let me tell you about my day.
May. 7th, 2011 09:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardI have arrived back in the Wonderful World of Washington; under normal circumstances I would celebrate with Starbucks (as Seattle is the City of Starbucks), but I would have to haul my bags upstairs to the Starbucks and I just can't do it, kids, I just can't.
Today has been a day of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. I slept badly last night; woke up to fritter away the time until ten am when I could head over to FedEx to acquire a box and a dolly, where I was pleased to find that I could fit all my overflow into said box, and then I ran around taping up the last of my boxes and trying to get them on the dolly because I knew it would take a while to get through the line at FedEx and I was checking out at 12:20. Ugh -- trying to maneuver a dolly loaded with four boxes of miscellaneous weight and balance along New Orleans sidewalks is my idea of hell; I don't even like shopping carts. But finally they were shipped off! Finally I was free! Then I had to run back to my apartment and start packing my bags, or rather, start schlepping stuff to the donation bins or the garbage rooms, which took a lot longer than I expected; I finished around 12:10 and started throwing my possessions wildly into my backpack and purse. Fortunately my suitcase was already packed. I have no idea where my spare pair of glasses is: hopefully it is somewhere amongst my possessions, either in one of the boxes (possible but unlikely) or in my suitcase or backpack. Hopefully I did not accidentally throw them away.
Then check-out went longer than expected, since Texas and I had switched rooms earlier in the year and my RA had to go and get the room status report for her instead of my earlier one. But still: I ended up with time! Time to wait in the hot sun for the airport shuttle for twenty minutes, although it eventually arrived and soon I was at the airport, where I realized that in my frantic rush I had not checked in online, and that I did not, in fact, know any of my pertinent information. Like the flight number. Or my confirmation number. (I did know my OnePass number, which probably would have worked, but I was flying United and not Continental, so I was worried it didn't.) But my mother did! So that was good. Only my suitcase ended up being three pounds overweight, and I almost had a nervous breakdown at the check-in counter before the nice guy let me off with a warning, not a $100 dollar fine. THANK GOD. (In retrospect there were things I could have thrown off, but I was not thinking that straight by that point.)
And then security! Which should not have been that bad, as there was virtually no line. (I did get waved through the fancy scanner. *sigh*) Except then I left my toiletries behind, and had to go back to get them from a nice TSA guy who held my laptop whle I stuffed them back in my purse. Have I mentioned that through all this time I have a stuffed lion sticking out of my purse? A pretty large stuffed lion? (Simba, by the way. Alfred is in my backpack; Gatorade is...I think Gatorade is in my suitcase. Or a box, possibly. Although Gatorade is not a lion.) By the time I finally make it to my gate, I just collapse in a chair and cuddle Simba while calling home. Yeah, that's right, twenty-one-year-old college student clutching a stuffed animal in the airport. (Which I actually continued to do at various points throughout the day.)
Shockingly, my flight was not delayed! We actually got into Denver early, and then I trekked out to find food, at which point I was paralyzed by the array of choices before me. I also get really confused by the method behind the madness. You get food how? Are they just shouting out pizzas that have come out of the oven and you yell back that yes, you want the margherita? So I retreated, then called home, whereupon my mother told me to eat something, damnit, though in more polite tones, and I obediently went over to Carnita and got beef tacos, which were good! I was really surprised. (I don't usually eat Mexican food, so it's not like I was expecting anything. But at that point all I'd eaten had been a couple spoonfuls of yoghurt and these mini cinnamon rolls from the airplane -- my appetite's dead effectively dead to minuscule over the past couple days, which is bad.)
And then my seat got switched! To the absolute first seat as you walk on the plane, the one that's right next to the boarding door. Which means no carry-on can go under the seat in front of you, as there is no seat in front of you, so I pulled out Simba and my book and my jacket, and was getting settled in as boarding continued, and then a little girl vomited. In front of me. Just as she walked on the plane. A LITTLE GIRL VOMITED. Which was obviously very traumatic for her and her mother, and the flight attendants were on it, but I was also way traumatized, okay? Some got on my shoes. Anyway, they had maintenance come in to clean it up, so for the first hour or so of the flight it smelled like disinfectant, which is of course preferable to vomit. This flight also got in early! And I was reminded while I greatly prefer the geography of the Pacific Northwest to anywhere else in the U.S. (Louisana: flat but green; Houston: flat; Denver: flat with the shadows of hills in the distance, but holy shit, flat; in contrast, Seattle has texture), I hate Seattle. Hate, hate, hate. I love Washington, but I love my side of Washington. Seattle, for me, is just...ugh. So depressing. (It looks better when it's sunny and not overcast, of course, but it is overcast, like, three hundred and sixty days out of the year.)
