Blue Tarps

This morning I was driving to work along the route I used to always take. Lately I’ve been going another route and this morning, it felt like it had been a long time since I was on the highway. As I was driving along the road that I’ve taken for the last 5 years, things looked very different from me. By the side of the highway, there is a canal (go figure in Florida, right?) and on the other side of the canal there are houses. In the past I’ve never been able to see the houses because of the line of trees and high fences blocking the view. Well, today I got an eye full. Oh, what a cute tricycle on their back porch. Wow, those people have a huge grill. Oh my, that man in his living room should really put on a robe or something. It’s amazing how the landscape has changed so much since Hurricane Wilma. So much attention was on Katrina that people didn’t seem to take notice of Wilma. Well, we certainly did. (* Note, I am not trying to downplay Katrina. I know we made if off much better than the people of the gulf coast and my heart goes out to them. *) No one I know that had a fence had one after Wilma passed. Maybe they had parts of it still up, but not all of it. There are maybe a quarter of the trees there were before. And traffic signs and lights? Some streets still have one little light on a 3 lane road. A turn light? What’s that? The signs, well, let’s just say I always tell people to go past the KFC and turn right at the Texaco to find my house. Street names are not going to help at all. As I drove along the highway seeing all of this, I also noticed the large number of blue tarps. They were everywhere. When my co-worker showed us the wedding pictures he had taken out back of his house by the lake, you could see blue tarps on the houses across the lake. It’s been 6 months and people still haven’t gotten their roofs repaired. I still haven’t gotten my windows fixed. And hurricane season will be here soon. Are we doomed to another bad hurricane season? Will my windows come in before the roof gets blown off? Will that man put on a robe or close his curtains? No one knows the answers to these questions, but I do know one thing. You better hold on to your blue tarps!

Gangsta Girls

While I was home sick last week, I watched a lot of TV. I saw this very interesting show on Discovery or A&E or something like that. It was basically about female gang members in LA. It talked about how violent they were and girls reminisced about trading boyfriends, jumping people, and seeing friends and family killed in senseless violence. One woman was even in jail for murder since she was 15. Why did this show remind me of my childhood in Callie? No, I’m not saying I was in a gang. But that’s the environment that was around me. On the show, they showed young Hispanic women with the hair feathered up about 5 inches above their head and the black lip liner with red lipstick. I remember at my junior high that they actually made rules about how high your hair could be. They would whip out a ruler when they though it was too high. The show also showed the young black women in baggy pants and cornrows looking like they could seriously hurt you. I knew, and did not mess with, quite a few of those. How sad is it that this show made me miss my childhood? Some people don’t believe me when I talk about the teen pregnancies, gangs, drugs, and violence that I was raised around. They say I seem so “normal” or am such a “nice girl”. What does that mean? I never said I did those things, but I sure did see them. Well, I’m getting off subject. The show reminded me of a lot of that stuff growing up. I remember my friend Teresa. Teresa had the feathered hair and wore very heavy eyeliner all the time. She also did the thing where you wear 3 different pairs of socks and layered them so you got 3 colors showing. Remember that? One time, another friend had a sleepover and Teresa was there. For the first time I saw her with no make up and her hair without the hairspray. She looked about 10 years younger. Now, I don’t know if this contributed to me not ever wearing makeup or not, but this girl took FOREVER to get ready. I remember sitting and watching this feathered bang thing get created with combs and about a can and a half of hairspray. And the eyeliner? The girl would burn the tip with a match so that it melted. That way she could smear a ton of it on much easier. Yeah, I think I’m good with my "no make up, hair in a pony tail" self. Don’t get me wrong, I can get gussied up when the occasion calls for it but on a daily basis… no thank you. It’s funny how a couple of images can spark up so many memories. I was devastated when we moved away because that was all I had ever known. I know now that it was the best thing for me. A lot of those same people I hung out with are still living in that area with 5 kids, no job, and just a high school education. Would I have ended up like that if I stayed? Hmmm, me a gansta girl... naw, never would have happened. I could never pull off the hair.

I’m back! Ok, I haven’t really been anywhere, I’ve just been sick. I hate being sick. I was in bed all weekend with a splitting headache. Every time I moved it felt like someone was stabbing me. I’d like to blame Shelly and her darling boy for my current predicament. I think you got SH sick too!

