The trip to L.A. wasn't too bad. I wasn't super-impressed with the Sheraton Gateway, which I stayed at on the grounds that it is always convenient to stay at the conference hotel. The room was okay, but nothing special. What annoyed me was: a) the on-site parking is valet only (with more expensive self-parking at inconvenient off-site lots), b) they have the furniture set up so you have to rearrange two chairs and a table in order to get to the window to open or close the curtains, and c) there aren't enough electric outlets in the room. I should probably just have stayed a couple of blocks away at the Renaissance.
The conference was, indeed, useful and I generated a couple of pages of things to follow up on. I also took advantage of the trip to see some friends. I had dinner with one former colleague on Tuesday night, drove down to Long Beach for storytelling on Wednesday night, and went out to lunch with three guys from the group I worked in over a decade ago on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night I was thoroughly exhausted and glad I could sleep a little later since I'd booked the 9 a.m flight on Friday.
That also proved to be a good thing, since the 8 o'clock flight got cancelled. My flight was just delayed about an hour. While I wasn't upgraded, I did have an exit row aisle seat, so it was tolerable. I just had to lean back and repeat my mantra ("frequent flyer miles, frequent flyer miles") a few times. I was, however, annoyed that they still had the February Hemispheres magazine (with its abomination of a crossword puzzle) and the February movies, despite being a full four days into March. Time to fill out one of those customer satisfaction surveys!
Today has been catch-up day. I took my car in for service, picked up dry cleaning, did the grocery shopping, and finished the press releases for the Saturday night concert at the Virginia Storytelling Gathering. I still have to finish squares for a couple of baby blankets, since they are due tomorrow and will need to be blocked. I should also go to Zumba this afternoon. And I have theatre tickets for tonight.
I think I have a free weekend in May. May 2015, that is.
