logistics & impressions
Apr. 21st, 2006 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaeclecticMy brain is bubbling with things I want to write about, but I feel that I'm running mildly late this AM, so we'll see how far I get.
I am in a hotel in a town just northeast of Pgh called Harmarville, which has no special beauty or interest except for being at the junction of two highways, and convenient to drive north (where Dad lives) and east (where many of my former (W) colleagues live/work). Sadly, as it turns out, I will not be seeing my Dad until the second leg here, when I will be staying at a hotel near the airport (southwest of the city) and instead I am going to make at least two trips to Carrick (south of the city) for lunch with one niece today and the other tomorrow. *sigh*
Yesterday I did mostly venture east: spent the afternoon hanging out with my friend Beverly, then met up with a bunch o' (W) types for "happy hour" which lasted until almost midnight. As usual with these events, it was a weird mix of some of my favorite and closest former colleagues, and random people I barely know. (My being in town seems to be the main excuse that they use to plan "BUG meetings", AKA Beer Users Group.)
Woke up this AM at 10 (AKA 7 PST) which is perfectly reasonable since I was up until after 1AM, but means that: a) I missed the hotel breakfast again (yesterday I was up in time but just forgot that there *was* a hotel breakfast), and b) feel like I have to scurry somewhat to be in Carrick by noon. Not that Joanna is likely to mind if I'm late, she doesn't seem like much of a morning person.
Also had a slight scare because the hotel had slipped one of those "express checkout" forms under my door. I called and explained that in fact I have a reservation for 4 nights and am not intending to check out until Sunday -- to which the response was "oh that's no problem" which I gather means that my reservation through expedia was actually screwed up, but who the heck wants to spend a weekend in Harmarville? so they've got rooms to spare.
At least the internet access is working again, which it wasn't last night. :)
Other than all that, there's being in Western PA:
Forsythia is blooming.
I finally figured out that the tree I remember growing down the street when I was a little girl, the one with the chartreuse flowers that bloom before the leaves come in, is a maple. This is a weirdly important bittersweet combination of remembering happy childhood times but also remembering the day my mother died. It was a beautiful spring day, as it happened.
It oddly amuses me that I remember the roads. I mean, why wouldn't I? I lived here most of my life. But I still keep driving around thinking: wow, these directions wouldn't be helping me much if I didn't recognize so much of this.
People drive slower here. Really.
Abrupt end: must run off now.
I am in a hotel in a town just northeast of Pgh called Harmarville, which has no special beauty or interest except for being at the junction of two highways, and convenient to drive north (where Dad lives) and east (where many of my former (W) colleagues live/work). Sadly, as it turns out, I will not be seeing my Dad until the second leg here, when I will be staying at a hotel near the airport (southwest of the city) and instead I am going to make at least two trips to Carrick (south of the city) for lunch with one niece today and the other tomorrow. *sigh*
Yesterday I did mostly venture east: spent the afternoon hanging out with my friend Beverly, then met up with a bunch o' (W) types for "happy hour" which lasted until almost midnight. As usual with these events, it was a weird mix of some of my favorite and closest former colleagues, and random people I barely know. (My being in town seems to be the main excuse that they use to plan "BUG meetings", AKA Beer Users Group.)
Woke up this AM at 10 (AKA 7 PST) which is perfectly reasonable since I was up until after 1AM, but means that: a) I missed the hotel breakfast again (yesterday I was up in time but just forgot that there *was* a hotel breakfast), and b) feel like I have to scurry somewhat to be in Carrick by noon. Not that Joanna is likely to mind if I'm late, she doesn't seem like much of a morning person.
Also had a slight scare because the hotel had slipped one of those "express checkout" forms under my door. I called and explained that in fact I have a reservation for 4 nights and am not intending to check out until Sunday -- to which the response was "oh that's no problem" which I gather means that my reservation through expedia was actually screwed up, but who the heck wants to spend a weekend in Harmarville? so they've got rooms to spare.
At least the internet access is working again, which it wasn't last night. :)
Other than all that, there's being in Western PA:
Forsythia is blooming.
I finally figured out that the tree I remember growing down the street when I was a little girl, the one with the chartreuse flowers that bloom before the leaves come in, is a maple. This is a weirdly important bittersweet combination of remembering happy childhood times but also remembering the day my mother died. It was a beautiful spring day, as it happened.
It oddly amuses me that I remember the roads. I mean, why wouldn't I? I lived here most of my life. But I still keep driving around thinking: wow, these directions wouldn't be helping me much if I didn't recognize so much of this.
People drive slower here. Really.
Abrupt end: must run off now.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-21 05:09 pm (UTC)