My Life With An EZ-Pass--NW

After spending a significant amount of time on the beach, my Project Tan has come to an end. I’ve been staffed and on a local project. Welcome back, billable hours. I’ve missed you.

In Consulting, “local” is defined as a location that doesn’t require you to get on a plane or train, pack your two carry-ons and stay over at a hotel. You don’t earn points. But, the location of the project can be hours away by car. If you can drive there, you are considered local.

So, yes, I’m “local” yet I have about a 1 hour 15 minute drive to get to and from work. I’ve heard of people who are staffed within the city that they live in, but I personally think that they are liars. Like this one girl who talks on and on about how she is staffed two blocks away from her Upper East Side apartment. How does someone get that lucky? I just don’t believe it. I think that the Partners choose the Consultants with the biggest mouths and pay them extra to blab about their local projects, when they are really flying to Boise every week. Yeah, I’ve heard about these local projects, but don’t really think that they exist—much like other urban legends—alligators in the sewer, rent control apartments in Manhattan and tall Jewish boys.

So, Briggs & Riley (www.briggs-riley.com) are officially on Fall Hiatus in my hall closet. My Platinum status on American and Diamond VIP at Hilton will likely lapse (unless you vote for me in the American Way contest—more details to come). My only hope of earning points is by charging gas on my AMEX card. Hey, at least that’s something. I need my points fix.