I am an owl.  I am NOT a lark.  Thursday night I was wide awake at 2 a.m…  Everyone else had already gone to bed hours before or was drifting off to his or her rooms to sleep. 

     I had no need for an alarm clock.  There was no need for a rooster to crow.  I didn’t need to have an operator call me.  My roommate is a lark and is up before 6 a.m.  With her and with Dave, a few doors away, there was no way I was going to oversleep.  Each morning he would rap on our door at 6a.m., “Are you up?”

     I’d crack the door, peer out, and find him standing there with coffee mug in hand, ready to dash out for the first smoke of the day.  I’d mumble, “We’re up.  We’re up.”

     Friday morning I stumbled around, managed to shower and dress reasonably well.  (At least nothing was inside out and I did remember to put on my shoes.)  We then headed downstairs to meet the rest of our group in the lobby.  I hit the Starbucks stand for a tall, strong coffee and joined Dave outside for a smoke.  (One of these days I’ll manage to quit so please don’t harp on me.  My doctor doesn’t.  He understands.)

     At breakfast when the waitress asked what we wanted to drink Dave and I responded with, “Coffee and please leave the pot.”  We sounded as if we’d rehearsed it.  Each day after that, she didn’t ask she just left the pot.

     Our first session began at 9:15 and went to 10:15.  We had three choices.  Orientation/Q&A, Don Helin’s Series Characters—love ‘em or leave ‘em, or CJ Lyons’—Break free from the slush pile.  Since I’m writing a series mystery, I went to Don’s session.  Some of what he discussed I knew but then there were some points that I didn’t.  I always learn something new, now if I can only read my notes

     Bought some more coffee and my brain began to function nominally.  Glad I took notes in that last session.

     From 10:30 to 11:30, the three sessions offered were Lori Morris—Building your foundation: grammar, Nancy Martin—perfecting your elevator pitch.  (I have mine down to four sentences.)  And Matt Holiday—25 things to keep in mind when sending anything to an editor.

     More coffee.  Bought tickets for the Chinese auction in the hospitality suite and socialized until we dashed out to lunch.  Subway, cheap, fast, and not far away from the hotel.  More coffee and another smoke.

     I’ll let you ruminate on our morning and will return with the rest of ‘day one of the conference’ tomorrow.