It's been a while since I rapped at ya...
So, for some cruel reason unbeknownst to me, a meeting was scheduled for 11:30 this morning in Manhattan to present to one of our clients on usability. It's cruel because that meant I needed to get up at 4:00 a.m. the day after a holiday weekend.
Since it was a holiday weekend, that meant there was fireworks going off in our neighborhood. Not bottle rockets, but real commercial ordnance. That meant a restless night for the Bean. So, she was in bed with us and not asleep. When she's restless, she likes to pull on my ears and claw at my back. I don't think that's an indication of some underlying psychological issue, but it's still weird. Weird, and it kept me up 'til after 1:00 a.m.. I was already up late due to nerves about the presentation, this just prolonged the awake-ness and the nervousness.
The alarm went off at 4:00 and I got up. I got ready and the boy got up 8 minutes before my cab showed up. It was actually kind of nice that I got to spend a few minutes with him (getting him back to sleep) before I left.
When we got to LaGuardia, air traffic decided to have us fly in a circle for half-an-hour before we landed. We still made it in plenty of time to meet for a bit before we presented. The room we met in directly overlooked Ground Zero. It's a pretty sobering sight to look down on this massive scar (literally and figuratively) on the face of America. The crews were working full speed, and it's still largely a big hole.
The meeting itself went well. I'm glad I was there for it. Afterward, I was able to walk around SoHo and grab lunch before I headed home. My attempts to get Laura to move to SoHo tonight have all failed.
The flight home was delayed a bit, so I got to see more of LaGuardia than I really wanted to. Buddy George offered to pick me up at O'Hare, which ruled. He wanted me to meet him between terminals where the traffic is lighter. So, I walked down to the end of Terminal 1 and began waiting. While I was standing there, I noticed four agitated cops standing outside a limo. After a while, two of them left and an ambulance arrived moments later. The remaining cops and the paramedics moved what appeared to be a person largely devoid of vitality from the limo. While my heart goes out to the family of the passenger, I actually felt pretty bad for the livery driver. His day was much stranger than mine.
When I got home, the kids were waiting and we danced and discussed the merits of BLT sandwiches. It was good to have things get back to normal.