Tuesday I had a very quick trip to the Seattle office. It did not start well. I was up late the night before getting my presentation ready and fighting code that refused to work. Then at 4 am I ignored my alarm clocks (both my alarm clock and my cell phone alarm). I woke at 5:30 and panicked. I called my project manager, who was already at the airport, and she said I still had a chance; that the plane wasn’t supposed to start boarding for another ten minutes, and wasn’t supposed to take off for another thirty. I decided to give it a shot. I threw on some clothes, grabbed my laptop, and ran out the door. Shaved in the car as I sped down the highway and ran to the counter after I parked. Unfortunately, I was too late. The lady had already left the front counter and moved to the back to load passengers (it’s a small airport). Fortunately, three other passengers were late and had called ahead. The lady in the back knew them, and she said over the intercom that we could come through security and get our passes at the gate. We breezed through security (fortunately there was no line), and made it on the plane with no time to spare. It was amazing that I caught that plane, and in an airport any larger it would have been absolutely impossible. Unfortunately, I had adrenaline pumping through me for so long and I had skipped breakfast and the turbulence on the plane, as fun as it was, didn’t do good things to my guts, so I knew I was going to be in for a long day.
After we arrived at the airport, I met Carolyn’s mom at the baggage claim and gave her her luggage. It’s a long story, but it amounts to me being a convenient mule and returning some luggage that had been misplaced to its rightful owner.
We drove over to the Seattle office, conveniently located next to Lake Union with the space needle visible outside the meeting room. I met with someone on one of my projects, then I got on a conference call, then I met with some other people, then another person. A fun-filled day of meetings. At 12:30, we started to set up for the presentations. I gave mine and generated a fair bit of interest and some great questions, so I was happy. Then we had to leave to go back to the airport for the 4pm flight back. This time we made it with room to spare.
The flight back was uneventful, though the head was starting to hurt. By the time I made it back to my place it was really hurting. I showered (I didn’t get to in the morning) and changed, and rested on my bed for five minutes, then got up again and picked up a friend for dinner. I tried really hard to ignore the pain, but couldn’t even fight through my salad before dinner arrived. I ended up boxing the entire dinner for lunch the next day. And I had to go to the bathroom and watch all of my salad come right back up. I know this pain; I get it when I’m under prolonged stress and stop eating for a few days. Eating one light meal a day is not good for busy skinny people. And I can’t have left the best impression on my new friend. So I need to take care of myself better. Unfortunately, the stress isn’t going away anytime soon. But I’m no good when I get these headaches, so it’s better all around when I eat.