Hotlanta and Chilly Chicago

I spent two quick days and practically sleepless nights in Atlanta last week for an internal Infrastructure Consulting conference with coworkers. There were over 500 people there, and several tracks on the topics of Information Security, Data Center Technologies, and Network Technologies. Some of the talks were quite good, but more important was the "networking" aspect. We all went out on both nights in the sometimes sketchy and generally unimpressive downtown Atlanta area. In general though, I had a great time, enjoyed meeting so many people who I had previously only interacted with via email, but then I needed some recovery time.

...On to Chicago for another week of "training". Thankfully though, I had 2 days to recoup at my cousin's house in the 'burbs. They have a 3-week old, so the whole weekend we were all on "baby schedule": eat, sleep, eat, sleep, eat...sleep... We threw in lots of TV and movie-watching as well. It was a good reset for me, and now I'm in the not-so-happening 'burb town of St. Charles, Illinois in my dorm room for the week. It totally feels like camp, but with cable TV and free Internet connection. I'll get to eat dining hall food for the first time in several years tomororw morning - oh, the joy.

There are sessions planned throughout the week revolving more or less on project management and running the business, with evening sessions thrown in for more networking and socializing. I'm looking forward to it in general, but I have to admit, even after this weekend's down time, the introvert in me (yes, if you can believe it I actually do test as an introvert) is not quite ready for the interaction of "where are you from," "what group are you in," etc. I'm still tapped out from Atlanta, and sort of want to watch TV and cook meals at home with friends.

I'll update the post as the week progresses with anything of note.