Rays of the Marriott light show

Thoughts on life in general: Because of the nature of my blog, I don't get to expound as much as I'd like on how I feel about life in general...at least I don't think I can, but then I remember - this is my blog and I can do whatever I want! So here goes.

I have a friend who is going through...if not a hard time, at least a bit of a rough patch. I like to think that I'm a good friend and that I'm there for people (maybe I'm delusional), but being on the road makes me feel a bit helpless, a bit detached, a bit...useless. I don't like that feeling. It's hard to feel supportive and encouraging when all you've got is a phone and you can't just run over and give someone a hug and a plate of fresh baked cookies. But I guess I should just be thankful I have America's most reliable wireless network (also God's preferred wireless network for those who wanted to know) and don't have to rely on a horse to get my message to its destination. I hope you know I'm there for you, even if I'm stuck hundreds of miles from home, alone in the middle of a midnight mid-west thunderstorm. ;)

The guys on my team this week focus a lot on women in the conversations of the day. Like...a lot. Their theories, opinions, tastes, past, present, future, advice, etc. etc. etc. That gets kind of annoying, but this morning I had to laugh. My fellow sales rep likes older women and says to me, "You aren't attracted to older women are you?" I just smiled and laughed to myself.

Apparently there's a competition going on in our team. We're getting the opinions of random women i.e. attendees, waitresses, front desk girls etc. on who's the most attractive of the guys on our team. I don't know why we're even trying because the manager is a fairly attractive older Latin guy. He's like the Latin version of George Hamilton. Frankly I don't think the rest of us even stand a chance. I, being a scrawny, clean-cut, white boy, certainly don't stand a chance when we're asking none but the most blue-collar of women. I've resigned myself to this fact and am just entertained by the entire idea. Now, if we were asking artsy, indy, or emo girls, I think I'd sweep it.

It's a week of smelly people. It just is. We can't avoid them.

We use hand sanitizer at the end of every event. It's affectionately been re-named "Attendee-be-gone" and I think with good reason.

The Marriott, which is right down the street from us, and can thus be easily seen from my hotel window, has lights adorning one side which perform a nightly show involving the entire spectrum that's quite entertaining. It's a color-changing, shape-shifting, multi-patterned extravaganza. At one point the wall of the Marriott looks like a plaid picnic blanket. It's pretty cool. Here's a video, sorry you can't experience the full coolness of it all, but my technology can only do so much. If you wait til the end of the video, you'll see the hotel turn into its own marquee: