For about 14 months I have been on a committee mandated to find a replacement dean (we have been without a dean for over 2 1/2 years and after an absence of leadership for over a year, the university decided to do something--create a committee that would sit idle for about a year, then spring into action, dissolve and then reform 6 months later). So here I sit in a fancy pants hotel room in an airport outside Detroit. We had a three hour "prep" meeting earlier this evening (it was called a "working dinner" which is a good way to ruin a decent meal), after which we were instructed to reassemble tomorrow morning bright and early at 7 am. We will have 7 one hour interviews tomorrow (sorry I can't say more than that--I probably shouldn't have even said THAT much since it is all very "hush hush and hoosh hoosh") after which we have another "working dinner". Monday we (can you guess?) meet again at 7 am and trundle on until either we kill each other or settle on four people to bring out to campus for three day long visits in a few weeks. I hope to become very very ill during those four visits so I don't have to take part in that part of the process. So, since I can describe the hotel, here it is:
This LOOKS like an outdoor shot but it taken within the lobby. It is very dark inside, perhaps to obscure the black mildew or so that we can't see that dull-eyed, travel-weary look in everyone's eyes. I thought those were live bamboo trees but upon close examination I realize the are simply giant plastic tree replicas. A little sad.
I was told when I checked in that I would be treated to a "room with a view". Given the dreary darkness of the place, that seemed lovely. So the first thing I did when I got to my dark room was open the curtain to see this...this is the view: a giant wall of aluminum. If I look straight down I can see a handful of ground crew personnel going about their business. After staring out of the window for a while I realized that airports are very ugly places.
Here is my room. It looks exactly like the room I was in in Vancouver last April. (That room did have a nice view.)
Yep, here is the same square shower "rain fall" shower head. It has the same green tea leaf shaped soap bars, too.
A flyer in my room boasts that this is THE PLACE to get "Michigan Muesli" ("famous the world over"--really? That's a bold claim.) I strongly suspect that I will be seeing that tomorrow at the "breakfast briefing meeting".
This LOOKS like an outdoor shot but it taken within the lobby. It is very dark inside, perhaps to obscure the black mildew or so that we can't see that dull-eyed, travel-weary look in everyone's eyes. I thought those were live bamboo trees but upon close examination I realize the are simply giant plastic tree replicas. A little sad.
I was told when I checked in that I would be treated to a "room with a view". Given the dreary darkness of the place, that seemed lovely. So the first thing I did when I got to my dark room was open the curtain to see this...this is the view: a giant wall of aluminum. If I look straight down I can see a handful of ground crew personnel going about their business. After staring out of the window for a while I realized that airports are very ugly places.
Here is my room. It looks exactly like the room I was in in Vancouver last April. (That room did have a nice view.)
Yep, here is the same square shower "rain fall" shower head. It has the same green tea leaf shaped soap bars, too.
A flyer in my room boasts that this is THE PLACE to get "Michigan Muesli" ("famous the world over"--really? That's a bold claim.) I strongly suspect that I will be seeing that tomorrow at the "breakfast briefing meeting".
1 comment:
Corporate madness in action. So sorry you had to be there. And you did.
xM
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