I’m in San Diego, although that’s not where the picture was taken…

We did the presentation this morning and it went really well. I was amazed by the turnout, especially considering we were not in the main conference hotel and were part of a session held at the ungodly hour of 8AM on Sunday morning. So I’ve now done my first presentation at a national conference (which is nice) and I’m pretty much done and can start enjoying things a bit more (which is even nicer).

Coming up:

• My third meal in as many days at a hole-in-the-wall tacqueria.
• Maybe an evening trip to the beach with a friend who’s never seen the Pacific Ocean.
• Freebies at the exhibits.
• More Safeway diet grapefruit soda (I’ve missed it) when I get back to my room.

The actual vacation starts Tuesday.

For some reason, I’m having trouble uploading photos in the WordPress app. I may link to some stuff on flickr later today.

Things are looking a little brighter today, even though I didn’t get very much sleep last night. I was a little stressed.

This morning, though, I found a Mexican breakfast within walking distance of my hotel. I also yelled at someone at Fox Rent-A-Car…and will do more of that later because it amuses me so. I’ve made other car arrangements, I have my luggage, and I’m about to go have lunch with a friend. So there’s hope…

8:15 AM. (EDT): Arrive at Greensboro airport.

9:15 AM: Board United plane for Chicago.

9:45 AM: Leave plane due to equipment problems.

10:15 AM: Get in line for rebooking.

11:35 AM: Get rebooked.

1:30 PM: Board USAirways plane for Philadelphia.

3:05 PM: Arrive Philadelphia.

4:05 PM: Board plane for LA.

7:00 PM (PDT): Arrive in LA.

7:45 PM: Realize checked bag never made it to LA. Arrange delivery sometime tonight.

8:15 PM: Arrive at Fox Rent-a-Car.

8:30 PM: Informed that fox Rent-a-Car (from whom i’ve never rented a car) will not rent to me because I’m on their “do not rent” list for some transgression they can’t seem to identify or explain.

8:45 PM: Walk next door to Thrifty where I have to pay nearly a hundred dollars to rent a big-ass SUV (all they had left) for one day just so I can get to the hotel which is about thirty miles away.

9:45 PM: Finally arrive at hotel.

10:15 PM: Finally have dinner.

11:30 PM: Luggage still not here.

Am I being punished for something? That’s pretty much every travel nightmare you can have, all pressed into one day. The hotel was the only part without a glitch.

It will get better, right?

Off to Anaheim, LA, and San Diego in the morning. I’ve been fortunate enough not have had to fly in almost eighteen months. I’m not particularly looking forward to folding myself into an airline seat for hours at a time.

But the rest will be good, right?