- it should not take 10 hours to travel 300 miles. By plane!

- my friends are awesome and generous in ways I never expected.  They're also a bunch of alcoholics, but that's besides the point.

- what the "privacy" switch on the hotel room door does, which disables the lock entirely. 

- waiting outside your locked, non-working hotel room door for 5 minutes, when you're supposed to be in a room giving a presentation feels like eternity.

- public speaking gets soooooooooooo much easier with time and practice. Not sure what happened this year but I finally found my style and presenting feels effortless now.

- having conference attendees nod and seeing light-bulbs going off in the audience is the most gratifying thing about public speaking or teaching.

- male geeks fill out the weirdest and often creepy session and speaker evaluations! 

- never.... and I mean NEVER put a "demo" slide in your presentation while writing it, thinking it will keep you from having to write more, without actually preparing a demo.

- DO NOT wait until the night before giving your presentations to read them as you might find a "demo" slide you had forgotten about.

- Paul Mooney is a wonderful person to bail you out of a really bad spot. He's also fun to make fun of, and speak with and he has the most "bling" belt buckle I've ever seen! (ask him to show it to you next time you see him)

- NEVER use the words "Ireland" and "endorsing violence" in the same sentence. Not even on stage, when trying to say something witty about your co-presenter.  I am serious, don't do it, even if it might get the largest laugh out of the audience.

- after watching attendees/presenters/myself for a few days while socializing/presenting, I've decided that there is a universal law that has to do with getting attention and IQ. The more attention people get, the dumber they act and sound. 
I am a perfect example of that as I loose at least 40 points when stepping on stage.

- I should not have told anyone about my TCF (Travel Curse Fairy) as people (ok, only my friends) avoid me now.
You may also not be shocked that my plane just got canceled after being delayed and I am hence writing this from yet another airport while waiting for hours and hours and hours..... (sigh)