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Darkness in Winter - Day One

I worry for the future of this trip. Do you believe in ill omens? It started with my nails.


I worked a half day on Saturday and got off at noon so that I had time for my flight. I got home and tamed my hair and did my nails. Two hours later my nails were still wet. My house was to cold and the enamel would not set. I tried a lot of things but met with failure and the eventual ruination of my nails. I just did them as I started this post.

The girl sitting next to me on the plane was flying home till Austria after a nine month stay in the US. She looked at me with wide eyes and told me she was scared to fly. Oh my. I activated the professional me. I told her I was familiar with the flight. As we took off I'd tell her what was going on. Her head snapped some as we took off and the wheels retracted. I discussed drag with her.

That should have been fine but as we leveled out some and the seat-belt liker went off the seat in front of me reckoned back and it's occupant started to fat. Deep gut emptying fats that drifted across me like a viable miasma of foul stench.

Then my salad leaked leaving half my tower bag in a poor state. I watched Epic from my cloud of second hand fats and tried not to reach into the screen to choke a ridiculous cast of people born only to make the wrong decision in the most obvious way. Bah! Be watchful for 6 hours? Fuck that noise and the potential future of the world. Let's go off and ride a deer!

We took off a bit late so instead of getting there before Sion and Progod, I arrived just after. The airport is being worked on so they unloaded us, slowly, onto the tarmac where we shuffled across the snow covered runway to busses. The busses were flat and open with poles to brace yourself. That took us to the terminal where we shuffled across another thin layer of snow and into the airport proper. I also discovered that the desk that says Flybus is only one of two desks and I defaulted to the incorrect one. Wee. I've not taken the Flybus on my trips into Iceland so it was a new experience. I've taken chartered buses before. Normally there is a tag for the luggage. This was just a luggage freefor all. Everything was crammed wherever it went and when we arrived at the bus terminal. That set my sense of ownership off balance. When I got my bag out I had to unload and reload other peoples bags. I did not mind but it shows how different things can be from place to place. The low theft rate is obvious in those areas.

The darkness made it hard to accept that it was seven in the morning instead of one in the morning as my body clock knew it to be. I decided I'd sleep until Corbexx got in. We are staying at Center Hotel Plaza this time. This is the third Center Hotel that I have stayed at and so far I like it the most. Plaza is huge and occupies several buildings which have been converted into hotel space. Corbexx for instance is on the other side of the building and his hallway has pillars in it that remind me of an office building. For Sion, Progod, and I we had to go up to the third floor, down the hall, down another hall, (following signs) across an enclosed pedestrian bridge which goes over the street to the next building where our rooms were. Sion then had to go down to the first floor past a random lounge of old white leather couches to his room while I have the corner.

However, it is a nice room. The Marina which is a converted warehouse had rooms the size of the bed for us. This is a real hotel room with double beds, a bathroom with a real shower, and a cabinet to hang stuff in. It even had a mini-fridge and a kettle in it.

That amuses me, that kettle. I've read on every Center Hotel page that they have kettles in the room but this is the first time I've seen it. That made the kettle I brought with me redundant. But, I feel if I had not brought a kettle my room would not have had one. I control the fate of things that way.

Yes, I brought a kettle. I like to pack what I feel that I feel that I need. That means I pack a full size suitcase. I don't understand how a weeks worth of clothing and toiletries and hair care will fit into a bag the size of my backpack. In fact when my bag was under weight I went, "Fuck yeah!" and cheered in excitement which made the lady  laugh and some other people stare at me funny. I've just unpacked my dress shirts and sprayed them down with wrinkle release spray and set the shower to steam everything for a bit so that I am more presentable. I have a popup mesh hamper to. I'm not interested in packing super light.

Anyway, I set my alarm and passed out. At a bit before noon the phone rings. I snap awake and try to figure out where I am from a pool of pure white duvets. Oh, those things. I always ask for two. I thought I'd be smart at the counter and ask before I got to my room. "It's a double room so you already have two," I was told after I figured out a word to use for duvet. I'm used to calling them comforters. That's was my second failure at trying to prepare. My third effort, which was updating my Simmin card for my phone before I left did work and I had cell service from the time the plane landed. One out of three there.

But back to the phone. I realized it was ringing and stared at it suspiciously from across the room. Why would it be ringing? Disaster scenarios came and went from my mind. Was I in the wrong room? That was somehow my worry when I could see it said Center Hotel on the caller ID. I slipped out of bed and answered it with a cautious, "Hello."

"I'm here!" rings a chipper voice. I gargled out something in reply and slowly my sleep fogged mind turned over. It was Corbexx who had said he'd be in the middle of the afternoon. That means noon it seems. We agreed to meet in thirty minutes and I showered, dressed, and got myself together. We also collected Sion along the way who had gorged on breakfast and decided not to sleep.

Lunch was eaten at a cafe that is familiar to those who go to Fanfest. They do an Eve Themed menu and such for Fanfest and give a discount. We then did some grocery shopping for things like water and soda and dropped off stuff at the hotel. Later we met up with Progod, Xander, and Core. Sion wanted to go to some bar named Kaldi so I found it and off we went. Something something beer, I dunno, but when we got there it was small and cramped and my aversions to small cramped super public places kicked in and I noped out of there. Corbexx came with me and we hunted up a place for dinner and then wandered off to met up with CCP Darwin and the others for a little bit.

With everyone tired it was back to the hotel. The goal is to be up at 0700 tomorrow and down to breakfast by 0730 to get the week started properly. I have two questions on my CSM thread waiting for me and I'm going to try to work on responses and get them posted hopefully tomorrow before even more business breaks loose.

The weather? Dark when I arrived. With no sun and no moon it was just a black blanket above us. The air is cold but not super bad and its quite dry. The wind chill coming off the Ocean is horrific. I'm glad I have my scarf and hat and arm warmers and gloves and mittens and snow boots because damn that was cold. There is also no one calling the police for shoveled sidewalks around here.

I took a few pictures, not many for it was dark most of the time. Google does not want me to have access to my photos from Iceland it seems and I am trying to make a google photo album. Right now, my husband is creating a VPN for me to log into and change over to my normal US IP so that I can have the features that I normally do. Google decided to give me G+ in Polish so there is some confusion with that. For now its late, my posts are written, my answers started, and I need to get to bed.

Comments

  1. I would recommend Kelly's Heroes, if you have not seen it.

    Positive waves Moriarty.

    ReplyDelete

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