When I was an evangelist, I traveled about one or two weeks each month. I did this for about four years, and got pretty good at ignoring jet lag and time differences. My beau at the time (fiance now <g>) lived outside of Boston, so he served as powerful incentive for this west-coast girl to spend time out east.

I travel a lot less now, but I did get out recently. Soma and I went to Cambridge to give a talk at MIT about working at Microsoft. I'm biased, but I must say that Soma was a hit! He had some funny videos and his passion for software and making a difference was crystal clear. I gave a demo of some of the cool new winforms features in Whidbey. I'm not a naturally great demoer, so I was pleased that it didn't crash, I managed to hit all my key points, the audience laughed at appropriate spots, and I had some great discussions afterwards. It was really fun to talk to students about what they're working on at school, and how they view technology. It snowed (a lot) the evening we were there, but the promise of free pizza helped ensure us a packed house.

We also talked with the MIT chapter of the National Association of Black Engineers. They took a picture of us with the group, which I've included here. I'm the one on the far left, and Soma is seated in front on the right. Thanks to Adjoa for the photo, and to Duncan for posting for me.

They had some great questions about life at Microsoft, and great insights about where technology is going. We're hoping to see a few of these students on campus this summer!

The next day, we had brunch with Chris Pels and a bunch of other MVPs. Our conversation ranged from MSDN's site to Microsoft's position on open source to the economy in general. The thing that I was most impressed with was the breadth of knowledge that each of the MVPs demonstrated. Of course, each had his own niche, but they were all so conversant and insightful on a broad range of topics. At Microsoft, we tend to get pretty narrowly focused

Of course, I came back exhausted and with a nasty cold, but I was all fired up from talking to so many cool folks with such great ideas.  Which reminded me why travelling is such fun.