Back before all this weblogging stuff, I used to work as a consultant. Every Monday I had to get up and fly off to some city (Newark NJ, Bloomington IL by way of Chicago, Atlanta, etc.) where I'd spend the week working on-site at the client's office, and then I'd fly home on Friday afternoon, often barely arriving in time for dinner. I'd have two days home, and then be off again bright early Monday AM. It was fun and grueling, and this morning I got a little taste of my old life.
I woke up at 4:45 AM to catch a 7 AM flight to San Diego for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference. At the gate I noticed my former compatriots, the Monday morning business travelers. During the pre-boarding, I was the only woman, surrounded by men with suits, briefcases, and trench coats. It was just like the old days, and yet it wasn't, thanks to the amazing technology advances in the past six years. In the past it used to take me two laptop batteries to make it across the country, and even then, I'd often run out. And as for music, I was pretty much limited to the amount of CDs I could carry with me. So far today I've been flying for over three hours and I've got nearly 50% of my battery left on my iBook. My iPod also still has half its charge, and over 4 straight days of music sit at my fingertips. Pretty incredible, it sure makes for a more pleasant trip. Now if only they could do something about speeding up the flight, and warming up the plane!