GAFilk Report, Part II

I didn't wake up till 10:20 my time. Unfortunately, that's 1:20 Atlanta time, which meant I missed both breakfast and Emerald Rose.

I showered and went out of the room to the main area. Matt Leger, Mary Mulholland, and I went to breakfast at Waffle House. It was good chatting with Matt again, and meeting Mary was great. She's cool. This unfortunately meant I missed jhitchin's set and much of sdorn's set, but I had to eat (hypoglycemia does that to you).

After breakfast we returned to the hotel, and I made contact with Gerry Tyra. We went back to my room and rehearsed "Poetry's Greatest Hits, Volume II" with Teri W.'s hats she loaned me (thus making her an accessory to the crime) and Gerry acting as propmaster. Gerry has seen the routine more than anyone else, so he was the obvious person to do it. I ironed and donned my graduation robe, grabbed the laptop unit, and I was set.

They drew names, so I wound up after Teri in the 10th position. The piece went off without a hitch and seemed to get lots of laughs. Afterwards I got out of the robe, returned the hats to Teri and the laptop unit to the room, and joined in on the quilting, making a Consonance square with a purple satin "bridge" with gold edging on a starry background, all while listening to the rest of the 2x10s. The ones that stuck in my head the most were the ones by spiritdance and her husband and the one by adamselzer, who did one song with Ben Newman and another with surrdave on trumpet.

Eventually it was time for the banquet. That was fun. I got a good seat to see what quadrivium was doing. It amazed me that here was this trio of her, a bass player, and a drummer putting on a show and people were talking through it! Our table, which included Bob Asprin, autographedcat, kitanzi, and adamselzer watched appreciatively. She's good. They were all good. (Dang. I'm jealous.)

quadrivium and I had hoped to have a chance to see if we could hook up my mini-synth (the PMA-5) to hers, but she and a few other folks were recording something till I-don't-know-when, so it didn't happen.

Next was the GOH concert. I continued doing the quilting square during it. Just before the concert Carla Ulbrich showed up. Next Sherman announced Carla needed a roommate. Given my finances I immediately offered, figuring my also-cash-strapped roommate couldn't possibly object to a third person in the room, especially if the third person shared my bed.

After the GOH concert I finally got around to visiting Dealer's Row, where I bought the one item I'd budgeted for ("Box of Fairies") and one item I hadn't budgeted for but couldn't resist (Bob Asprin's latest MythAdventures book, which I got autographed). There were lots of nice things being sold, but I had to hold back from buying them. There were also lots of CDs I haven't seen make it out to the west coast that I wanted to buy but couldn't afford. I felt terrible, especially since I normally like to try to patronize every dealer at a con. Finally I stopped at the con suite and hung out. Lots of folks were doting over Jan of the Magic Fingers' snake, Spot. He was an okay snake, but I'm not a "snake person."

Eventually I made it down to the open filking where, yes, I wound up doing "Poetry's Greatest Hits" (the original) again because a few folks in the room had asked me earlier if I'd do it. A guy did a bunch of tunes to "Witch of the Westmoreland," which seemed the obvious place to follow with it. I also did "California Love Song," "Not the Man," and my infamous "Yak Butter" closer. To my right were the Three Weird Sisters. They're wonderful, too. I was amazed weirdsister remembered having met me at an earlier con, as I didn't think of myself as particularly memorable. telynor and ladyat also did some wonderful solo material, and I got to give telynor the CD I'd brought out for her from Macworld Expo, passing on the comments from the guy at Adobe.

I finally faded around 4am, went to my room, and crashed.

GAFilk Report, Part III

Sunday morning my roommate, Pat, woke me up. Carla wanted to sleep, so we didn't disturb her. I threw on clothes and we ate the breakfasts that came with the room. It was a good thing we did, too; they shut it down early.

I next went to the front desk to get extra-late checkout and succeeded. Our checkout time was upped to 3pm, which was extra-good for Carla.

Next, I went back to the room to shower before anyone could smell me. I dressed, went back to the main area, and hung out. It was eventually time to check out, so I went back, only to find out the hotel had disabled the door key. I had to go to the front desk and get rekeyed.

I went to the room again. Pat was out; Carla was still there. She and I packed, and as we were leaving the phone light went on. It was a message at the desk for me from Warren. He had this idiotic idea that I should take the airport shuttle to a local hotel where he'd meet me. UGH. I had purposely flown out of SJC so we wouldn't have to do that routine. My bags were heavy, and I wasn't up to shlepping to an airport shuttle.

I checked out, making sure to have the data set up. I missed the closing ceremonies because this took a while.

