Hola Indiana I realized the other night, that apart from Tennessee, I have never been to another land-locked state. East coast? Sure. West coast? Why not. Middle part? Hello. As I write, Delta is speeding me to Indiana to do a presentation for work. The presentation has something to with the internet I believe. Maybe I should read it.
No, but really. I hate presentations. I hate listening to them. I hate giving them. I hate making them. Curse you PowerPoint!
I also get nervous, as I suspect a lot of people do. And when I get nervous, I get a nervous tummy and that isn't fun, is it? Oh, and last night I just had nightmares about this whole thing. Getting there and finding out that they all spoke spainish only or I couldn't find my presentation slide show thing. The usual night mares like that. I woke up at 6am and just couldn't get back to sleep. So here I am at 11am quite sleepy, with a wonky tums, and a fear that my lingering cold will give me a painful ear ache after the flight (you know, that whole ear popping thing).
BTW, who knew that Indiana was in a different time zone. I mean, I suppose they know. I suppose I should of known this. I also suppose I should of looked this state up on a map. I believe it's near that heart shaped state, Ohio. Yes?
Well, as far as the presentation, I just have to pretend that I am going there to present happyrobot.com and not the web site that I am presenting. A website that is the scourge of my existence. A website that should of never gone public - one that was created by evil retarded people who like to bilk unsuspecting companies out of money. A website that works so little that it shouldn't be labeled a website. (Now a cheerful "Hello!" to any co-workers reading this who think I may of lost it finally. I did recently meet that woman who started the project years back... the one who got fed up and left. The one I sometimes look up to.)
OK. Got ginger ale, pretzels, and one of those cookies Delta is keen to give you. I like the cookies. The cookies, they rock.
Maybe I'll check in later. 11:24am - signing off to play MAME, I mean, go over my presentation.
7:23pm (EST - I think) Hung out at the airport at Indy for about two hours. Bought the new Steve Martin book and devoured a good part of it. With my eyes. All the people I had to present to were nice. Many of them had been a scotch tasting beforehand so they were putty in my hands. Well, not really. I did better than I thought, but by no means would win any public speaking awards. I set the bar low and then I can make my target.
Where am I? It's dark now and below I can see lots of city lights - but there is a line, as if there is a large body of water. There are lights, and then a black, sudden void. I need to look at a map and draw a line from Indy (as the locals seem to call it) to NYC and figure out where I was flying over.
Did I mention I am on the exit row? Things are looking up.
For lunch I had Mexican and there were peas in my burrito thing. I don't mind peas - it's just that it reminds of the UK's take on Mexican which is a tragic thing best left to the natives.
We have kicked around the idea of moving to the UK to start an American white boy influenced Mexican restaurant because they seem to really have a hard time getting that right. Also, we want to open a place that serves brunch. You don't see a lot of brunch in the UK - or at least the few places I have been that is true.
My wonky tum has calmed down - as expected. A sip or two of zillion dollar scotch after the presentation and I was good to go. But, it's still a bit wonky. You can't go around with the high anxiety thing giving you ulcers or someshit and not have some left over damage.
Sunday I go to Austin for a conference. A conference that I fear will be a waste of time in the grand scheme of things. We'll see.
