The sign read, "Memphis - America's Distribution Center". What were we? Sheep being herded from one location another? Human beer bottles bound for parts unknown? Homo sapiens fedexus? The sign made me feel like I was just some insignificant product on an assembly line going through the final phases of inspection. A human package ready to be delivered on the next flight out.

The trip down to "Red Stick," Louisiana began without much incident. That should have been my first clue that bigger surprises lay in store for me. I had already double-checked to make sure that I had written the *correct* presentation onto CD. I had already double-checked to make sure I had my plane ticket with me. I had already double-checked to make sure I had all my project-related materials in my company-assigned messenger bag. No way in hell was I going to repeat a previous mistake. I *thought* I was ready this time.

One thing I'm constantly reminded of - nothing ever goes quite as planned. So try not to be surprised when something unexpected turns up. When the big surprise occurs (and it *will* occur), just do the best you can and be prepared to adapt quickly. In the case of this particular trip, what I didn't double-check was to see if I actually had the CD-R the presentation was burned on. It turns out I had left it in the CD burner after I burned a revised copy of the presentation. Fortunately, I discovered it early Wednesday morning (well before I had to give my presentation), and after a quick call to Co-worker Buddy, the Powerpoint was FTP'ed to me.

The other thing I've learned is never to let your guard down. Just because you survived and dodged one bullet doesn't mean the surprises are over. My strike two? The fact that there was some miscommunication between us and our client. As a result, we had no LCD projector on which to show our presentation. Kind of makes it hard when you have fifteen people sitting before you at up to twenty feet away in a large conference room and all you have is a laptop with a 13" screen. Of course we adapted and ended up showing the presentation on two laptops with everyone crowded around them. In a way this was beneficial as it created a more informal setting. People seemed to be more comfortable and this seemed to let people be more involved in the presentation. I guess having the presentation on a laptop made the audience pay more attention. Instead of being able to sit back and doze, they actually had to stare quite hard at the screen to make out what we were talking about.

And yet, our surprises were not over. The presentation took longer than I expected, but it still left me plenty of time to get to the airport. Or so I thought. My boss had already missed his flight so he was already planning to stay another night. I, on the other hand, wanted to get home, be with my family, and more importantly, watch my DVD copy of the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring. Since my boss didn't have to make the hurried drive to New Orleans, he decided he would take me to the airport. Since the Chinese buffet we had for lunch was completely digested by this point, some form of sustenance was needed. My boss suggested some fast food places which didn't sound too appealing. After all, one of my personal goals for traveling to Louisiana is to get some good Cajun cuisine. I just had to open my big mouth and ask if it would be possible to get some Po' boys at a restaurant close to our Louisiana branch office.

Again, we had plenty of time - we should have easily been able to get our food and make it to the airport with time to spare. In fact, we had even called our order in so all we had to do was show up & pick it up. Murphy was definitely waiting for this opportunity. Everything seemed to take twice as long as it should. Traffic was terrible. The order wasn't quite ready by the time we got there. Traffic was terrible again. I made it to the airport 15 minutes before my flight was scheduled to leave. Still no problem I thought. I thanked my boss, he complimented me on a job well done, and I rushed to my flight.

In the past (even the recent past), this would not have been a big deal - we've arrived just before our flight was scheduled to leave and managed to get on board. However, as I arrived at the gate area, I did not see any signs displaying my particular flight. I approached the Northwest ticket desk - all their flights were bound for Memphis. Mine was bound for Houston. Not good. They said the only airline flying to Houston was Continental. A brief jog to the Continental desk. "Flight 6969? It's already taxiing out to the runway," they informed me. Crap. They directed my attention to a sign posted which stated that all travelers needed to arrive 20 minutes before scheduled departure. How that hell was I supposed to know that? What if I had never been in the Baton Rouge airport before? I guess they assumed since you had to fly in there, you should know. Like I'm looking at signs posted at departing gates when I arrive at the airport. I know, I know, ignorance is not a valid excuse. And in nearly microscopic letters I noticed that the sign said the airline would not be responsible for compensating the passenger should they miss their flight due to their own tardiness.

Fortunately, the airline was kind and managed to get me aboard the first flight the next morning. All this time I'm thinking I needed to call my boss to inform him he needed to come back and get me. By the time I managed to do so, he had already made it back to the hotel and had to turn around to come get me. The rest of the trip went smoothly as I figured Mr. Murphy had other people to go visit.

Overall, the trip was a great success. Our meetings with our various clientele went well and we came away with more insight to our various projects. And of course I came away with more oversights and mistakes to add to my "mental checklist of things NOT to do again."

But we all know no matter how prepared I am, and how many times I doublecheck everything, something is bound to happen on my next trip. After all, we all know distribution centers aren't perfect.