Shelly just burst my bubble. Last week, coincidentally right before I took two days off sick, we got our annual raises and bonus. Woo hoo, raises. I get a whole wopping 2% more. Do you know what 2% is? I just checked my bank account and after taxes and 401Ks and medical and dental, it comes to a whole $37 per pay check. Well, so I though anyway. Shelly so graciously reminded me that it’s retroactive to the beginning of march. Great, so it’ll probably be just short of $20 a pay check. woo hoo. I can get a tank of gas now. Well, part of a tank of gas…

I got my house painted! Ok, not the whole house, just part of it. See, I have this vaulted ceiling over my staircase. The wall was a lovely shade of blue-green. I know! I’ve lived there for 2, almost 3 years, and I never painted it. Plus, I didn’t paint the bathrooms(2) upstairs or the second bedroom at all. My friend’s uncle came over and did it for me. He’s been painting for 30 years. Besides all that, he painted the ceiling in the second bedroom and the ceiling in the living room/dinning room. All that for $500. Did I mention that he got the supplies too? I was shocked. I just looked at him like I didn’t hear him right. $500? Are you serious? Yup, because you are E’s friend. I had to call her and tell her I loved her! I’m also going to get her uncle and aunt, who did the trim, a thank you card and slip a gift certificate into it for them.

Catching Up

Oh boy. It’s been an interesting week or two since I got back. Sorry on the lack of posting, but I’ve been really busy. This is really going to be a random post, so sorry if I’m a bit jumpy in conversation.

They stopped work on my project and I’m not on sustaining maintenance of the product. Thanks, Ben. ;o) Last week I found out that they aren’t recruiting to fill a position previously left by BdaB which explains my current work situation. That sucks, but I’ll get over it. Besides, no one could fill Ben’s shoes. Then yesterday, they fired the IT woman. She and I weren’t really close but I feel very bad for her. Her husband doesn’t work and they have a 6 year old son.

I miss my doggie. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been trying to sell my house. Well, when I first decided to do this, my parents pointed out that it will be easier to show if the dog weren’t there. So they kidnapped my baby. Ok, they didn’t kidnap him, I let him go but who knew it would take so long? For the last 6 years, he’s been the only steady thing in my life. I’m going to have to fly to VA to see him. To get my doggie fix now, I am dog sitting my friends Cocker Spaniel. He is a cutie and is so happy to have attention. Ever since they had their baby, who’s 2 now, he hasn’t gotten as much attention as he used to. Funny thing is though, I live in a townhouse. Redd has never been up stairs before. Last night I had to call him a million times to get him to come up. This morning I tried the same thing to get him down, but that wasn’t happening. I even tried sitting on the steps trying to tempt him with a treat. Didn’t work. So, I had to carry this dog down the stairs to take him on a walk. I’m going to have to work on getting him down the stairs on his own tonight!

I just saw the final episode of Flava! I know, I’m a little slow but what can I say, I’ve been busy. Plus, I had to catch up on the final 3 episodes. Luckily there was a marathon on the other day. I just have one question, why did Flav give that girl a grill? And she put it in! Shawn, I saw what you meant about NY’s mom and the “never never never” thing in the previous episode. That was funny. I thought it was hilarious when he went out to get knighted and that older woman was like “Who is that?” and her daughter said “Flava Flaaaavvvv!” One of my friends was saying that Flav picked the wrong girl. Not because NY was better or anything like that. If he had picked her, they would be been guaranteed another reality show on VH1 cuz that girl is CRAZY!

I caught up on PR too. I actually really liked Santino’s cloths. I though they were the best, But they didn’t seem to fit his personality and they didn’t go together in a collection. It was just a bunch of dresses and nothing brought them all together. I’m glad that Chloe won. I was rooting for her. I didn’t like Daniel’s cloths at all.

Oh, I saw that Tyler Perry movie over the weekend, The family reunion one. It was better than I though it would be. Actually I had a very eventful weekend. On Sunday we went down to Calle Ocho for the Miami Carnival. It’s basically a huge 27 block party out in the streets of Little Havana. I had a blast. I love to people watch, so it was very interesting. I went with one of my co-workers from England. He was amazed at the clothing, or lack there of, of the young Latin women. We danced to Salsa and Reggaton and various other types of music. Every side street had a stage with different music or activities plus you’d just see guys with drums set up on the side of the road. There was paella, areapas, tamales, and more meat on a stick than you can imagine. I think I overdid myself on the food, but we had a blast. After that, we went to South Beach and walked around a bit. We saw the holocaust memorial and had a drink on Lincoln Rd. Then we went to see a movie at the Miami International film festival. It was a Brazillion film called Lower City. It was very racy and a bit violent, but good.

