Arrggggh. The high humidity of Arkansas combined with the 90+ temperatures made it absolutely stifling. I arrived late Tuesday night and at 10:00 the air was sticky and thick. As I left my suitcase behind, I had to make a trip to the Rogers, Arkansas Wal Mart a new superstore, where I picked up grooming essentials and a few other items for flavor school. The store is very bright with nice wide aisles and good signage atop the aisles. At that time of night, there were still quite a few shoppers! My room at Embassy Suites was more than nice - a large living room with a flat screen TV - same in the spacious, comfortable bedroom. In the morning the shower was a treat with gobs of good hot water and a perfect hair dryer. Breakfast buffet is outstanding with plenty of choices of hot and cold foods, fruit and coffee. No complaints - but nor should there be for almost $250 a night in the middle of nowhere.
The Unilever offices at this location have grown from 15 or 20 people 7 years ago (last time I was there) to over 125 people. Everyone appears to be under 40 and I feel like a bit of a dinosaur among them. Young people treat me either with great respect and as irrelevant. The charming young man who is the team leader there couldn't have been nicer.
I would say the school was a success and the participants both learned a few things and enjoyed themselves - my goal. The Unilever people were happy that they had a chance to present the big blue U and interact with the decision makers in a slightly different environment than the usual buyer's meeting. I believe they will benefit greatly from the presentation. But is it worth it for me to do these things? It takes several days to pull everything together and then at least two days of my time for the travel and execution.
Incredibly, this time I left my suitcase behind. Pulled out of the garage and simply left it sitting by the car. I had gotten into the car and was distracted looking for the keys. Found them and pulled out without going back out to load the suitcase. I realized what I had done about three quarters of the way to the airport. Past the point of no return, I called Richard and caught him just as he was leaving the house. He rushed back and took my suitcase to Brian who taped it up and got it on UPS for early morning delivery. Thank God. It would be so embarrassing to have not been able to execute the school properly. I now will develop a list and a back-up plan in case. For instance I am going to mail everything ahead from now on. Then I will bring along a copy of the most crucial things in case the mail screws up.
At the Unilever offices they were having "semester" reviews...all these young sales and marketing people get to pretend they are still in college I guess. They were huddled in offices going over number after number and many of them confessed to me that they had pulled an "all nighter" getting ready. On these occasions, food is ordered in and yesterday it came from Chic-Fil-A which the Arkansasans love...it's a home-grown concept. So, for lunch I had
fried nuggets, fruit salad, veggie salad and gallons of iced tea which they provide. The nuggets were actually pretty good - not as salty as most and crisp enough to hold up for a couple of hours. For dinner at the North West Regional Airport, I had one of the really terrible eating experiences we all suffer through on the run. A piece of luke-warm limp pizza, cheese plasticized on the surface, nuggets of brown ground meat (which they called shaushage) and one paper-thin slice of pepperoni. About as bad as it gets, but it did keep me from expiring of hunger. Keeping my eyes open on the ride home was difficult.
Exiting the Ontario airport into the cool California night felt like being wrapped up in a familiar blanket and I appreciated with every bone in my body the walk across the airport to my car, without streams of sweat running down my sides and hair clumped up at the back of my neck. A young man in the ticket booth where you exit the airport gave me a dazzling smile which I thanked him for. As he turned around in the booth to run my credit card through, I noticed he only had one hand and the other arm ended in a stump about half way down. During the minute long exchange he told me he liked people, was always happy and grateful for life.
And I worry about leaving my suitcase behind.
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