Sleepless in Seattle

1:30pm PST Sunday January 13th

The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay. Or in this case, the best laid plans of a woman got seriously screwed up by the weather. I was supposed to fly from Portland to Hartford with stops in Seattle and Chicago. When I got to Seattle I checked my voicemail and found that my sister had called to tell me that my Chicago-Hartford flight was cancelled because of a wicked snowstorm that's sweeping across the Northeast this afternoon.

After a banana milkshake and a talk with an agent, I have my new flight information. I'm stuck here in Seattle until nearly midnight PST (I got here at 10:30am) when I head off to Dallas. I'll arrive there at 5am CST, sit (or nap) for four hours, and then finally leave for Hartford. I should be home by 1:30pm EST, at which point I will curl up in bed and hopefully enjoy unconsciousness for most of the afternoon.

At least I have stuff to do while I'm awake. I have Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off, the alpaca lace scarf, and a sock with the Shibui I bought on Thursday. I'm really glad I brought it in my carry-on instead of checking it. The rest of my yarn (and clothes and toiletries and Mexican cocoa [thank you, David!]) is in my suitcase, probably on its way to Illinois. I have no idea when my luggage will be getting to Connecticut... it was booked on the Seattle-Chicago flight I was originally on, so I'm not sure when it'll be re-routed.

My laptop battery is probably about to die (and when it dies my laptop makes a horrible, painful noise), so I'll sign off for now. Maybe I can recharge the battery in Dallas and write a bit more then. At 5am. *whimper*


3:30pm PST

Success! I've found a comfy chair right next to an outlet, so I can use my computer for as long as I like. I don't think I'm going to be connecting to the 'net, because it's gonna be expensive, but at least I can type and play solitaire. I took a nap for a while, talked to David on the phone (he's still in Portland... smart boy booked an evening flight instead of a morning one), and finished reading Stephanie's book. I have the urge to design a game based on the book. It would be a cross between Puzzle Pirates and Chore Wars, I think, with challenges, games, and tasks (including real-life things, on the honor system) that would earn the player points or credits that could be used to purchase stash, notions, or even real estate (how'd you like to own a virtual yarn store?).

When I got on the plane in Hartford on my way to Portland on Wednesday, I realized that I'd left my headphones at home... remembered the mp3 player, but not the key hardware to make it useful. At the hotel I could plug the player into my laptop and listen to it that way, so I wasn't entirely without my favorite tunes, but I don't want to disturb people on the plane with music coming out of my computer's speakers. I was sorely tempted, when I first arrived at SeaTac, to buy a pair of those fancy Bose headphones. The vendor here doesn't display the price, though, so I called my sister and asked her to look it up online. Three hundred fifty dollars. I went to one of the mini-marts and got a $5 pair of earbuds instead. A quirky blend of rock, disco, punk, and indie pop has been keeping me relatively sane for the last few hours thanks to that purchase.

I still have eight hours until my plane boards. My hands are tired of knitting, so I'm kind of bored. If I'd known I'd be waiting so long for a flight, I would have stayed in Portland and hung out with David until his flight left. I loved Portland the first time I was there (a few years ago when I drove Alli from Oregon to Virginia to move in with Mike), and I loved it even more this time. It's a beautiful city, one of the only ones I'd ever want to live in (I am so a country girl), and a bunch of my friends live there. I'll be coming back for at least a few more visits, if not moving there permanently. We'll see what life throws at me in the next year or two.

It's time to play a little solitaire, I think.


5:20pm PST

I has intarwebs! Granted, it's $8 for 24 hours, but it'll do. Hello, intarwebs. I missed you. Time to post this.