One is silver and the other gold

Well, work was like a five hour rollercoaster ride (after the first round of meetings were over) - I wound up not giving my presentation, or going to lunch, or the gym (though I did wolf down some food at my desk). I'm still sore from yesterday - I can feel it in my serratus (about six inches below my armpit) when I walk, still, so I figure I wouldn't have made it very far with rowing today. In fact, my arms appear to be still pumped up from yesterday's Pilates (hello, biceps!), so maybe I shouldn't feel bad about not going to the gym - I just wish I could have stopped working for even about twenty minutes, which I didn't, well, mostly - it's just that I was having to do things for my trip (print out hard copy of presentation, get plane tickets printed, confirm shuttle to hotel) and it didn't much feel like notwork.

Afterwards somehow meico managed to show up at the bar we'd planned on meeting him in after we got off work, only we could only stay for 30 minutes as every table in Sfizio's was booked! So we headed off for dinner, winding up at the Thai food place that got written up in the Metro months ago for setting of a hazardous materials alert when it was cooking up some chili sauce. It was, of course, delicious. Over the course of everything I decided to extend him an offer for our guest room (so's he can keep poor little shadowdaddy company while I'm gone), and now we have a guest for several days. I gave him my set of keys, he headed back to ours with his rather substantial quantity of gear, and we went to the Soho Theater to see Dina Martina with robot_mel, beluosus, and silkyraven.

Dina was totally on and the show was a hoot, filled with many Seattlites (including Imogen Love, of all people). I think I was most hurting when she was singing some horrible eighties song, clutching the microphone stand between her legs, and I noticed it slowly disappearing in the horrible folds of her camel toes. Then, to make it worse (better?) she came to our group of front-row seats and straddled beluosus's leg, and suddenly I imagined him disappearing into the depths just as the microphone stand had. It was hysterical and horrifying at the same time - sort of a perfect Dina moment. Best Dina-ism? Referring to the people suffering from the Iraq invasion as the "Iraqnids." It was all quite perfect.

At any rate, I must finish my packing. I'm taking a T-mobile cell phone with me and will post its number before I leave so folks can text me if they want, not that I figure I'll hear from much of anyone while I'm away.

Proust milestone: End of the Prisoner!

I realize that almost nobody cares, but I'm excited to report I finished The Prisoner, the first half of the tome I've been lugging around since February. I feel that the 384 pages this represents seems quite pathetic, but this book has just not captured me the way the other ones have (though it picked up midway as a couple conspired to socially destroy another character in the book). It's odd to think that he wrote it so late in his life, and that The Fugitive (the other half), should, in fact, represent the pinnacle of his writing. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to Time Regained now, since it should mark a return to the writing I've enjoyed and will have a complete lack of Albertine in it. (I guess I'll miss Albertine, truth be told, but I rejoice in the thought of never hearing the narrator speak of her again - in another 350 pages or so.)

I've been up packing long enough to get punchy, so it's time to go to bed. I'll be heading to the airport around 10 AM tomorrow.

LATER: I just figured out how to take the bus from the airport to my hotel, and now feel public transportation 133t.

Me and my blue elephant

It's a neck pillow. I don't actually need it yet since I'm just on the train but it's doing a nice job of protecting my back from the hard edges of my laptop (stored in the backpack). I may do a post from the airport, but I also might just settle down and read.

Day one in Orlando comes to a close

It's 11:30 PM or so in Orlando, so I've done a good job of staying up. Getting to the hotel was a pain in the end - the hour and a half bus ride left me at a stop from which I had no idea whether to go north, south, east, or west, and with no map to give me a clue I was in pretty sad shape. I wound up hailing a cabbie, who gave me a lift for free (earning him a $5 tip), though I think the fifteen minute walk (if I'd known where I was going) wouldn't have been too bad.

The hotel itself is fab, and, with a bathtub the size of a full bed (fully kitted with Crabtree and Evelyn goodies), I'm wishing like mad spikeylady were staying here with me and giving it the loving it deserves. Frankly, I'm finding this place ridiculously huge, with a kitchen, a dining table, and asitting area with a couch and two chairs. I've had many apartments that were much smaller. The concierge was too good for words (and got me a corporate rate for Seaworld, which I'll be visiting tomorrow) and the politeness and enthusiasm of the staff ... well, kinda creeped me out a bit. But I suppose they're following their script, and they were very good at it.

Afterwards I waited for the trolley to come by and had NOTHING at all for about forty minutes. This, in my mind, is unacceptable from a form of "public" transportation. Later I found out the drivers are having a strike. Great! So at ten o'clock at night (thanks to the long bus ride, the wait to get to the hotel, and the forty minute wait) I finally got to a place to eat (the only place in walking distance is a KFC, a Wendy's, and a Denny's - this hotel is out in the sticks!). As it turns out, Adobe Gila's Cantina is a lame as you'd expect from the number of southwestern words they tried to stick together to make its name (rather like Covent Garden's "Navajo Joe's"). My enchiladas were wretched - two maybe-corn but pasty like flour tortillas not even covered with sauce but more like decorated with it (and only one had cheese on top) served on a paper lined raffia tray that the rice and beans did their most to soak through. And we were given plastic knives and forks. The raspberry margarita was good, but otherwise ... avoid at all costs. The waitress never brought me water and when the band started up it was time to go.

So now I'm home after a quick run past Walgreens, which means the room now has milk and Lucky Charms for me to eat for breakfast (not to mention Red Hots, Lifesavers, Junior Mints, dark chocolate M&Ms, Fiddle Faddle, Now & Laters, and about every candy I've restrained from buying at Cybercandy,
as well as some tolietries, which I won't be eating). And I think the melatonin is finding the exhaustion and soon I will be asleep ....

I bet this place would be really neat if there was someone else here with me.

Arrived at Orlando

Well, all told that was a pleasant flight, no stress at check-in (my bag was underweight and I could have brought a second), breezy through security, and arriving on time though it left late. The Danish Ladies who were off to Lakeland to attend a Christian healing convention thing didn't proselytize at all; the food was good (hat off to Virgin), came frequently and included ice cream bars at one point; and I got swag that's color coordinated with everything I own. I slept quite a bit and managed to polish off a book (Ben Elton's _Popcorn_, quite a laugh).

Orlando airport made me happy, in part because my cash card worked but also because they had an Occitaine (and a Lush) and an arcade with four pinball machines in it (where I plan on whiling away all my time before my return flight). I found the public bus without too much trouble (though I waited 20 minutes in the muggy air thanks to farting around earlier) and happily deposited my newly aquired $1.75 in the slot prior to heading out on the 90 minute ride to the hotel. I was hoping to hit the pool at the hotel tonight and I think it will happen, but I feel a hankerin' for some messican food coming on. Sad to think I'll be spending Drinko de Mayo without any boozing partners. Where are Phillip Smith and Mary Spencer when I need them?