Sittin' On The Dock Of The Warf

In Charlottetown today, having just done a Bullying Awareness Week rally at a small school on the island. I have to tell you, I do NOT miss having to deal with industry types. Wow do these people love the sound of their own voices...

Pretty good rally, I guess. It was well-received even if the industry people didn't quite grok that excited for an island child is a lot more subdued than the caffinated-ADHD-child-on-ecstacy that is the norm in larger city centres. Still, it seems like a bit of a waste to spend almost a thousand clams to send me out here to do about 8 minutes of work.

Oh, and get this...

PR lady tells me that they can't drop me off back at the hotel becuase their schedule is too tight, so I need to bring all my bags with me and they'll drop me "somewhere" downtown. Okay, fine, I'm pretty easy to work with and low-maintenance. Besides, I have about 5 hours to kill before my flight home so I figure I'll walk around until my bag gets too heavy then find a local pub and eventually call a cab when I need to leave. What do they ACTUALLY do? They drop me back at the hotel (thanks, I could have checked out now instead of at 6am) so that they can all go out for lunch together. Yes, they all go out for lunch together knowing full-well that I have nothing to do for the next 5 hours. Thanks for your hospitality, incompetent douchewad. You really made me feel like a valued member of your little team.

To be honest, I would have declined. I had to listen to these people try to out-name-drop each other for almost an hour in the car on the way back. I don't think I could have done lunch. Besides, if one more of them took a dig at humble little PEI, I was going to shove codfish up their noses and cram their arses with blue potatoes.

So, what did I learn? Not much, honestly, allthough it was nice to speak in front of a school again, and to finesse my ability to talk anti-bullying research without any notes. It's not like the reporter from The Guardian was a difficult interviewer, but you know... it's just nice to do that kind of work again. I also got to rack up a BUNCH of billable hours, so that was nice too.

I've got a couple more hours still before takeoff and I'm full of microbrew... so I think I'll take one last wander, maybe get some COWS brand icecream... and then back home. Thank you, humble and charming isle, for reminding me to slow down. There is no need to rush. Well, unless you've got an arse full of blue potatoes.