Don't you want to take a ride with me?

[cyrano]

Flew in to Portland early early Friday morning, and IrisMoonlight was sweet enough to pick me up at the airport, despite being nearly as sleepy as me. We drove lazy circles around the city before finding a really nice coffee and wine bar down in Hollywood where there was tea and plates of cheese/fruit/olives/meaty bits. She dropped me off at the hotel and I .... did *something* until check in time at four. Probably eyeballed the pocket program and stuff. Oh yeah! I did a lot of walking around on the waterfront, scouting out local food sources and enjoying the torrential downpour.
Wow. I have no brain at all. This is going to be a disjointed and full of holes sort of recap. Kind of like NaNoDruNi but without the alcohol. But with ice cream. And without the funny. But with disjointed and far too extensive rambling.
Um. I saw the Chris*s, Harold and his lovely lady wife, Scott Bridget and Michael, and Chris, and later there was an Ambar. Emily zoomed past a few times, and ... um. Possibly other things happened. Remember the no brain thing? Yeah. Anyway. On Saturday Kirby came to visit us, and also plans with Lili and Larry failed spectacularly. There was, however, socializing.
Brief aside--I haven't been to the gym since I screwed up my back. And I try to park toward the top of our eight floor parking structure at work, so I at least get some stair climbing in. So the con was at a downtown hotel, which means it's built up rather than out. And the elevators were slow and constantly packed. And for some reason there was no way to take the stairs between floors 2 and 3. I don't think I waited more than 20 minutes for an elevator, but it didn't take long before my misanthropy kicked in big time. Okay, not so brief after all. But I'm getting there. Because I find that as I get older and crankier I have less and less tolerance for geek pontificating and other culturally tolerated things that happen when you get geeks gathering in a small space, give them alcohol and let them stay up late. And also, the girls wearing animal tails thing. Oh yeah. The point. So there was lots of climbing up and down the stairs, when possible. And Sunday I discovered that I could take the skybridge from floor 3 to the parking garage and then take the stairs to the side walk only about half a block from the hotel. So I did a lot of walking this weekend.
Including Saturday morning, when I did more strolling, trying to find an ATM so I could give Phil some money for being such a mensch. I found my first ATM with a three dollar bonus fee, just after finding my first ATM with a two dollar and fifty cent fee. Um. What else was I going to say?
Oh, and I talked to Doctor Dorothy, at Lee and Dorothy's jewelry booth. Okay, I didn't talk to her first, because she was out of the booth the first time I strolled through. But there were these semi-totemic necklaces; one was a wide band of tiger's eye and malachite with a bit brass pendant of a stag with deer teeth pendant. And a similar one with a hawk. And I said gee once again there's this blatant coyote discrimination. Plus holy god $200. (There was also at some point a discussion of the Coyote's Ten Commandments, Coyote's Catechism and general speculation on Coyote Magic. Unrelated but I just remembered it.) Anyway, the next day when I was again wandering through the dealers' room and stopped off and admired the necklaces to her and applauded her work and mentioned what a shame it was that she had such a huge gaping hole in her product line. And she said actually I have one and a half coyote skulls at home (I said You can't have mine!) and all she really needed to do to get started was to drill the teeth. So I sent her email and I expect we will be in negotiations about this custom project and whether I can afford it or not.
This year, for the first time ever, there was no trip to Powell's combined with OryCon. Which, by the way, was why I was in Portland. Okay, now that I think about it, it might not be the first time ever. Especially if I was getting a ride home with Emily after the Heather concert. Yeah, probably not the first time ever.
Speaking of Phil being a mensch, he gave me a ride to the airport. And then I got Panda Express! Yum! Orange chicken!
I got home and had quality time with the housemate and her laundry, and found out that I'd gotten Aelfsciene into bed, after years of trying. Now all I have to do is arrange to be home at the same time.
Oh, and Jesus Fuck but Squidbillies and 12 oz Mouse are just as brain hemmoraghingly bad as you'd expect--along the lines of Tom Goes to the Mayor, but without the technical expertise. And then, they ran the 12 oz Mouse twice in a row, back to back.

Comments

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

Le *Sigh*...

Maybe next year. :)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I should like that very much indeed.