Flummoxed by stop signs and blinking red lights

I got up at 5 am this morning and left the house at quarter to 6. About 2 minutes down the road I realized I forgot my phone, so I drove back home and got it. Then I drove into work and got into another car to go to a Market Research conference in Waltham, MA. Had a good time, got some swag – like this Bruins towel thingy, learned some stuff, was charming, and then this happened:

Yes, I got to pose next to the 2004 World Series trophy and fondle a couple of World Series rings. This is because one of the speakers was from the Red Sox. Pretty sweet, huh? You want to touch me, don’t you.

We had speakers from The Patriots/The Revolution, The Bruins, The Worcester Sharks, The Red Sox and the NBC Sports network.

Of course, if you really know me, you know that my interest in sports is fairly non-existent. Don’t get me wrong, I am a true New Englander, and I will go to my death trying to irritate fans of the other teams (other being any team not housed in Boston.) Especially Yankee fans.

[Fortunately, I don’t need to like sports in order to do crosstabs. Crosstabs are fun!]

So anyway, after our conference, we got back to our offices after 5 and I rushed to meet Edmund at Local Sprouts in Portland to see the Port Veritas Grand Slam Finals. Port Veritas is the local/Portland Poetry group, and they host open mics very week and a slam a month. Except for in April [National Poetry Month, natch], when they choose through poetry slams, the team that will represent Portland in the National Poetry Slam. Fantastic show. All very excellent poets. I laughed and I cried. Excellent, excellent stuff. Totally want to do it myself. Maybe next year =)

Even though I wanted to, I chose not to go to the after-party at Mama’s Crowbar. Just too tired. It was almost 11, and I left home before 6 am, remember?

Edmund walked me to my car, then I drove him to his car, and I drove home. I knew I was tired, but I didn’t realize how tired until I waited at the first 4-way stop sign for something or someone to tell me to go. And when I got to my first blinking red light, did the same thing. Flummoxed by stop signs and blinking red lights, I was. Flummoxed.

I am home now, so that’s good.