So, I’m settled in my hotel room in Colorado, enjoying the cool air (though not enjoying the way my heart beats like crazy every time I ascend stairs–gotta love that altitude!), and not quite sure what to do with myself since it’s only early afternoon and my conference doesn’t start until tomorrow. This resort / conference center / country club has at least 3 restaurants, possibly 4, but they’re all… well, expensive, to say the least. I passed a grocery store when I drove here, but without a refrigerator, my options are limited. Hmmm. I’ll have to range a little further, I guess, and see what there is around here.
I’m quite excited to drive–I got a free rental upgrade to a VW Beetle, bright red, which is loads of fun already. Of course, it’s automatic, so my manual-transmission-adjusted left foot keeps ineffectually searching for a clutch pedal whenever I’m changing speeds or starting up. It’s fun to try this out, though, because it’s on my short list of cars to evaluate when I buy a new one.
After the super-long travel experience to Korea and back, this trip felt like child’s play. People around me were complaining about the fact that all they got on the flight was “snack service”, but I was just pleased to be out of my seat before my legs went numb (which is what happened on the 14-hour Atlanta to Seoul flight). Granted, I checked in rather late, and got a seat in the absolute rear of the plane, in a middle seat. As Murphy’s Law would dictate, I had a perfectly abominable neighbor to my left, who kept jabbing his elbow into my side and reading a newspaper spread to its full width. Though I can’t complain about my aisle-seat neighbor. She fell asleep quickly, kept her arms and legs within her own space, and slept hard enough that when I had to climb over her to use the restroom, it didn’t even wake her!
But now… what to do? Normally, I come to conferences, etc., with at least one other person–the last time I was on a business trip like this alone was to take a class in Atlanta over a year ago. And that, since it’s within driving distance of my current hometown, and I’d done it before–with a couple other people from work–was a different thing entirely. But we shall see. I’ve already gone through one of the “chaff” books that I bought last night as I got enough cat food and so on to tide my kitties through my absence.
Of course, I went a little overboard on the packing. It was pretty late by the time I got around to it, and rather than spend lots of time deciding what to do, I ended up throwing anything I could think of into the suitcase just in case I’d want it. Which has, necessarily, resulted in a very heavy, very overstuffed luggage situation. Sigh. Well, hopefully on the way back I can organize it a little better and maybe even put part of it into the collapsible duffel that I brought.
So, we’ll see what this week is like–listening to a lot of Air Force people talk about Operations Research. I’ve done the military-wide conferences for O.R. types before, but this’ll be my first Air Force-specific one.
OK, I really have to go find food. All I’ve eaten are the snacks that I brought with me on the plane, and my stomach is rumbling!
Posted by Kjirstin 