Monday we had Curry night. A couple of us were comparing curry’s from various places and we decided to have a curry night. I made Japanese curry while SW(co-worker from England) made Thai curry. We’ll have to do it again and try to get Jamaican curry from ShellyP and Indian curry from JC(co-worker). It turned out really well. We did it at another co-worker’s house so I didn’t have to clean up, which is always nice. I made wontons as appetizers and we had a couple of deserts. Everyone seemed to like it and I even got an offer to move in from the intern as long as I cooked everyday.

Did I mention that there are now 17 units for sale in my neighborhood? Last year this time there were only 2. This sucks. Plus, I still have the broken windows. It wasn't so bad in the winter, but now it's getting hot. I'm going to have to call the window company and harass them a bit.

Don't you love buisness trips?

This is me hard at work in Anguilla.

So, I bet you all are dying to know what happened with the cake thing. ShellyP confronted him about it. You can read about it on her page. Basically he claimed he didn’t know anything about it. Shawn, you’ll love this next part! Well, you know we are all engineers, right? So how many digital cameras do you think were present at this wedding? You can imagine, right? On Monday we got an email from someone with pictures, and then again on Tuesday. While this guy is denying knowing anything about the cake, what do we see in one of the pictures? The infamous piece of cake sitting on their table!!

On a happier note, I read a good book while on my trip. Yeah, I know. You had time to read? Yes, I did. I read Chele’s book, Raymond’s Daughters. I though it was really good. The premise of the story is that a man named Raymond has 3 daughters. Each of them has a different mother and their own special relationship, or lack there of, with their father. When he dies, they are forced to analyze that relationship and their relationships with each other. I though the story line was great and the book was well written. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

Back in the USA

I’m back people. I still have to post about how the rest of my week went and the weekend as well, but I’m sooooo tired. I’ll catch up soon. I also have to catch up on everyone else’s blogs. I do have one quick story to tell about this weekend, though.

Saturday night was a co-worker’s wedding. It was so nice. The bride was beautiful. One of my other co-workers daughters was the flower girl. Everyone was there including ShellyP and BendaBald. Well, during the reception, most people were dancing. My date and I sat down to rest for a minute. At one point, he told me to look over at the cake table. We were sitting right next to it. They had 2 cakes, a tiered one and a rectangle one. Someone had cut the corner off of the rectangle one! We couldn’t believe it. We were in shock. They hadn’t taken pictures of the cakes or cut them yet. How could someone do that? At the table next to ours, our boss and another co-worker were sitting there with their wife and girlfriend. They had just gotten up and left before we noticed the cake. Right where my co-worker’s girlfriend was sitting was the cut piece of cake! Not only did they have the audacity to cut someone’s wedding cake, they didn’t even eat it! If my co-worker wasn’t the one who cut it, why didn’t he stop his girlfriend? And why wouldn’t my boss say anything before he left too? We were so upset. She better be glad I didn’t see her before she left. I would have cursed her out and made her go apologize to the bride right then and there! We immediately told ShellyP about it and she was thinking we should try to turn the cake. I didn’t know what to do. Well, the bridesmaids saw the cake and covered it with one of the bouquets. Then they told the bride. She was visibly upset. I felt so bad about the whole thing. She got over it and they cut the cakes, danced more, and had a great time anyway. This morning, my co-worker tried to talk to me, but I’ve just ignored him. I don’t feel the need to speak to him and if I do, I’ll probably curse him out.

Wednesday

I woke up a bit late and missed the van this morning. I wasn’t that late, maybe 10 minutes or so. And for me to be ready at 7:25 is still an amazing feat. The conference was ok today. I will say that I honestly didn’t pay that much attention. Today was the first day that I brought my laptop with me and I spent time going over my mail and attempting to blog a bit. I didn’t get a chance to read anything, so I’ll have a lot of people’s blogs to catch up on when I get back. One presentation was a bit interesting. It was by the guy from the competing company. He and I met the first day and he seemed very nice. Did I mention that his company is one of the sponsors and that we make the same products? Well, he didn’t really go over anything much that you can’t find out on their web site. He just went over their product line and what they did. The interesting part was that I didn’t realize, he’s not just an employee of the company. He founded the company along with his brother and is now the acting CTO. Hmmm… I think I need to get him drunk later and steal all of his trade secrets!

