We have been staying at the Omni Hotel in Austin so long that the lobby bar has become a bit of a home away from home. If we manage to pry ourselves away from the office before the midnight closing time, we know we are going to find ourselves propping up the bar for at least one drink.

Part of what makes the bar so compelling is the constant changing nature of the other people around the bar. The Omni hosts a lot of mini industry and special interest conventions. In the time that we have been here there have been parole officers, judges, Toyota dealers, math teachers, Harley riders and ball room dancers amongst the convention goers. Each night, some of them end up at the bar and entertain us with stories and their drunken antics.

Over the past few weeks my camera has caught everything from the fantastic barkeep to cowboy hat wearing drinkers and Tofu kicking back. Though, truly, the audio recordings would have been the real gems.

If you see me around the bar, mine is a Malibu and coke and he will have a double Jameson neat.

On this trip to Austin, I have had many experiences. On of which has been discovering the existence of, what I have now coined, disfortune cookies. 

Several times, we have found ourselves eating a meal at Buffet Palace in Austin. I mean, if you are going to eat at a Chinese buffet it would at least be a palace, right?  The place is pretty good value and has a yummy array of various Asian themed foods.

As is the custom in American Chinese restaurant, the end of the meal is always denoted by a fortune cookie.  Rationally, I know that a fortune could be good or bad but in the sweet cookie goodness they have always been broken Engligh attempts to be uplifting.

Apparently, Buffet Palace, is out to break this mold because every time I have been there I end up getting a fortune - no disfortune cookie - like the two shown above.  Ending the meals on such a ‘meh’ reached a point that the last time we ate there, we told the waitress to keep them.

When you spend as many nights on the road as we do, sometimes you have to get creative with finding ways to entertain yourself. Yesterday was apparently the day to have fun by playing with your food.

Both of us have been participating in an Instagram event that is challenging people to come up with photos of things being squished. Any of you that are fans of Kids In The Hall are familiar with the concept of squishing heads. It is the same idea only with various themes. Yesterday, the challenge was to squish food or drink.

I take photo challenges seriously. So, from the start of the day I was trying to find food things to squish. Hence, my first attempt at squishing my chicken sandwich. It was okay but not exactly the squish I was looking to share.

We are in Austin, Texas at the moment and the hotel we are staying with has a nice communal bar that encourages conversation amongst guests. The past few nights we have been capping off our work days with a drink at the bar. Last night, was no different and about half way through my one and only drink, the squisher came out.  At last, I got the shot I was looking for in the form of the shot of me squishing the beer of the guy opposite me.

Satisfied, I moved on to generally playing with my food. The next thing I knew it, my Swedish fish had made a line out of the sugar the fell of some sour patch kids. We had to interviene and stop that naughty fish snorting that line of sugar. I always said you could never trust Swedish Fish.

We ended the night jolly and seriously ready for bed!

Timing can be everything. That is as true of traveling as it is any other thing in life. These two  different rides on San Francisco BART trains are prime examples. On one day, the tide into the city from Oakland was a calm ride with barely another soul on the train.  For those of us that love to use public transport but hate to be smooshed into the armpits of fellow passengers, this is the near perfect ride.

Just one day later and the ride into downtown San Francisco is a totally different experience. All it took was there to be a San Francisco Giants baseball game on and suddenly it was sardine time on BART.  

It was fun to watch the -then- World Series holding fans cling onto the bars in front of them a the BART swayed and swung its way to Giant’s stadium. Sure, I was being pressed into the side of the door and it was physically uncomfortable but it is all part of experiencing the local flavor of a city.

There is something socially leveling about waiting for a train. It doesn’t mean if you are urban youth or new age hippies, the train isn’t going to come any faster for you.  These train platform photos were taken while I was waiting for a train at the Fruitvale Bart station in Oakland, California.

As a Philly area girl by birth, I couldn’t resist grabbing a shot of the guy wearing the Phillies hat. I suppose once your team ceases to stink for several years in a row, they the begin to be trendy enough to be worn outside of their hometown.

I travel a lot. No, I mean a lot.  I work as the affiliate marketing director for a major sex toy company.  I fucking love my job. There are two of us in my marketing team and the other person is my best friend. Technically, we work from home but really we work on the road. We are often being sent around the United States and the world at large promoting our product.
Amongst the list of things I love most in the world,sex,travel and my best friend would all feature very close to the top of that list. Photography would be another thing on that list.
Away from my job, a big part of my identity is as a member of the BBW community. Fat, proud and leaving my fat footprints around the world.
This photo was taken in the airport in Prague a I waited for a co-worker to arrive on the flight after mine. I feel that it is a photo that really sums up my life these days. Long may that life continue.