Good morning! Happy Valentine’s Day! 6:00AM has arrived, everyone is up, and both CNN and ESPN are starting over their hours. I slept from 6:00PM last night to 5:00AM this morning. Yes, I was tired. Maybe I should rewind a couple of days.

Let’s start Thursday, shall we? I woke at 4:30EST and ran six miles by 6:00AM. After a shower and continental breakfast I sat near the pool and drank coffee. Ok, I have articulated my hatred of Florida before, but I must admit that sitting next to the pool, the wind blowing through the palms, was pretty cool. I bounced around different sessions and the evil, twisted Florida Mall (the biggest mall in Florida, attached to the hotel) for the morning. At eleven I checked out and stashed my bag with the valets. The woman at the desk told me a Barnes and Noble was right outside the mall so I hit the expansive parking lots and started walking. Apparently sidewalks are not a priority, but I reached the streets (might as well been a highway) after a half-mile or so. The B and N was next to a Best Buy, so I stopped at the latter and picked up that Pirates video game for the boys. While checking out, by the way, the Best Buy power went down and the dimmer emergency lights activated. The clerk told me that happened all the time. Anyway, I thought about picking up Twilight for the ride home but decided against it. Back at the mall/hotel I settled onto a couch and read a chapter of the Lawrence. By 2:50 I was ready for my session. I waited outside the room, per my routine, until three minutes before the session was set to start. I nailed that presentation. I had, oh, maybe seventy, eighty people (should have counted) and stuck with the student-oriented focus and the clean, simple, and practical messages. After I talked with a few of the attendees then hauled ass out for a cab to the airport. I wasn’t going to wait for the shitty Mears car service, which I will never use again. Idiots. The airport was crowded but I was basking in the post-presentation glow so I hung out in the huge main room, checked out the food court (nothing), then waited twenty minutes in the security line. At the next food court I found a Starbucks with yogurt/granola and ate before I boarded the plane. The flight, while crowded, wasn’t bad. I read and talked with the woman next to me. She had never flown before, so we talked through the details, etc. She also scared the shit out of me with alligator stories. I should know better than to ask. By the time I arrived home I was famished…I ate about seventeen cookies and crashed hard.

Friday morning I woke early but skipped basketball. By seven I was in the office. Preston and I talked, I watered the plants, etc. After a couple interesting U meetings I stuck around for the first half of SOE then got the hell out of the building. Maybe I should stick around for the occasional SOE meeting, but I was exhausted to the point of illness. People kept telling me I looked bad.

So I slept. And I’m up now. Some of my energy is returning. We’ll see. Have a good Saturday.