I’m home.
My plan when I got home was to unpack, do laundry and post about Chicago. That’s just not happening today. I don’t know what is happening today, except alot of starting, stopping and avoiding.
My suitcase is half unpacked and spread over three rooms. There are 2 piles of laundry lying in the hall.
My parents stayed at my place while I was away. I mentioned I wanted to take apart my kitchen hutch, throw out the top part and paint the bottom. Then I’d use the newly refurbished version in the dining room. God bless their cotton socks. When I arrived back, hutch was taken apart, moved to dining room with the first coat of paint on. The only down side, that hutch held a lot of stuff! All that stuff is now in my spare room.
When I walk into the kitchen it is a little bleak and sad. Which makes my blood pressure rise with the thought of what am I going to do with it now. So I walk out. Into the dining room, to see the unfinished hutch needing another coat or two of paint. I leave. Head down the hall, where my eye catches the car brochures. Oh yeah, I have to decided which car I am getting. Keep walking, stepping over laundry that isn’t going to do itself, into the spare room with my suitcase and the contents of the hutch all over the floor. I am now at anxiety level 10. I normally coast through life at a 3. Can’t do anything about the hutch stuff until I paint it. I back out.
The bathrooms need cleaned.
My bedroom. Besides for clothes that need to be put away, this room is pure serenity. I am not leaving here. Ever. I just want to lie on this bed and watch the hypnotic ceiling fan.
I just glanced down at my toes .. I need a pedicure
As much as I love returning to my room and someone has cleaned it, made the bed, and replaced the toiletries to save me shopping. They have even take out the trash. There is no place like home.
Yeah, it’s a few days of self indulgent luxury. Actually it’s more of a necessity. Conferencing is exhausting. Especially this conference. Information is coming at you in all directions. My brain is fried.
Social Media … speaker, an assistant, camera man, photographer, powerpoint, twitter feed on large screen, participants, laptops, phones, ipads. There were so many ipads I thought I was at MacWorld.
A day goes something like this …
6am wake up
6.20am run along the waterfront
7.30am grab a coffee
7.35 shower
8.10am grab coffee #2 on way to first session. caffeine is kicking in, ready to interact with other humans.
8.15am check emails
… yes so far you are thinking oh, poor Ali, this sounds terrible. I should have set up a paypal account for donations.
8.30am – 11.45am conference
11.45am shopping … like yesterday where I walked to Sports Authority in a million degree weather to buy new running shoes. 16 blocks and a lot of sweat later, I find out my shoes aren’t in stock.
1.15pm conference where I sit under the air conditioning vent trying to reduce my body temp to under 106 degrees.
3.00pm break … go back to room lie on bed of 8 minutes.
3.30pm more conference
5.30pm drinks, networking smoozing or you are losing. I know, again doesn’t sound terrible. It’s not, but it’s mentally draining. Work talk.
7.30pm drunk … must eat
7.45pm foooooooood
9pm dump bag out outside hotel room door to search for room key. find it in pants pocket.
9.08pm ahhhh my room. exhausted.
9.23 – 11pm flick through channels but don’t actually watch anything
11.02pm zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
after 3 hours in a google workshop, I needed a little fresh air at lunch.
I stumbled upon Argo Tea.
I got a Mojitea (which I couldn’t pronounce, I sounded drunk. Maybe the slurred version is how my brain thinks it’s pronounced) – iced green tea, with mint and lime juice. Delicious. Luckily I had my hand hip flask to add a shot or two of rum.
