On the road with JMS

I was reading an article by Brian Tracy ( American author/sales coach) which says " Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when trying something new" I'm pretty sure I accomplished that today.

I'm sitting here writing my blog this evening from the Marriott which happens to be located in level 1 of hell a.k.a. Queens. I really never was a big fan of NY and now after visiting Yonkers ( where my GPS said - " You have Reached your destination and I looked around and said I don't think so")this afternoon and staying in Queens, I know why. I'll take Trenton any day over being here.
Now for anyone who has served in the military or been to 3rd world countries, I am sure there are worse places someone could be but they are reserved for the lower levels of hell. Level 1 I have found out boasts Queens and probably some other fine places such as Camden.

I am here visiting contractors. Contractors who might I add I want to say"WTF- you couldn't afford to be anywhere but here?!" But as a professional I wont be allowed to say that tomorrow in my meetings. The best I can do is "My what a unique location you have and so close to areas that need to be rebuilt - how convenient!"

I do believe I'm safe for the evening in the Fairfield Inn by Marriott LaGuardia. The hotel itself is clean and neat although it has 86 rooms and only 12 or so parking spaces that I can count. Lord knows what happens if car # 25 pulls in. If I waked up in the morning and my mini van is in pieces I'll know it wasn't theft - just some poor soul trying to find a parking spot.

My room is on the second floor and has a scenic view of the United Rentals storage yard. From here I can see lots of lifts and tow trucks parked for the evening. The wailing sirens and the plans roaring overhead add to the ambiance. I'm sure when I awaken to snow on the ground tomorrow - it will be even more picturesque

On the way here I passed what I believe to be all the illegal oriental aliens that are in the US- if the government is looking for them - they have set up shop in Flushing. These weren't the nice oriental people that give you tea either - it's the other ones- you know the bad guys in Jackie Chan movies? I found them.
After I got to the hotel and found my room, I decided to go for a drive in the other direction ( away from Little China) and find something to eat. I found a small shopping center with an Avenue store, a Dunkin Donuts,a cute little diner like place called Uncle Bills, assorted other stores and more litter in the parking lot then you'd find on the ground after New Year's Eve in Times Square. I decided to check out the Avenue store and you know what? Apparently here they don't work. I know this because they didn't have one scrap of anything that resembled work attire in the store. They had I'm hanging with my homeys attire, I'm lazy and don't want to get out of bed attire and the Hoootchie mama dont I look good in my size 32 shirts attire. After perusing the Avenue, I headed over to Uncle Bills and grabbed dinner before darkness came ( I'm thinking I'd rather be in Transylvania on the street at night than here on the street at night).
The place was small and cozy and gave the customers a lovely view of the parking lot. While I was trying to order my dinner ( with all intentions of stopping at D&D for a coffee with Splenda afterward- in case your following my diet adventures) a young white couple left the diner without getting their food. Apparently the male of the couple was angry - because upon exiting he shoved the female into a car . A screaming match then ensued and for the next 20 minutes we watched as they fought - he slammed her into cars, including slamming the drivers door into her rib cage- which I 'm assuming broke a few ribs. S.he of course swung once but mostly covered her face while she kept yelling
We couldnt hear the dialogue but every now and then you'd see his mouth form an F to start a word and you got a good idea he wasn't happy. While the abuse was going on - someone in the place suggested calling the police and the owner of diner said- "Nah it's not in here". A police car did drive through the parking lot at that point but apparently they either stopped fighting as he went through or she wasn't screaming loud enough and it kept going - probably to Dunkin Donuts.

At that point I realized that my life has changed and instead of getting involved like I would have years ago, I kept saying to myself "look dumb white jersey girl- you've got a family to think of - don't get shot". I repeated that in my head several times and then I finally asked for the remainder of my dinner to go and headed back without my coffee to the sanctity of the Fairfield Inn by Marriott LaGuardia.

So it's here in the hotel I sit now - coffee-less but alive thinking "Yes I'm pretty sure I stretched outside my comfort zone."