mourned the demise of full-service travel agents, and made a note to myself to find one and nurture him or her.

* * *Fortunately, my work assignment was not hot and heavy today, so I was able to somehow stumble through the process of ordering tickets. Unfortunately, the experience leaves a bad taste in my mouth, since it seems all so... disorganized. I'm not the person who's supposed to know how all this is arranged, although I suppose I can step up to the plate with the best of them and swing for the fences.

* * *I've finished the first pass of the most recent item for the Houston client I'm down here for. I technically have a couple of days before it is due, and there are questions I need answered about some of the content (some of which I asked today, and got answers to... and some of which I asked today and did not get answers to, interestingly enough). It's also one of those documents that include descriptions of Russian computer displays, which means the translation must include the original Russian text (together with translations, naturally) in cases when the text is describing what's supposed to show up on the display.

* * *Natalie is off playing Florence Nightingale (or maybe Dr. Phil) for one of her friends. It's not as if we'd be hanging out or anything if she were here, but I am a little concerned, as she has a flight out of here tomorrow for the weekend. I wouldn't want her to get back late.

* * *Natalie came back from work early, in time for us to go take in The Matrix Reloaded as a matinee. I found the film fairly interesting, but there were times when I thought the characters were getting just a little too full of themselves as they considered the whys and wherefores of life, the universe, and everything. Moreover, the action sequences - while spectacular - were a little over the top (the extended scene where Neo takes on a small army of Smiths is a fairly good example... might someone explain what that sequence did to further the plot?).

I hated the end, by the way. I'm getting a little old for this kind of crap, though I'm sure I'll go see any third installment.

* * *I'm doing air-to-ground tomorrow, which is always fun. This will not be a sim, but the real McCoy (albeit a weekend day, which technically means a day off for the ISS crew, but practically means simply less traffic). I'll not complain. It'll give me an opportunity to review the item due for another Houston client, which I may or may not have the ability to complete, given my acclerated schedule toward Central Asia.

* * *I have to admit, I am a bit jazzed by the prospect of going to Baikonur, although some of the folks I've been working with the past few days have warned me about what to expect. It's not a tourist magnet for at least three good reasons. (Flat. Hot. Very.) Still...

Now that I've finished tonight's quota of translation work, it's time to hit the books for some French vocabulary work.

Cheers...