Great time in Wisconsin

Just got back from a few days in beautiful Wisconsin. I say beautiful even though a huge storm rolled in the very hour I got there which included several inches of rain and hail and about a dozen tornadoes. Still beats the crappy weather in the Seattle area.

I've stated before that a generic description of my job is that I'm a financial management business analyst. I specialize in business systems aimed at solutions unique to schools. That's as deep as I'll go without boring you. You don't stop by here to be bored do you?

Anyway...

...something amazing happened at this conference I attended. At some point in this conference of 1100 people they announced that there were attendees from Washington state. I don't recall exactly when that was as I was probably trying to digest the conference breakfast. Hearing this a woman attending the conference was trying to find out who was from my state. She found me.

I was sitting in a chair on the side of the conference hall when this woman came up to me and said "Oh my god, I finally found you." I deducted two things from this introduction:

1. My awesomeness can be easily sensed.

2. She has mistaken me for someone else.

She then goes on to tell me that she is very uptight about moving her daughter out to Washington state and that her husband isn't able to go with her. Her daughter got a job "out west" and they know nothing about the area and was hoping I could answer any questions they might have.

I asked the lady what town her daughter is moving to. It turns out she's moving into the same little bedroom community I live. When I told her that I lived there and was happy to help her with any questions she had, she cried. Seriously.

I got out some paper and drew her a map (in the age of the Internet...c'mon I should've just given her directions to Bing maps) and gave her some directions to a list of things she needed and patiently answered her questions.

She said that she was so upset that she had to attend this conference which was across the state from where she lived instead of preparing for this move that had her so apprehensive. Instead she said that attending the conference and talking to me was the best thing that could've possibly happened. Here is what you could learn from this:

1. You can't predict the future and getting uptight about crap isn't necessary.

2. What may seem like the last thing you need could be the very thing you need.

3. My awesomeness is obvious to midwesterners.

4. Talking to me solves everything.

I got an email from the lady today thanking me for all my help. Nice.