Los Angeles Trip
Mar. 5th, 2011 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreThe Ground Systems Architecture Workshop (GSAW) is a conference I attend fairly regularly. This time I had particular reasons for going, since the theme (harmonization) fit in with one of my long standing soapboxes and was likely to prove useful for some activities we have coming up. So I flew to L.A. on Monday evening.
The trip to L.A. wasn't too bad. I wasn't super-impressed with the Sheraton Gateway, which I stayed at on the grounds that it is always convenient to stay at the conference hotel. The room was okay, but nothing special. What annoyed me was: a) the on-site parking is valet only (with more expensive self-parking at inconvenient off-site lots), b) they have the furniture set up so you have to rearrange two chairs and a table in order to get to the window to open or close the curtains, and c) there aren't enough electric outlets in the room. I should probably just have stayed a couple of blocks away at the Renaissance.
The conference was, indeed, useful and I generated a couple of pages of things to follow up on. I also took advantage of the trip to see some friends. I had dinner with one former colleague on Tuesday night, drove down to Long Beach for storytelling on Wednesday night, and went out to lunch with three guys from the group I worked in over a decade ago on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night I was thoroughly exhausted and glad I could sleep a little later since I'd booked the 9 a.m flight on Friday.
That also proved to be a good thing, since the 8 o'clock flight got cancelled. My flight was just delayed about an hour. While I wasn't upgraded, I did have an exit row aisle seat, so it was tolerable. I just had to lean back and repeat my mantra ("frequent flyer miles, frequent flyer miles") a few times. I was, however, annoyed that they still had the February Hemispheres magazine (with its abomination of a crossword puzzle) and the February movies, despite being a full four days into March. Time to fill out one of those customer satisfaction surveys!
Today has been catch-up day. I took my car in for service, picked up dry cleaning, did the grocery shopping, and finished the press releases for the Saturday night concert at the Virginia Storytelling Gathering. I still have to finish squares for a couple of baby blankets, since they are due tomorrow and will need to be blocked. I should also go to Zumba this afternoon. And I have theatre tickets for tonight.
I think I have a free weekend in May. May 2015, that is.
The trip to L.A. wasn't too bad. I wasn't super-impressed with the Sheraton Gateway, which I stayed at on the grounds that it is always convenient to stay at the conference hotel. The room was okay, but nothing special. What annoyed me was: a) the on-site parking is valet only (with more expensive self-parking at inconvenient off-site lots), b) they have the furniture set up so you have to rearrange two chairs and a table in order to get to the window to open or close the curtains, and c) there aren't enough electric outlets in the room. I should probably just have stayed a couple of blocks away at the Renaissance.
The conference was, indeed, useful and I generated a couple of pages of things to follow up on. I also took advantage of the trip to see some friends. I had dinner with one former colleague on Tuesday night, drove down to Long Beach for storytelling on Wednesday night, and went out to lunch with three guys from the group I worked in over a decade ago on Thursday afternoon. By Thursday night I was thoroughly exhausted and glad I could sleep a little later since I'd booked the 9 a.m flight on Friday.
That also proved to be a good thing, since the 8 o'clock flight got cancelled. My flight was just delayed about an hour. While I wasn't upgraded, I did have an exit row aisle seat, so it was tolerable. I just had to lean back and repeat my mantra ("frequent flyer miles, frequent flyer miles") a few times. I was, however, annoyed that they still had the February Hemispheres magazine (with its abomination of a crossword puzzle) and the February movies, despite being a full four days into March. Time to fill out one of those customer satisfaction surveys!
Today has been catch-up day. I took my car in for service, picked up dry cleaning, did the grocery shopping, and finished the press releases for the Saturday night concert at the Virginia Storytelling Gathering. I still have to finish squares for a couple of baby blankets, since they are due tomorrow and will need to be blocked. I should also go to Zumba this afternoon. And I have theatre tickets for tonight.
I think I have a free weekend in May. May 2015, that is.
