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At BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas Day 1

I arrived in Las Vegas yesterday (Thursday) and didn’t have an ounce of strength in my fingers to mash out a “Hello I’m Here!” blog post.  But today it’s on!

I’m here in Las Vegas for the BlogWorld Expo and even though it technically started yesterday, my pass (courtesy of John Chow) gives me access on Friday and Saturday.  Yesterday was my travel day and what a travel day it was!

My flight from Chicago had me up at 3:30am and when I arrived in Las Vegas, I couldn’t check into my room for 3 hours.  In that 3 hours I went to four different casinos, lost $20 on the stupid Star Wars slot, and ate breakfast at McDonalds.  It’s definitely not as fun doing Vegas alone.  Brilliant move on the hotel’s part to make everyone wait to check-in.  I decided it was simply a way to get us all into the casinos earlier than we intended.

By the time I got into my hotel room, I was spent.  The lack of sleep had caught up to me and I couldn’t find the energy to do anything else but collapse.  So, I did. For five hours!  Yikes!

But Day 1 in Las Vegas wasn’t all for naught.  I had tickets to the Cirque du Soliel LOVE show at The Mirage that night.  More about that next time.

For now, I’m excited to head out to my first day of speakers at the convention center.  Till next time!

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Try Getting in Your Car and Just Driving

I got in my car this evening without the intention of going to any particular place.  I guess all day I had a general idea of things I might need to get done like pick up some turkey meat  for lunches this week or drop off a piece of mail that needed sending.  But other than that, there was a moment today when I was sitting at my desk diligently working at my computer and the next thing I knew I was behind the wheel of my car zooming past corn fields and avoiding road kill in rural Illinois.

It’s strange how the body sometimes clicks into a decision without necessarily getting the go ahead from your mind first.   If was born in a less mechanically inclined century, I would have been on foot in that moment marching like a zombie towards a sun setting in the west while farmers were being dragged by their oxen in the fields next to me.

Fortunately, we have the luxury of crawling behind a steering wheel that services more as a floating cloud than anything else in these moments.  A CFC emitting magic carpet.

This relief of vehicular mobility didn’t come to me until I was 40 minutes north and the reality of my movement finally hit me.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the hometown of my college at a bookstore staring at the front cover of a David Sedaris book.

It really was the strangest thing getting up from my desk, putting on my shoes, driving 40 minutes, parking at a bookstore, walking directly to the Fiction section, picking up a book and staring at the face of David Sedaris who was taunting me with his mushy black and white tongue (at least I imagine that it’s him).

I shook my head when I thought about driving all that way just to pick up that particular book.  I asked myself, “Does David Sedaris really deserve that kind of attention?”.  It  seemed completely appropriate that he was sticking his tongue out at me and if anything I should thank Mr. Sedaris for knocking some sense back into me.

And from there I remembered that I needed to look into a good ASP.NET tutorial book. How convenient that I was already in a bookstore?  After I finished my research, I drove home with my head a little less in the clouds.

There isn’t a conclusion to this blog post but I hoped you enjoyed it regardless.  A day in the life of Jami.

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The last 24 hours in my 20’s

Tomorrow I turn 30.  Does it bother me?  Absolutely not.  And I’m not just saying that.  It really doesn’t bother me in the least.  I’m looking forward to a new phase in my life.

Does it mean I’ll let go of my 20-something adventurous spirit?  Heck no.  Not being afraid to make decisions or to try different things has defined who I am.  It’s served me well in school, in the military, in traveling around the country or in Israel.

Tomorrow I’m not going to be celebrating my 30th birthday.  What I’m really celebrating is a focus in my life that’s been missing for the last 10 years.  Is it a coincidence that this focus is happening at the turn of my 3rd decade?  Perhaps.  Or, maybe it’s natural for people to lay out a new vision for their 30’s.

Come next week, I’m finally rolling up my sleeves and learning all of the programing languages I should have started to learn years ago.  This is in conjunction with my usual web publishing gigs.   All of this in combination will ultimately give me greater financial freedom (the highest on my list of goals for my 30’s) and professional fulfillment.

So bring it on the 30’s!  Yee haw!

What’s your vision for the next 10 years?

