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Philly zinefest trip, in present tense
Mostly written very late Sunday night in an attempt to get sleepy, which is why it's long.
Saturday:
I decide to check my PO box on the way to the airport. Bad decision, as it turns out; there's a rejection notice from Microcosm saying they think my zine is "sort of me being defensive about my new large income." (Later,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miyyu will see this and say "did they read it?") I end up sort of laughing at it though. For one thing, they'll put it in a grab bag now, and someone will read it. :)
First mouse of the journey is sighted at Logan Airport. Nobody else sees him so he gets to sniff around under seats for a while. Aww.
On the train from the Philadelphia airport into town, I sort of admire the graffiti in the industrial wasteland we're passing through, but break into an involuntary grin when I finally see skyscrapers.
I am late due to flight delays butmiyyu manages to deal with it gracefully. I can't tell you much about how that goes or what we talk about, because half our sentences start with "I haven't posted about this yet, but...". I had a good time though. It was great to meet in person -- and by the way, m, you have the bluest eyes ever. Wow.
miyyu puts me on a trolley toward my hotel at about 7. I walk through a somewhat sketchy part of Philly but gain my destination... the UPenn campus is gorgeous, but this is where I have my unexpected adventure of the trip, because my hotel isn't where google maps told me it was. Ohhh google. You are getting such a bug report on Monday! I call the hotel on my cell phone and go "I have a silly question... are you on the University of Pennsylvania campus? Oh. You're not." I can't cancel the reservation and I'm not going to pay for a second hotel, so based on the phone kid's instructions I walk back through the sketchy bits and then take two subway trains (blue and orange lines, almost like home except that I'm almost the only light-skinned person on every train. I feel bad for noticing this but it's hard to miss). First I go the wrong way on the blue train (damn you, phone kid) but manage to turn around with the help of a spontaneously formed committee to un-lose me. However, I soon wish I'd hopped a taxi, because switching from blue to orange the sketch factor goes through the roof with totally deserted, echoey bits and then a part where homeless people actually have beds laid out on the floor. Ack! I'm so freaked out I have trouble buying tokens. And then I almost stand on the orange line track forever because are are two parallel, identically labeled northbound tracks... except that one of them, the one I accidentally choose, doesn't run on weekends. Thank you, nice janitor, for straightening me out. Five stops and one Temple campus map later I find my hotel.
Second mouse of the journey is spotted in the subway stop at 40th and Market, down by the rails.
I am not one of those people who have trouble sleeping in hotels. ZONK.
Night:
I dream about seeing a kangaroo rat, except that in my dream it looks more like a small kangaroo.
Sunday:
Oh sunlight! The subway is not scary now, and switching from orange to blue is easy; I don't even have to pay again. I have no idea where I went last night. I have no problem meetingnevers on time, and easter is with her as an unexpected bonus. nevers sets a new record for me: minimum time between meeting someone and begging them to pick me up in the air on their feet. Wheeee! Acro stuff is so fun. I'm not sure what makes me feel more overjoyed: that somewhere in the last 10 years I subconsciously learned cartwheels, or that I am actually able to base a little bit. Or the working on handstands in the middle of a field. Or the flying... I love, love the physical trust involved and the hovering above the ground, which I knew I would. I must find people to base. And I also have to take that gymnastics class even though it's at a worse place for me now. And I have a whole new list of things I can work on, and I'm all inspired by seeing a press handstand in person.
I have many pictures of this, which I'll post soon. During at least one of them I am saying "Icon picture! Icon picture!" and making us laugh. We geteaster upside down and in the air too.
The zinefest itself is much as I expect, except not selling as many zines as I'd perhaps hoped. I do better when I actually lasso people in with a little sales pitch. It strikes me that I'm totally comfortable doing this now, and there's no way I would have been a few years ago. Science fiction and economics are equally popular and I give away all ofheisenbug's free Dork CDs; the only weird thing is that nobody buys my hex nut necklaces. I guess if people can buy four zines or one necklace it makes sense that they'd rather save their money.
easter and her husband give me a ride to the airport, saving me from two more trains, and we talk and it's nice. I give them some zines. Here is my Philadelphia airport haiku:
Despite getting onto an earlier flight than I was going to take, after delays I land only a few minutes before I was planning to in the first place. I'm not very impressed with air travel these days. This may sound curmudgeonly, but when I was a kid I remember the airplanes running on time.
Saturday:
I decide to check my PO box on the way to the airport. Bad decision, as it turns out; there's a rejection notice from Microcosm saying they think my zine is "sort of me being defensive about my new large income." (Later,
miyyu will see this and say "did they read it?") I end up sort of laughing at it though. For one thing, they'll put it in a grab bag now, and someone will read it. :)First mouse of the journey is sighted at Logan Airport. Nobody else sees him so he gets to sniff around under seats for a while. Aww.
