Like Riding a Bicycle

The weather sucks. It's already oppressively hot and humid at 9:00 a.m. and I'm dressed uncomfortably. This doesn't bother me. In fact, I'm in a surprisingly good mood. For the first time in about five years I'm dressed in a suit and it's not to go to a funeral. I got the necktie knot and length right on the first try. Some things you never forget. Maybe it was "muscle memory".

For the first time in almost seven years I'm going on-site. While I'm under considerably more restrictions these days than I was when it was me who was in charge of the company, I'm visiting a customer to tell them what they can and can't do, and why.

I'll be singing the same old song: Citrix doesn't work. This is why it doesn't work. Someone from Citrix will also be in attendance. There will, no doubt, be disagreements between us. I'm stuck spewing the party line although I may be able to get some off-the-record time with a couple people who are important.

$VeryTouchyCustomer is probably paying out of every bodily orifice for me to attend this meeting. Sadly I don't get a piece of the action, but it sets precedent. If I pull this off, manage to calm them down, ess-plain they way the world works in terms that they finally understand and accept, and not do something stupid, it's almost certain that I'll be sent to other customers to do the same thing. Furthermore, once I get my Citrix certs, I should also be sent to customer sites wherever they try to implement this.

I still hate Citrix, but they're the ones who are opening a few doors for me, and that new air I'm breathing is refreshing, especially in this shit weather.

The agenda is:
1) Late start
2) An hour of overview discussions
3) An hour of stupid discussions
4) Lunch (which should be on their dime)
5) An hour of stupid discussions
6) A half hour of summary discussions

So, half a day's work, no stupid tickets (and oh, have I got a few doozies to write about), free decent lunch, and best of all, an air conditioned office (touch wood / cross your fingers / die Daumen drücken). What could possibly go wrong?

Topping it off, I'll get a lot of nice stares from da wimmens as I head over to $VeryTouchyCustomer's huge complex in 10 minutes because, very simply, I look good in a suit.