Plano is Plain-o

Woo!  Word play!

I’m in Plano for the week, at a conference.  I’m staying in a depressing extended stay hotel, which reminds me of my 2011 summer at my firm, when I also stayed in a depressing extended stay hotel.  The difference then was that I had a CAR.  Here, I have no car – I am at the mercy of the hotel shuttle and its random schedule.  I will probably break records for the smallest meal reimbursement request of all time – just $38 for the week, consisting entirely of Wal Mart groceries.  This has been a week of mac and cheese, omelettes, and red wine from a screw top bottle poured into a juice glass.

It’s also been a week of long runs.  One thing I do enjoy when the children are out of my hair is a good long workout, and I did a five mile run today and yesterday, exploring the pleasantly boring suburban streets filled with foreign engineers and their families.  (Seriously.  This is, like, Little India.)  I have been watching bad tv, doing some work at night, and drinking too much coffee in an attempt to stay awake through the looooong days of Power Point presentations.  I don’t sleep well in hotels, either, so I’m getting to the point of Majorly Sleepy, on this, my fourth night away from home.

I prefer my weeklong conferences to be in exciting cities, where I can walk around and sight see and try different delicious foods and eat alone in restaurants like a brave girl.  If I’ve got to be away from the boys, I prefer it to be somewhere cool.  But . . . eh.  You take what you get, right?  In the absence of a cool city, this week I’ve enjoyed some amazing bad television – including The Office (abominable these days, not interesting since Season 3), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and some sort of criminal show with Kevin Bacon.  I’ve savored some bad red wine.  I have eaten a box of Great Value macaroni and cheese.  I have slept in until as late as 7am.  The only thing better than a vacation is a change, right?