I’m up early because there was an incredibly loud garbage truck under my hotel window at 5:30 this morning, and the convention isn’t open yet, so I’m camped at the Starbucks between here & there. Yes, Starbucks. Because it’s open and I know it has wifi and I more or less know what to expect from it.
The ride from the airport to downtown was an exercise in oddly familiar and yet totally unknown. It’s not like I ever really knew this/that part of SoCal to begin with, so really it’s just — I know these trees, that haze, those hills. (Which since I’m still working on an essay about GTA: San Andreas & GTAV, seems particularly appropriate. It’s not an actual place in my head, but it’s LIKE places in my head.
This area where I’m staying and where DrupalCon is has that oversized slightly soulless feel that I’m realizing is the province of everywhere/nowhere. Makes me think I could give Atlanta another try someday when I don’t have to be where I went for that Cascade Server conference.
Today is the Higher Education Summit; I’m not sure what to expect from that, but I’m hoping to glean some ideas for infrastructure, some ideas for user interface and user training. I’m trying to just be open to whatever might happen, and to maybe meet some interesting people. I’m also hoping to keep my afternoon crash to a not-totally-debilitating level. :/