Homeward Bound

Written 15 April, 2006

Homeward Bound

I'm writing this on my laptop in the lobby of the Hilton Airport Philadelphia, just killing time. Soon I'll be off to the airport to Delta home to Atlanta.

I'm hoping my flight won't be late, since a Nor'wester has moved in and it's raining like cats and dogs.

I had a wonderful three days at the conference. I was lionized and given my big award and said some words and even signed an autograph.

Now it's time to go home, and I'm happy.

This was the first time since 24 October, when I started Second Life, that I've been away from the computer for more than 12 or 15 hours. Surprisingly, my mouth is not dry and my hands aren't shaking.

I was able to get onto SL from my hotel room, but it was so laggyI couldn't maneuver and the world was gray. I'm not sure if the poor performance was due to my laptop's lack of memory, or its graphics display, or connection speed, but at least I was online and able to talk in Chat with my friends.

Since the fall the laptop had a peculiar problem-- it would go online, but it refused to go to secure areas. Whenever it came time to enter a password, the show stopped.

Perhaps some of my geekier friends will be able to explain why this might have happened-- but the question is academic, since I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Now all my programs are gone and will need reloading, but the laptop itself functions properly.

I'm happy to say I was able to spend time with someone very special to me while I was in Philadelphia. We had the most wonderful Italian dinner and laughed and talked far into the night. It was one of the most special times of my life, and I'm so grateful for it, and for her.

And now, back to the grindstone.

Well, not exactly-- I arranged to take Monday off so I could unpack.