Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Good news, bad news day

Some days are like roller coasters. Up and down.

After being hounded by the vendor who supplies my documentation development tool (and offered a nice discount), I signed up for a product 1-day roadshow in Boston. My plan was to take the train in to avoid the high cost of parking and the nasty traffic. Here's how the day went:

The Good News: I had no problem getting up extra early so I could catch the 7:00 train.

The Bad News: I happened to be check the MBTA website in the morning and saw an alert that the trains were delayed by over 30 minutes. This meant I'd have to drive in to get to the seminar on time.

The Good News: Traffic sucked but wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I arrived in plenty of time to get a good seat. And it was rainy and cold. I didn't mind not having to hike from the train station to the hotel.

The Bad News: Another attendee did take the train and I found out that there wasn't a delay after all. I could have avoided the nasty ride and paying for parking. Even more bad news, I didn't park at the hotel parking lot and the vendor was offering parking validation (which would have discounted the cost of parking). Why didn't the vendor say something about parking validation before the event?

The Good News: Parking ended up costing me a lot less than I expected. Not sure if I read the rates incorrectly when I parked or some weird, good karma mistake. In any case, it wasn't bad at all. Even more good news: I got home a lot earlier than if I had taken the train (but the traffic still sucked).

The Bad News: I'm rarely out of the office, but the one day I am out, the CTO asks to set up a brainstorming session with me. After looking at the presentation handout, I start to wonder if I made a mistake in attending the seminar.

The Good news: I heard a number of interesting tips that are going to be quite useful. Attending the event wasn't a waste at all. And, I'll get to meet with the CTO later on in the week (which gives me a bit of time to prepare my thoughts).

And that's how my day went. I'm looking forward to a more even-tempered day tomorrow.

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