We were invited to a huge demo for a company that all of you know but it must remain nameless for now. :) The RFP process was by invitation only, and only 8 companies were asked to participate. After the RFP, only 4 companies were invited to visit for a 2 day demo. The first day was to be a NINE (no that wasn't a typo) scenario functional demo. The second day was to be the security, implementation, process day. So, Travis, Tony, and I depart on our journey on Tuesday. We are actually at the airport an hour prior to the flight, and I am not sure what to do with myself since travel with Travis usually involves being out of breath, checking my watch 100 times, wondering if we will make it, you get the idea.
For the second leg of the trip, we catch a flight in Chicago. With 25 LONG minutes to spare, Tony decides to smoke. He heads outside of security. Amy is nervous but thankful that she has a patch to keep her happy. The gate agent gives the last call for boarding and there is no Tony in sight. I call him, and he says he is at security. The gate agent says there is no way that he will make it. Amy starts to panic but relaxes when the agent says there is a later flight. Whew...Travis hands me his bag and says he will wait for Tony. I am thrilled to have 2 bags to drag on board and to put in the overhead, and I skip all the way to the plane. Travis keeps asking the agent to please wait a few more minutes. Finally, Tony shows up but we are not sure that he will be able to make it on the plane. There is breathing hard and then there is breathing hard. Tony tells us that he was 4 lines deep at security and he asked everyone to go in front of them. He had a few angry people and a few who lectured him on smoking, but he made it through. Then, he forgot to get his license from the security container, but he is lucky in that the security people noticed and flagged him down. He then RAN to the gate (this was a LONG terminal). Anyway, you get the idea...he made it. We are relieved and are all on the plane. Next, the pilot says, we are waiting for someone to recheck the plane and we won't be leaving for 20 minutes. HA HA HA HA...how funny was that. Tony looks like he might puke.
We get settled in and wonder if we picked the right hotel to stay in as there is massive construction going on in the lobby. Ok, I think they were just replacing the fountain, but the noise level made you think they were tearing the building down. The nice guy who checks us in is very informative. 1. The noise will stop in 1 hour 2. It is a dry county, BUT his roommate is a doorman and can go get us beer in the next county for a fee. 3. There is $1 beer in the manager's reception. Whoa...he is the jackpot. We get settled in our rooms, and agree to meet in the party room (that would be my room). We decide that we need food and drink prior to working on the demo. We hit the manager's reception to find that there is no $1 beer because their beer isn't working. UGH...So, we get liquor (darn) and cheesburgers. We go to my room to work on the demo.
Thankfully, people at work had chipped in to prep the database because we worked until 5am on the database prepping for the demo. We wanted everything to be there at our fingertips so that it would show well. I thought Travis was going to have a nervous breakdown at 3am when we were only on Scenario 5, but I reassured him that the first 5 were the longest. :) Finally, at 5am, we agree to throw in the towel. We have done all we can and must have a little down time before we start at 7:30. I climb into bed at 5:15 and call the front desk to get a 6am wake up call. They chuckle, and I want to tell them that I really have been working but I decide to let it go. Wow, I am so glad that I am getting a whole 45 minutes sleep!!!! Night...
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