Stranger in a Strange Land

Minnesota: land of 10,000 lakes, the Mall of America, half of the Joshes, and my company's corporate offices. I arrived this morning at 8:30am on a largely uneventful Northwest flight. I slept the entire way except for a few brief seconds as my knee cap was being shattered by a drink cart. As soon as we hit the ground, three colleagues and I packed into a Mazda 6 and headed across town for Starbucks and a scone. We sipped and chewed slowly, as we weren't in any hurry to get to the office. In fact, none of us is really sure why we are even here. Something about a meeting.

This is my first time to this building. Unlike our Kansas City office, this place is very corporate. Lots of suits and nice shoes and fitted shirts as opposed to jeans and t-shirts that I'm used to seeing. Since I don't go on stage until 2:00pm, I've been sequestered to the office of a Vice President of Strategic Accounts salesperson named Darryl to file my nails work. His office is characteristically sterile. There's nothing on the desk except a monitor and a docking station, and two piles of manilla folders. I could probably shut the door and nosily rifle through them, but I just don't care enough. Besides, it's probably just a collection of dry cleaning bills and Hooter's receipts anyway.

So far today I've been working pretty hard. I've managed to summon the support team to bring me a spare power cord for my laptop since I left mine at home (no small feat). Then I ventured out into the common area for a Diet Dr. Pepper and a thimble-sized glass of ice. I also used the restroom (twice) and even made a couple of 900-number business-related calls. As soon as I finish this post and my colleague gets out of her pricing meeting, I think I'm going to be ready for lunch. I had no idea I'd be working this hard today.