2013-2014: The Years of Airports

I've been traveling a lot over the past year or two, and managed to make it to 18 airports across the United States.

At the beginning of the year when I got home from trips, I found myself talking to friends and family on the phone about these travel experiences and rating the quality of the airport. When you get delayed, it seems to overtake your travel experience and every little detail (or nuisance) stands out.

I started to keep track of airports and rank them on five criteria: cleanliness, food, proximity to coffee, availability of outlets and if there is free wireless Internet. The overall conclusion is that airports in mid-size cities have invested the most in great airports, and bigger & smaller cities have a long way to go.

One thing to keep in mind is I usually travel American Airlines, so these ratings might be biased to the American Airlines terminals and reflect the quality there.

✓ = yes

~ = iffy 

No: n/a 

Some overall notes

Airport Ratings

AIRPORT	Cleanliness	Food	Proximity to Starbucks or other good coffee shop	Availability of outlets	Free Wifi?
ORD Chicago O’Hare	✓	✓	✓	~	No
O'Hare is huge and generally, a pretty clean and safe airport. Outlets in mass have not been installed  yet, but hopefully in the next few years some improvements are made. McDonald's and Starbucks locations are pretty frequent, Frontera Grill has some fabulous Mexican food and there are great food courts after security.
MDW Chicago Midway	~	~	✓	~	No
Midway is Chicago's second-tier airport, and its ratings probably how that :).
LGA New York LaGuardia	~	~	~	✓	No
LaGuardia is an interesting airport because all of the good food is before the gate, except for Auntie Anne's and a quick sandwich/bagel shop. It's been installed with plenty of outlets, but there is no free WiFi and the short ceilings make it pretty stuffy. You would think the Big Apple would have a better airport!
DEN Denver	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Denver is a progressive airport and nothing about it has ever been a letdown. The gates are easy to get around, everything is clean, available and straightforward.
SEA Seattle	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Seattle was another impressive airport, and the wifi was fabulous.
MSP Minneapolis-St. Paul	✓	✓	✓	~	✓
I wasn't in MSP for a ton of time, but everything about it was up to par.
DFW Dallas	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
For being in a conservative city, Dallas has a pretty progressive airport. I've never had connectivity issues with the wifi, but the most difficult part of this airport is its huge size and using the tram to get to the right gate on time. Best gate = Gate D. I even had the airport tweet back at me when I shared my experience on Twitter about this pleasant experience!
PHL Philadelphia	✓	✓	✓	~
The Philadelphia airport was very impressive, especially because of the upscale shopping. Great experience here!
STL St. Louis	~	✓	~	~	No
I really don't like the St. Louis Airport. It feels grungy, but does have a lot of quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and fast food. Parking is fairly easy when you drive there.
MCI Kansas City	✓	~	~	~	✓
The KC airport is a circle and has security lines based on the gate you are going to, so the lines are pretty short. The wifi works well, but there is minimal food so pack accordingly.
SDI San Diego	~	~	✓	~	No
I've spent a lot of time here in and out of Project Mexico trips, and it's another one that gets the job done. It hasn't been redone in awhile (at least at the gate I've been around), but there is coffee around and everything else is just okay.
SFO San Francisco	✓	✓	✓	✓	Yes
Another impressive airport, and a lot of funky furniture around.
DTW Detroit	~	CDRs- casual restaurants	✓	✓	✓
Detroit is known for having a large Delta hub, but the American gate was nice as well. It was recently redone and is fairly clean, but in my two-day trips there, I've gone into bathrooms where soap has not been refilled in 24 hours.
BDL Hartford	✓	~	✓	~	Yes
I've spent a lot of time in this airport for work, and being a smaller establishment, it gets the job done. There are only a few restaurants (The Black Bear Saloon is the popular one), but enough coffee to get by. The WiFi works in some spots but is faulty in others.
CLT Charlotte	✓	~	✓	No	No
For being Charlotte, North Carolina- a fairly mid-sized city, this was an incredibly busy airport. I flew US Airways here, but on a 15-minute connection and switching terminals, I walked by three Starbucks and plenty of shopping…and noticed the chairs are incredibly comfortable. Outlets were a rarity, but WiFi is free and easily accessible. Naturally because it's the South, I was surprised to see bathroom attendants too, making the bathrooms even more clean and a pleasant experience.
ATL Atlanta	✓	✓	✓	~	No
Atlanta was pretty difficult to navigate with a variety of tram stops to get you across far distances, but no sign to tell you how far baggage claim actually is and if you need to get on the tram. Some terminals had better restaurants than others, there is plenty of coffee around and the bathrooms were high quality.

MKE Milwaukee	✓	✓	~	No	No
Without flying out of MKE, I learned it was easy and quick to get in and out of there when we dropped my sister off as she flew back to Nashville. The parking "cell phone lot" was a garage that connected right to the airport door, and we walked on in and had a nice, sit-down lunch. Regardless, I still looked at it from the lens of the five criteria.

COU Columbia, Mo.	~	~	~	No	✓
Columbia Regional Airport has been a pretty big joke in my four years in college at Mizzou. At least it's up and running!

