On the road again: Portland, day 1

Ah, the glamorous life of a tech-company executive! Add the spice of being a science-fiction writer as well, and surely you have days of wonderment!

Or not.

Today began about 7:00 a.m., after a little over three hours of sleep interrupted by one wake-up. I showered and headed to the airport. Security was nice, but no upgrade was to be mine, so I took my middle seat--at least it was in the exit row--on the flight to DFW. I was the smallest guy on my row, so we spent the flight trying not to share shoulder sweat. Lovely.

Fortunately for us, none of the weather in Texas affected us. We landed at DFW a hair early, pulled up to our gate, and...sat. The jet bridge wouldn't work. A group of passengers near me grew surly as the realized they had missed their connection to Hawaii for their vacations. I don't blame them, but their anger also didn't help anything.

By the time we got off the plane, we'd lost most of our lunch break. Gina and I grabbed a quick meal, then boarded the next plane for Portland--again in exit-row, center seats.

This flight wasn't anywhere near as productive as I'd hoped it would be, but I invested part of that time in a wonderful conversation with a man working for a major company making laser weapons. For an SF writer, this was great stuff indeed.

We even landed in Portland early, which let me catch up on my voicemail--for a change, all good--while waiting for my luggage.

Other than work, two nice things happened in Portland today. First, while going out to pick up bottles of water and Diet Coke with Lime at a nearby drug store, we encountered an Hispanic celebration in the big brick square downtown. Musicians, tents with people cooking food, speakers, and even costumed men, women, and children on horses--this one had plenty to offer casual spectators such as us.

The second good event was the room-service dinner, which came from the Heathman Hotel kitchen downstairs. The food was quite good, and eating in the room meant I could miss less work.

I still have hours to go before I can sleep, and I'm falling down tired, but I'll finish today's work before I sleep. It's what I do.

Ah, my glamorous life!