The blog post for the day is a day late, which seems like a bad sign: it’s still pre-con here – but it’s really fine, since the weekend was the busiest work for planners.
The metaphor for reportage style of the day seemed cool when I thought of it, but I think I must have been falling asleep when I came up with it because it’s escaped. No, I wasn’t drinking that much. It was going to be cool and artsy, and you’ll just have to take my word for it.
The shopping of the day was nice. Being that I’m a bit grown up now, when at conferences for a week I no longer shop at the nearest convenience store for a loaf of bread, peanut butter, and some bottled water for morning snacks – since otherwise I’ll eat bad hotel pastries all day long. No, instead I went with our own diva Danese to Whole Foods to buy bread, peanut butter, spring water, and a bag of honeycrisp apples. How far I’ve come.
The work of the day was finishing our planning meeting productively, although if anything the second day was more difficult than the first. Organizing the final schedules, working on the other timing issues (when keynotes, breaks, special events are) and the like took a while, never mind brainstorming new ideas and ensuring we’ve covered all the bases. At least the hotel got my lunch order correct this time.
The magic of the day was Google docs, which I had seen but never really played with before. They’re really magic! Once I got over the fact that there’s no File – Save option (something that’s really disturbing to a person who used to write UI tests and is detail oriented) it was great – completely live and nearly seamless. You can even see live where everyone else editing the document is moving the cursor around.
The relaxation of the day was swimming. It was night, and it’s a 10th floor rooftop pool with a glass roof. The hotel also has an outside glass elevator serving the 72nd floor Sun Dial restaurant. So I’m tired, trying to relax, floating and watching these misty blue and white lights float up and down in the sky above me. It looked just like one of the space creatures from ST:NG drifting above me.
The enjoyment of the day was friends. David and Rich had arrived, so we went with Lars & Bill to an “authentic Irish pub” a couple of blocks away. Very authentic – for being in Atlanta, that is. But the Guinness was good and the pizza huge and fairly tasty. No dessert, which is just fine given the amount of food and drink we usually consume this week -and I’m pretty conservative there.
The disappointment of the day was walking the mile to the closest CVS and realizing they’re closed. Also realizing that I’ve walked into a not great neighborhood, and taking a longer walk back to the hotel. At least I’m not {shall remain nameless} who left apparently an entire toiletry kit on the far side of the pacific ocean. Although he looks tired in his picture, he’s doing much better in person.
The sleep of the day was alas, too late, since my airplane reading is actually turning out to be more compelling than I considered. I think actually my brain needed to decompress, and I haven’t even considered turning on the TV.
