Big Easy.

As I type this I'm in the lobby of a big, fancy hotel in downtown New Orleans.  There's a TV that's two story high playing in the bar with a football game on, a nice bar, a swanky fountain, and lots of people wearing New Orleans Saints stuff who look pretty depressed (they lost today).

The flights here were uneventful, the shuttle driver from the airport also acted as a tour guide and was interesting and funny.  My room is on the 37th floor.  And I'm feeling ok.  All things considered, all is well.

One thing that bothers me, though, is how so many things are free in smaller hotels but cost in these big expensive places.  One of the reasons I'm in the lobby is that it's the only place where the internet is free.  There's a big fancy fitness center on the 8th floor but apparently that's run by a separate company and there is a fee to use it.  Breakfast?  Costs.  Anyway, I know I'm just ranting and that these kinds of places generally cater to business people who simply put it on an expense account somewhere but still....

I realize that there are all kinds of amazing places to eat in this city but to be honest I'll probably grab a bowl of gumbo, spend a couple of hours decompressing in my room, and try to get to bed at a reasonable hour.  My internal clock is all messed up with this coast to coast to coast stuff and it's not about to get any better.  I head back to Phoenix on Tuesday and then back out to the east coast again on Friday.  Oh well, it's not like I'm a rookie when it comes to traveling like this.  My body somehow finds a way to adjust.

I'm here to speak at the SHRM Diversity Conference tomorrow afternoon.  SHRM is the group that generally oversees Human Resource "stuff" across most of corporate America.  I enjoy opportunities to speak with people who might not otherwise recognize our unique situation as "Diversity" in a workplace sense.  Anyway, I was here last year and it went very well and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Then, I do a breakfast event on Tuesday and fly home later in the day.

In other news.....

Recently there were a series of staggeringly brutal anti-gay hate cries in NY City.  The Republican candidate for governor offered some equally staggeringly ignorant comments (read them here).  To top it off he hides behind the teachings of the Catholic Church to justify his own hatred.  This is the same moron who threatened a reporter ("I'll take you out!") recently (details here).  Lord help us if he gets into a position of power.

Tomorrow is National Coming Out Day.  I'll have more to say about that tomorrow.  But it's a big deal.