An Unwelcome Adventure

The conversation went as follows:

Boss: You are going to Michigan.
Me: You mean I'm going to stop over in Michigan on my way to California.
Boss: No. You are going to Michigan, and you are going to stay there for a whole week.
Me: But WHYYYYYYYYYYY?
Boss: blah blah blah training blah blah system administration blah blah professional development blah blah benefit the College blah blah blah
Me: But WHYYYYYYYYYYY?
Boss: You are in Michigan from February 6th through the 10th. You better learn stuff.
Me: But it's so cold in Michigan! And scary! It's like a different country! You might as well send me to the North Pole!
Boss: You keep this up and I will.
Me: We don't know that Michigan even exists! Do you know anyone from Michigan? I don't! Why can't I go to California? We know that California exists! I've been there, you've been there, I have a cousin in San Francisco, you won't even have to pay for the hotel, and I could learn stuff in California too. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!
Boss: You better book your flight and hotel now.
Me: To California?
Boss: To Michigan!!!

So, it looks like I'm going to Michigan. I always wondered what sort of people go to places like Michigan (especially in February). And now I know - unsuspecting sysadmins who foolishly mentioned something about "wanting more technical training" during a staff meeting with management.

I'm always a little bit afraid of that big chunk of land that sits so ominously between New York and San Francisco. It's all very very foreign to me. My few adventures in the Midwest have done nothing to alleviate my feelings of apprehension toward the region (and by the way, I tend to call everything between NY and CA "the Midwest"). I've been searching through my address book, trying to find anyone who might be in Michigan. I can't think of a single person. I realize now that the people who were my best friends in college are the same people who were my best friends at Bronx Science (with a few tagalongs from Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech), and they are all now in either New York, Boston, or Princeton. So much for that "global experience" Columbia boasts so much about.

I'll post again as I book my flight and hotel, and have some sort of itinerary for my week there. I hope somebody will want to meet and go to a movie, or take me around the magical wonderland that is Detroit.