Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - Travel Back to Charlotte

Didn't have too great a night sleep, again. I had asked housekeeping to try to do something with the lumps in my bed, and they didn't do anything, so when I crawled into bed and discovered all the lumps again, I got back up, stripped the bed, and found the offending lumps, and learned the reason was because the corners on the bed liner (which was covering an uncomfortable, non-breathing plastic mattress cover) had completely melted on one side, which accounted for the lumps. I had to call down and have housekeeping bring another one, which turned out to be even worse! Very disappointed in this hotel! In any event, fortunately, my flight was scheduled for late in the day, so I once again didn't get much sleep overnight, but finally got into a deep sleep around dawn, so at least got a few hours before having to get up and pack. Had an uneventful but comfortable flight home, a tiring drive back to the farm, happy reunions with Hubby and animals, and brief evening before crashing to bed.

Monday, April 29, 2013 - Keynote in Baltimore

What a terrible night! This turned out to be the worst night I've had in a long time, if that's possible. There were creases in the layers below the sheets that formed welts on my body, the sheets were flat and wouldn't stay in place, so they were constantly bunching up and creating lumps, which woke me up practically every hour. I kept trying to smooth them out, but it was impossible, and the sheets were really rough, too. Then the alarm clock went off at 3:30, and I punched every button I could feel in the dark, hoping I had shut it off permanently, but worrying that it would come on again. Just managed to drift off to sleep when all of a sudden, the TV came on at 4:12 am! I had to scramble to find the remote, and because I hadn't even turned it on the night before, I didn't know which was the power button, so I had to struggle with that for a minute. I was still worried about the alarm clock, so I decided to turn the light on and straighten that out, then went back to bed, waiting a long time to get back to sleep, but finally did, and fell into a very deep sleep until 9:00. Good thing my event wasn't until the afternoon!!! If I had had to get up to do a training session at my usual time, I would have been a real mess! I took my time getting out of bed and getting ready, but before noon I headed downstairs to join my group for lunch. I sat through a couple of presentations before they split into plenary sessions, so I went up to my room again for a little while. Finally, it was time. Came downstairs, made a few lighting changes on the stage, and performed my 90 minute keynote speech/training to a quiet crowd of 150 engineers, but they received me well and seemed to enjoy themselves. Afterward, several came up to me to speak with me, then we headed out to a cocktail party with heavy hors d'oeuvres that substituted for dinner (which was fine with me!), before we headed to the company's entertainment section (called the Mike & Mike Show), which was a series of team exercises that were very entertaining, and in some cases, quite a workout! Very fun, and a great break fro the stress I've been dealing with for many weeks now. Headed up to the room, looking forward to a better night sleep.

Sunday April 28, 2013 - Travel to Baltimore

Spent the morning packing and getting my outline for my speech in order, then headed out to the airport around noon. We had decided since it was for such a short time it didn't make sense for Hubby to drive all the way to the airport and back, so I just took the van. Because it was raining cats and dogs (my favorite weather for flying... NOT!) I decided to valet the van, since it was only for two days. Even so, the valet wasn't completely under cover, so I had to run through the rain to the curb anyway. Checked in my carryon so I wouldn't have to bother with it, and before I knew it, I was once again sitting in first class on another flight. Seems like that's been a constant this year, being on a plane! Anyway, it's a very short flight, so a snack and a cup of hot tea was about all I had time for. Caught the hotel shuttle to the Westin BWI, missing Hubby all the way, arriving in time to get my pick of rooms. I ended up in a corner room at the end of a quiet hall, which boded well, and after settling in, headed downstairs to the restaurant for a lovely bowl of crab soup, though I had to wait for bread and butter to go with it, as the soup was getting colder all the while. Spent the evening working on my speech and reading. Didn't even bother to turn on the TV, just wanted to appreciate the quiet I had in the room, yeah! I miss Hubby being with me, though, we're not apart often, and we never like it when we are. At least I had my old phone turned on for him, and we spoke throughout the day anyway. Looking forward to getting this job finished and back to him!

Saturday, April 27, 2013 - Shopping and Rest Day

Had to run out and do some shopping, then tried to relax at least rest of the day, since I have to fly out again tomorrow. Worked on my script a bit, as I only have 90 minutes to speak, and figuring out what to cut out is the hardest thing to do! Managed to pare it down to a manageable script that should do just fine.

Friday, April 26, 2013 - Laundry and Rest Day

With a quick turnaround for me, I spent the day catching up on laundry and trying my best to rest, though computer work, as always, was the priority. It was great to be on my own bed, but I had a lousy night for some reason, just kept waking up every couple of hours, though I did manage to get back to sleep eventually. So much anxiety these days, with so much still to do!

Thursday, April 25, 2013 - Travel Back to Charlotte Day

Had to get up fairly early, enjoying the hotel's free breakfast before heading out to SFO, first to drop off our cute Jeep by 8:30, then catching our flight, which, fortunately, was pretty much on time. Thank goodness we decided to fly first class this time, it's just something we've decided we need to do from now on, or certainly whenever possible, especially for these long jaunts. We've just reached a point in our lives where we just want to enjoy ourselves a bit, and flying is so dang hard these days, especially cross-country, so it's a nice way to treat ourselves a little, even when it's on our dime, like this time. Anyway, it was a nice flight, the lunch was okay but not great (some kind of barbecued chicken with corn and other flavors of the southwest, not my favorite), and we arrived on time, having made up for a late start. I grabbed the shuttle out to the parking lot and picked up the van, then picked up Hubby and headed back to the farm, arriving about 8:00, just as it was getting dark. We are SO ready to sleep in our own bed!!!

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - Rest Day

Once again worked ourselves over the past two days into exhaustion, so we spent the day resting in our hotel room and preparing for our trip back to the east coast tomorrow.