Oracle Open World 2011, Prep Time!

I’ve spent the week updating, packing and communicating in preparation for my trip to Oracle Open World 2011.  As with most folks that are attending, there is a lot to prepare for, but I have that added challenge of three kids who find this a fine opportunity to drive their father to distraction, as my ex-husband is responsible with managing their week, which he is unaccustomed to.   Although I’m thankful for Google calendar that will tell my ex where and when each child has to be at all times, what homework, social events, etc., it is not a lot of fun for him, as the schedule is commonly kept from my home and not his during the week so finding a way to keep it from becoming too chaotic for him may not be feasible…

My preparation has included a few last minute tasks for RMOUG, which turned out to be pretty painless, so that wasn’t impacting.  I think one of my biggest challenges was a final rush to try and get what identification I needed sync’d with the correct name, as we all know, the government agencies are far from efficient when someone changes their name, no matter if it’s marriage or in may case, a divorce, (ask me how my identity crisis is going, considering how often I need to use a different last name depending on what company/agency I’m speaking with at any given time…sigh…)

Upon checking my calendar, it appears that I have a dinner to attend every night that we are in San Francisco.  The company for each of these events, of course, is wonderful- some of the folks I know and many I only know virtually and look forward to meeting for the first time.  I’m looking forward to the Pythian Blogger’s meetup on Wednesday night.  It’s a great opportunity to meet up with ex-coworkers and meet fellow bloggers-  always a fun, enterprising group!

I’m looking forward to meeting a long list of folks, including, Dan Norris, Lisa Dobson, Eddie Awad, Yuri Velikanov, many more folks than I can possibly list…) and those that I haven’t seen in quite a while, Alex Gorbachev, Cary Milsap, Deb Lilley, Carol Dacko and again, more than I can list… :))

There will be many that were unable to make it this year, including a last minute cancel due to family needs by Chet Justice.  He will be missed by many and want to pass a long a thank you for my daughter Cait and I for the picture on oraclenerd.com.  We love our matching “DBA Goth Princess” T-shirts.  When asking my 16yr old son to take our picture, his response was, “You know Mom, there is this great feature called a self-timer found on cameras…”  I had to respond with “You know, there is this great feature called, I keep feeding you…”  He took a great picture of Cait and I for Chet’s site… 🙂

Packing will continue tonight,  along with more planning in the calendars, an attempt to get my tasks for the latest Agile sprint at work done and a hope that what clothes I pack will work the slightly different weather in San Francisco.  Yes, I’m bringing my cowboy boots… 🙂

See you there!