Just back from lovely White Plains, after five fucking hours in a van with a driver who has only marginally controlled anger management issues. Rain, endless and traffic and Young Frankenstein on the van's VCR were the accompaniments on the way home. The meeting we attended had about one hour of real content in 7 hours of presentations. Additionally, there were a series of presenters who displayed behavior that's pretty typical when I am the only woman in the group that's being presented to: they fail to make eye contact with me, give me that horrible fingertip-only handshake (which is neither polite nor gentlemanly - it's just revolting and disrespectful), and do not provide me a business card. This behavior can be displayed by either men or women, which is quite sad.

About the Crowne Plaza hotel:
The Good: nicely appointed bathroom (granite counter, make-up mirror, curved shower curtain rod), digital thermostat, automated mini-bar, acceptable desk chair, wake-up call came precisely on time

The Bad: no high speed Internet (and the dial-up connection was slow), no hand and body lotion, high complicated, non-intuitive Sony clock radio (I've had a Sony for years at home and have always thought the user interface was very easy to use, but this one looked like an alien egg and had buttons that had to be pressed in combination to set the alarm, which caused me to change the time, which was difficult to reset)

The Ugly: hideous carpet with bleach stains (maybe to get out the blood) and a mixture of furniture that was just the wrong side of eclectic.

Caitlin does not have mono and her white blood count is good, which rules out a host of more serious ailments. She still doesn't feel well, so it's unclear whether we are going on vacation or not. Did I mention that I'm tired and would rather stay home anyway?