Long Island

Okay, so now I’m really behind. Hard to imagine how much has transpired since I last wrote. But I’ll give it a go.

This text I actually wrote by hand on my last day on Long Island:

I’m in NY – a place called Glen Cove, specifically. I’ll back up a bit before talking about what is going on right now. I arrived in NY by train from DC. I was to stay in Manhattan for the weekend before heading to Long Island for four days of meetings. I had quite a bit planned for this brief stop knowing that I would be sequestered in meetings over the coming days. When we have meetings at HQ, it’s much easier to run errands, meet friends and so forth during small gaps in the schedule here and there. But being off in a conference facility, it would make it more complicated. Thus, I needed to push hard to get some things done before Sunday night.

My darling wife had assisted me with my time management by ordering loads of things online from Burundi and have them waiting for me at the hotel. It was such an impressive pile of boxes that I felt compelled to take a photo (unbeknownst to me, a colleague of mine had exactly the same situation and we laughed we found out that we’d both taken photos).

there was even more after this...

It did save me a lot of time though I still needed to make my regular trip(s) to a very nice grocery store not far from the hotel.

On Sunday I was off to Long Island. I’d never been there before so it was interesting to see some new parts of NY. The meetings were held in a huge, hold 1915 mansion that has become a conference center. It was very nice and quite similar to where we stayed in Windsor (UK) back in June 2014. I don’t know how expensive it is. Maybe we had a good rate but I confess to enjoying these massive, old accommodations. I quite enjoy history and I would prefer old and a bit tired rather than shiny, new and a bit soulless. 

coming back from a rainy, early morning run

The weather was chilly and somewhat rainy. We even had snow one afternoon. However with the exception of a couple morning jogs, I was more or less oblivious to the weather outside. We were in this self-contained facility where everything (rooms, meeting rooms, gym, pool, etc.) was in the same building. 

not bad

In addition to the tight schedule of lots of meetings, there were three guest speakers that were invited. All were good and added to the week. One was Mandy Patinkin, an actor that I think is amazing. I was able to meet him briefly afterwards and tell him how much his show (Homeland) stresses me out (though I can’t help but watch it).

Mandy

Another was Fareed Zakaria (CNN). He’s pretty amazing too. Brilliant guy and quite enjoyable to listen to.

Tomorrow (at least it was tomorrow when I wrote this) I head back to Manhattan. I’ll have meetings at HQ on Friday and then I fly out on Saturday. Still missing my family.