Florida to Seattle

Rather dark. Outside, that is. Very different from Florida at this moment. We haven't even reached 5 p.m. yet. But this is Seattle, after all, and that's the way of things...

I suppose I could say that I started today unable to sleep. I intended on going to bed early to wake up early. But that wasn't happening. So I stayed up and watched the election results. I watched McCain's very gracious speech. And Obama's rather eloquent speech. By the time I turned off the television, it was 12:45 a.m. ET. And I had to be down in the lobby by 6:15 a.m.

The next thing I know my cell phone is vibrating on the small dresser next to me. I look at the clock. 6:15 a.m. Ah @#$%! Hello? You ready, I hear from one of the bigwigs. Umm, yeah, be right down. Thank God I packed last night, I think to myself. Like a whirlwind, I throw on clothes and fly out the door just 10 minutes after the call. The three bigwigs are waiting by the car grinning at my tardiness. Tired and late and feeling rather doltish, I stepped inside the mini-van.

We got to the airport on time, ate, and boarded. I had a row to myself. With a screaming, kicking two-year old behind me. Didn't matter much as I have never been able to sleep on planes. Just a few meditative eye-closings was all. And a lot of The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time.

I reflected a bit on my visit. Experience in the corporate world. Seeing my mother. An anti-climactic visit to Disney World. Eating bison. Watching the Obama landslide. Waking up late. Quite a visit, if I may say so.

We returned at noon and drove back to the office. I was greeted with the usual suspects asking multivariate questions multitudinously. I smiled and nodded at most. Organized my e-mail. Not terrible, but lots of action items for me. I spammed God knows how many people with meeting requests for the next 3 months. I updated SharePoint pages. I answered instant messages. And now, I'm just about out of steam. Greasy and tired and approaching brain-dead.

No complaints though. Altogether worth the experience, methinks. What's next, I wonder...