journal entry from trip
Jan. 26th, 2006 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerJournal entry for Thursday
Wow! Now I understand why David refers to these trips as boondoggles! This is a rather plush place to stay, complete with heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, exercise room, posh restaurant and bar, and the golf course (if only I played golf…)
The trip out was not too bad. I had plenty of time for the airport, even with the lines to check in (not too bad at 4 in the afternoon). I strongly approve of the new parking facilities at Dulles. Much easier to get to the ticket counter without spending half a day than the satellite parking lots. One might as well be a satellite--in orbit--those things are so far away.
OK, I have to just stop for a moment and enjoy the cool evening. The air feels so much cleaner ad dryer here than at home. There’s the factor of it being in the 60s in January, of course, but the air just feels different. Of course, coming from the swamp of Washington to the desert of Phoenix is bound to make a big impression, and winter east coast to winter southern desert makes a big difference too.
Last night I confess to having been a bit grumpy. I got into the airport around 8, out of the car rental palace (it’s new, and it's huge—-I think some countries don’t have ministry buildings as large as this) around 9, and into the hotel at about 9.30. Their restaurant was closed (I was expecting that) but by the time I got into my room and back out on the streets, so were most of the other restaurants. I tried one after another, but almost all were closed (WENDY’S was closed! at 10 pm!) and the Rock Bottom Brewery was open, but only their bar, and there was an obscenely loud karaoke going on there, so I left hurriedly. God bless Circle K (the western equivalent of 7 Eleven); they not only had beer (in TX they wouldn’t have done), but they even had a six pack of Fat Tire Belgian Amber Ale for 6.50! I remember Tim Mayhew singing its praises, so I nabbed it and took it and a trove of fatty food from Taco Hell back to my room, where I consumed them with glee. I also consumed the early pages of a new novel set in 18th century Scotland (where else?) as well.
I set the alarm clock and went to sleep around midnight, giving myself around 7 hours of sleep. I woke up, as it happened, around 6.15, an hour early, dozed, and was awoken by the alarm. I showered, shaved, got dressed, and was out the door in half an hour. It’s possible, if I don’t have email to distract me… (I can hardly claim that the cats keep me from getting to work…)
The conference is OK; some stuff I’ve heard before plus more detail, which is what I’m here for. I ended up sitting next to quite a nice fellow, originally from Lexington, Mass., but living here for 12 years now. I got a look at some of the surrounding hills during breaks and watched some golfers making their way around the greens.
We broke up around 4, so I headed back to my room, changed into swim gear, and headed to the pool. Four laps (well, four swims end to end, which probably counts as two laps?) quite exhausted me, so I got out and switched to the hot tub for a while and chatted to two people there, one a Canadian traveler and one another person from the class, a middle-aged woman from Iowa. After a bit I went back to my room, called and made a res for dinner, called Brooke (or maybe I did that before I went for the swim—-yes, I did, so as to be sure to get her at work), and called Da Grrlz to check in. I enthused wildly about the place, but we didn’t talk long as they were just about to have dinner. I had a couple of beers, started typing up this entry, then went off to dinner.
I ran into the Iowa woman, who proved to be named Darcy, and ended up sharing a diner table with her-—I didn’t like to say no when she suggested it, but I had actually been looking forward to dinner with my book, and that was even before I got the full force of her personality. That sounds a bit unkind, and I shouldn’t put it that way. I’m sure she’s perfectly nice; I just didn’t find her very interesting or sympathetic. She doesn’t seem a very intellectually curious person, and she seemed to embody a great deal of MittelAmerika traits. The “disturbing” level of the conversation, which had quivered slightly when she expressed the opinion that all plants were more or less the same and equally uninteresting, ticked upwards when she said “Well, I don’t understand how people can be vegetarians. I mean, cows are stupid—-they really belong on my plate” hit the top of the scale and set off alarm buzzers when she evinced the opinion that Hitler had done a lot of good for Germany but just went a bit too far. We parted company after dinner, and I left with all seemly haste.
I went out to get some eyedrops and more contact lens solution (the desert air may be lovely, but it is damned dry) and more beer. Since the same Fat Tire I bought at the convenience store for $6.50/6 was $4/glass in the restaurant, I had passed on drinks with dinner and ate my three chicken potstickers ($7) and my Peruvian sliced brisket with potatoes and asparagus ($17—-the potatoes were undercooked, there were only three very small stalks of asparagus, and the brisket sauce was at least half salt…) At the grocery store I got the beer (Mirror Pond Pale Ale, this time, from the Desschutes Brewing Company in Bend, OR), the eye stuff (horrendously expensive stuff, that), a Cat-5 cable so I could use my laptop in my hotel room, hopefully), and a couple of movies (at $10 a pop for some of my favourites, I can’t resist).
I passed on trying to find the local Borders; it was only so as to get a better map and maybe a guidebook to the area, and I can probably find a service station that will sell me a map, and I think the brochures at the hotel have given me enough ideas to take up my time on Friday.
I want to go to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert masterpiece, which ahs tours both of the buildings and of the surrounding desert. There’s a local art museum that, amusingly, has a show of Impressionists from the Clark in Williamstown, some botanic gardens, an airplane museum, some zoos, and some state parks. Lots to do.
Now I think I’ll watch one movie, have one more beer, and go to bed. LOL. I just looked at the clock on the computer and panicked—-how did I lose all that time? Yeah, the computer doesn’t know we flew two time zones west.
