Memo to myself: only stay in hotels with negotiated rates, no matter how far they are from the convention. Why? Because you don't negotiate with kidnappers or crap hotels.

The hotel that I originally booked turned out to be all kinds of crap. The place looked nice on the inside, but look can be oh-so deceiving. They didn't have a room available with a private bathroom. Uhm...what? I called Amex and got a different hotel (10 miles from the convention center...fail), and took a cab over. The cabbie told me that the city give homeless people vouchers to stay at that hotel. After seeing some of the people that wandered into that place while I was on hold with Amex, I believe him! Truth be told, I think it's a good thing they didn't have a room available!

All that is behind me now. I'm going for dinner in a bit, and I'm going to the conference in the morning.

So, boys and girls, if Amex doesn't like a hotel, you probably won't either. And, apparently, don't travel with me either. I'm bad luck.