1. 6am ish. Wake up. Spend a minute and a half figuring out what city I am in. Look out the window to panoramic view of the skyline.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Get ready in the fabulous spa-like bathroom at . To help you understand how humongous this place is, I’ve included my suitcase for scale.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Order a car using Uber. Within seconds, a driver is confirmed and I received a text message with the status. Note the name of Thursday’s driver – AMEN – at first I thought that this was just a very celebratory confirmation.
   
   
   
   
   
   Here’s my driver, AMEN. He was rocking out to some music in his head the entire commute.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Ten minutes later I arrive at this absolutely stunning office space. All sarcasm aside, the OTHER part of the office is quite cool. Our little IT annex is pretty sad looking from the outside, but is actually very open and loft-like inside.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Ah. Lunchtime. Walk four blocks to the prepared foods section at Harris Teeter? Nope – cause I got schedules for back to back meetings. No worries, non-descript office is attached to really cool office where the cafeteria is by a series of hallways and odd outdoor walkways. Here’s the rooftop parking lot / smoking gazebo section.
   
   
   
   
   
   And here’s the mousetrap stairwell.
   
   
   
6. Rats. Scheduled for a 3pm meeting so I can’t take the usual 5:20pm flight. Thursday nights at airport = the consultant shuffle. The later the flight, the worse it gets.
   
   
   
   
7. Ah – a deserted airport parking lot around 11pm.
   
   
   
   Have lost my car a few times so now I take a picture of where I left it. #sadbuttrue.
   
   

One day – nine pics – all caught up.

At 3am last night, I woke up to an announcement on the hotel loudspeaker. “There is a tornado in the area. Seek shelter in the ballroom on the ground floor.” Aw crap.

I contemplated waiting it out in my room, but I’m in a super small room this week, and frankly, it didn’t look to sturdy. I changed out of my Whaleboner t-shirt, put on yesterdays outfit, grabbed my phone, and headed for the elevator. As we headed for the ground level, the doors opened at each floor, packing on more and more passengers. I briefly saw one of my colleagues on the 5th floor, but we were full by then so he headed for the stairs.

Yeah, I probably should have taken the stairs. But as it turned out the exit doors were locked trapping a hotel full of people in the stairwell for a while.

We reached the ground floor, but the doors did not open. Shit.

Of course, one passenger was extremely claustrophobic and began to panic. I felt really bad for her and tried to distract her with 1400 pictures of Morgan and Bailey. It actually worked

Yep – trapped in an elevator with 12 strangers in the middle of the night. At least no one was sick.

Here’s a shot taken by one of my colleagues – Nashville fire department trying to pry open the doors.

WTH was that song about anyway ?!?

This weekend’s photos are from our recent trip to Madagascar (yes, I am making progress sifting through the thousands of images). This is a Parson’s chameleon that our guide spotted in Mantadia National Park. It was at least a foot and a half long, yet neither Andy nor I saw it perched on a branch about five feet away.

I got some video of this guy on the move, and also feeding a few at a nearby reserve. Enjoy !

(The noise in the background is from some nearby indiris. More on that later)

I spent this week in Washington, D.C. Didn’t do any sightseeing as I was deep inside the office in windowless rooms, but here are a few iPhone pics from last night’s commute.

Morgan is our fabulous Russian Blue. He spends a lot of time reclined on his back – I think this has something to do with the arthritis in his back knees. Sometimes is is a recline:

Other times it is more of an otter pose.

Photo 18 – birds in Nashville

Photo 19 – sunset near the Nashville airport

Photo 20 – DC on inauguration night

Photo 21 – View from my hotel

Photo 22 – Rain on the moonroof

I captured this image on the way to the Nashville airport last night.