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Nov. 21st, 2005 12:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Well it's after 12:30 local time which means it's 2:30 in Chicago, and Mike is possibly still up reading a book, although who knows, he has to get to bed soon so he can leave in the morning for home.
My day was full of fun. After waking up on Saturday morning thinking it was late and then looking at Mike's computer and saying to myself, "Oh, it's only 6:30 am after all, I should go back to sleep!" (forgetting that Mike's computer was set to Seattle time still, and thus it was really 8:30 am -- and thus I slept in till 10 am), on Sunday I properly determined that I had woken up at 8 am, decided that the dealer's room probably would be open at 10 am, and since I couldn't get back to sleep anyway I got up and took a shower, and afterwards determined that the dealer's room really opened at 11 am, so I wound up sitting around for a long time before we went to breakfast, during which time I gathered my stuff and got mostly packed.
And... um... yes, that above paragraph is only two sentences, one of which would not pass muster with a weak excuse for a grammer nazi. Eh, I blame the jet lag.
So! After a breakfast in which I successfully learned how to force the magical disappearing omelette chef to appear and make me an omelette, we arrived at the dealer's room a bit late, made several quick sales (5 issues and a subscription I think, which was about as much business as we'd done all Saturday)... I cruised the dealer's room and picked up a couple more prints. Over all, this weekend I picked up about 4 or 5 prints for myself, and then one for a friend in Alaska, and one for Sky, and then one more for both Sky and J'wyl although I dunno, they might have already seen that. But in the past we've determined that my tastes in art prints is eerily similar to Sky's, and so I found one that I thought he'd like, that I liked, and bought two of that. Sort of like the guy in Genshiken who buys two of everything at the comic market because Madarame had hurt his hand and had to be taken to the hospital, and was desperate that he couldn't be there to buy stuff himself. Or something.
I think Gene described the seafood restaurant we went to Saturday night. It was crowded and apparently passed for a good (or at least, popular) seafood restaurant in Chicago. It certainly was priced as if they considered themselves a pretty good restaurant. Anyway I won't go into all the weird stuff hanging from the walls and the ceiling, or the waiters and waitresses who liked to do the Macarena or clap to the song Car Wash, but trust me, the place was odd. Idiosyncratic. Kitchy. Kitzy? I don't even know how to spell these words. Anyway some of the food was good, a lot of it was average, some of it was below average. I was not at all impressed with their fish and chips, and I didn't even finish them. But as I later said, someone from Seattle trying to find good seafood in Chicago is like someone from Kansas City trying to find good barbeque in Seattle.
Anyway... back to Sunday. After 40 minutes in the dealer's room Gene and I went off to do our two panels. These were better attended than the other panel I'd done with Gene, and more fun. After that I headed up to the room, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the front desk.
Now, I had been very worried about getting to the airport on time when flying out, to the point where I got to the gate nearly three hours before takeoff. But all things considered, I was worried about when the limo/taxi would arrive, what traffic would be like, how much of a mess it would be to get through O'Hare airport (that place is a dump of an airport, let me tell you). So I planned to leave early again and make sure everything went smoothly. I had asked for the desk to call a taxi -- the con had reccomended a limo service that was around $21.00 I guess, which I didn't realize on the way out (stupid me), but the front desk reccomended a local taxi that they also said would be $21.00. So I checked with the desk again, then placed my stuff near the front door, bought a Lipton iced tea from the nearby hotel store, and then watched a cab from said cab company drive up. It was only 2:15 pm, but after a moment I went and asked who he was waiting for, and yes, it was me.
When we got to the airport and I asked him "how much"? the driver said, "You decide!" Gah. I pretty much only had twenties in my wallet so I said I'll give you two twenties and you give me a ten, and he did that. That's a bigger tip than I probably should have given, but then, I paid $45 on the trip to the hotel, so whatever.
Traffic was non-existant, so I got to O'Hare airport at about 2:40 or maybe 2:45. Here I learned that my flight was going to be delayed an hour. I got through security, found the gate by a little after 3 pm, and found that my flight was actually going to be delayed 2 hours. This meant that I was at the gate at 3pm for an 8pm flight. :p
I bought a sandwich and another iced tea (only $10 there, woo!) I sat down to read, and for a while I also wrote. I read through issue 40, wrote a review of it, wrote some on my Christmas ghost story and also some first-person dialogue from Kita Vitarre's point of view, which is not really attached to a plot at present. I think I may have written on a third story too, can't remember now. At various points I got up and cruised around, and at one point saw someone with ice cream, so that when Alaska offered us $6 food vouchers to make up for the flight delay, I located the ice cream shop and got a large cup of chocolate ice cream with fudge on top, and a sprite. This, of course, forced one of my neighbors to use her voucher for the same purpose. ^_^
Finally we boarded. On the way back I read through issue 39 and half of 38 (I'd brought the most recent three issues with me precisely BECAUSE I hadn't read them yet). I also read through "A Little Respect" and Gene's right, it needs some minor rewriting but I think that's it. I need to fix it and send it to him, and I need to get Dina's e-mail so I can get approval for Rik, or have Gene send it to her, or something.
