Yesterday morning, I woke up to a siren... and then a voice saying... Warning, this is not a test, a fire has been detected on your floor. Please proceed to the nearest stairwell and exit... or something to that effect.

Yeah, at the Marriott, the fire alarm went off, at 6:20am. I had my alarm set for 6:30, so I missed out on a solid 10 minutes of sleep! Hey, 10 minutes could mean the world to me. Well, we all kind of go to the stairwells, walk outside. Some people really took it seriously... because women were in nighties, some guy was ONLY wearing boxers, etc. I took a few seconds to throw on my glasses, and some clothes... even a bra.



(Ugghh - Blogger just shut on me and lost the rest of my post!!)

I was pretty pissy that my sleep was interrupted and that my customers were seeing me with bed head, morning breath, and tank and shorts... but then I saw this, and suddenly, I was not so upset..




Then about 6:30 they let us get back into our rooms. When I went back into my room, I noticed that same rainbow above the golf course.




I was running behind, so I hurried into the shower (where the alarm went off - again, but I just stayed in the shower). I got dressed and ran down to breakfast before my meeting.

I was in meetings all day, one of which I had to do a 30 min presentation. After that the whole group had lunch and hit the golf course!

It had FINALLY stopped raining, and the weather cleared up for us, though it was really balmy. We played at TPC Heron Bay, and I actually had a pretty good game, especially considering that I am a pretty lousy golfer. On one hole, a par 3, my drive landed on the green, about 3 feet from the pin. Yeah, I rock.



After golfing, we all went back to the hotel to shower up before dinner. One of the guys in my conference offered to come to my room to help me, or discuss work, or something... Yeah, I am one of few females in my male dominated construction field. It gets weird sometimes, but I will explain more about that later...

We had dinner, networked, talked a bunch. Then I stayed out with a few of the guys from our group drinking a bit until pretty late. I was also raving about a product I use a lot to the rep that worked for the particular company. He was pretty amused that I loved his product so much. I was selling it to the other people in my group, essentially.

Finally, I went to bed about 1:30, and had to be back downstairs in my meeting again at 7:00am... which I am struggling.

I must talk about something... so, I am in a male dominated field, and construction/maintenance workers have a reputation of being, well, less than perfect gentlemen. Also, I think most people that travel, especially alone, are men, making me a bit of an anomaly. Well, men then give me some stereotypes... one is that I am a super slut and will sleep around on my trips, another is my company sent me to flirt, and possibly sleep around and finally they think I am just some random at the hotel, I could not possibly be with their conference. Which makes it funny when you start telling me weird things about your sexual adventures last weekend... and then you see me, at your conference the next morning. Oh, and I haven't been on a trip yet, where I didn't have the chance to bang a married man - in fact, this trip the option was there the Tuesday night BEFORE my Thursday conference started! Funny.

The last time I ate was 1:30pm Pacific time... yesterday. It is not because I have an eating disorder... it is just bad timing and lame cities.

I am in Coral Springs... land of old people, golf courses, and of course, convention centers. I got in late last night and couldn't eat during my connection in Atlanta because I did not have time, because my plane was late (probably because so many people carried their bag on!). So, I get to my hotel around 1:15am, and everything is closed. It looks like a ghost town, and I am in the middle of nowhere, not even a 7-11!!! I ask the front desk clerk if there is any food anywhere... she conjures up some boxes of honey nut cheerios, no milk. I eat some, I am not going to go into shock from hunger now... I was in too late to order room service for breakfast, but figured no big deal, I would go to the restaurant when I wake up.

I wake up at 8:45am from housekeeping. I forgot to put the do not disturb. That was so early, 5:45am my time... I couldn't really fall back asleep because the hotel is atrium style and the door to my room has a 1 inch crack between the door and the floor... so I can hear everything in the lounge. Stupid design.

So, I shower, go downstairs to the lounge... no one helps me. I go to the restaurant... no one is there!!! There was a buffet out and I almost just stole food I am dying of hunger. I go to the front desk, who originally told me about the food options.. I ask, do you really have food here... I plead my case, how I haven't eaten in hours... They have to call a server.. who then says, you want coffee? I say, no food, as I have little energy to say much else. She tells me I have to go to the restaurant, not the lounge. I say they told me I could order here, and I went to the restaurant and no one was working. She then gives me a menu, and lets me order... right away, while standing there. I tried to order a salad and then have her put that in while I decided on a meal, but she wasn't having that... so I just ordered the first thing that looked decent...

I ordered food at 8:14... It's been 15 mins, and I have only a water at my table... with a lemon... I am thinking about eating the lemon...

Oh, and I do not have a rental car and I am about 3 miles away from civilization... just Everglades and Golf Courses....

Update, it's now 8:37am PST... no food...

Update, I might die of starvation soon... 8:51... no food.... and no people that apparently work here to ask where the hell my food is...

Update... 8:57... FINALLY!