Monday, June 30, 2008

Rocky Mountain Hi!

Yup, as my regular readers (all 17 of you) know, I am in the lovely city of Denver for another 24 hours. I'm here for a work conference. In the interests of professionalism I am refraining from naming the conference, as they will be receiving a 3 page (as of today) missive on how they can/should/better improve their conferences. The yesterday I thought it was because I was tired and cranky. Two years ago I thought it was because I was new in the job. Today I know that the program committee can't plan their way out of a saturated paper bag. An old super-saturated paper bag, one that's been litter on the side of the road all through the winter, and has endured traffic, sun, freeze thaw cycles, etc.

But, enough of my diatribe.

Getting to meet Janiece and Anne was FABULOUS!!!

Anne graciously and kindly retrieved me from the airport, we had a tasty lunch, and Janiece dumped me off at the hotel, with luggage and John's transmission!

My earrings from Jeri arrived on Saturday before I left Fairbanks. I will take and share pictures later (I think I packed the camera cable...??), but the best news is that they perfectly match the jacket I packed to wear during my presentation tomorrow. Wo0t!!1!

Had dinner with boss and coworker at India House, off of Blake, in downtown. Yum. Chicken Saag. Yum. Tonight I gave into my need for franchise food and had the Thai Lettuce Wraps at Cheesecake Factory. And brought back to my room a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. Breakfast will be good.

Haven't had much time to do anything fun. Meetings all day (until 6 PM). Had dinner. Picked up a tank to wear under my jacket. No Serge, not an M5 or A39, but an article of clothing. If I did have an M5, I suspect I'd be accessorizing it more than it accessorizing me. An M5 would look really cool in the back yard. Um, anyway, I'm rambling. Probably time to review my talk again and hit the showers.

PS - if you guys can let me know when the cat mats get there, that'd be great. I'm always intrigued by how long things take to get via US Mail. Nathan and my dad got their packages in three days. Other folks, apparently five+.

5 comments:

Nathan said...

I've actually considered going into the business of organizing crap for people...like reunions and conferences. I've been to too many lame ones where I wondered just how far did the planners have their heads up their asses to come up with what they did. I couldn't do worse (I think).

On the kittie-mat front...They're all torn between their love for catnip...ah sweet catnip...and the fact that the baby cats discovered the tub today. They go back and forth between fighting (lovingly) for possession of the mat and sitting on the marble shelf watching me shower. I'm encouraging mat-envy.

MWT said...

Just wait 'til the kitties figure out that they can take the mat to the marble shelf...

Jeri said...

The last conference I went to, they had *no water* available for the attendees. None! We had to go buy water in the hotel gift shop. (or drink from the water fountain, which didn't work very well if you had a multi-hour session.)

Talk about idiocy!

I hope it improves for you. You'd think with all these bright folks people could 1) organize an event, and 2) accomplish a little process engineering around making the event flow smoothly. But usually not.

Let's hope Denvention goes more smoothly. And even if it doesn't, we can always people watch. ;)

Glad the earrings got there. And, uh, glad you have pierced ears. I didn't even think to ask. LOL

Anne C. said...

Nathan, my friend Stacey is quitting her job to do exactly that. Well, actually, that plus any other organizing challenges (weddings, putting the folks in a home, moving across country, funerals, getting you a replacement birth certificate, black ops... oops, wasn't supposed to admit that last one).

It was so lovely to meet you, Tania! I'm working on a post about it now. :)

vince said...

In my experience most conferences provide little useful information and simply waste valuable time. Most meetings are little better, although if they involve only key people and are narrowly focused, they can be very useful.

While working for yourself often involves long hours, they are generally productive hours, and nothing short of starvation would ever get me back into the corporate world.