Anyway we touched down in Seattle at 10:35 pm, which if you're keeping track, would be 12:35 am in Chicago. Since I didn't get home until a little after 12 pm, I think I spent nearly 12 hours travelling home. Admittedly, a large chunk of that was spent going nowhere at gate L12B in O'Hare.
The next fun part was that I didn't know the name of the park and ride place I'd used. I knew exactly where they were though, so after asking around I determined that it was very likely "Air-Star Park and Ride". Finally one of their shuttles came by, I got on, and we were soon full and hearing the people who we had to leave behind complain that they'd been waiting for half an hour and had been left behind once before us. Well, the place had three shuttles running, so what can you do? Don't stand at the far end of the pickup zone, I guess. ^_^ But I was feeling guilty because I wasn't absolutely positive that I had the right shuttle/park and ride... and until we pulled up into their second lot and I saw the gate where I'd driven in, I was nervous. But I had the right guys and my car was right where I'd left it.
$45 for parking. I need to do things the right way next time, and call whoever it is that Gene called, that David always calls, that I already don't remember. :P
As for the con? It was fun, as far as that goes. I have more fun when there are more people I know around, and sitting behind a desk, you don't get to see a lot of stuff, but you are never at a loss for where to go or what to do. ^_^ I missed having a Tai-Pan party or some other party to go to, or having enough people to play games. But it was a very very VERY well organized con that I could see. Much better than some I might mention. ^_^ Oh, let's be honest... it was as well organized a furry convention as I've ever been to. ^_^ I might go again next year.
Oh yeah... Tincrash did a lovely sketch in Julie's book, so now I'm halfway off the hook... even if I don't draw in it myself, at least leaving it in my possession wasn't a total waste. ^_^
My day was full of fun. After waking up on Saturday morning thinking it was late and then looking at Mike's computer and saying to myself, "Oh, it's only 6:30 am after all, I should go back to sleep!" (forgetting that Mike's computer was set to Seattle time still, and thus it was really 8:30 am -- and thus I slept in till 10 am), on Sunday I properly determined that I had woken up at 8 am, decided that the dealer's room probably would be open at 10 am, and since I couldn't get back to sleep anyway I got up and took a shower, and afterwards determined that the dealer's room really opened at 11 am, so I wound up sitting around for a long time before we went to breakfast, during which time I gathered my stuff and got mostly packed.
And... um... yes, that above paragraph is only two sentences, one of which would not pass muster with a weak excuse for a grammer nazi. Eh, I blame the jet lag.
So! After a breakfast in which I successfully learned how to force the magical disappearing omelette chef to appear and make me an omelette, we arrived at the dealer's room a bit late, made several quick sales (5 issues and a subscription I think, which was about as much business as we'd done all Saturday)... I cruised the dealer's room and picked up a couple more prints. Over all, this weekend I picked up about 4 or 5 prints for myself, and then one for a friend in Alaska, and one for Sky, and then one more for both Sky and J'wyl although I dunno, they might have already seen that. But in the past we've determined that my tastes in art prints is eerily similar to Sky's, and so I found one that I thought he'd like, that I liked, and bought two of that. Sort of like the guy in Genshiken who buys two of everything at the comic market because Madarame had hurt his hand and had to be taken to the hospital, and was desperate that he couldn't be there to buy stuff himself. Or something.
I think Gene described the seafood restaurant we went to Saturday night. It was crowded and apparently passed for a good (or at least, popular) seafood restaurant in Chicago. It certainly was priced as if they considered themselves a pretty good restaurant. Anyway I won't go into all the weird stuff hanging from the walls and the ceiling, or the waiters and waitresses who liked to do the Macarena or clap to the song Car Wash, but trust me, the place was odd. Idiosyncratic. Kitchy. Kitzy? I don't even know how to spell these words. Anyway some of the food was good, a lot of it was average, some of it was below average. I was not at all impressed with their fish and chips, and I didn't even finish them. But as I later said, someone from Seattle trying to find good seafood in Chicago is like someone from Kansas City trying to find good barbeque in Seattle.
