Today was a (planned) day of slacking in San Jose. All I really had on the agenda was registering for the conference, checking my email, maybe writing something for Dave's Picks, and getting laundry done. With Scott & Michelle letting me do laundry at their place last night, I had even less on the agenda. And that was a very good thing, since not only did the sinus infection I started to notice on Saturday kick into full gear, but my back was really sore too.
I remembered why I like the Arena Hotel so much. The breakfast buffet means I can get fueled in the morning with minimal hassle, and start the day off on a good note. And the front-desk staff have all be very helpful. I don't understand why they're only $79 a night when less-pleasant hotels cost twice as much, but I suspect it's all got to do with location.
So I head off to the conference to register. I park in the Convention Center parking, only to find that the conference actually is in the attached Westin Hotel (which I'd read in the email not an hour ago), so there's some extra walking to be done. Normally this would be a good thing, but today I'm walking like an old man, and carrying my bag with a laptop in it is a real chore. But registration goes relatively smoothly and I get a chance to download all my email. I even reply to a few folks using the bear-skins and stone-knives technology of /usr/bin/mail by way of an ssh connection back to my server.
About halfway through the mail, I give up. The chairs here at the hotel aren't helping my back, and my nose is starting to run again. I head out and pick up some Sudafed at the hotel gift shop, but don't think to buy any Advil. I'm really not thinking all that clearly, and just head back to the hotel. There, at the front desk, I get some advil and head back to my room for a bit.
After about an hour, the drugs are working, and I'm feeling like facing the world again. I get in the car, and head to Cupertino. I'm thinking that I might be able to find a copy of Street Atlas at the Company Store at Apple, plus I know my way around there better than downtown San Jose. And for once, going to a place that's designed for cars seems like a good idea, since I'm not really up to any walking. First stop is a drugstore to get more Sudafed and Advil and then I get a call back from Ingrid. We can't lunch today, but make some plans for tomorrow. Next some lunch and then the Company Store, where they don't have Street Atlas in stock. I guess I'm going to have to mail-order it once I'm home.
Back to the hotel, where it's time to lay down for a while and rest my back. I get up a few times and make some progress in typing up notes from previous days, but there's no net connection here at the hotel, so I don't get to do a Dave's Picks today, either. But most of the afternoon is spent just laying flat and napping on and off. I like to think it's helping my back, but the spells sitting at the desk in the uncomfortable chair here might be undoing the good of lying around. I'm sure hoping my back is feeling better tomorrow so I can wander around the conference and actually see some stuff. It'd be a real shame to have spent the money on registration and end up missing most of it.
My evenings this week are filling up fast. I have to make time for Kate, who was sick yesterday, plus Ingrid, Paul & Rich, and a possible SmartFriends dinner on Thursday. At least one of the batch is going to lose out, and it's probably going to be the larger group. I've already decided to miss out on the Monday dinner up in Palo Alto tonight, which leaves me at loose ends for this evening. But the hotel has a dinner that I've never tried, so perhaps I'll go check that out.
Dinner wasn't bad. They advertise it as a "light dinner" and that's just what it was, but it's enough food to tide me over, and it's a lot more pleasant at this point than heading out in search of a restaurant alone. Besides, I think I'm going to have plenty happening for dinners over the week, and this sort of completes the theme today of "resting up from my vacation".
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