So I woke up at about 4:30 this morning, local time. I sat around for a little bit, then decided to get my ass in gear and shower and clean off two days of road dirt and sleep. Every time I needed something, there it was in my bag. Even Q-tips, even my phone charger.

So, fresh, dressed, I pulled out my laptop and read a bunch of feeds, all the usual blogs. At this point I thought I’d try to go and find coffee, usually an exercise frought with difficulty not least because of my level of awareness.

Out the room door and down the stairs of the convenient downtown hotel. and into the lobby. I already knew that the continental breakfast didn’t start until 7am on saturday (seriously, the majority of travel is business and on the weekend; some people have to be out the door earlier). I had little hope, then, of finding coffee in the lobby. I found the usual breakfast nook empty, per expectations, but as I was snapping a photo of it, the desk clerk came around the corner and I asked her: Where can I get coffee?

That angel, that wonderful woman, told me that she was making it right then, that it would be out momentarily. F’ing amazing. So I stood around for a minute or two, then she came back with an airpot. Awesome.

That’s this trip so far in a nutshell. I’m a professional working with professionals. Everybody’s doing their job, there haven’t been any disasters yet. (As I type that I knock the wood of the desk). And today, I get to the best part; for six or eight hours, I’m going to sit in a chair and take pictures.

It’s not enough; I’m still gonna have to push my own work, keep making my own pictures, but it’s a start. I think I’m gonna like this job.

Posted by Matt on 2009-02-07T00:00:00Z GMT