That was the theory. And I did. For a while. After that, it got kinda busy, and there were customers waiting, and a spare demo station, so...
...I joined in.
Scary? yes. Educational? definitely. Fun? hell, yeah!
The deep end of the Exhibits Hall
Today was my first ever session as a sales person on "booth duty" in the conference exhibition hall. I went as a training exercise, to "observe and learn from the best"
That was the theory. And I did. For a while. After that, it got kinda busy, and there were customers waiting, and a spare demo station, so...
...I joined in.
Scary? yes. Educational? definitely. Fun? hell, yeah!
That was the theory. And I did. For a while. After that, it got kinda busy, and there were customers waiting, and a spare demo station, so...
...I joined in.
Scary? yes. Educational? definitely. Fun? hell, yeah!
Reflection | noitcelfeR
Chicago Millennium Park- Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" aka the Bean- reflecting completely, imperfectly, adjusting identity.
Where am I?
Is that me? Wave, gesture, adopt a strange pose, identify myself. Take a photograph.
Is that me? Wave, gesture, adopt a strange pose, identify myself. Take a photograph.
Move closer, more naturally, softly. Take another photograph.
Come closer still, look into my own eyes.Take another photograph.
Come closer still, look into my own eyes.Take another photograph.
Bring my flesh hand up to meet the hand of the other me. Touch. Pause. Engage. Laugh
Everyone was comfortable seeing themselves in this mirror. Perhaps the sheer scale, where noone could 'look fat'. Perhaps the distortion of curvature released us from the perfect image.
The innocent delight and joy of visitors, the gradient from disbelief to engagement, like the bean itself, another curve to navigate. Strangers clustered closely together under the arch, openly borrowing each other - person and image - for context and orientation.
And tonight, a musical accompaniment. The Benjamin Britten War Requiem performed live, nearby, outdoors. As I walked around the Bean, we experienced perfect but subtly distorted surround sound, courtesy of the echo-reflections of nearby buildings.
I like to think this is a rehearsal for how we will experience our first alien visitors - astonished, delighted, fearless, engaged.
Caffeine. Or lack thereof.
There is not enough caffeine in the universe.
To be more accurate, there is not enough decent-tasting steam-extracted essence of skilfully-roasted bean of Coffea arabica here in Ohio. I'm very fond of the buckeye state, and hope to return, but future travel plans will place it at the end of my US acclimatisation phase, not the beginning. What we have here, to paraphrase the famous Arthur Dent, is a liquid almost entirely but not quite unlike coffee.
It gets worse. Mysterious substances like "non-dairy creamer" are added. The mind boggled on reading the label. One way of telling that the cognitive processes are sub-par: if I were in my right mind I would not have read that label.
It's truly amazing I can read that label, and operate this piece of delicate machinery, because although the clock on the wall claims it is 08:16, every cell in my body is firmly convinced it is just past midnight. It is so far after my bedtime that it is in fact time to get up. And have a coffee.
To be more accurate, there is not enough decent-tasting steam-extracted essence of skilfully-roasted bean of Coffea arabica here in Ohio. I'm very fond of the buckeye state, and hope to return, but future travel plans will place it at the end of my US acclimatisation phase, not the beginning. What we have here, to paraphrase the famous Arthur Dent, is a liquid almost entirely but not quite unlike coffee.
It gets worse. Mysterious substances like "non-dairy creamer" are added. The mind boggled on reading the label. One way of telling that the cognitive processes are sub-par: if I were in my right mind I would not have read that label.
It's truly amazing I can read that label, and operate this piece of delicate machinery, because although the clock on the wall claims it is 08:16, every cell in my body is firmly convinced it is just past midnight. It is so far after my bedtime that it is in fact time to get up. And have a coffee.
Those who know me well, know I have a finely tuned awareness of the effect on me of many psychoactive substances. I self-medicate with care and precision. Caffeine is the thing I need. Sugar is not. So a can of Red Bull or similar is not the answer. Yes, they come in "diet" varieties, but honestly, I need to wake up and *smell* the coffee, as well as drink it!
One more sleep!!!
One more sleep until I hop on the Big plane and go to Chicago and San Francisco. I'm filled with my usual mixture of excitement and dread.
Excitement is for everything, no matter how prosaic. Different money. Drinking rootbeer. Having another Summer. Being completely among strangers. At the Bean. Walking on the other side of the footpath, I mean sidewalk. Dusting off the other vocabulary!
Dread is only my normal background worry, amplified and emphasized by the change of environment. It's not about other people or places, only about me. What will I forget? What will I lose? Will I get lost and be embarrassingly late? What part of my plans will turn out to have a stupid gap?
The good thing about this is it's entirely under my control & I have loads of practice in dealing with it. All of those worries can be managed with a dose of relaxation. Chill out Sarah! I'm certainly not going to let a little thing like Dread cancel out my excitement and spoil the enjoyment. Just like I don't at home.
Everything packed except my medication, toothbrush and undies. I don't know why I usually leave these until last. I'm certainly never going to forget them again...
I'll do my best to keep up the daily posts and share the excitement.
Excitement is for everything, no matter how prosaic. Different money. Drinking rootbeer. Having another Summer. Being completely among strangers. At the Bean. Walking on the other side of the footpath, I mean sidewalk. Dusting off the other vocabulary!
Dread is only my normal background worry, amplified and emphasized by the change of environment. It's not about other people or places, only about me. What will I forget? What will I lose? Will I get lost and be embarrassingly late? What part of my plans will turn out to have a stupid gap?
The good thing about this is it's entirely under my control & I have loads of practice in dealing with it. All of those worries can be managed with a dose of relaxation. Chill out Sarah! I'm certainly not going to let a little thing like Dread cancel out my excitement and spoil the enjoyment. Just like I don't at home.
Everything packed except my medication, toothbrush and undies. I don't know why I usually leave these until last. I'm certainly never going to forget them again...
I'll do my best to keep up the daily posts and share the excitement.
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