This is pretty much what I am doing right now. Some thoughts:
The day started well enough; I slept in a bit, as I had the day off (depleting my last personal day for the year 2009, but it was worth it). I puttered about the house until Laura came home (she had a partial day that day as well), and we went to try and get ink cartridges refilled at Walgreens. Upon learning that they did not refill the cartridges I have, we headed over and opened a wedding account, so’s we can pay for the wedding. Flush with success there, we went to Meijer, where I bought replacement cartridges. Thirty plus dollars poorer, I returned home, put on Star Trek II, and attempted to print out the iron-on decals for our Con shirts. This was not to be. After two hours, I came to the conclusion that there must be some non-ink related problem with the printer, and was forced to give up. Money well spent.
At some point during my trials, my Star Trek TOS Sciences t-shirt (that’s the blue one) came from UPS. So far, I counted one victory for the day.
Live long and...prosper? I guess so.
Dan, Puma, and Ashley came and picked me up around 3pm, and, after throwing my bags into the trunk, and one more hug and a kiss from my fiancée, we were off. Things went smoothly enough. I had my first cigarette in months at the first rest stop, the Starbucks in Birch Run, although Puma and I inadvertently went to Quiznos at first, not realizing it abutted said Starbucks. Coffee’d, smoke’d, soda’d, and in Puma’s case, breakfast sammich’d, we were off again.
Sammich!
We made it to Ashley’s dad’s house in Sterling Heights relatively safely (what with Detroit area traffic and all), helped her get her stuff in the house, and continued toward Livonia and the Hyatt Place hotel. Somewhere shortly after leaving Ashley’s dad’s, we hit a traffic jam. There was an accident of some sort, but we eventually got around it and it was off to the hotel. Once there, we thought we were home free. Alas, there was a bit of trouble, in that, even though the room was paid for, they needed to charge us forty dollars in case we made charges to the room (say, room service or a late night viewing of Doctor Strangepud: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Your Mom…In the Butt). We had no intention of doing any of these things, but they insisted, and cash was not an option. None of us had enough money on a card, and it nearly came to them refunding our monies and we’d have to find another hotel. We couldn't do that, as we were 100 miles out of town and this was the freakin’ Con weekend: there was going to be nothing available. Lisa (Puma’s girlfriend) bailed us out and let us use her card.
Arrival at Hotel: Approx. 7pm. In Room: 8pm. This is where we waited.
Once in the room, we unwound and watched the giant TV provided to us. There wasn’t much on, we settled for Happy Gilmore on TBS.
The refuge of the damned. Also, a hotel room.
A view of the room. Note the TV, The Puma, and way in the back, The Dan.
The beds. They're just beds; not every caption is going to be interesting.
Later, we were hungry, and we went to the only restaurant in sight of the hotel, Romano’s Macaroni Grill. It was really quite good, like a better tasting Olive Garden, with similar prices. They also give you a paper tablecloth and crayons to draw on. This was awesome, and I really wish I had taken a photo of it. Regardless, it looked something like this:
Yes, we're nerds.
We didn’t do much the rest of the night, save a run to a very unfamiliar Meijer and more cigarette breaks. Eventually we went to bed. I had massive trouble sleeping, and was up until sometime in the 3 o’clock hour of the morning. At one point Puma got up to use the facilities, and asked if I was awake. I replied that I wasn’t sleepy. Yes, I used the phrase “sleepy,” what of it? He then asked me if my tummy hurt, too. Even two weeks later, he still finds this hilarious. Bastard.
Next time: Saturday, May 16!
I have been reading a lot of Todd Klein's blog as of late, especially his Logo Studies, and it rekindled my love of type and logos. I soon set to making one for my buddy Jeremy, aka The Puma, as he's the only friend I have who really has a superhero-esque nickname. I drew this rough sketch to start with:
