Part 2: Wednesday & Thursday

Ah, central time. Unfortunately, I was ready to go an hour early, just in case. I could have used that extra hour of sleep.

No travel actually occurred on Wednesday, unless you count the 45 minute commute downtown from the airport. Our client arrived nearly two hours late. Lunch in the cafeteria was scary. At least the software demo held our interest, and the vendor offered to buy dinner.

We arrived at the restaurant at 6:15 for a 6:30 reservation, but were seated right away. Unfortunately, our host's rental car had a dead battery and he was delayed. What do you hate about fancy restaurants?
1. If you don't order wine or a mixed drink, they will forget to bring your diet coke. And they won't refill it.
2. Entrees do not come with salad. In fact, there is no 'dinner salad'. There is a wedge of lettuce. Or pecan salad with raspberry vinaigrette. ICK. Where's the lettuce/tomato/cheese/croutons combo??
3. If you don't order salad, you do not get to eat for another hour. I was dying.

Appetizers arrived and I had pork stew wrapped in a flour tortilla. A little spicy, a little creamy. It was very good. For dinner, I had the jumbo shrimp with spinach & mushroom enchiladas. Delicious, but by the end of the meal I felt a little strange. Overheated, dizzy. Amazingly I made it back to the hotel in one piece (at 9:30 pm), but spent the next four hours crawling back and forth from the bathroom to the bed. Maybe it was the mystery meat from the cafeteria that did me in?

My early flight came way too early. I was up at 5:00 and hopped the shuttle in to the airport. Surely this trip would be better than the one coming in. Well, I guess it was. I slept for most of the trip wedged between the wall and a 300 lb man who shared my seat. And snored. I downed a quick sandwich in Raleigh-Durham and was back to DC in a flash.

Mike had returned the van to the top floor (remember, snow? howling winds?) but NOT to the vicinity of where I left it. It was in the opposite corner of the building from the elevator. He might have been teaching me a lesson there.

Within 20 minutes of arriving home (Hugs! from the kids!) I had to be on a conference call. As soon as it was over, I was on my way to the office for orientation.

What a long day. But wait, you are thinking. Why is this post dated at 3 AM? Well, thank you for noticing. I still had 7 hours of work to do, and I did it, starting at 8 pm. I have a 9 am conference call, and calls all day till 3 pm. I'm counting the hours until I can come back to bed.