JavaOne/OracleOpenWorld officially start on Sunday, but for me they start tonight. I've spent the last couple of days packing and prepping like a crazy person and then drove down to do a presentation at corporate HQ and then back up to check into my hotel for the week. Bob's on his way in now (he had a football game tonight).
I am paying extra $$$ (Larry can afford it) to rent a refrigerator for our room, and I'll go hit the grocery store for yogurt, coconut water, and a few other things that have become necessities in the last couple of months.
The weirdest thing about packing is the total change in my toiletry kit. No hair products, brushes, combs, anything. Lightens the load considerably. I've basically abandoned the scarves at this point. I'll wear them or a hat if my head gets cold, and for sun protection but mostly it's just too fussy. I end up pulling at them, or they fly off in the breeze or I turn my head and the scarf turns and gets stuck on the fabric on my shirt and then when I turn my head again the scarf stays where it was. I tried wig tape, and it helped a little bit, but still kept getting stuck in weird places or in the last three hairs that are still firmly attached to my head. So I'm going out bald and wearing bright lipstick and calling it done. I intend to go find some giant earrings at Macy's tomorrow to complete the look.
But to make up for the lack of hair crap, there are two gallon size ziplocs full of prescription bottles, plus my giant 4x7 pillbox, plus my extra barf bags (still haven't needed them, keeping them around just in case).
My biggest fear about this week is really just about eating out at every single meal. It's always a worry when you travel anyway, it's a bigger worry now because if something throws my system out of whack it could be way worse than usual. So I'm back on my old school travel protocol - take a pepto bismol pill before every meal and bed.
The doc at the travel clinic who did my immunizations for my first India trip recommended that - she said that the "coating" action of the pepto helps keep some of the minor bugs you might pick up from sticking in your gut, and while most of my travel companions got sick at some point, I never did (except in Belgium, where I didn't take the damned pepto). So back to that and trying to be careful. The hardest thing is going to be avoiding the buffets - it's the way food is served at conferences this size, but it's a risk for me now, so I need to go out and order every meal off a menu all week, which is not tragic by any means, but will be more time consuming and means I'll probably miss some of the group meal events.
I am paying extra $$$ (Larry can afford it) to rent a refrigerator for our room, and I'll go hit the grocery store for yogurt, coconut water, and a few other things that have become necessities in the last couple of months.
The weirdest thing about packing is the total change in my toiletry kit. No hair products, brushes, combs, anything. Lightens the load considerably. I've basically abandoned the scarves at this point. I'll wear them or a hat if my head gets cold, and for sun protection but mostly it's just too fussy. I end up pulling at them, or they fly off in the breeze or I turn my head and the scarf turns and gets stuck on the fabric on my shirt and then when I turn my head again the scarf stays where it was. I tried wig tape, and it helped a little bit, but still kept getting stuck in weird places or in the last three hairs that are still firmly attached to my head. So I'm going out bald and wearing bright lipstick and calling it done. I intend to go find some giant earrings at Macy's tomorrow to complete the look.
But to make up for the lack of hair crap, there are two gallon size ziplocs full of prescription bottles, plus my giant 4x7 pillbox, plus my extra barf bags (still haven't needed them, keeping them around just in case).
My biggest fear about this week is really just about eating out at every single meal. It's always a worry when you travel anyway, it's a bigger worry now because if something throws my system out of whack it could be way worse than usual. So I'm back on my old school travel protocol - take a pepto bismol pill before every meal and bed.
The doc at the travel clinic who did my immunizations for my first India trip recommended that - she said that the "coating" action of the pepto helps keep some of the minor bugs you might pick up from sticking in your gut, and while most of my travel companions got sick at some point, I never did (except in Belgium, where I didn't take the damned pepto). So back to that and trying to be careful. The hardest thing is going to be avoiding the buffets - it's the way food is served at conferences this size, but it's a risk for me now, so I need to go out and order every meal off a menu all week, which is not tragic by any means, but will be more time consuming and means I'll probably miss some of the group meal events.
I suppose it's completely worthless to say "Try not to overdo it"??
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Honestly, I'm really not. Time for two naps per day is built into my schedule (about to take one now) and the people here know me well and have no qualms about telling me I look tired and should go to bed now. I'll be good, I promise.
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