One of Those Days

Waking up today was a bit rough. I'd had a long night on a sleep number bed (yuck) and fighting with the heating system in my room which seemed to regard being set for 70 degrees as instructions to continue pumping over-heated air into my room all night. My alarm went off and I was so deep in sleep that I was completely disoriented. Yet, I got myself up and out of bed, only to notice that the sun was coming up. Fayetteville is surprisingly pretty at sun-up.

I was putting on my clothes, giddy at the bright pink dress I was planning on wearing, when there was a knock at the door. Standing there was my sweet and diminutive presenter, near tears.

"Is your hot water out?"

"I haven't checked... What's wrong?"

"Oh..." she said, lip quivering. "I went to iron my suit and when I opened the closet, the iron fell out and hit me in the head." She lifted up her bangs to show a growing red lump on her forehead. "Do you have any Tylenol or Advil?"

I rushed to my first aid ziplock to find her something all the while thinking, how is she going to do the whole seminar if she has a concussion? Should I take her to the ER? I doled out some Advil and told her she should just rest for a bit before going down to the room, but she had no intention of doing that. I told her I'd be about 10-15 minutes, as I was only half dressed.

Upon arriving down at the meeting room, I saw my presenter looking forlorn and talking to the banquet staff person. Another day, another failed room set up. The room looked nothing like what it should have looked like and the next 10 minutes was a constant shuffling of tables and seting up, in which I managed to jam my finger against my tech case, jarring my fingernail in just the right way to cause intense pain. Finishing up the set up, we heard the speakers and just about broke down, as they sounded about as bad as I've ever heard.

I went out to set up the reg table and heard a massive crash behind me. The hotel staff had dropped a big stack of glasses, shattering them. The vacuums came out as the first participant arrived, half an hour early.

Now, the hallway is so cold that I can hardly stand it so I'll be spending the day in the back of the meeting room which is a tolerable temperature.

The good news is that my paperwork is done, I've got my to-do list, and best of all, it turns out that Fayetteville is cute enough to go wander around in. Plus, I have it on a good recommendation for a restaurant not far from where I am (thanks Lisa!). I'm in my 47th state. I get to have Memphis BBQ for dinner. I'm going to be in Vegas in two days.

AND there's an awesome thrift store here. Cheap Thrills. I got a purse and a necklace that scream VEGAS!! Things are looking up.