Eventually I got to the main programming area where I sold five (!!!) Consonance memberships, bought a membership to next year's GAFilk, and got Pat's share of the room money. I then got asked to do "Poetry's Greatest Hits" yet again. I was nearly ready to catch my plane, but since this was a request, I did it. I think I'm going to hear that medley in my sleep the next few nights.

The shuttle ride was uneventful, but Atlanta's airport security sucked. They insisted on x-raying my laptop unit. I had inadvertently left my Leatherman in the computer bag, so I had to go back to United's counter to ask for it to be put in my luggage. The lady happily obliged (and did, btw; kudos to them!). The second trip through a computer screwdriver (the kind they give away at trade shows) stopped everything. I let them keep it. Ugh.

Atlanta doesn't allow Smart Cartes past the security screeners. This is annoying if your carry-on bags are heavy (like mine were). I saw jhitchin waiting for his flight as I went to mine. He apparently noticed my struggles with security (he could see the station from his seat) and was mildly amused.

Boarding the plane was simple enough. I had a window seat on the first leg with nobody in the middle. I took advantage of this to log in from mid-air (w00t!). As the battery was fading I looked for the spare, only to realize the effing airport security screener had forgotten to put it back into the bag. Grrr.... I knew it'd be at least a day or two before I'd have time to do anything about this.

The last leg of the flight was torture. I was sandwiched between two women, one of whom was really snarky. I had an extra blanket and was trying to give it to the flight attendant. The lady to my right offered to do so, but instead sat on it. Given how badly I had wanted a blanket on the flight out, I thought this was really rude.

The attendants on this flight sucked, too. I had pushed the signal for the attendant before takeoff, yet nobody noticed it till the flight had nearly landed. Both women seated next to me were amused. I suggested to them I'd likely have gotten better service if I had a penis; they laughed in agreement.

During this trip I had called Warren to get him to pick me up at the curb at baggage claim. I called again as the plane touched down to tell him to head to the airport. My timing was perfect. He called to say he was on Airport Drive as my guitar, the last luggage item, appeared. I moved my stuff to the curb and was jumping up and down to catch his attention...as he pulled over on the wrong side of the street, where I couldn't get to him. AIEEEE!!!!!

I signalled for him to go around again, and he called my cell phone to tell me he was going around again. He asked me where I'd be. I told him I would be where I was: Right in front of baggage claim, at the curb, jumping up and down to catch his attention. Finally he found me. He was in a bad mood for whatever reason, but I suggested we go to IHOP to get food, and that perked him up. (Warren is somewhat hypoglycemic but hasn't yet grokked this. His mood always improves with the input of food.)

Next stop was the store to get milk and sympathy cards. The Chief Engineer at the radio station had died Wednesday night, and his funeral was the next morning. Warren wasn't going (he didn't feel up to it), but I was, because I also knew his wife and had spent much time with her when she'd come with him to the station.

At last we were home. Lady was all eager to jump all over me, and I was eager to see her. We cuddled a bit, then I set my alarms for the funeral and went to bed.

A Funeral and an Interview

My Monday....

8am: Alarm goes off.

9am: I realize the alarm went off.

9:30am: I shower.

9:50am: I rush out the door to the 10am service.

10:15am: I arrive, late, but I'm there. I think I just missed a bunch of ritual stuff. I came in at the beginning of the priest's eulogy of Vince, who was easily one of the nicest, coolest people I've ever met. Until I saw the eulogy in the aforementioned URL, I had no clue this guy was my great-grand boss. ( Details of the eulogies, along with my own. )

12:30pm: The service is over; the wake is in the building across from the church. ( Sympathy and shmoozing at the wake. )

1:30pm: I leave the wake and stop at TJ Maxx.

autographedcat said they carried lots of DaVinci Gourmet sugar-free syrups. This one was pretty much out of them, and the one bottle they had cost more than it would at Cash and Carry. Oh well; it was worth a look.

1:45pm: I drove home, stopping at McDonald's for Warren (his choice, not mine). Warren was mildly upset I didn't get anything for myself, but I wasn't hungry.

2:15pm: I get into bed and rest up before the interview, then look through my writing samples for any tutorials. I then decide what I've got is too old and not appropriate enough to be worthwhile.

3:45pm: I leave for the interview.

4:05pm: I find the place.

4:45pm: I land the job!

5pm: I'm at Mountain View library doing research for work.

6:30pm: I get home. I sink into bed and do work-related research on my laptop unit.

9pm: I give up and get myself a supper of roasted eggplant slices layered with slices of fresh mozzarella with a drizzle of basil-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and make myself a giant glass of sugar-free limeade to drink.

11:45pm: I konk.