2006-Sep-01, Friday

WorldCon, Part 1

2006-Sep-01, Friday 16:59
qiihoskeh: myo: kanji (Default)
Note: all times are approximate.

2006 Aug. 24, Thursday


* It was a dark and dangerous journey. I woke up at 02:30 Eastern Time, ate, recited morning gongyo, and got ready. Then at 04:00 I just missed the Airport Owl bus. Since another wouldn't come for an hour, if nothing happened to it, I decided to walk. After all, it's only three miles or so by car. When I got to the airport, I had to take a detour around the employee parking lots. After that, I had to cross the bridge and walk on Perimeter Road, which is unlit, to the terminal. I finally arrived at the Continental Airlines ticket counter at 05:30, a four-and-a-half mile walk. Miami International Airport isn't pedestrian friendly.

* I got my tickets and went through the checkpoint. TSA has a new air puffer gadget. I was later told that it would become common. I boarded at 06:00, after being picked for a random carry-on check. The plane left the terminal at 06:30 and arrived in Houston at 08:00 Central Time. I had an apple spice muffin with orange juice on the flight.

* At 09:10, I boarded another Continental flight and got a window seat for once. The plane left the terminal at 09:30. The cloud cover thinned out, so I got a good view -- even if I didn't know what I was looking at. This time I had pretzels and two more cups of orange juice.

* We arrived in Phoenix at 10:10 Pacific Time. The terminal looked awfully small; it turned out there are three terminals. I had to go outside and catch a bus for the much bigger Terminal 4. While waiting, I had lunch: a cheese quesadilla and coffee for $5.60. Then I found out the flight was delayed. After I went through the checkpoint I found out it was delayed even more. I was beginning to think I would not only miss all of Thursday's events, but get there too late to register, which would mean no access to the free snacks in the hospitality suite. Fortunately, the delay turned out to be only two hours. I don't remember if this includes the delay between leaving the terminal and actually taking off. On this flight I had two cups of cranapple juice.

* Finally, I arrived in Long Beach at 17:40. I quickly found a shuttle to the Anaheim Convention Center for $35, as the Long Beach Airport is small and pedestrian-friendly. I got to the convention center with plenty of time to register and with difficulty managed to find my hotel. This involved finding out what street was in which direction and locating a telephone book with the hotel's address (no one was answering the 800 number). I didn't manage to talk to S.S. but did leave her a message at the Marriott.

* I attended the Guest of Honor and Special Awards Event. Mike Resnick was the wise-cracking MC. There was a special award to a long time fan. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle presented the Heinlein awards to Jack Williamson (not attending) and to Greg Bear. There were presentations for the two deceased Guests of Honor. The Art Guest of Honor was introduced and he gave a slide show from his new Dinotopia book. Finally there was an introduction of and speech by Connie Willis.

* Afterwards, I visited the hospitality suite for food and was back at the hotel at 23:00. I recited evening gongyo and went to bed.

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