Oh man do I have a lot to tell ya’ll. Starting with how fucking cool the Southwest Airlines people are. They rock in ways I didn’t know the airline industry was allowed to rock, So next time you fly, fly Southwest – you’ll be happy you did. Chicago was interesting to say the least… People are rude as hell there (no offense but we do judge you by your airport hospitality and it was a low grade) but they were redeemed by Jay, whom I sat next to on the flight and who kept me thoroughly entertained for the duration of the flight. So much so that when the Captain (who introduced himself as the “guy on the pointy end of the plane”) announced that we were descending, I couldn’t believe 2.5 hours had already flown by. Chicago has something at their airport that we in San Antonio do not. They have a moving walkway and when I arrived at their airport, I couldn’t figure out why they kept announcing “Caution, walkway is empty.” But after I had a chance to actually sit down and listen to it, I realized that it was actually saying “Caution, walkway is ending”
Yeah, I’m an idiot.
Anyway, I arrived on time and got my car and hauled some serious ass from Raleigh to Winston-Salem. The other drivers were undoubtedly happy that they don’t live in Texas where people like me drive like bats out of hell.
I arrived at the hotel at about 8:30 and got checked into my very big and awesome room at The Effing Marriott. I called our other guy here, whom I hadn’t met yet and he and I got together for a late dinner. And people, this guy was not supposed to be good looking. He. Was, Not. Supposed. To. Be.
But alas, he has a very distinguished, professor/author thing going on. And he is also pretty fucking rad which is nice since I was concerned he would be a stick in the mud/asshole.
Not the case.
But in the realm of things I was NOT expecting… When I got here, they gave me a little booklet with my itinerary and shit in it which told me what time to be where and why etc. Yeah, I have to be downstairs ready to leave at 7:15am. Not too big a deal except that I am still set internally on Central time and let me tell you folks, being downstairs and dressed and ready to go at 6:15am my time is not my idea of fun. And it continues to be The Suq when I spend the ENTIRE day in basically a classroom being taught things about valves and pumps and actuation and specific gravity and a hundred other things I will be randomly bitching about for quite some time.
However, I do have the benefit of pretty cool people since all of these people are basically like me and it isn’t weird or awkward. We can just hang out, no problem.
Last night, I went out with a guy from Houston, a guy from Dallas (those two and me made up the entire state of Texas) and a very hunky little man from North Carolina…

However, my lovely and patient readers, I will have to fill you in on the rest later because I am on borrowed laptop time here and I need to go get ready for dinner… more later,