Wow! Now I understand why David refers to these trips as boondoggles! This is a rather plush place to stay, complete with heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, exercise room, posh restaurant and bar, and the golf course (if only I played golf…)
The trip out was not too bad. I had plenty of time for the airport, even with the lines to check in (not too bad at 4 in the afternoon). I strongly approve of the new parking facilities at Dulles. Much easier to get to the ticket counter without spending half a day than the satellite parking lots. One might as well be a satellite--in orbit--those things are so far away.
OK, I have to just stop for a moment and enjoy the cool evening. The air feels so much cleaner ad dryer here than at home. There’s the factor of it being in the 60s in January, of course, but the air just feels different. Of course, coming from the swamp of Washington to the desert of Phoenix is bound to make a big impression, and winter east coast to winter southern desert makes a big difference too.
Last night I confess to having been a bit grumpy. I got into the airport around 8, out of the car rental palace (it’s new, and it's huge—-I think some countries don’t have ministry buildings as large as this) around 9, and into the hotel at about 9.30. Their restaurant was closed (I was expecting that) but by the time I got into my room and back out on the streets, so were most of the other restaurants. I tried one after another, but almost all were closed (WENDY’S was closed! at 10 pm!) and the Rock Bottom Brewery was open, but only their bar, and there was an obscenely loud karaoke going on there, so I left hurriedly. God bless Circle K (the western equivalent of 7 Eleven); they not only had beer (in TX they wouldn’t have done), but they even had a six pack of Fat Tire Belgian Amber Ale for 6.50! I remember Tim Mayhew singing its praises, so I nabbed it and took it and a trove of fatty food from Taco Hell back to my room, where I consumed them with glee. I also consumed the early pages of a new novel set in 18th century Scotland (where else?) as well.
I set the alarm clock and went to sleep around midnight, giving myself around 7 hours of sleep. I woke up, as it happened, around 6.15, an hour early, dozed, and was awoken by the alarm. I showered, shaved, got dressed, and was out the door in half an hour. It’s possible, if I don’t have email to distract me… (I can hardly claim that the cats keep me from getting to work…)
The conference is OK; some stuff I’ve heard before plus more detail, which is what I’m here for. I ended up sitting next to quite a nice fellow, originally from Lexington, Mass., but living here for 12 years now. I got a look at some of the surrounding hills during breaks and watched some golfers making their way around the greens.
We broke up around 4, so I headed back to my room, changed into swim gear, and headed to the pool. Four laps (well, four swims end to end, which probably counts as two laps?) quite exhausted me, so I got out and switched to the hot tub for a while and chatted to two people there, one a Canadian traveler and one another person from the class, a middle-aged woman from Iowa. After a bit I went back to my room, called and made a res for dinner, called Brooke (or maybe I did that before I went for the swim—-yes, I did, so as to be sure to get her at work), and called Da Grrlz to check in. I enthused wildly about the place, but we didn’t talk long as they were just about to have dinner. I had a couple of beers, started typing up this entry, then went off to dinner.
I ran into the Iowa woman, who proved to be named Darcy, and ended up sharing a diner table with her-—I didn’t like to say no when she suggested it, but I had actually been looking forward to dinner with my book, and that was even before I got the full force of her personality. That sounds a bit unkind, and I shouldn’t put it that way. I’m sure she’s perfectly nice; I just didn’t find her very interesting or sympathetic. She doesn’t seem a very intellectually curious person, and she seemed to embody a great deal of MittelAmerika traits. The “disturbing” level of the conversation, which had quivered slightly when she expressed the opinion that all plants were more or less the same and equally uninteresting, ticked upwards when she said “Well, I don’t understand how people can be vegetarians. I mean, cows are stupid—-they really belong on my plate” hit the top of the scale and set off alarm buzzers when she evinced the opinion that Hitler had done a lot of good for Germany but just went a bit too far. We parted company after dinner, and I left with all seemly haste.
I went out to get some eyedrops and more contact lens solution (the desert air may be lovely, but it is damned dry) and more beer. Since the same Fat Tire I bought at the convenience store for $6.50/6 was $4/glass in the restaurant, I had passed on drinks with dinner and ate my three chicken potstickers ($7) and my Peruvian sliced brisket with potatoes and asparagus ($17—-the potatoes were undercooked, there were only three very small stalks of asparagus, and the brisket sauce was at least half salt…) At the grocery store I got the beer (Mirror Pond Pale Ale, this time, from the Desschutes Brewing Company in Bend, OR), the eye stuff (horrendously expensive stuff, that), a Cat-5 cable so I could use my laptop in my hotel room, hopefully), and a couple of movies (at $10 a pop for some of my favourites, I can’t resist).
I passed on trying to find the local Borders; it was only so as to get a better map and maybe a guidebook to the area, and I can probably find a service station that will sell me a map, and I think the brochures at the hotel have given me enough ideas to take up my time on Friday.
I want to go to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s desert masterpiece, which ahs tours both of the buildings and of the surrounding desert. There’s a local art museum that, amusingly, has a show of Impressionists from the Clark in Williamstown, some botanic gardens, an airplane museum, some zoos, and some state parks. Lots to do.
Now I think I’ll watch one movie, have one more beer, and go to bed. LOL. I just looked at the clock on the computer and panicked—-how did I lose all that time? Yeah, the computer doesn’t know we flew two time zones west.
