Drink Rum

All roads in Boston lead into each other. It's a proven fact. I've never seen a city with a more randomly set up traffic structure. People think DC is crazy, try Boston some time. I swear there's probably a place there where four one-way streets empty into a vacant lot with no exit.

I sat down in my uber comfy first class seat on United's happy Airbus 320. I like the Airbus line. Yes, I know they're UK/French/German built, but they're better than flying on most of the 7x7 Boeing birds these days. Being in first class I got to get on first. While this looks like a great deal to the masses standing around waiting to get on a plane, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. You get boarded at the same time as children without parents, parents without legs, or the oldest people ever. On my flight there were several people who probably taking the flight to remember they day they saw the Wright Brothers fly.

I was automatically the bane of first class seating. I'd never flown up there before, so I was being annoying... according to the guy sitting next to me. I don't think hopping up and down in my seat while chanting, "free drinks please, free drinks please!" was annoying. Several children passing into coach thought it was great. I heard several of them mimicking me in the back later in the flight.

One of the reasons it takes so long to board a plane is because of all the froo-froo stuff going on in first class. They stopped the boarding to serve us orange juice, water, or coffee before flight. I asked for orange juice and some vodka. They gave it to me along with a nice, non-licey pillow, and a towel styled blanket. I pretended to fall asleep and feigned loud snoring. I told the guy next to me that I was just kidding around and didn't snore like that. I told him the only thing he had to fear was my explosive gas... but that only bothered me when I was drunk. I think took a swig of vodka and laughed.

The guy buried his head in a magazine about Mens Health or something.

The plane taxied and then stopped. We were delayed 40 minutes due to immigrants. Saturdays along the Northeast Coast from Washington DC, New York, to Boston are immigrant central. Tons of international flights filled with the tired, unwashed masses yearning to breathe free and eat a McWhopper were filling the skys. We had to wait until some of them landed.

The flight was short and uneventful. I listened to the cockpit channel on the radio device and was entertained by that.

Nothing eventful happened at the airport.

We then took a $30 cab ride from the airport to the hotel. The distance was under 4 miles, but we had to pay to use a tunnel and a bean tax or something.

The hotel was nice. Sheraton Boston. Tired and hungry I went off and got some food. Kalifornia Pizza Hut. I got a pizza with a sausage on it or something. It was ok.

I decided to head over to the convention center to register. The conference had a bus service set up to go back and forth every 15 minutes. Our bus driver was new (I'm not lying) to Boston and got lost. We took a very nice long bus tour of the city. We went around the convention building twice before the drive finally admitted he was lost and we could all get out and walk or drive around lost for another hour. We all got out. The traffic in Boston is silly. There's not much volume. Lots of pedestrians... all of which jaywalk and slow things down. The roads are all narrow and intersected randomly.

We walked to the massive convention center and signed in. We got loot bags and badges. We were like IT sheriffs.

I then got bored and left.

It turns out that I missed a special celebrity guest... Chloe O'Brien from 24 was there to talk about IT and security.

Microsoft having a fictional character come talk about IT and security seemed somewhat fitting.

I was bummed that I didn't get to meet Chloe though. I watched 24 (but not this season, so shhhhh) and liked her character. She's kinda sexy in a wierd girl sorta way.

I went to bed early. I had to be up early the next day for the real start of the conference.