After the conference was over, I decided that I need to do a bit of networking. Well, I really haven’t done any yet. So I went to the evening event. It was awfully convenient since it was a BBQ on the beach just outside of my room. So, after checking in with my boss on the phone, I headed to the bar for a pre-bbq drink. Now, there are really 3 stages to hanging out with computer nerds. First, they are all polite and talk about business. They get tipsy and start to tell really bad jokes that involve their grad student or something another professor did. And finally, they are drunk and dancing wildly, somehow believing they have some kind of rhythm. Trust me, THEY DON’T! Now, I had to have a couple of Rum Punches just to stand phase 2. Everyone was nice, but not really my cup of tea. I was good, though. I made some contacts and got some business cards. There ended up being 4 of us hanging out. A woman from California who is currently working on a project in Fort Lauderdale, a Canadian man who’s currently in Connecticut, and a German man who, I believe is staying in the Netherlands or something. We left the beach and headed back to the bar. There was a huge party going on up there for some of the Boston people I met the first night. One of the women was turning 50 so they brought Italian food down from NY with them and they had cases of wine. The manager was there as well. We all had a good time drinking and hanging out. The manager was trying to convince me to stay the weekend. The woman from California told me I should. She was like “if it’s not your wedding, you don’t need to be there!” Well, after hanging out there, everyone went down to Bankie Banks’ place. There was live music, and this is where the drunken dancing comes in. Not me mind you, them. And at one point, some woman watching what looked like an epileptic seizure asked, “is that the guy that’s a genus?” Very funny night.

Tuesday

Today was a short day. We were done with the conference at noon. So I called Essie and we went to lunch. Actually, she wanted me to show her how to make the wontons I make, so we went back to Cap Julupa. She didn’t know where to get the wonton skins, but her cousin, the chef had some. He gave us a package of them, then insisted that we have lunch at his beach side restaurant. The food was so good. We ordered the fish burger and the creole burger and split the two. They were both so good. Then we went over to Shoal Bay East, which is supposed to be the best beach. It was nice, but it was so crowded. I’m used to the beach at my hotel. There are at most, a dozen people on the whole beach. There were restaurants all along the beach and beach chairs everywhere. We only stayed for a bit then we had to get the ingredients to cook. I was going to do some homemade teriyaki sauce, so we decided to try to get some fish. We went back to the same dock near Scilly Cay (Sunday). The men were just coming back from fishing. We got some local fish and Essie decided to ask if anyone had lobster. Some men had just pulled up in a boat and were unloading sacks of fresh lobster as we were talking. After getting 4 or so fish, maybe about 3lbs or more worth for $7, we went over to the lobster boat and spoke with them. For about $60, we got 3 huge lobsters and a very active stone crab. These things were so fresh, that when Essie carried them to the car in the bag, they were trying to climb out by climbing up her let. Luckily, Lobsters here do not have claws. When we got back to the house, one of them crawled onto the kitchen floor and was trying to have a stand off with us. She didn’t want to be cooked last night! It was some of the best lobster I’ve ever had, and I’m not really a lobster person. I much prefer a good fish or even crab. But we split the lobsters down the middle and stuffed them with a combination of the crab meat, the meat from the lobster’s legs, breadcrumbs, garlic, olive oil and some other spices. Then we threw them n the grill. They were so good. At the store, we didn’t find sesame oil, so we scraped the teriyaki idea. Angie, who lives with Essie and takes care of the house when Essie is in the US, fried the fish, and I made fried rice with some leftover shrimp they had and whatever else I could find. As we ate, we watched American Idol. It was the first TV I’ve seen since Thursday. I actually haven’t missed it that much, except of course for FoL and PR.

