Friday, January 11, 2008

long distance commuting

Yesterday, I did what I consider a "long-distance" commute. I left the house at 4:30am. I drove to BWI, catching a flight to Houston, TX. I took the underground inter-terminal shuttle (a teensy tiny 4 car metro, with each car capable of seating 4 people) about 1500 feet. It let me out in the basement of the Marriott hotel attached to the airport. I took two escalators upstairs, picked up my meeting badge and materials and went directly to the meeting room. The meeting was the Technology Summit of the Information Resources Group meeting of the American Association of Medical Colleges (yes, that is a mouthful). They split us into tables, assigned us topics and had us working all day in mini-groups and large groups on the assigned topics. We didn't even leave the room for lunch; they brought it in for us. At the end of the meeting, I went back down the escalators, back into the teeny tiny tram, up some escalators and back to the terminal. I caught my flight back to Baltimore, picked up the car and drove home. It was almost 11pm when I got home.

In all that time, I never was outside. I was in transit or at work so by my definition, it was the longest commute EVER.