On the train from the Philadelphia airport into town, I sort of admire the graffiti in the industrial wasteland we're passing through, but break into an involuntary grin when I finally see skyscrapers.
I am late due to flight delays but
miyyu manages to deal with it gracefully. I can't tell you much about how that goes or what we talk about, because half our sentences start with "I haven't posted about this yet, but...". I had a good time though. It was great to meet in person -- and by the way, m, you have the bluest eyes ever. Wow.miyyu puts me on a trolley toward my hotel at about 7. I walk through a somewhat sketchy part of Philly but gain my destination... the UPenn campus is gorgeous, but this is where I have my unexpected adventure of the trip, because my hotel isn't where google maps told me it was. Ohhh google. You are getting such a bug report on Monday! I call the hotel on my cell phone and go "I have a silly question... are you on the University of Pennsylvania campus? Oh. You're not." I can't cancel the reservation and I'm not going to pay for a second hotel, so based on the phone kid's instructions I walk back through the sketchy bits and then take two subway trains (blue and orange lines, almost like home except that I'm almost the only light-skinned person on every train. I feel bad for noticing this but it's hard to miss). First I go the wrong way on the blue train (damn you, phone kid) but manage to turn around with the help of a spontaneously formed committee to un-lose me. However, I soon wish I'd hopped a taxi, because switching from blue to orange the sketch factor goes through the roof with totally deserted, echoey bits and then a part where homeless people actually have beds laid out on the floor. Ack! I'm so freaked out I have trouble buying tokens. And then I almost stand on the orange line track forever because are are two parallel, identically labeled northbound tracks... except that one of them, the one I accidentally choose, doesn't run on weekends. Thank you, nice janitor, for straightening me out. Five stops and one Temple campus map later I find my hotel.Second mouse of the journey is spotted in the subway stop at 40th and Market, down by the rails.
I am not one of those people who have trouble sleeping in hotels. ZONK.
Night:
I dream about seeing a kangaroo rat, except that in my dream it looks more like a small kangaroo.
Sunday:
Oh sunlight! The subway is not scary now, and switching from orange to blue is easy; I don't even have to pay again. I have no idea where I went last night. I have no problem meeting
nevers on time, and easter is with her as an unexpected bonus. nevers sets a new record for me: minimum time between meeting someone and begging them to pick me up in the air on their feet. Wheeee! Acro stuff is so fun. I'm not sure what makes me feel more overjoyed: that somewhere in the last 10 years I subconsciously learned cartwheels, or that I am actually able to base a little bit. Or the working on handstands in the middle of a field. Or the flying... I love, love the physical trust involved and the hovering above the ground, which I knew I would. I must find people to base. And I also have to take that gymnastics class even though it's at a worse place for me now. And I have a whole new list of things I can work on, and I'm all inspired by seeing a press handstand in person.I have many pictures of this, which I'll post soon. During at least one of them I am saying "Icon picture! Icon picture!" and making us laugh. We get
easter upside down and in the air too.The zinefest itself is much as I expect, except not selling as many zines as I'd perhaps hoped. I do better when I actually lasso people in with a little sales pitch. It strikes me that I'm totally comfortable doing this now, and there's no way I would have been a few years ago. Science fiction and economics are equally popular and I give away all of
heisenbug's free Dork CDs; the only weird thing is that nobody buys my hex nut necklaces. I guess if people can buy four zines or one necklace it makes sense that they'd rather save their money.easter and her husband give me a ride to the airport, saving me from two more trains, and we talk and it's nice. I give them some zines. Here is my Philadelphia airport haiku:Ladies, who told you
it's okay to pee on the
toilet seats? It's not.
Despite getting onto an earlier flight than I was going to take, after delays I land only a few minutes before I was planning to in the first place. I'm not very impressed with air travel these days. This may sound curmudgeonly, but when I was a kid I remember the airplanes running on time.
no subject
I loved the sci-fi stories, btw- especially the whole notion of having a kitten! :-)
no subject
I want to have a kitten too.
had to post this 2x because I screwed it up...
The irony: I did take a cab, in spite of how much I hate them, because I was feeling really lazy and my knee was bothering me. And then I remembered why I don't take cabs. The guy ran THREE red lights before we got back to the train station.
Is it good or bad that we kept talking about things we haven't posted yet but were thinking about? (Please tell me this doesn't mean I have no life...)
And thank you for the compliment about my eyes. *blush* My dad's are the same, but his have lightened a bit with age. I wonder if mine will do the same.
Re: had to post this 2x because I screwed it up...