Anyway, now I am in Sea-Tac, waiting for the airporter to come and pick me up so that I can go back home. Sans Starbucks, though I have time to go up and get it if I like. (Though...I bet they're probably not open anymore, as it's pretty late. I am so confused about timezones, y'all; I started out in CST, was briefly in Mountain Time, and am now back in PST. I will have to adjust my settings to reflect this, as I only realized a few weeks ago that DW was set to PST but I was in CST, but now I'm back in PST, of course.)
It is approximately forty degrees colder in Washington than it was in Louisiana when I left this morning. Apparently, the great state of Washington has not yet embraced the concept of summer. (Although it could be worse. Alaska went home to...er, Alaska, yesterday.)
Later I shall give you a review of the awesome book I read on the airplane. I could not get my other book out when I finished as it was in the overhead bin, so I just started reading my first book again. IT WAS THAT AWESOME. It is YA, set in an alternate history of the Great War, sort of steampunk, and has one awesome heroine and one awesome hero. Hopefully I will not have too much trouble finding the sequel. (I mean, it was a NYT bestseller, I expect not.)
Today has been a day of hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait. I slept badly last night; woke up to fritter away the time until ten am when I could head over to FedEx to acquire a box and a dolly, where I was pleased to find that I could fit all my overflow into said box, and then I ran around taping up the last of my boxes and trying to get them on the dolly because I knew it would take a while to get through the line at FedEx and I was checking out at 12:20. Ugh -- trying to maneuver a dolly loaded with four boxes of miscellaneous weight and balance along New Orleans sidewalks is my idea of hell; I don't even like shopping carts. But finally they were shipped off! Finally I was free! Then I had to run back to my apartment and start packing my bags, or rather, start schlepping stuff to the donation bins or the garbage rooms, which took a lot longer than I expected; I finished around 12:10 and started throwing my possessions wildly into my backpack and purse. Fortunately my suitcase was already packed. I have no idea where my spare pair of glasses is: hopefully it is somewhere amongst my possessions, either in one of the boxes (possible but unlikely) or in my suitcase or backpack. Hopefully I did not accidentally throw them away.
Then check-out went longer than expected, since Texas and I had switched rooms earlier in the year and my RA had to go and get the room status report for her instead of my earlier one. But still: I ended up with time! Time to wait in the hot sun for the airport shuttle for twenty minutes, although it eventually arrived and soon I was at the airport, where I realized that in my frantic rush I had not checked in online, and that I did not, in fact, know any of my pertinent information. Like the flight number. Or my confirmation number. (I did know my OnePass number, which probably would have worked, but I was flying United and not Continental, so I was worried it didn't.) But my mother did! So that was good. Only my suitcase ended up being three pounds overweight, and I almost had a nervous breakdown at the check-in counter before the nice guy let me off with a warning, not a $100 dollar fine. THANK GOD. (In retrospect there were things I could have thrown off, but I was not thinking that straight by that point.)
And then security! Which should not have been that bad, as there was virtually no line. (I did get waved through the fancy scanner. *sigh*) Except then I left my toiletries behind, and had to go back to get them from a nice TSA guy who held my laptop whle I stuffed them back in my purse. Have I mentioned that through all this time I have a stuffed lion sticking out of my purse? A pretty large stuffed lion? (Simba, by the way. Alfred is in my backpack; Gatorade is...I think Gatorade is in my suitcase. Or a box, possibly. Although Gatorade is not a lion.) By the time I finally make it to my gate, I just collapse in a chair and cuddle Simba while calling home. Yeah, that's right, twenty-one-year-old college student clutching a stuffed animal in the airport. (Which I actually continued to do at various points throughout the day.)
Shockingly, my flight was not delayed! We actually got into Denver early, and then I trekked out to find food, at which point I was paralyzed by the array of choices before me. I also get really confused by the method behind the madness. You get food how? Are they just shouting out pizzas that have come out of the oven and you yell back that yes, you want the margherita? So I retreated, then called home, whereupon my mother told me to eat something, damnit, though in more polite tones, and I obediently went over to Carnita and got beef tacos, which were good! I was really surprised. (I don't usually eat Mexican food, so it's not like I was expecting anything. But at that point all I'd eaten had been a couple spoonfuls of yoghurt and these mini cinnamon rolls from the airplane -- my appetite's dead effectively dead to minuscule over the past couple days, which is bad.)
