Midwest in July? Are you insane?
Jul. 13th, 2003 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbakerI'm not sure any of my friends on LJ know I'm here yet... so maybe I'm just posting this into the ether. Such is life.
Just got back from a whirlwind tour: flew to the home office in the Midwest on Thursday for a marketing presentation. I had to change flights last-minute because the people organizing the presentation didn't bother to tell me any of the details until the day before, like the fact that it was being held 45 minutes away. So my two-hour window from airport arrival to hotel (across the street from the office) looked a tad skimpy. Anyway... I cancelled the original flight and booked one arriving two hours earlier. This meant that:
a) I had to pay upfront for the new tickets (yeah, the company'll reimburse me eventually, but I still have to float it)
b) it's on a different airline, so my original frequent flier upgrade to first class was wasted (waaaah! I wanna fly first class some time!)
c) I had to endure the full-on terrorism checks for each leg of the flight. Shoes off, full-body wanding, check the belt buckle, body cavity search, etc. Okay, not that last. Yeah, it's probably a good idea to have these things done, but I'd feel more confident if our legal system allowed the airlines to profile, as Israel does on its flights. I mean, come on -I know that I fit the profile of a likely terrorist, as a married, white-collar, establishment white guy.
Anyway, the flight was okay after that. But I'm a native Northern Californian, which means a weather wimp, and I don't do well in 90 degree weather with 90% humidity. Walking out of the airport was like wading into a swimming pool.
The presentation went fine; I was a bit nervous because this isn't my usual spiel. But I made a couple self-denigrating jokes to begin with and they paid attention after that. It wasn't the most effective use of my time; there were only a dozen people there, and they're not responsible for high volume sales. Apparently they felt flattered to have a real portfolio manager there giving the presentation rather than a marketing type; but that's what are marketing types are here for, no? Oh well.
Dinner afterwards was reasonable (after all, it was a free meal with plenty of sangria). We went to a local Spanish tapas place called La Bodega. The tapas place we like here in San Francisco, Zarzuela, is better though. I probably shouldn't complain, but this is my journal so I'm gonna anyway.
Tired of typing. More on the rest of the trip later.
Just got back from a whirlwind tour: flew to the home office in the Midwest on Thursday for a marketing presentation. I had to change flights last-minute because the people organizing the presentation didn't bother to tell me any of the details until the day before, like the fact that it was being held 45 minutes away. So my two-hour window from airport arrival to hotel (across the street from the office) looked a tad skimpy. Anyway... I cancelled the original flight and booked one arriving two hours earlier. This meant that:
a) I had to pay upfront for the new tickets (yeah, the company'll reimburse me eventually, but I still have to float it)
b) it's on a different airline, so my original frequent flier upgrade to first class was wasted (waaaah! I wanna fly first class some time!)
c) I had to endure the full-on terrorism checks for each leg of the flight. Shoes off, full-body wanding, check the belt buckle, body cavity search, etc. Okay, not that last. Yeah, it's probably a good idea to have these things done, but I'd feel more confident if our legal system allowed the airlines to profile, as Israel does on its flights. I mean, come on -
Anyway, the flight was okay after that. But I'm a native Northern Californian, which means a weather wimp, and I don't do well in 90 degree weather with 90% humidity. Walking out of the airport was like wading into a swimming pool.
The presentation went fine; I was a bit nervous because this isn't my usual spiel. But I made a couple self-denigrating jokes to begin with and they paid attention after that. It wasn't the most effective use of my time; there were only a dozen people there, and they're not responsible for high volume sales. Apparently they felt flattered to have a real portfolio manager there giving the presentation rather than a marketing type; but that's what are marketing types are here for, no? Oh well.
Dinner afterwards was reasonable (after all, it was a free meal with plenty of sangria). We went to a local Spanish tapas place called La Bodega. The tapas place we like here in San Francisco, Zarzuela, is better though. I probably shouldn't complain, but this is my journal so I'm gonna anyway.
Tired of typing. More on the rest of the trip later.