Parlor Pizza: A West Loop review

After walking by what looks like an incredibly fun rooftop destination twice this summer and seeing it was still under construction, I learned from a Sosh email that Parlor Pizza Bar in the West Loop had just opened.

With Meredith and Anastasia both working in the West Loop, we met up on Monday after work to give it a shot and watch the Bears game!

Parlor has a fun atmosphere that looks a lot like Hubbard Inn in River North - classic, fancy but relaxed. There were a lot of menu items so we split some appetizers and pizzas for a very nice evening - definitely recommend you try it out.

Pulled Pork nacho bites - a winning appetizer!

The popular "Craziest bread" appetizer, living up to its name. Jalapeños, cheese, peppers baked in - spiciest taste I've tried in awhile. I wouldn't get it again but had to try it once.

Truffle oil, cheese, spinach leaves and no sauce. GREAT pizza to start off with and my favorite item we ate! 

The three of us with our  potato bacon pizza

What I learned from planning, then attending a Career Fair

As my graduate school assistantship, I worked with a phenomenal team at Mizzou to plan and execute a department-wide Career Fair with 42 companies present.

Our PR team that planned the event on Feb. 14, 2013- me, Marissa, Barbara, Susan and Sam

It was incredibly fulfilling for a multitude of reasons, learning that:

• Our team gained a lot of industry knowledge by planning the event, knowing a variety of advertising agencies, their size and each company's knowledge and specialties 
• Email etiquette is a life skill - craft these messages carefully!
• Learning the role of HR and how a company recruits new employees is incredibly important, so you know the best way "in" when you are interested
• It's important to build a relationship with every person you meet, because you'll cross paths again
• Lastly, event planning isn't as glorious as you think - and logistics are not a skill everyone has. 

As part of my company's campus recruiting team for Mizzou, I then had the opportunity to attend the Career Fair I once planned.

Taylor and I representing Starcom at the Strategic Communication Career Fair this past February 2014

Me with this year's PRAEs that we interviewed and hired to run the event and serve on Mojo Ad

Being on the other side of things, I learned a whole different set of lessons job-seekers should consider:

• Do something to stand out from the crowd
• Research companies, open positions and industry press around them before you speak to any recruiters
• Juniors in college are not always confident in what they want to do after graduation 
• Don't put something on your resume if you weren't there for very long and can't confidently speak to how you and your work enhanced their organization 
• Recruiters enjoy talking to students, so make it enjoyable for them! 

With campus recruiting season kicking off again this year, all these lessons came top-of-mind and I realized how lucky I was to have both of these opportunities. I'm looking forward to more successful recruiting efforts this year and helping prospective employees find a company they like! 

The cost of your friends getting married

It's been a privilege and a pleasure to observe many friends and family friends get married over the past two years. Attending nine weddings from mid-2013 to the end of 2014, I'm starting to understand the drill. The biggest lesson I've learned so far is to budget accordingly, because weddings come with expenses.

You start with a gift and outfit for an engagement party (if someone hosts one). Then the bridal shower comes, where you buy your first gift off the registry and sometimes travel to attend that.

Next is the bachelorette party, what most 20-something women look forward to and plan for months on hand. These appear to be getting more and more extravagant, but at the bare minimum, you're paying to host the party (i.e. split a hotel), eat dinner and drinks for a weekend, and buying another "mini-shower" gift.

Then, wedding weekend arrives. You'll need a cute outfit for the rehearsal dinner. To look ready yourself, a manicure & pedicure are necessary, and makeup and hair the day of the wedding. By wedding day, you've paid for your bridesmaid's dress or other outfit for the night, a hotel for the evening (and possibly a flight or gas if you travel), a card and another gift off the registry.

Make sure you're aware of all this and budget beforehand, or else it's easy to go overboard when you're celebrating your friends in love!

Word of the day

Nomophobia: Fear of being out of mobile phone contact

Think: NO-MO-bile phobia.

Read more in Business Insider here.

Priorities vs. options

What makes something a priority or an option?

This question is relevant in all facets of life - whether it's in organizations, friendships, relationships, the workplace or religion.

Decisions in the business world are not taken seriously without a rationale, which forces you to make a smart decision. But the further we progress in the real world, the more normal it is for people to answer "it just felt right" rather than explaining or even feeling confident in their reasoning on certain decisions.  With access to constant knowledge of what very one else is doing through social media, I think it's important to understand what makes certain plans important. Whether it's going to church, managing a relationship or making plans with someone - what makes it integral vs. optional?

Is it...

• The amount of attention you'll receive?
• The perceived amount of fun you'll have?
• Dedication to the people you are with? 
• Sharability & sociability? 
• The allure of new opportunities? 

What do you think? 

Fragendas

I recently started a note on my phone called "fragendas" - an abbreviation I made up for "friend agendas."

The idea stemmed from all the times throughout the day I have a story to tell a friend or family member, or giggle to myself about it, and want to remember to tell them about it. I'm sure it partially came from status meetings at work and the notion that your co-workers and manager always have a 'status' of what's on your agenda, but your friends and family don't - especially if they don't live close or communicate often.

A few weeks in, the brief review is that it's been a great reminder of who I've caught up with, items to touch base on and the little things, like paying someone back for tickets and more. Try it out :)