Wisconsin

Yes, I have now been to Wisconsin. It is a lovely state, although the reason I went was not necessarily personal choice but rather for work.

Backing up, last Monday I awoke at 3:45am to commence this journey. Apparently many other people also woke up this early, evidenced by the security line at San Jose wrapped all around the baggage carousels. My three co-workers and I fortunately made it through Security in a timely manner, with even enough time to spare for a stop at Starbucks (I ordered the largest Awake tea possible). The flight attendants were then apparently missing/delayed, so we got off the ground a little late, but we did manage to arrive in Chicago on time. Side note: I really am not a United fan, particularly in a middle seat, but I had 1.5 weeks notice for this trip and options were limited.

Once we arrived in Chicago, the four of us met up with two more co-workers who came in from San Francisco and Sacramento. After one rental car swap - we traded a foul-smelling, dirty Saturn from Texas with no head room for a brand new Ford Taurus - we were on our way. Wisconsin was not the first stop; we had an afternoon meeting in Lake Forest, Illinois, about 30 miles north of O'Hare.

We reached Milwaukee around dinner time and opted to eat at The Water Buffalo in what appeared to be the downtown, right by the river. Milwaukee was a surprisingly quiet city with an equally surprisingly dirty river, but the food was outstanding and I had my first ever Spotted Cow beer (excellent). Navigating out of the city was a bit challenging even with the Hertz Never Lost woman and her constant recalculations. We did see Miller Park where the Brewers play, but no home games that night. Side note: the Red Sox swept the Brewers the previous Friday through Sunday games and Jon Lester pitched a no-hitter that Monday night - I was in a happy state of mind.

Our hotel for the two-night stay was a Towne Suites by Marriott, one of those extended stay type of hotels. We were in a fine mood after the Spotted Cow, cheese, and rocking out to XM satellite radio (have I mentioned I have fun co-workers?!), and the party continued through the check-in process. I think these two women working at the Towne Suites may have been indulging in something in the back room. We finally all managed to get checked in, I did some work, then passed out from exhaustion.

The two days of meetings in Wisconsin went well. Dinner Tuesday night was at a place called Prime Quarter. For $19.95 you select your cut of meat, they cook it for a $2 charge or you can cook it on the open grill, plus you get a baked potato, Texas toast, and a trip to the salad bar (which entailed not much more than iceberg lettuce, cukes, pasta salad, hard-boiled eggs, and bacon). We had to order the wine by its number, just like ordering food at a Chinese restaurant. I knew for sure by this point that I wasn't in California any more. One of my co-workers is vegetarian and I think he lost 5 pounds on this trip. After dinner I worked until my mind just froze up from fatigue.

Wednesday morning we made a quick stop at Brennan's to buy cheese. Our supplier was kind enough to refrigerate the cheese all day for us during the meetings. We departed a little after 3pm on Wednesday and our flight to Denver left at 5pm out of Milwaukee. The plane was tiny and the conditions were turbulent, but we made it. Our layover in Denver permitted us to grab dinner there before the connecting flight to San Jose. That flight was delayed so we arrived in California a little after 11pm. By the time we got our bags and I dropped my manager off at his house, it was midnight before I got home. It was 1:30am before I went to sleep due to the unpacking and email damage control. All in all, I was up for 22 hours that day and went into "fake it 'til you make it" mode at work the next day. And that was a 12 hour day due to all the catch-up I had from the trip.

All in all, it was a great trip with productive meetings, I enjoyed Wisconsin very much - definitely many thriving suburban communities, and it was good to have a change of pace. But I was overjoyed to have a long weekend this weekend in order to recover from the lack of sleep!