Chapter the Sixth: Up in smoke, down in flames (a tale of hotel fires and born-again bachelorhood).
I went to the D.C. area to do a teaching gig for a week at the beginning of April. The gig was okay, but I stayed at the Embassy Suites Tysons Corner where I had the worst hotel experience I've ever had. Monday, I stepped on nails in the carpet. Tuesday evening, I bit a screw in the dinner from the restaurant. Wednesday morning at 5:30am, we had to evacuate because there was a fire in the hotel. Thursday, I had to explain to the front desk that I was about to have a conference call in an hour and why was there construction going on in the room above mine? They moved the workers for the afternoon (big of them) but I didn't get to complete the conference call, as there was a second fire in the effing hotel! Friday morning, I was awakened by the idiots continuing to lay carpet. Saturday, I was packing vigorously thinking "If I can get out of here alive...." Sunday morning, it snowed, just to add insult to injury. It took me a couple days to get hold of anyone at Embassy Suites upper management, by which time my thought was "If you're looking for trouble, I can offer you a wide selection!" Fortunately, they didn't give me any static and will be covering tetanus shots and dental x-rays and so on. They'd like me to stay there again next I'm in D.C., too. Not a chance in hell, I figure!
I've also been doing some travelling for the STC. I spoke at the SoCal Unified Awards banquet on April 15th. Got to see many friends and met lots of new people. I also spent a day and drove up to Moreno Valley to see my great-aunt Kay. That was very nice. I don't get an opportunity to see her often enough. I then did a speaking gig at Salt Lake City the following Wednesday. The STC conference in Orlando is coming up soon. I won't be speaking anywhere for a few months. I'm tentatively scheduled to be doing Houston, Dallas, Central Illinois, the San Fernando Valley, and Tampa sometime this fall and winter.
MP3 for Musicians is done at last! I got the copies shipped to me around May 4. The cover's incredible and I'm working on marketing ideas with the publisher and a marketing guy at MusicMatch. The RoboHELP 2000 Bible is still grundling along in edits. I'm doing a writing contract for a client and I've signed up to do something this summer for someone I worked with in 1998 who's a great guy.
Life is still busy: I have a couple of magazine articles on my desk that I haven't gotten to, darnit, and I haven't been able to get info on another class to teach for the company that sent me to D.C. OTOH, I have been having a pleasant time increasing organization in my life. I was able to get my email cleaned up, reducing my inbox to 0 (read 'em and weep!) messages through effective filing and vigorous deleting. I've been doing lots of recycling of dead paper, too; very satisfying to eject lots of old paper and empty boxes. I'm working hard to make use of my Day-Timer and keep time logs.
Constance and I broke up in May. It's been sad and difficult but there's a wonderful quote I just ran into: "Things always end badly, otherwise they wouldn't end at all." I wish her well.
Computerworld interviewed me on May 16. They needed some authoritative opinion on MP3s and the effect of downloading MP3s on company networks.
The March show "I Wonder If That Makes the Best Impression?" with The Washingtonians was lots of fun. I'm currently in rehearsals for the June 9-11 show, "Cirque du Fromage." Be sure to show up (by your tickets early, though; the shows consistently sell out). Show times are listed on the Washingtonians' web site.
Go back to the Personal page.
Go back to the home page.