Hotels, mountains, and dorm rooms

My last evening in the office proved as hectic and stressful as one might expect. I unfortunately was unable to wrap up the few important things that needed to be done before I stepped on the plane, so I went home a little preoccupied. I spent the first hour home trying to coordinate phone calls to interview potential roommates (as if there wasn’t already enough going on) and didn’t get packing until around 10ish. I gave up around 12ish and went to bed, setting my alarm for 4:15 to finish throwing too many clothes into my giant suitcase.

When I landed in Denver I headed straight downtown with my colleague to meet up with our bosses and get some e-mails off to our partners. The day was pretty hectic and insane, with lots of phone calls to what are now “good friends” at hotels, trying to straighten out logistical nightmares and putting complex puzzles of accommodation and meeting requirements together. High maintenance people + crowded oversold convention= crazy. The whole group of NDI staff also took a walk through of our program’s space at the Denver Performing Art’s Center. It’s pretty amazing. They have provided us with a beautiful office including a deck overlooking downtown Denver and the mountains, two large theater spaces for our panels, and an incredible ballroom for our opening reception. The whole room is flanked by windows looking out across the city. We then took a tour of our hospitality suite which is located within the hard security perimeter of the convention hall and walking distance from where the whole thing will go down. Very impressive space.

After such a marathon day of walking, traveling, and cutting deals I was feeling pretty dead. Finally around 7:00pm I got everything I asked for from the hotel I had been battling with for the past week whose only prior word uttered was "no", and indulged in a little lap of victory (I literally ran through the office declaring victory…small things in life). Those of us staying at the Denver University dorms (that’s what I said) loaded into vans, hunted down some snacks, and headed to our concrete walled, bunk bed filled, college desked dorm rooms…tomorrow I will try to remember how to iron on a chair.

So after I finish up a few e-mails, give a different hotel a call back (that just called me at 11:45pm) and post this bad boy, I’m going to make my little bunk bed and pass out…tomorrow begins the real work and hopefully more victory laps!

By the way: you can start seeing pictures I post throughout the week at http://picasaweb.google.com/RoseJackson3/ILFInDenver