The weekend is here...

...thankfully! Today is nothing but a cleaning day until tonight when everyone starts showing up.

I left for the conference Thursday afternoon around 1pm. The drive down was pretty good, until I hit NY, then I was in stop and go traffic for the rest of the ride. There was a car on fire on the Cross Bronx Expressway. The weather was great, around 50 degrees and sunny. In CT somewhere, I saw this beautiful site. There was a big wall of rock, as is fairly common on highways. Cascading down from the top were these rivers of ice that caught the sun. It was one of those times where I wish I could've pulled over and taken a picture. It was a simplistic site, but beautiful and interesting in the way only nature knows how to be. So that was nice. :)

Once I got to the hotel, I checked in, decompressed a bit, and then went to the restaurant for dinner. The meals were expensive - $30 for a wheat pasta and roasted veggies dish, and just ok. I read some homework while eating dinner and the day crashed down on me. I went back to my room, checked mail quickly, and became a bed potato. :) The bed was very comfortable and very big. So I watched Mythbusters for a while until I fell asleep.

Usually I don't have trouble sleeping in strange places too often, but it's common on the first night to wake up from sounds I'm not used to hearing. That and not having a dog pressed up against me kinda freaks me out. :) I got enough sleep, but it was an interrupted sleep - which really doesn't make me wake up feeling refreshed. Ah well. :)

I got up, got breakfast and headed to the registration tables as I volunteered to help check people in. Then it was a day of going to different sessions and listening to what's new with the PeopleSoft/Oracle. There were a few informative sessions, and an equal number that were a waste of time, which is fairly normal.

I finally got home just a little past 7:00pm after a long, traffic-filled trip. I actually didn't hit as much traffic as I thought I would. The majority of it was in NY, where they have no room for a car to breakdown, not enough lanes for the traffic they have, and no room to build more. There were a couple of people that were being complete assholes, switching lanes constantly without a signal and cutting people off rather harshly. I guess you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they were all from MA. :) No wonder why they call us Massholes.

I had a bunch of web stuff to do for my friend Donna's site so I ended the day cuddling with the pups with the laptop and watching the Corpse Bride. Tim Burton is a genius. And it didn't hurt at all that Johnny Depp was the voice of the main character. :)

After sleeping a solid 9 hours, I'm off to clean and then get the food ready. I think it's going to be another long day. Fun, but still long. :)

D