I don't know where I'm goin'

So it's one in the morning, and I'm in Portland for about six hours. The first thing I did when I got off the plane was to wave to the WikiBird, and so now all that's left are to blog and watch my movies. However, the pipes which compose the intarweb apparently are very skinny here in Portland, so network activity will be restricted. If only I had an intarweb truck that I could just dump things onto!
Can't sleep. Flight will leave without me.

Don't close your eyes

It's that really hard time to stay awake--from four until about six in the morning. The Dell is apparently living on borrowed time. I'd hoped that it was just the hot weather that made it refuse to boot earlier. But I was watching a DVD and it suddenly choked so hard that I could not turn it off. In this case it's a good thing that the battery is crap because the only thing I could do was unplug the power cable and wait for the battery to expire so I could reboot. And I really can't afford to lose computer access this weekend, as it's pretty much the only way for me to stay in communication with people and to be able to get where I need to go. And now I'm afraid to put a DVD back in, which is making it harder to stay awake. And I have no deodorant and I could use a shave. If check in time isn't until eleven, I hope they'll let me nap in the lobby. And not mind if I show up a little late to pick up the rental car.

No sleep 'til

I was talking with Rachel, who I'm glad is awake for some of this, and I said something vaguely clever. There's this animal planet show, and it's your standard over-anthropomorphized poorly written 'how can we make watching a bunch of animals go Zing?' sort of script, but it's based on a bunch of scientists doing research so the underneath is pretty solid. Anyway. One of the meercats in this meercat troupe they're studying got the boot but she doesn't particularly want to roam the veldt on her own because it sucks. And I noted that travelling on your own is like being an exiled meercat because there's nobody to watch your shit if you want to get a drink or take a nap, and there's nobody to wake you up or keep an eye on you. So you spend the entire time perched on your haunches and sitting as tall as you can, in that cute meercat pose, until you get where you're going and can stop travelling.

Didn't get to bed last night

In Seattle now. For the locals, I'm in room 415. Gonna get a nap, now, before I grab a shower and a rental car. Room rate is decidedly higher than it was last time I was here, and the free pen is not in my room. But parking is still free for me and a guest.

Why do birds suddenly appear

So in all the excitement it sort of slipped my mind that it was Friday. I remembered before *some* of you left work for the weekend at least. Go on then, ask me a question. You know you want to.

Now you're messin' with a

Today is officially on notice. First there was the whole cancelled flight thing and six hours in Portland trying to stay awake. Then I got here and my hotel charge is significantly higher than it used to be, possibly because my work failed to update their contract with the local hotels. Yet another way in which my 'non salary benefits' are getting to be more and more useless. And there's no fridge in my room this time. And then my wireless connection was being strangled by internet bullies. So the teksupport guy had me do something which cut my signal entirely. I'm in the lobby now, which is where the signal should be strongest, and I'm getting a reasonbly good connection. So the hotel may actually be my problem. Maybe I can get them to move me. Anyway. So I went to pick up my rental car and the taxes are about thirty percent of my charges, which is horrifying and puts another dent in the wallet. And I go out to the parking lot to grab my economy car and I find a Subaru Outback. And I go back in and there must be some mistake because that thing is huge. Oh no, he says beaming from ear to ear, you got a free upgrade. Um. Can I get a free downgrade, because that thing's about twice as long and twice as tall as the car I'm used to. He says no, and given the selection in the parking lot I figure he's telling the truth. So anyway, I drive La Behoemoth to Safeway and grab some non-refrigerator comestibles so that I don't have to eat at the hotel bar every breakfast and lunch so I have bagels now. But I'm feeling really really frustrated.