And then my seat got switched! To the absolute first seat as you walk on the plane, the one that's right next to the boarding door. Which means no carry-on can go under the seat in front of you, as there is no seat in front of you, so I pulled out Simba and my book and my jacket, and was getting settled in as boarding continued, and then a little girl vomited. In front of me. Just as she walked on the plane. A LITTLE GIRL VOMITED. Which was obviously very traumatic for her and her mother, and the flight attendants were on it, but I was also way traumatized, okay? Some got on my shoes. Anyway, they had maintenance come in to clean it up, so for the first hour or so of the flight it smelled like disinfectant, which is of course preferable to vomit. This flight also got in early! And I was reminded while I greatly prefer the geography of the Pacific Northwest to anywhere else in the U.S. (Louisana: flat but green; Houston: flat; Denver: flat with the shadows of hills in the distance, but holy shit, flat; in contrast, Seattle has texture), I hate Seattle. Hate, hate, hate. I love Washington, but I love my side of Washington. Seattle, for me, is just...ugh. So depressing. (It looks better when it's sunny and not overcast, of course, but it is overcast, like, three hundred and sixty days out of the year.)
Anyway, now I am in Sea-Tac, waiting for the airporter to come and pick me up so that I can go back home. Sans Starbucks, though I have time to go up and get it if I like. (Though...I bet they're probably not open anymore, as it's pretty late. I am so confused about timezones, y'all; I started out in CST, was briefly in Mountain Time, and am now back in PST. I will have to adjust my settings to reflect this, as I only realized a few weeks ago that DW was set to PST but I was in CST, but now I'm back in PST, of course.)
It is approximately forty degrees colder in Washington than it was in Louisiana when I left this morning. Apparently, the great state of Washington has not yet embraced the concept of summer. (Although it could be worse. Alaska went home to...er, Alaska, yesterday.)
Later I shall give you a review of the awesome book I read on the airplane. I could not get my other book out when I finished as it was in the overhead bin, so I just started reading my first book again. IT WAS THAT AWESOME. It is YA, set in an alternate history of the Great War, sort of steampunk, and has one awesome heroine and one awesome hero. Hopefully I will not have too much trouble finding the sequel. (I mean, it was a NYT bestseller, I expect not.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:41 pm (UTC)(We got up to the 70s here once last week. It would have been great but I was dealing with a lot of really stressy work stuff instead of lying on a towel down by the river reading trashy novels, like I would have been in a just world.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:46 pm (UTC)I mean, there was still snow on Snoqualmie Pass when I came over! Snow! In May! Which I guess I wasn't that surprised about because I'd been warned, and still.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 09:48 am (UTC)Hurray for being nearly home!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:32 pm (UTC)It looks like the public library here has it, so I will be making an excursion there shortly. (Why, yes, the first place I visit upon returning home is the library.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 10:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-08 11:25 pm (UTC)I do, however, have lots of love for Nora Barlow. (And today I picked up Behemoth! So I am looking forward to that.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:23 am (UTC)In RL, Franz Ferdinand's sons were Maximilian and Ernst. These are the kind of names Westerfeld could have used! (And Deryn could easily have been Delia. I am just saying!)
Oh yes. Nora Barlow FTW!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:37 am (UTC)*hands* There's something going on with the feminine Darwinist England and the masculine Clanker Austria-Hungary too. Not sure what. It will be interesting to see what Behemoth does with that.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:42 am (UTC)How did I know you would have that thought? 3 siblings= 3 x the awesome! And more spheres for things to take place on, if, for example, Sophie-the-younger has been evacuated to Vienna by her mother's ladies, and is quietly and carefully dedicating herself to making Franz Josef think she is adorable and cute.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:48 am (UTC)Heh, I have a thing for siblings, apparently.
In some ways it would have been interested if Deryn had been male and Alek had been female, but still in the same situation. *hands* I don't know. I mean, Deryn is awesome! I approve of female heroines kicking ass in the military! It would have been really cool to see a girl!Alek adjusting to life on the run and maybe pretending to be a guy. (Also...a really good way to hide from assassins. I'm just saying.) Or if they'd both been female. *sigh*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 11:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 05:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 03:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-09 05:31 pm (UTC)