Let’s Talk Turkey
This Spring Vortex was particularly intense--not only have we been going nearly non-stop since the beginning of the year, but the first weekend in May we had four events in two cities in about 12 hours.
Whoa. Not to mention that this weekend was the culmination of nearly three weeks straight of work--no days off, no weekends. But I digress.
Me being me, I saw this weekend coming a mile away. Philip being Philip, his constant refrain for January and part of February was "we'll figure it out." Which was true, we did. We had a plan in place for the two events I was working on in DC, while Philip and Elissa worked on the third DC event. We needed a plan for my two DC events because I had to be in Lake Placid, NY for event number four.
And then, about two weeks out, our plan went up in spectacular flames on one of the crappiest days I have had at work in a very long time. You know it's a day when you have to create a security plan out of the air because one of the most powerful unions in the country is planning to picket your event, and you're in bed at 10pm, painstakingly reconstructing two guest lists of 800+ people.
So it came to pass that I had this schedule:
Friday morning: Fly to Burlington, drive two hours, have a wonderful dinner/pre-con meeting, meet the client and brief my colleagues.
Saturday: Get up for a 7:30am car to Albany, fly to DC, supervise last minute setup of our event, supervise the event and then fly back to Albany at 10:30pm.
Sunday: Full day setup for the event in Lake Placid complete with security briefing.
Saturday morning, Bob from Polar Express met me in the lobby of the Whiteface Lodge. Bob is a delightful older gentleman with a beard like Santa who in his retirement from work as a naturalist for the NYS Park System runs a car service in Lake Placid. Along the windy roads down the mountain to I-87, Bob told me all about his life and career, we had a really nice conversation.
And not long after reaching I-87, a large turkey started crossing the road directly in front of us. It was like being in a slow motion:
"Aaah!" I cried and my hands flew in front of my face, as though the turkey were coming at me.
THWACK
And turkey parts were everywhere.
Bob totally kept it together, safely pulling us off to the shoulder. The turkey had dented the good of his SUV, and cause some damage to the car of the firefighter behind us, but no one except Tom (the turkey) was harmed.
As we approached Albany, Bob asked me to remind him what time my flight was--and when I told him, we both realized that we had left a full hour earlier than necessary. Because I had made the arrangements while in Chicago, with the calendar on my phone adjusted for Central time.
When I returned to Albany that night, Bob's partner Fred sent me this text message:
"I will arrive at Albany on time, turkeys notwithstanding."
Originally published June 10, 2014