i'd like to book a flight...to hell!

so the big company i work for was recently swallowed by a bigger company. i would normally find such distinctions fairly irrelevent, particularly on this relatively modest level. but today i had my first experience with red tape (and a smattering of just plain things-not-working-ness) gone wild.

i live in portland and fly down to SF about once a month for work. i generally stay a week, monday through friday. i was just there the week before last. i learned yesterday that i'd have to go down again next week. so, today i jumped online and made a reservation at the hostel that i generally stay at when i go down there. it's kinda skeevy, but it's cheap and it's a 30 minute walk from the office and it's conveniently located to burritos. today, i started looking for flights. i haven't lived up here long, but i've flown down to SF/oakland a fair number of times and haven't had any problems with flights. today: nothing. as in, no flights. for any price. in my entire life, i think this is the first time that's ever happened to me. i started having a mini panic attack. was i supposed to drive? there goes 2 days.

anyway, on my girlfriend's suggestion, i tried flights out of seattle and found an embarrasment of riches (which says something about portland's place in the airline world, but anyway). so now i gotta drive up to seattle early next monday morning, then drive back down next saturday afternoon.

anyway, in the course of making this trip, as well as simultaneously trying to fill out an expense report for the last trip i just made, i encountered a host of stumbling blocks, mini-waterloos, wailing walls, what have you. some were of my own doing, but many can be traced back to the moronic processes and web applications the bigger company foists on us. i mean, seriously, i am so prepared to believe that this entire company is nothing more than a front for scientists who are studying us the way that kids study hampsters on wheels. and if i ever see the letters 'p', 'd', and 'f' in the same paragraph again, i will take a hostage. and kill them.