Sunday

May 13, 2001

Florida nostalgia from ebay

I slept hard last night again. I fished out of my dreams an odd religious rally where the guy next to me confided that they expected to get $200-300 per youngster in concessions and stuff. Everyone got up and sang some upbeat song.

Then there was a tennis thing. The courts were all right next to one another and at odd angles. We were supposed to play someone on another court. It appeared possible to hit several people with the ball trying to serve into the opponent's service court. Someone ask me what kind of balls I had. I looked and said, "Dunlap 3's."

Analyze that.

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I always take Echinecea when I fly to ward off the 'bugs at close quarters.' When else do you cram yourself in such a tight space with so many for so long with improperly recirculaing air? So I eat breakfast, too, so it won't irritate my stomach. I never eat breakfast. But I have eggs, bacon and toast with my coffee. Maybe I won't have to eat until I get to Orlando. That would allow me to eschew bad airport food and airline 'snacks' for overpriced hotel food.

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Joys of flying. I do eat the weird small cold pasta salad, a 'wrap' that's really a roll as if they made a wrap and chopped into a bunch of pieces. So, of course, stuff falls out. There is also some cheese (3/4 of an ounce) and a couple of crackers. My decongestant almost works. I have a little pain but I can hear when we land. Our bags take forever because it has been raining. The rain has made them incapable of delivering bags to the baggage claim. I'm serious. Can you imagine building an airport and not considering that it mght rain?

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The hotel as city. The guy at check-in brags that since I was last there they have revamped restaurants, added a Starbucks and added 500 rooms. Oh, wow. My buddy's room isn't on the hallway indicated by the signs. In fact the numbers skip right over it and it's inexplicably on another hallway.

I try the high speed internet access in my room without luck until I think to disconnect and reconnect power to the connection box.

I attend the welcome party for the conference and try to mix a little with people. I end up talking to seven other co-workers and we all go have some food at the hotel city's Italian spot. It's not bad, really. I have some carpaccio and some risotto (a couple of appetizers) and we drink a 1998 Rodney Strong Merlot which is really quite nice. I am instantly more friendly towards a place with good carpaccio. Even if I know they have purchased the chairs for the seminar rooms from the Uncomfortable Chair Company of America.

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I used to have a ball coming to these things, seeing customers who used our products, hearing gossip, learning things. It's really just a lot of work now. The conference hasn't started and I'm already weary.

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