San Jose to Long Beach

It was Monday morning. I heard the alarm go off with its anointing sound and I popped awake because I was headed to San Jose for a meeting with one of my customers. The flight was a 6:00 am so a 3 o’clock wake up was plenty early for the trip to the airport 45 minutes away. But when I looked at the clock, it said 3:58. I had slept through the alarm. I jumped into the shower, put all my sundries into the quart size bag I had waiting so I didn’t have to check my luggage and left the house at 4:17.

The gas tank was sitting on a quarter tank, maybe enough to get there but I wasn’t sure, so I hit the gas station and threw in $10 worth to ensure that I would make. Traffic was non-existent and I made the decision to keep my speed at 75 MPH to avoid getting a ticket and minimize the chance of being pulled over.

I have made this trip a million times and as I cruised down I88 toward I294 I focused on the traffic ahead and determined that parking in the short term parking was going to be necessary if I was going to make the flight. It was 5 am when I hit the traffic…or should I say the parking lot. Traffic was stopped and I was only 2 miles away from the parking garage. I was beside my self with anxiety as I tried to figure out how I explain this to the boss.

The hold up was short lived and we started to move again. I parked at 5:15 and ran through the parking garage breathing hard like the out of shape 40-year old that I am. Checking in was easy, yes I forgot to check in online the night before, and security was smooth as I explained that my flight was boarding. I went through the special line for idiots like me who arrive late and I took off on a brisk walk down the terminal walkway. They were boarding and calling the last group as I walked up and was greeted by my co-worker who was going on the trip with me.

I was sweating like a pig and on the flight to Denver. I finally cooled down about an hour into the flight and tried to relax. They were showing a preview show for NBC for entertainment and I saw “Chuck”, I show about some computer geek who has become entrusted with all the knowledge of the NSA and CIA threw some computer e-mail that was sent by a friend.

I caught the connecting flight with no problem and soon landed in San Jose. After a good meeting with the customer, we went to Ming’s, a restaurant in the Redwood City area, and had a great lunch. I set up a possible dinner with the customer and head to the hotel to check in.

Now I’ve slept in dumps before but this may have been the worst. It was a Good Nite Inn but it was anything but a good night. They advertised free wifi but of course, I didn’t have it in my room. The toilet leaked so the water ran all the time and other than the stuff that looked like mold in the shower, everything else was ok.

Around 4:30, I received a call from the customer that canceled dinner plans so I did the next best thing. I contacted Bayne. I knew he lived in the area and within an hour he was picking me and my co-worker up for dinner. We were a little north of where Bayne lives but he was sure he could find something close. After an hour of driving through neighborhoods and a few spots that had eating establishments that were closed, we headed to his area and found a sports bar/steakhouse that did the trick. We chatted over drinks and food as the football game played on the plasma screen TV’s the were placed in every direction. It was nice to meet a blogger in person and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting the shit with him. Thanks for showing me around Bayne.

So now, as I write this, I’m sitting in the San Jose airport at 6am. I’m headed to Long Beach by way of LAX to pick up my boss and hit the solar cell show going on there. Poker is an after thought but I think poker blog still fits. I had the pleasure of meeting a BBT front-runner in person and came to the realization that these people we chat with online are no different from people we know and meet every day. We just meet them in a virtual world.

I'll finish with the story after I get home.