Summary: May Travels

[cincycub]

I have several lengthy posts waiting in me but they may take a while to come out. In lieu of making you wait for them, I think I will probably end up making them private. But here are some high-level bullets about my travels last week:

Los Angeles

• I spent 6 days in Los Angeles to attend Microsoft TechEd North America at the LA Convention Center. It was my first time in Los Angeles, but I didn't get to see much of the city. Check out my crazy schedule. I'm one of those people who insists on not skipping conference sessions. And by the end of each day, I was completely wiped.
• I was disappointed in myself that I didn't do my typical pre-travel networking to try and hang out with too many of the locals (
  e_ticket  and
  uncle_james , for example). I blame this partially on being SUPER busy lately, stressed, and also sick and unsure if I was going to be able to make the trip up until a few days prior.
• I did, however, get to reunite with knepbear and bobaloo for Mexican food and god-awful (but super-funny) Spanish karaoke, and meet popebuck1 .  After dinner, the three of us took the "scenic route" back to my hotel, and I was surprised at how trashy parts of Hollywood are.
• I also was grateful for the opportunity to chat briefly with clymore, an old LJ friend who I'd lost touch with and just happened to work at the convention center where I spent all week.
• Professionally, I mostly enjoyed the conference. I'm tech-agnostic, so I'm not a "fanboy" of Microsoft products any more than I am of Apple, Linux or Novell, but I will say there are some great new features for us IT pros coming down the pipe. I learned a lot about some products we already use, some products I hope to use some day, and some stuff that hasn't been released yet. Of course, I got more out of some sessions than others, but that's typical of any conference.
• There were a lot of little things that really added to a positive experience. Coolers stacked with soft drinks we could take at will, tons of swag and freebies, breakfast and lunch provided, "snack breaks," receptions with boozeahol, shuttle buses from the hotel to the convention center, rows of computers to work on our schedules and submit evaluations, and many more. Everything was just very organized and very well presented.
• Socially, I was really frustrated. I didn't, as Kathy Griffin would say, "find my gays." I did try to be open and chat up people when I could, and I had great conversations with lots of friendly people, but all the hot geeky boys wore wedding rings. I also found it really funny that there were so many people that were even more socially awkward than I am. (and yes, I am, mostly around people I don't know). Picture a bunch of us walking into an elevator, or onto the shuttle bus, and immediately taking out our phones instead of being chatty.
• There were a few fail moments. The keynote speech had a lot of buzz and excitement in the air, before the speaker started. Then it ran over by a half-hour, and was SO boring. There was also a social event on Thursday night called "Jam on IT," where supposedly some of your techie friends could join in the "jam session" and see/hear some great music. This event, too, was mostly boring and also poorly attended. But at least there was really good food and some free drink tickets.

Nashville

• I didn't feel too terrible about my fun but minimal amount of non-work-related socializing in LA because I knew the weekend would bring plenty of opportunities for that, as I was capping the week with a whirlwind trip to Music City.
• Why was I in Nashville? It's funny you ask. The Cincinnati Men's Chorus was supposed to perform there with the local LGBT mixed chorus, Nashville in Harmony. However, our artistic director and theirs apparently had some differences of opinion regarding the repertoire (unbeknownst to us), and the Nashville chorus pulled out of the collaboration a few months ago.  Unfortunately, I had already made arrangements to attend TechEd and my employer was kind enough to fly me from LA to Nashville instead of making me come home from LA only to immediately board another flight on my own dime. Once my plans changed, I wasn't about to try to get my employer to change the ticket, as that would be more expense.
• Despite the above, I turned lemons into lemonade, searched for activities going on in Nashville over the weekend, and discovered that there was a bear run. And not only was there a bear run, but that Bears On The Run, and Swin Dunbar would be performing at the run. How's that for a win?
• My first bear run (even though I didn't register.... yet I didn't see any benefit to the $50-$60 premium over what I paid for admission to the evening events...) was actually pretty decent. I met some really nice guys, enjoyed the attention of a few of them, and lusted after a few others.
• Bears on the Run BROUGHT it. As much as I enjoyed seeing them in Columbus two summers ago, they stepped up their game even more. bobaloo had some hilarious new material, Elijah, Kendall (kendallrants ), Matthew Temple -- all just totally amazing. I asked Kendall after the show, is there NOTHING he couldn't do?
• I spent Saturday afternoon on a Gray Line tour of the downtown area, stopping by Legends, the Parthenon, the Country Music Hall of Fame, and driving by all the recording studios and other notable landmarks. For a bus full of mostly older people, it was a fun afternoon. I became tour-friends with a teacher from New York City named Jeannie. Our tour bus driver was an older veteran, told the worst jokes in the world, didn't believe in global warming, and did the most horrible impression of "oriental" accents. But he also volunteers with a homeless veterans organization and I suspect he has a good heart. Being from a conservative city myself, I know how to behave around offensive but well-meaning people.
• Saturday night after fried chicken and fixins (after all, the theme of the run was "trailer trash review"), seeing  swindunbar perform was a special treat. He seemed nervous (which, haha, I think I can relate to), but I loved his music, especially the original stuff, and watching someone stand up and do something they are really passionate about is truly a religious experience for me. If you could have watched my face during the Friday and Saturday night shows, I'm sure you would see me in a trance-like state, so ecstatic at seeing people do what they love.
• I won the silent auction for a coffee table porn book (no I will not reveal which one), did not (fully) participate in the UnderBear party (though I technically was prepared to), drank plenty but not excessively, and got to bed rather late. *cough*
• I came home to a lonely but alive and well-fed kitty, and a dead Macbook.