At the Seattle hotel for the SALA / MLA

I got off the plane in Seattle and although the forecast claimed 51F and raining, it is not actually raining, and thus I just wore my cardigan and didn’t pull out my raincoat and let us say that I do occasionally have a twinge of ‘why don’t we live somewhere warm?’ as I get older. 

(Kevin sometimes suggests moving back to the Bay Area for retirement, and while Jed and Kevin’s family are there, and it would be lovely in many ways (I loved living in Oakland), I am entirely unclear on how we could possibly afford it…)

As a separate note, Seattle airport has the best ride-share pick-up area I’ve seen so far, hosted in their parking garage (so you’re under some protection from weather), actually hosting parking spots for the drivers to pull into, and a reasonably smooth layout for them then pulling out of; other airports, please take note and do similarly!

What I’d really like (as I get older and peering for license plates gets trickier for aging eyes), would be a little blinky thing on the top of the car with “Mary Anne” in big bright letters. I suppose such electronic devices would be too prone to damage / failure to make it worthwhile to the drivers, and also rather gaudy for driving around town, so it’d be even better if it flipped down when not in use for a pick-up. Probably not really feasible; oh well.

I’m staying at the Thompson Seattle which is the conference hotel for SALA and rawther fancier than my typical sci-fi convention hotel. The view is not quite the promised water view — I’d call it a building view with hints of water and a ferris wheel beyond — but is quite lovely nonetheless. The bed is very inviting for someone who has been running on not quite enough sleep for a few nights, staying up late trying to finish everything before leaving town.

(And per the previous article I just posted on the professional cost of grooming for women, I think I spent a solid hour from 11 – midnight last night trying to figure out what I had that a) fit, b) looked presentable for a conference, and ideally c) had a little bit of my actual style to it. Would Kevin have just called it a night, gone to bed, thrown on jeans and a button-down, and been more rested today? Perhaps.)

Anyway, if you stay at such a hotel, do note that the ‘honor bar,’ as they call it, is really a mini bar full of outrageously overpriced items that are rather tempting to a tired traveller (and also such fascinating items as a ‘lover’s kit’ that includes a couples’ erotic vibrating ring (!) among other things, a wireless charger (unlabelled so that I had to open the package to figure out what it is), a fancy shave club razor and blades, along with a host of locally-sourced yummies).

There are actually no prices on anything except the water ($9!), which I find weird and honestly a little misleading. (Though they did hand me a complimentary half-size bottle of water at registration, which is just confusing. Mixed messages?) Plus, now that I’ve touched some of the items and even picked them up for photographs and investigation, I’m going to have to remember to check my bill and make sure that the hotel sensors don’t decide to charge me for them. Gah.

Instead of eating any of that, I’m planning to go down for the happy hour which promises $1 oysters. Mmmm… And I’m going to try to resist napping in that lovely lovely bed, because if I lie down now, I may not get up again anytime soon, and the conference opens with a reception @ 5, which I’d like to attend.

Among other things, I can’t remember if I actually REGISTERED for this thing, so if not, I’d better go do that. That’s been happening a lot lately, but Stephanie is going to make sure I stop doing that, once I stop loading her down with Kickstarter packages to take to the post office. (We decided that it really didn’t make sense for her to be doing much of that going forward; an occasional package, fine, but if there’s another BIG set at some point, I’m going to hire a nice local college student to do the hauling back and forth, and let Stephanie concentrate on the computer work.)

Okay. Oysters. And tomorrow morning, I’m planning to go feed myself breakfast at Pike Place Market, which I think is only a short walk from here. It will be delightful. The last time I went there, I think was for my birthday while at Clarion — I skipped class that day, and walked around with a boy I had a mad crush on. (Sadly unreciprocated.  ) If I’m remembering right, it might have also been his birthday? Oh, I really am getting old — I can’t remember!

#blog
#serendibtravel

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