[Austin, TX]

After our afternoon of sight-seeing in San Antonio, we headed back to Austin. We checked into the AT&T Hotel and Conference center, which was on the fringe of the University of Texas at Austin campus and was actually owned and operated by the university. This was where our conference would be over the next three days.

After checking in, we touched base with my former boss Martha. She used to be the Director of Decision Support at LMU and she was the one who hired me back in July of 2009. She came to LMU from the New School in New York City and, unfortunately, got recruited back (I prefer the word stolen, actually!) by them at the end of 2011. I will not forget to day she called me into her office and said, “You are not going to like this.” I didn’t, but on the upside, I now have three former bosses that I can put on my resume as references without the “only call if final candidate” disclaimer. 🙂

As the Data Warehouse Director at The New School, Martha also came to the Higher Education Warehousing Conference this year and so we made plans to catch up over dinner. We met in the hotel lobby and took a picture in front of the UT Austin Clock tower – a 307-foot tall campus landmark located right next door to the hotel.

Afterwards, we headed out to a restaurant in downtown Austin called Roaring Fork. Over a bottle of wine and some amazing pork and lamb, we caught Martha up on office gossip and personal stories, while Martha told us a little bit about her new apartment, new job and life in NYC.

Our first day in Texas was off to a great start. Although we got a glimpse of Austin on the way to and from dinner, we were very much looking forward to exploring the city on Sunday before the conference started.

With Martha and Marina before dinner, at the UT Austin Clock Tower