Anyway... back to Sunday. After 40 minutes in the dealer's room Gene and I went off to do our two panels. These were better attended than the other panel I'd done with Gene, and more fun. After that I headed up to the room, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the front desk.
Now, I had been very worried about getting to the airport on time when flying out, to the point where I got to the gate nearly three hours before takeoff. But all things considered, I was worried about when the limo/taxi would arrive, what traffic would be like, how much of a mess it would be to get through O'Hare airport (that place is a dump of an airport, let me tell you). So I planned to leave early again and make sure everything went smoothly. I had asked for the desk to call a taxi -- the con had reccomended a limo service that was around $21.00 I guess, which I didn't realize on the way out (stupid me), but the front desk reccomended a local taxi that they also said would be $21.00. So I checked with the desk again, then placed my stuff near the front door, bought a Lipton iced tea from the nearby hotel store, and then watched a cab from said cab company drive up. It was only 2:15 pm, but after a moment I went and asked who he was waiting for, and yes, it was me.
When we got to the airport and I asked him "how much"? the driver said, "You decide!" Gah. I pretty much only had twenties in my wallet so I said I'll give you two twenties and you give me a ten, and he did that. That's a bigger tip than I probably should have given, but then, I paid $45 on the trip to the hotel, so whatever.
Traffic was non-existant, so I got to O'Hare airport at about 2:40 or maybe 2:45. Here I learned that my flight was going to be delayed an hour. I got through security, found the gate by a little after 3 pm, and found that my flight was actually going to be delayed 2 hours. This meant that I was at the gate at 3pm for an 8pm flight. :p
I bought a sandwich and another iced tea (only $10 there, woo!) I sat down to read, and for a while I also wrote. I read through issue 40, wrote a review of it, wrote some on my Christmas ghost story and also some first-person dialogue from Kita Vitarre's point of view, which is not really attached to a plot at present. I think I may have written on a third story too, can't remember now. At various points I got up and cruised around, and at one point saw someone with ice cream, so that when Alaska offered us $6 food vouchers to make up for the flight delay, I located the ice cream shop and got a large cup of chocolate ice cream with fudge on top, and a sprite. This, of course, forced one of my neighbors to use her voucher for the same purpose. ^_^
Finally we boarded. On the way back I read through issue 39 and half of 38 (I'd brought the most recent three issues with me precisely BECAUSE I hadn't read them yet). I also read through "A Little Respect" and Gene's right, it needs some minor rewriting but I think that's it. I need to fix it and send it to him, and I need to get Dina's e-mail so I can get approval for Rik, or have Gene send it to her, or something.
Anyway we touched down in Seattle at 10:35 pm, which if you're keeping track, would be 12:35 am in Chicago. Since I didn't get home until a little after 12 pm, I think I spent nearly 12 hours travelling home. Admittedly, a large chunk of that was spent going nowhere at gate L12B in O'Hare.
The next fun part was that I didn't know the name of the park and ride place I'd used. I knew exactly where they were though, so after asking around I determined that it was very likely "Air-Star Park and Ride". Finally one of their shuttles came by, I got on, and we were soon full and hearing the people who we had to leave behind complain that they'd been waiting for half an hour and had been left behind once before us. Well, the place had three shuttles running, so what can you do? Don't stand at the far end of the pickup zone, I guess. ^_^ But I was feeling guilty because I wasn't absolutely positive that I had the right shuttle/park and ride... and until we pulled up into their second lot and I saw the gate where I'd driven in, I was nervous. But I had the right guys and my car was right where I'd left it.
$45 for parking. I need to do things the right way next time, and call whoever it is that Gene called, that David always calls, that I already don't remember. :P
As for the con? It was fun, as far as that goes. I have more fun when there are more people I know around, and sitting behind a desk, you don't get to see a lot of stuff, but you are never at a loss for where to go or what to do. ^_^ I missed having a Tai-Pan party or some other party to go to, or having enough people to play games. But it was a very very VERY well organized con that I could see. Much better than some I might mention. ^_^ Oh, let's be honest... it was as well organized a furry convention as I've ever been to. ^_^ I might go again next year.
Oh yeah... Tincrash did a lovely sketch in Julie's book, so now I'm halfway off the hook... even if I don't draw in it myself, at least leaving it in my possession wasn't a total waste. ^_^
