Trip to Baton Rouge

Our yearly user meetings took place over the last two days at work. We were scheduled to hold meetings on the 26th in Shreveport at the Holiday Inn with another meeting the next day in Baton Rouge at the Louisiana School for the Deaf.

Yesterday's meeting went well. It was the first time in a year or so that I've spoken in front of a crowd of over 15 people, the last time being a speech class during the last summer of my college career. As far as I know, I did pretty well. I remember most of what I said, I didn't twitch, tremble or stutter, and managed to avoid wetting myself. I suppose those are the most important criteria by which I judge my public speaking occasions.

I only became nervous when, at the conclusion of our meeting, one of our ladies at the back began tremoring. She was diabetic and thought that her sugar was dropping rapidly. We gave her peppermints, orange juice and coke which all seemed to do nothing for the shaking and chills she experienced. She was getting worse, so we called an ambulance and it turned out that her blood sugar hadn't dropped as everyone expected, it had actually spiked. Her blood sugar was 252 when the EMT's arrived and took her blood sugar. I hope to find out tomorrow how she's doing, but I hope she's well.

Today's meeting was to cover the same material as yesterday, with an additional emphasis on the existing features in our software. We were told that a few potential clients would be dropping by to see what our software suite had to offer, but they never materialized. So, we were left with the same old speech we'd (my co-worker and I) given the day before.

Everyone seemed to be excited about the changes we've put in to place, including myself. It caught me off guard a little bit, to be excited by the changes I've been working on for so long. I've never really been able to see how the changes we're implementing would actually affect the users. For that matter, I've never really written anything (software related) that improved the quality of anyone's job. Today, though, I felt good about the changes, especially after the meeting today when a few ladies were telling us how fond they were of the system.

Apart from the business side of the trip, there's little to tell. We rented a Kia Optima which rode nicely, but was pretty much the base model with power windows, locks, but no other frills. I brought the Ipod mini on the trip along with the Griffin iTrip (FM transmitter for the iPod) and my co-worker and I listened to 4 cd's worth of the Order of the Phoenix - Harry Potter book. I suppose the last note of interest was the recliner in my hotel room... I love recliners.

I also saw Daniel, a friend from high school and college, who works for our company servicing clients down south who are outside of our immediate area. It was good to finally have someone there other than Kristina (the aforementioned co-worker) to talk to. It was good to catch up and find out what's been going on with him and his wife... that doesn't sound like correct grammar, but I think it is.

Now, I have my first user meeting out of the way and should be able to work continuously on the finishing our new program in time for my deadline.