Good to be home - for the moment

Alas, NY was a disaster travel wise. For a while I thought perhaps we were living in a police state. Nothing like seeing (undoubtedly) armor-plated black SUVs going down the road with the back open, and 2 dangerous-looking men sitting there holding machine guns. Or the parades of SUV's and limos with men and guns hanging out the windows. Yessiree, good old UN week in NYC. Apparently they go through this every September. Yet another reason not to live there. The streets are primarily closed, as one conference attendee said, "We're waiting for a parade that never comes." There were times we were held captive on the sidewalk, unable to cross any street while we waited for some mysterious motorcade. There were no less than 5 policemen/women on each corner - of every corner - of every corner on the corner if you know what I mean (meaning every intersection had 20 policemen - I kid you not). When trying to leave the hotel and catch my train, I got caught in just such a barricade. I found a back exit from the hotel (only the front street was an issue) let my own "parade" of people out of captivity, then got to walk 10 blocks with my suitcase and briefcases because, well, no open streets mean no taxis. I finally found one and made it to Penn Station with minutes to spare - until my train went from "on time" to "stand by" (not "late" mind you). Yes, eventually I did get home. Yuck.

I did meet two nice guys from Intel who live in Portland. We had just come from an advertising session discussing blogging, flogging (fake blogs used by companies to promote their items - a definite no-no), and things like Myspace and Facebook. SO yes, my amazing cousin from Oregon did get mentioned in the conversation (oh heck she was the star). Yes, I'm the only one with a blog. Get with it people!!

And we did have an amazing dinner Monday night - no we didn't go back to the Spanish place. Italian. Mussels, seafood, YUM.

Sadly, I missed Sh's great game last night. She did give me the run down this morning on the way to school. I will be there Friday night before shipping out Saturday morning at 5am for a trip to Vegas (work). Ugh.