Today, I'm in upstate New York, in the Rochester area. No major obstacles: I made my visits today, where I was interrupted by an unscheduled fire drill at the first school (so I ended up doing 2 1/2 presentations instead of 3) and saw some good photographers at the second school.
What's annoying me right now are the little details, like so many gnats in my way. Again, not road blocks, but still irritating.
1. For some reason, my rental car has a trunk that smells nauseatingly like strawberry jam that has been sitting in the sun for several months. I don't know why this is so, nor do I want to know, but the fact remains that anything I put in the trunk is permeated with this odor, so it's a good thing that the MICA materials are protected by cardboard boxes. I should return the car, but just the thought of dragging those heavy boxes out of the trunk before their time is less appealing.
2. My visits in Ithaca seem to be sabotaged by weirdly scheduled pep rallies, superintendent days, and other assemblies. I visited at the same time last year, with no problems, so this has been rather unexpected. So I'm scrambling around trying to find a second visit on October 4: We'll see....
3. I'm still filling holes in my travel schedule (and Alessandra Torres' schedule for Connecticut and New Jersey). It's disconcerting to travel plan while you're on the road. I'm not sure how I scheduled whole weeks on the fly last year. Was I crazy? Absolutely I was.
4. I've scheduled 4 schools and one evening event for tomorrow. Am I still crazy? Absolutely I am. It's going to be an extremely tight turnaround from 8:00 to 1:00 pm. At least I have a few hours to rest before the event at 6:oo pm. Then I have to drive to Syracuse for visits the next morning, and then drive to Ithaca later that same afternoon. And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go....
5. Janine can't do the MICA portfolio day or the Corcoran portfolio day due to her brother's last minute wedding plans. She asked me if I would do Corcoran. I wonder if she'll hate me if I say no? I hope she won't (hate me, that is), but I'm looking at my future exhaustion-meter and between my visits in New Jersey that end on November 30 and my week-long visits in Boston that begin on Dec 3, I think I'm going to need a breather.
Okay: time to find food. I think there's a Ruby Tuesday's a few blocks away from a Target. I can feel their combined gravitational pull....
Later that evening:
The service at Ruby Tuesday's left a lot to be desired (I must tell Ama that the pumpernickel croutons are sublime: ha! , but they really are: our waitress on the Philly training visit at Granite Run Mall was not exaggerating!). We had great service that time, even at 11am, as the first customers of the day! This time, at 7pm I had bad service from a harried high school waitress who didn't ask if I wanted a refill on my diet coke. I didn't, but still! Isn't that the cardinal rule of serving? This goes against the philosophy of a chain restaurant, to expect the same quality of service (preferably good service!) no matter where you are. I left a tip anyway, not a big one, but still....
And the Target sign was completely false: there was NO Target in that mall, which was the scariest mall I've seen in a long time: quite long, but not circular, so you started in one place and ended a half mile in the opposite direction. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it was schizophrenic: I entered at a store called The Bon Ton, and the mall seemed deserted and dead, but towards the middle around the carousel (do all malls up here have a carousel in the food court?), it was more like the typical mall and less like a horror movie set and then towards Sears and JCPenney's it turned back into a ghost town. My search for totes for schlepping MICA materials around should have started and ended with the $1 bags at Whole Foods back in Baltimore. Live and learn.
I told Arthur that I'm exhausted, and it's only the first day!
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