SES SJ: The Adventure Begins

As I stated in previous posts, this is my first SES conference ever, but my second Internet marketing conference… but that was over five years ago. I’m excited to be hear and to take in the experience as a whole, not even mentioning the individual seminars that look interesting.

The adventure started around 1pm today when Seth picked me up and we began our drive from Reno to San Jose. Now I didn’t mention this to Seth, so let’s just keep this between ourselves, his driving… well, it drove me nuts. Seth is one of those polite drivers. In fact, he probably drives as close to getting an A on your driving exam as possible.

See, there are two kinds of drivers, fast lane drivers and slow lane drivers. I’m a fast lane driver. Seth isn’t. He’s one of those that will stay in the slow lane and even go 10 miles an hour under the speed limit (because that’s the speed the slow lane is traveling) just to stay in the slow lane, when the fast lane is wide open and traveling, well, the speed limit. Seth allows the “proper” amount of distance between him and the car in front of him so when traffic starts slowing up, there is plenty of room for people to move over into the slow lane, pass and then pull in front of him. At one point this was happening so often that I swear we were moving AWAY from San Jose!

OK, enough ragging on Seth. He’ll probably read this and quit. Seth, I love you man! To be fair, he was driving his Dad’s Trans AM, returning it to his folks who live nearby. On the way back he’ll be driving his own car so we’ll see how he does.

The normally four hour drive from Reno to San Jose took us six hours. That’s not all Seth’s fault, traffic was stop and go in many places, thank, I think, to the end of Hot August Nights in Reno. Everybody was going home.

So we finally arrive at the hotel, at least what I think is the hotel. See, I forgot to write down the name of the place I made my reservation. I knew the address from my MapQuest printout, but not the hotel name. I walk inside and confirm the address, yep, this is the place.

Check in was quick and painless. I get my keys and head up to the third floor. Insert the key and… let’s try that again, insert the key and… again, and… OK, time to try the other key. Yep this one works. Got inside the room and got the two keys mixed up so I go out and try them again. First one doesn’t work. Must be the other one. Nope, that one doesn’t work either. I try again and again and finally I’m in. So I got two keys that work. Sometimes.

The room is nice. I got a sweet view. Here, take a look:

I nose around a bit and find the robes in the closet. Sweet.

I’ve never been in a hotel with robes. And look, I can buy one for only $95 dollars and be a walking advertisement for the St. Claire when I get home.

Hey, this place also has a DVD player. Every hotel I’ve ever been in not only doesnt have a DVD player but they have no portable DVD connections to the TV. They want you to buy the hotel movies. I brought some DVDs along, just in case I have some downtime… you know, when I’m not blogging and stuff.

I’m getting hungry so I open the room service menu. Just a bunch of stuff I can’t understand. “Insalata di Pollo dal Girarrosoto”, “Cappellacci di Zucca”, “Bistecca alla Fiorentina”. I keep looking, ah, here is something familiar, “Calzone”. I’ll get that.

That’s my adventure for Day T-01. Tune in for more.