State College, PA

11:25 PM

I’m back in NY. The morning was spent cleaning up and then walking around the huge campus. I used a map from the B&B to find my way back to the Nittnay Lion Inn and The Shrine where I took some pictures. The streets were filled with young faces going to classes. I wished IPods were invented back when I was in school. Large buses whirred to starts and stops as the students were transported to wherever they were going. I was bundled up in a sweater, a fleece, and my heavy winter coat. At 9 AM it had to be in the 20’s.

Walking down Burrowes St. I passed some of the fraternity houses but didn’t see mine. The goal was to see some of the campus and but my stomach said it was time to grab some breakfast. Turning onto one of the two main drags, College Avenue, I found The Diner. Beaver Ave is the other main street. The Diner was just a few stores down from The Corner, where I had dinner the night before and also down from the State College Presbyterian Church, where some of the attendees were from. The sign that said ‘Open 24 Hours’ clued me that this might be the late night stop on the bar crawl. My waiter told me it was when I asked him. The big menu item was something called a Grilled Sticky, which looked and tasted like a cinnamon roll. I grabbed a USA Today and ordered two eggs, ham, home fries, and a Sticky. All was good. I had hoped someone might show me around campus.

Being the lone traveler brought me back not to the journey, but to the sales days. Then you’d travel and just kind of hang out. Since I had already done an interview and given a talk, I didn’t have anything to look forward to, other than being back here trying to move forward to the next phase. My wish was to be moving on to a new city, to a new talk, to a new interview. I guess that comes later.

I walked around for a while and then went back to the B&B, packed the car, and took off for home. I left feeling like the talk went well and the book writing had made me more knowledgeable. The drive was fine, no snow and no traffic. I stopped off in Corning, NY, where my cousins grew up, for some lunch at Aniello’s. They told me it was the best spot and the place they always have to go to when they come home. I had a slice and part of a sub. Good stuff.

I got back here at around 4:45 and unpacked before my sister, soon to be brother in law, and my cousin came over for dinner. Watched one of the two shows I have to keep track of, The Shield, and here I am. Let’s hope the brain is on a good wave tomorrow. I will be back at Penn State, hopefully including a football game.

Oh yeah, Happy Marketing Day.