A little side note:

I got my updated credit score today and when I got to the boxes to check my age group, I was in the 26-35 group.  Have they always broken up the age groups like that??  I was kind of looking forward to checking a new box.  But now I have to wait another 5 years?

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Computer Meltdown & Walgreens Photo Policy Sucks

This last weekend was my Mom’s 50th birthday.  I decided to make a photo slide show in honor of the first 50 years of her life which I thought wouldn’t take me more than a few days (tops!) to finish.

Surprise surprise, there were quite a few unforeseen challenges to overcome before the final product was played in front of the family yesterday.  Because it was a “secret”, I’ve been holding my blogging tongue so as not to ruin the surprise to my mother.

The first task was collecting the hundreds of pictures from my Grandparents & Aunt.  That was the fun part.  Not only did I find it interesting to look through pictures from my mother’s life but it was also a family history lesson of my own.  I learned things that I didn’t necessarily know and afterwords felt a great sense of importance carrying this family information inside of me.  A torch bearer, if you will.

Two days into the project, I woke up excited to finish the bulk of it and finalize things.  I turned on my computer to a Windows SP3 update which I downloaded.  After the reboot, nothing but a blue screen of death.  drats!  Computer meltdown with hundreds of scanned pictures a half finished slideshow project!

Luckily, I could borrow a device from my Dad to suck out all the data from my hard drive before it was too late.  Big sigh of relief.  It was a minor hiccup that lost me a day, at worst.

So, moving forward….

I finished the slide show on my laptop and, once finalized,  moved onto part B of the project.  To accompany the DVD of photos & music, I also wanted to print out every slide to place into a photo album for easier viewing pleasure.

I left this task until the day before the birthday.  It seemed like an easy enough task, right?  Take the pictures on a disc to Walgreens and have them printed, right?

When I entered Walgreens, I was in a super bubbly mood because I’ve felt so full this last week with family, happy being so busy, and happy with the final outcome of the slideshow.  I loaded up my pictures on the Walgreens computer and printed out my return time ticket.  It wouldn’t take more than an hour for my 150+ photos to be ready for pick-up.  I was feeling pretty good with myself and bopped out of the store while giving a little proud wink at the clerk.

When I returned, the pictures below were sitting on the counter:

My conversation with the clerk was as follows:

Clerk:  I need to ask you a question about these pictures.  Were they taken by a professional?

Me:  A professional what?

Clerk:  (looking quite grimace and monotone)  A professional photographer.

Me:  I have no idea.   That’s me when I was a kid.  See?  Look!  It’s me!  (I’m obviously still on cloud-9 at this point of the conversation and totally oblivious that she’s a complete bitch.)

Clerk:  (Not cracking a single smile.)  They weren’t taken by a professional photographer?  We need a signed release form if they were taken by a professional

Me:  I was a child when these were taken.  How am I supposed to know?  They could have been taken at Sears or something.  (I’m laughing here because who would consider Sears to be “professional photographers”.  I thought the joke would loosen her up.)

Clerk:  I’ll ask you one more time….  were these pictures taken by a professional photographer?

Me:  (Here’s where I started to feel that sweaty, blushing,  anger start to creep into my face.  Who was she to talk to me that way? I wipe away the cheesy grin, put on the straightest face I could muster, stared her straight in the eye and said…)  Those pictures were NOT taken by a professional photographer.

Clerk:  (She FINALLY cracks a smile but it was one of those evil Cruella de Vil smiles after which she said…)  I’m sorry.  I still can’t sell you these pictures.

Me:  WHAT!?!??

At this point our conversation was completely over because I started to well up with tears of anger at how unmoving and cold she was being.  There was no arguing with her, I could tell.

I guess I found it completely irrational to expect a release form for a photo that was taken nearly 30 years ago.  Not to mention from a department store that didn’t use any identifying stamps on the photo to begin with.

In the end, I didn’t say another word.  Instead I let them remove .26 cents from the final bill.  I paid for the other photos.  Ripped the receipt out of her hand.  And as I stormed away she yelled after me, “Have a nice day!”.

You definitely just lost a customer, Walgreens.

So what did I have to do to get those last two pictures to finish my birthday gift to my Mom?  I drove my happy ass over to Walmart, bought some photo paper, and printed the damn things on my own at home.

No, I’m not bitter at all.

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