Yesterday being Friday, we were in our usual frenzied state of trying to ticket everything at the last minute. Business travelers belatedly remembered to instruct us to ticket all the things they'd had on hold during the week. Quite a few people suddenly realised we had a three day weekend coming up and wanted to get cheap tickets somewhere, anywhere. Ticketing prices were due to go up over the weekend. A surprising number of people complained because we weren't open Saturday or Monday. One excitable fellow chastised me soundly for not apologizing profusely enough to him when it was his own fault he hadn't gotten the fare he wanted (he knew when the deadline was, we document our records). Oh, being a travel agent is a laff riot on Fridays, let me tell you.

To top it off, I got a call from a chef who had emergency business in Prague this weekend and needed to leave Saturday. He was horrified at how much a last minute ticket was when I first pulled up the fares on my computer. I promised to look around and get back to him. It took three hours of calling, several misunderstandings with bulk air consolidators, and one fantastically lucky break to find him a fare under $1000. He was ultra impressed and so, frankly, was I. In between researching his fare I was taking calls, getting brochures to people, explaining why U.S. citizens do not need a passport to visit the Caribbean but do need proof of citizenship (and why a social security card isn't proof of citizenship), looking up visa requirements for Korea, and putting together tour documents. It was a wild and hairy day.

After all that excitement, I decided to have a drink after work with the Gang O' Physicists down at the Sportsmans Grill. My husband and some of the other professors generally meet for beers every Friday, and I usually decline to join them as I have absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation. Even when they're not talking about physics they talk about academics, and I'm the only working putz there. I don't want to put them down too much as they're all nice people but they just don't care about anything in the real world except how it affects their university schedules and research. In my job, everything affects travel: stock prices, wars, elections around the world, holidays, weather, etc. We don't have much in common. Still, they're friendly, I like being with my husband, and the Grill is close to home so I occasionally go along. Then I leave after one drink. Yesterday, I had a margarita (no salt, on the rocks, thanks). It was yummy. The gang talked physics. The two other women talked about pregnancy. I kept thinking of topics to introduce but it seemed so pointless and forced that I just sat next to John and drank my overly tart margarita quietly. It was good to decompress in a convivial atmosphere.