Where is my mind? Rambling since 2003

Subject: Why I love the Hampton Inn by Elise
Date: 04/12/2002 6:04 PM

Hello everyone :) Here's episode 2 of Elise's adventure in the
midwest (is that where I am?). I am at my second site now. I
finished in Ypsilanti on Wednesday. Even though that town wasn't
much, I'm actually going to miss it. The frat boys there were mostly
nice and my hotel was pretty good. It had a lovely view of a golf
course and a lake. I will miss the sign at the front door of the
hotel that said, "Golfers! Please take off your cleats before
entering lobby."

So, I thought my hotel was nice until I got to East Lansing, Michigan.
Man, Marriott is nothing next to the Hampton Inn. I walked into the
Hampton Inn and the lady at the front desk was this nice Georgian
college student who helped me with all my stuff. Plus, when I got
there they were putting out milk and cookies. How cool is that? And
not only that, I've got a nicer room and the TV gets Mtv, Comedy
Central, and the WB (well, it's kind of the WB; it seems like it's the
WB half the time and PAX the other half). The only thing I miss from
the Marriott is the view and that it had some weights and weight
machines in the workout room (Hampton Inn only has a treadmill, a
bike, and a fake elliptical machine). Oh, and one more thing,
Hampton Inn has a great free breakfast every morning. When you're
on the road, these are the things that excite you.

I got really lucky on Wednesday night because another interviewer was
nearby. So we went to dinner and drinks and talked. She's really
cool and she's from DC, which means I've made a new friend. Yay :)

As you can tell, I'm really happy. This is the best job ever.
Yesterday I had a travel day but since my next site was less than 2
hours away it was basically a day off. I traded in my Buick Century
for a Chevy Impala, which is a much better car and it's got a CD
player. Then, I headed over to Ann Arbor. I really liked Ann Arbor
and could definitely see myself living there. It's really laid back
and liberal and intellectual. It seems like a lot of cool stuff goes
on there. It just so happened that I was there on Goodness Day. How
funny is that?

I wrote the above part of this e-mail while I was at a frat house at
MSU. In the middle of my e-mail a fight broke out upstairs and the
one guy I had taking the survey ran up to watch. These guys are
crazy. I am interviewing during the last few days of Greek Week.
Last night, most of the guys were up until 7 am so I'm impressed that
almost 20 of them showed up today. I'm going there tomorrow at
1 pm. We'll see if the rest show up on a Saturday after another
crazy night. Luckily, they want the $20 they get for taking the
survey pretty badly so they show up. I think NIH should do a survey
on how the frat boys use the $20 they get from taking the alcohol
interview. I'm sure alcohol would be at the top of the list.

Every night I go to bed with a smile on my face and every day I wake
up, I don't dread going to work. I wish my updates could be as
exciting as the Ian_in_Korea e-mails (for those of you who don't get
them, Ian is hilarious) but I'm not Ian and I'm just going to have to
accept that (By the way Ian, I ran into a guy at a bar in Ypsilanti
who looks exactly like you.).

That's it for now. Take care all... Oh, and keep in mind that I can
only get e-mails in the morning and at night because I can't connect
at the frat houses. Thank you all for writing. The day after I wrote
the last one, I had 40 (!) e-mails in my inbox.

~Elise :)

P.S. If anyone would like to call me, for the next few days I will be
in room 314 (the same room I was in at the Marriott. Coincidence,
I think not).