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back to reality
Sep. 5th, 2018 04:36 pmOur trip this year was pretty great. The flight on the way there was a tight squeeze - we were both uncomfortable and couldn't really move. Fortunately it was a two person row, so we didn't have to squish in there with a 3rd person. His knees were really bothering him a lot so he was ready to stand up the minute we touched down, poor thing. There was just no room at all to stretch.
We did not get the same room as last year, which was disappointing. We were on the 2nd floor, which was good and bad. The good was that we could take the stairs if we wanted and it wasn't too bad (it was actually two floors down to the lobby, there was an atrium or mezzanine level between that had a door that didn't open). But when you're hot and tired, taking the stairs seems too awful. The bad thing about being on the 2nd floor is that everyone else *expects* you to take the stairs (one full elevator stopped at our floor and someone inside yelled "just take the stairs!". Note to myself for next year - ask for 541 (or maybe 441 or 341 - that's the side of the hotel we want to be in). The first day, Rollin and I took the train from the airport to the hotel. I have to say, this was pretty easy. The train station is below a building that's right next to our hotel, so we get off the train, go up a few escalators, and we're in a building that's connected to the hotel. We got checked in, dropped off our stuff, and texted Bruce to come get us for dinner. The plan was dinner and the grocery store so we could pick up snacks and stuff for our room. We had some issues getting the connection to work (so that we knew where Bruce was located) but it worked out. He has a fancy new car that has a BUTT AIR CONDITIONER AND I WANT ONE SO BAD. Yes, it's a seat that has air conditioning for your butt.
Anyway, we had a nice dinner and stopped at Target to pick up some stuff, then Bruce dropped Rollin off at the hotel with our stuff from the store and dropped me off at the Sheraton to pick up our badges. The line wasn't bad (though it took me some time to *find* the actual line), but it was still hot as hell outside (it was in the 90s the whole time we were there) and when I got back to the hotel I just wanted to be in the room so bad that I took the stairs up because I was tired of waiting for the elevators. I was so gross and sweaty that I pretty much immediately took a shower and felt much better (though they didn't give us anywhere near enough towels. There were basically enough towels for one person only).
We did a variety of different sessions, some science stuff, a fun comedian, etc. We also watched some panels with a couple of the guys from Stranger Things, an nice Gina Torres one, a Catherine Tate one, John Barrowman of course, etc. We watched the masquerade to see the fancy costumes. I felt like they were a little light on the fancy costumes this year. Maybe because no one wanted to wear them when it was freaking 90 degrees. Both Rollin and I think we'd like to do some kind of cosplay for next year, but we don't know what yet. Rollin even invited me to go dancing one night, but I was so freaking exhausted that we didn't go. We did nap pretty regularly and I royally screwed up my sleep schedule. Bruce came every day to get us and take us out to eat, which was really kind of him. It was a long drive in crappy traffic much of the time and he didn't complain. He also bought us our meals every time we went out together (and bought us tickets for a movie we went to on Monday) and drove us to the airport to head home. He surprised me yesterday with reimbursement for one of our flights, so that will help with the overall costs as well. We did NOT make the trip to the Vortex (the place with the giant wooden penis) this year, which I have regrets about, and Rollin didn't love all the places we went to eat, but overall things were pretty smooth and easy. Rollin is an easy person to travel with because he's so relaxed and laid back. Do you want to do X? Sure. Do you mind if we skip Y? No problem.
I didn't take many pics this year, I brought my camera and ended up never using it. We saw the back side of the parade so we didn't get many pictures there, but I did snag a couple of pics of wonder woman and princesses to send to Hilary. I did see some costumes I really liked, but usually when I was walking the opposite direction. At one point, we were walking through the tunnels between the hotels (due to the oppressive heat, it was much easier to go to the hotels that were connected to ours), there was a group ahead of us carrying a boom box and they were playing "hooked on a feeling" and groups of strangers were bursting into song to sing along with it. I loved that. We also went to the "dealer's hall" where they had all kinds of stuff - artwork, clothing, books, toys, etc. My hips were soooooooo sore from all the walking (we also had to stand in a ridiculously long line just to get *in* to the dealer's hall). We looked at everything on the first two (out of three) floors and then I decided we needed to just head back to the hotel (after a little rest in the lobby). I had been feeling a little better from my rest, but once we started the walk back to the hotel, I was glad I hadn't pushed myself to check out the third floor. It was still fun to see all the stuff that was there though.
Rollin and I also had some extra-spectacular "crossword puzzles" while we were there, not sure what made them so extra good but no complaints from me about it! I brought our own bedsheet to put on top of the fitted sheet because last year it was really rough and uncomfortable, so I was really glad I brought that too. We didn't make it to as much stuff as I would have liked to, but it was still a good trip.One night, Rollin was coming back to bed after a snack or smoke or something, and he said my eyes were wide open and I was looking at him and doing that kind of screaming you do in dreams where you can't scream. He touched me thinking that would help and I just screamed more. He said my eyes were all pupil and it was creepy to see. Finally he said "it's me" and I said "oh" and closed my eyes and went back to sleep. I have NO memory of this.
On the potentially less-good side, we got our check-out folio by email a couple hours after checkout, and today I saw the pending charge and it's almost $100 more than what the folio shows! I don't know why, I'm hoping it's an error and it will be corrected when the official charge comes through, but if not I'm going to have to give them a call and find out what the difference was. I even checked to see if they sent an updated folio, but nada.
We got back on Monday night, we had a bit of turbulence with all the storms in the area but made it home safely. Stopped at the store on the way home to get some staples and was sooooo glad we did so we didn't have to worry about it later. Also really glad I decided to take off yesterday (Tuesday) as I got a bit of time to relax and then got laundry all taken care of.
Also, a couple of non-DragonCon things....
I hadn't bought any new work clothes in a really long time. I've been pretty much wearing the same shirts over and over for years and I'm so sick of them. I've made several passes through some resale shops and haven't really had any luck. Either I can't find my size or I don't like the color/style/fabric/etc. I was looking for shorts to wear at D/C since it was going to be so hot, and I happened across a couple of sales at a couple of the places I like to get clothes. I spent under $250 total including tax and shipping and got 8 shirts, one pair of shorts, and one dress. Probably more than I *should* have been spending but it's so nice to be able to start mixing in the newer things with my old standards.
And then, this is a weird one. So the library has this online system where you can request that the online program get new books or audiobooks. Over the past, I don't know, two or three years I've requested a whole bunch of books through the system, and only one or two have actually been approved/purchased. I just checked, I've requested 35, starting back in 2016. I requested a bunch of audiobooks when I was listening to books in the Spark because I had to download them onto a drive in order to listen to them. Well, today I got notification that 8 (!) of the books I had recommended had been purchased. 7 out of 8 were audiobooks, so now I have to figure out what to do about it, as I can't just plug in like I did in the spark to listen. Fortunately, for most of them I'm on a wait list, so it won't come up for me for a bit.
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