rain rain rain

i am in LA right now and it is RAINING. raining very hard. and its cold, i have the heat turned on in my hotel room. i got here last night and am here until wednesday evening. its a work thing. it was very sad leaving the babies on sunday. last time i came down it was only for one night and i was so looking forward to the sleep, but this time its been a bit tougher. seamus cried as i was leaving and sirus was jsut all smiles and giggles as i was heading out. i had to lug the pump on the plane and have had to leave the conference several times during the day to take care of my motherly duties. the conference is in the same hotel that i am staying in so that is convenient and at least allows me to not have to do it in the bathroom so that is a plus.
the trip has been interesting. a co-worker bumped me up to first class for the trip down, but then i shared a cab with two other co-workers from the airport to the hotel but the la marathon was going on yesterday and the finish was right in front of the hotel so the cab driver dropped us off 4 blocks away. it was about 430 in the afternoon so the people that were still finishing the marathon didn't look so good. two people actually died in the marathon which is sad and strange at the same time. the hotel is very interesting. the shower is a big glass case with a curtain on one side. if you are laying on the bed, which is on the floor, you can look into the big glass shower. you can also look at the toilet if the curtain is open. you can watch tv while in the shower or while on the pot, too. the two showers i have taken so far have actually been much better then i thought they would b e and i wish eric were here so maybe he could build one at our house. the phone in the room has 10 buttons on it, other then the standard number buttons. there is the one for the front desk, room service and wake-up, but also heaven, hell, fluffer, alibi, motivational speaker, resutuarant and housekeeping. there was a sticker on the toilet paper roll of a stick figure taking a dump. is that stick figure in peril? i don't think so, but the one on the bottom of the trash can might be. real strange.
i had to give a presenation today. to 53 people. i was very nervous - i had a dream about it the other night even. i was also worried that the weird smell i kept smelling was me and my body's reaction to having to do the first presentation i have had to do since college, but it turned out it wasn't me at all but instead the 5 gallon dish of hummus that was hanging out in the back of the room. my presentaion was at 2pm. that is the time that i normally pump. as i sat waiting to start my presenation i could feel myself filling up. i was concerned that i would start leaking all over the place in front of 53 people. but i don't normally leak and i was wearing a black sweater, so there was no mess. it started off not so great because the person who gave the presentation before me kind of messed up the projector so i was worried that i wouldn't have my visual aides. but it all got fixed and i gave my presentation and it went well. i am a very quiet person and i had asked people to make sure that if they couldn't hear me to just deal with it and to not ask any questions. after the presentation, one of the people i had said this to said they were suprised as to how well i projected and that i exuded confidence. that made me happy. thank goodness its over and now i can just hang out for the rest of the conference and miss my babies.