Busy Days in Seattle

It’s been a crazy week, and one that’s about to get crazier for me. At least as long as I’m in Seattle.

I arrived Sat night, late, and almost immediately went to bed. A full day Sunday of things out of my control, so I needed sleep. Not much to say about Sunday, but it was an interesting day. However Monday really started the craziness.

My employer had their SQL in the City event in Seattle, meeting customers and potential customers with a full, one day conference. I had to arrive early at the McCaw Hall near the Space Needle to practice the keynote and get set up for the day. The keynote went well, better than London, IMHO, but I didn’t have time to relax. Five minutes after the keynote I was delivering my first of three hour-long sessions.

All the sessions went well, but with a 15 minute break between 1 and 2, and then lunch before 3, I felt like I’d been teaching for a long time. By 3:00, when I was done, my voice was sore, and I was ready to call it a day. However I had to stick around and schmooze people before a short chat with my boss.

Then it was a race over to our networking event at night. I got there to find a snafu, the restaurant full and unable to take us. Fortunately someone found another place and we shuttled people over there. However that meant about 90 minutes of me standing outside in the Seattle drizzle, greeting people and sending them down the street in groups before I had the chance to sit down and eat.

I made my way down to the other place for about 30 minutes, but I was beat and had to call it a night around 10.

Today was all day in a learning session, which was a good chance to relax, but no shortage of people wanting to say hi and chat. I almost feel like I should have worn a hat and sat off to the side to avoid people.

A long year, and a long stretch the last month. Two days left, packed with about 6-8 short sessions each day and then a long one Thur afternoon before I head home late thur night.