Wednesday, March 13, 2013

First Day of Work

I sucessfully navigated my way through the maze of this complex. What was funny is that I was supposed to meet Amy at 9 am in a certain meeting room. I was sitting on a set of stairs waiting for her since I got there early and the room was locked. No Amy and I started to question if I was in the right place. I was calling the room Ryman B and the room was actually Ryman Studio B and of course I wondered if those were two different rooms. I called Amy at 9:05, described where I was and she said I'm in the right place. Next thing you know, we were 20 feet from each other, talking to each other on the cellphone. She had come in a different way and I missed her. Cellphones are good for something!

It wasn't as bad a walk as I thought. Then to add to a good day, this complex had done something they felt they had to make up for so we got free catering in the press room. We weren't going to get any catering today since the event doesn't officially start until tomorrow.

Those of you who have worked these events know how expensive catering can be -- $6 for a can of soda, that sort of thing. I'm not exaggerating. You also have to be careful if the venue says, "Want me to refresh the coffee?" You don't know if you're getting it for free, or if the organization is going to get an extra bill for $125 so I always ask.

Anyway, we had bagels, muffins, croissants, scones -- pellegrino water! -- coffee, tea, hot chocolate, butter, flavored cream cheese, little jars of fancy preserves... oh, even a toaster for the bagels. So we all appreciated that. Later the woman assigned to our room came in to check on us, offered to make us smoothies and we said no, but then eventually I said yes and suggested she just make any smoothie for me that she wants. It was wonderful.

Later we got this beautiful platter of fresh fruit and a tray of individual bags of all different chips. I said at one point how wonderful to have the catering and Amy agreed it kept us all cheerful and she's right.

Work went fine and then I was concerned about finding my way back to my room. It's the kind of place where you have to take the right elevator because everything isn't connected. So I had to find the right elevator, go from 0 floor to 2, walk some more, then go to the 3rd floor in another elevator. It's ripe for errors, but somehow I found, sheerly by accident, a shorter way back. Hope I can duplicate it tomorrow.

Still don't have a camera cable, but I have taken some photos so eventually you'll see what I see.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

I so feel your pain... Have a couple of stories to tell you when you get back!

Pat said...

I knew you would appreciate the whole meeting room/catering thing. I was thinking that at these things you get reduced to: Do I get a free muffin and coffee this morning? And a little bottle of juice? and if the answer is yes, you feel grateful.