(Somewhat) live from Jet Blue

I wrote the text of this blog on the plane back from a whirlwind trip to New York, waiting until something good came on the Direct TV in front of me. Or at least until the Britney Dateline special aired.

My company is opening a spa in New York in two weeks, and we agreed to let the airline company who carries our products throw a party in our as-yet-unused empty space. Because the Spa wouldn't be completely done, we thought the timing would be perfect because we'd have an open floor space but none of the expensive lounge furniture.

So you could say we were all a little surprised when we walked in to the space on Tuesday night and an entire wall had yet to be tiled. Paint was still drying on the countertops and said countertops and light fixtures had yet to be installed. In the words of Donald Trump (because this felt oddly similar to an Apprentice task), it was a total disaster.

We had known the contractor had been stalling, but we had his word that the space would be finished not only by the time of Wednesday night's party, but by 8 AM that morning when the production company arrived to set up. And it was, but not without a long night on the workers' part and a bit of frustration on both our part and that of the airline who had been promised a functioning event space.

By 8 AM Wednesday morning, tile was up, fixtures were in, and the overall concept was achieved; however the floors were a mess, sawdust was everywhere, and it took an entire day and a small army to transform the setting into something somewhat appropriate for a VIP cocktail party.

The party was in honor of the airline's new business class amenity program (of which we are a part) and hosted the airline's top corporate clients and associates. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and no one noticed that underneath all the gift bags were holes in the floor that I had deftly covered up with contact paper. In fact, the biggest problem of the evening was a minor fashion emergency, but the adjacent Kenneth Cole store took care of that problem.

After our party was an after-party at a different venue down the street. This was the "real deal" party, complete with red carpet, D-list celebs, and pedi-cabs to take us there. The highlight of my evening was meeting gossip blogger Perez Hilton; Billy Baldwin, Chloe Sevigny, Jamie Lynn Siegler, and Justin Chambers rounded out the low-letter buzz. Justin Chambers was looking yummy-delicious, though.

It wasn't a late night, but I have been exhausted all day. Fortunately it is part of my job to test our new spa treatments, so I spent part of the afternoon getting a facial. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

I am headed back to New York on Monday, to kick off a number of different marketing initiatives I have planned for the Spa opening. This next trip will be for 10 days, the longest I have lived out of a suitcase since I went to Europe 11 years ago, and the longest business trip I have taken, ever. I'll have to make sure to schedule a few massages.