After AI, Essie drove me back to the hotel. On my way to my room, I was passing the bar and the bartender called me over. We chatted for a while and he asked me where I’ve been. He was telling me how every table was full and it was a crazy night. I was shocked because they had a pretty small menu and every other night, they have only had 7 or 8 tables the whole night. No one was at the bar, so we just sat and talked for a little bit. Then the manager showed up dressed in a suit. The bartender was joking about how first the manager ruined his alone time with me, then he had to roll up in a suit, trying to impress me. Those two are a trip. They both openly hit on me and talk about the other constantly. Someone was asking me how it felt to be loved. I said ‘Well, since all of the men on this island are related to all of the women on the island already and there aren’t many black tourists, I’m not special. I’m just new! After chatting with them for a while, I went off to bed. I think I’m starting to get a bit run down. Very tired…

Monday

Today was rough. I woke up at 6 since the shuttle to the conference was coming at 7:15am. Now anyone what knows me knows that I don’t get up at 6 unless my bed is on fire. I am not a morning person at all. If I make it to work by 9am, that’s a good day.

The conference went ok. There were a lot of nice people. Apparently, there was a reception last night, but I didn’t know about it. They sent out an email Friday night, but I was already here. Looking around the first day, I see that I am the only black person at the conference. It’s like being back at school in Indiana again. The first person to speak to the group was the island’s Minister of Finance. He’s a tall black man that has a kind smile, a commanding voice, and an air of dignity about him. Maybe it’s just the accent. :o) After his speech, he walked out past me. He made eye contact, gave me that “go ‘head, girl” smile and a squeeze on the shoulder as he past. People on the island have told me so much that they are happy to see a sister doing what I do. AF has the same wherever she goes. The manager/owner, a black woman, of the hotel where the conference is held made sure to speak to me and find out how it went afterwards. She and I met this morning and she seems to be looking out for me. The talks were good at the conference. It’s basically a bunch of computer geeks who wrote papers and are presenting them. The audience is pretty much the same. You wouldn’t believe how many pants pulled up 3 to 4 inches above the waist line and shorts and black socks pulled up I’ve already seen. These are not people I would willingly hang out with. And that’s why I’m skipping out on the reception tonight.

After the conference, I had a drink at the hotel bar waiting for Essie to call me. The crew and I were supposed to go over to her house just to hand out. It was their lat night. Unfortunately they spend the afternoon at the island’s rum factory and weren’t really up for hanging out. Plus, no one had packed yet. So Essie, AF and her hubby, and I went out to dinner. AF and Essie got invited to Cap Juluca for dinner by the head chef. He is Essie’s cousin and he knows AF from filming earlier in the week. He is a world renoun chef that runs 5 restaurants on the island and he is a local, born and breeds. The place was absolutely fabulous. It was so beautiful inside. It was right on the water and the whole place was white. There were these fabulous Moroccan looking cousins on the chairs and the most beautiful fabric on the ceilings. Plus the food was so good. It was fabulous. The chef sent out some appetizers for us that he just thought we’d like. He also sent out caviar since he knew it was Essie’s favorite. The crème Brule was so good! Essie loves to cook, so we were analyzing it a bit. It had a hit of nutmeg in it that made it taste fabulous. This was probably the best meal I’ve EVER had. All of the seafood was so fresh and even Essie’s duck was great. The chef spent time talking to us and even picked up the tab. He was very nice. He gave me his card and told me that he comes to Miami a lot. He’s also cute and single, but anyone that knows me knows my tri-county area rule. For those of you that don’t, I refuse to get involved with anyone that doesn’t live in within the tri county area of Miami/Dade county, Broward(ft. Lauderdale) county, and Palm beach county. If I’m dating someone, I want easy access to them. I don’t want to have to make a plan just to see them. Anyway, there was another guest at our dinner. It was a woman who works for the tourism board. She is the one that introduced AF to the Chef. She mentioned how her husband is an engineer as well. We talked for a while and I told her to have him get me a job! Wouldn’t that be great? I also spent some time with Essie and her cousin, the chef, talking about food and she was telling him how I love to cook. He was cute. He asked me if I wanted a job. After all of this, we went back to Essie’s house and hung out for a minute before coming back to the hotel to go to bed. I have to work in the morning, remember?

