Woke up at “too damn early o’clock” in order to get ready for the Super Shuttle to pick me up at 5am. It came a little early, just as I was about to run the trash out. And so began an extremely long day of goods & bads.

Bad: Shuttle caught me off guard by coming a little early

Good: Three others in my group happened to be picked up by the same shuttle.

Bad: Worrying about a few staff members who hadn’t yet arrived as I was boarding the plane.

Good: They made the flight!

Bad: 6-hour flight

Good: Got about 400 pages read of the Shoebox Project. THE STORY IS GETTING SO GOOD!!!! I’m a little more than halfway done with it right now.

Bad: The person at the Sheraton check-in desk told me I wouldn’t have a microwave in my room.

Good: I walked into the room and there’s totally a microwave there. Fantastic!

Bad: Called my mom to check in. Found out my dad had a heart attack and was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Good: He was stable enough to transfer from Maryland to Virginia so now he’s at our local hospital. Will probably have surgery tomorrow. I wish I could be there for him & for Mom. Awful timing, but at least he’s not out of the country on business right now, where he was supposed to be.

Bad: City Target didn’t have the soup that I know I can eat.

Good: It has just about everything else on my shopping list. I ended up spending $95 on groceries. But this will last me for the whole week, minus more Gatorade which was too heavy to carry back along with everything else. I’ve got white rice, saltines, applesauce, bananas, soup, wheat thins, and plain bagels. I’m good! I also got to use one of the cart elevators for the first time. Yes, I’m the dork who took a photo of it:

Bad: The mini fridge in the room is actually meant for the minibar.

Good: I have totally taken it over and am using it for my own food. However, it doesn’t have a freezer, so I had to give my frozen items to the bell hop, who is keeping them in a cooler. I have a coat check-type ticket to claim my food in the future. LOL

Bad: snarfing in the rain

Good: I actually found a few snarfs. I got tired out way too quickly (I suspect it was my lack of nutrition/energy coupled with the fact that I’d been up since 1am Seattle time. But I managed to find a few good snarfs, thanks to the wonderful snarf map melydia made me. I had to buy some bags to keep Eeyore and many of my things dry while out snarfing, though:

Bad: No small bills to give the guy playing the bagpipes on a street corner

Good: Stopped into a Hallmark store to break a $20 and found it was having an amazing going out of business sale. I bought three items/gifts for future swaps. While I was in there, “Carry On My Wayward Son” was playing and I had to pretend to be indecisive just so I could stay and listen to the full song.

Bad: Dinner out with the AWP staff made my stomach hurt a little

Good: the restaurant was really good about giving me bland stuff. However, I think the veggies they gave me weren’t so easy on my tummy.

So that’s pretty much my day one. Tomorrow’s going to be a super long day of setup and then a dinner with the board. I can only hope badge printing works once we set up onsite. *fingers crossed*

Here’s another shot of my food: