We’re in Miami!

These little piggies flew and landed in Fort Lauderdale last night. The flight was mostly uneventful. The only excitement was B’s new iPod screen/player didn’t work on batteries and he threw a small fit. (I picked it up from Woot.com and maybe that’s why it was only twenty-nine dollars instead of the original two hundred.)

Other than that, it was the usual commercial airline travel in the early twenty-first century: squeezed in like sardines, trying very hard not to think about the forced biological intimacy with your neighbor. Or is that just me?

Dinner was the airport Fox Sports Bar (licensed from Fox Sports) in Houston, and a late supper was at Mamma Louisa’s pizza and pasta a couple of blocks from the hotel.

We’re at the Hyatt Regency. I was surprised to find that this isn’t the main GALA hotel but rather two People Mover stops away from the main area. That’s okay, most of the hotel is GALA people and the transportation looks good, but still…

This is the hotel where the 2006 Leadership conference was held. Some new high-rises have gone in around the area, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same.

Breakfast was the hotel breakfast bar, good but nothing spectacular. In a few minutes we’re going to go over and register and check out the Expo. Apparently there’s a GLBT commercial Expo going on this weekend in addition to the GALA conference. I’m sure it’s tied in  somehow, but it’s not an official part of the conference.

I’m conflicted by the commercial exploitation of the GLBT community. On the one hand, I’m pleased that the community has enough money and clout that the commercial interests want to exploit us, but on the other I’m not really comfortable with that exploitation. Oh, well. I am large and contain multitudes.

Oh, and a note: I’m probably going to be updating this blog irregularly while I’m in Miami. The hotel charges for wi-fi access and unless I can find a free hotspot I’m only going to pay for a couple of days over the entire week. So, I’ll post when I’m online. Otherwise, I’ll get my e-mail through my phone and only post here a time or two this week. That’s okay, I don’t think anyone’s really reading this thing anyway.