Sunday

Today I woke up very early. When the sunlight comes streaming into my room, I instantly wake up. Back home my bedroom has very deep dark red walls. It’s very conducive to being in bed. Here on the other hand, everything is white and cream and mint green. My curtains are made of lace, so the light just streams in. And of course, when you step outside the door the sand is a brilliant white. I had a nice quite breakfast reading the second book I brought. The first was Chele’s book Raymond’s Daughters. It was so good, I couldn’t put it down. I read it in about 3 days. I’ll have to write more on that later. Now it’s To be Black, White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker. It’s an autobiography about her life. She is the daughter of Alice “Color Purple” Walker and a white civil rights lawyer whose name I can’t think of right now. Well, as I broke out my laptop to do a bit of work before getting the call to go to Scilly Cay (pronounced Silly key), I got another phone call. It was the front desk saying I had visitors. Remember the woman and her mother that took me around St. Martin yesterday? Well, they stopped by. I had mentioned to the woman how I had recently lost my sunglasses while we were taking the tour. She and her mother came and brought me a pair of sunglasses. Isn’t that sweet? These are the nicest people in the world! They have driven me around all day. Yesterday they tried to give me one of those huge papayas, but I convinced them I couldn’t take it. They gave me a bottle of wine (did I mention that the other day?) and kept trying to feed me. People on this island are just the friendliest people ever. And it seems to rub off on the visitors as well. You couldn’t imagine how many people say hi when you pass them and are always smiling. Some woman stopped to talk to me today while I was lying by the pool. The wind was blowing up the sand on the beach so I sat by the pool. She just smiled, then asked me if I was here by myself and started telling me all about how she and her hubby always come here. I’m telling you, if you want a relaxing vacation, this is the place to be. There are not really any nightclubs or activities. There is no gambling, and no really big tourist attraction. All there is are absolutely beautiful white sand beaches, five star restaurants, and the nicest people you will ever meet.

Back to my day. Essie, the New Jersey woman that has a house here, came to pick me up around noon. Along with some of her friends, we drove to the north side of the island to get to Scilly Cay. We walked out on to this long dock and waited for this boat to come get us. It was just a fishing boat. We could see the island and could have walked there easily if it weren’t for the ocean. Once on the island, we see one building and a bunch of little thatched roof shelters set up as dining areas. There was a band playing, Happy Hits and you could smell the food on the grill from the water. The island has no electricity, so the food was Chicken, Lobster, and Crayfish on the grill, cold pasta salad, and fresh fruit. It was so nice. I met the owners. The man is from here, but his wife is from Atlanta. They were both very nice. The crew from FN was there filming so we hung out with them on breaks and it was interesting to see them working. AF, one of the producers, was explaining what was going on while they were shooting. They did get a shot of our table eating, but I doubt they will use. Of courses AF made me sign a release anyway. She’s so funny. She was telling me how she constantly changes her hair because they always make her sit in different shots when they need background or something. Her husband told me that he saw her once blowing a bubble when they did some show that had something about gum in it. You couldn’t see her face, but she was the only sister working there so you knew it was here. She said she also has to be the hand putting a plate or glass down a lot. I was telling her that I’m going to look for her now. Anyway, we spent the day out there and then came back to the hotel exhausted. Everyone showed and we met up at the hotel bar later. We had some drinks and hung out a bit before deciding just to have dinner there. It was nice. It was only AF, her hubby, Essie, her friend and me. Essie’s friend is a trip. When you think of gold digger, that’s her! When someone else is paying, she can only have the champagne and lobster, but when she knows she has to pay, its water and the local fish. When she found out that the Manager, who was chatting with us at the bar, was actually the owner’s son, she kept telling me how I needed to go over and talk to him, that I should be nicer, and all kinds of other stuff. She was also dropping names constantly like “my brother-in-law’s sister works with Maria Carey.” Well, good for her. No one at the table cared very much who she new or how many names she could spout off. Even Essie was sick of her and can’t wait for her to go. She’s been in her house eating all of her food, hitting on her male family members and hasn’t bothered to pull out her wallet, or even say thanks. Essie won’t be bringing her to Anguilla again. We had a nice dinner and afterwards, the host from the show came over to join us. He is such a nice guy. He was leaving in the morning, so it was nice to hang out with him before he left. The manager also came over to join us. He’s a sweetheart as well. They kept trying to get me to drink more wine, but I couldn’t. After sitting in the sun all day and drinking Rum Punch, then having wine at dinner, I knew I would be no good at the conference the next day. So, off to bed I went. Not a bad day, huh?