AnimeFest 2009, Day 0

<bitching>

The general tone for my flight out to Dallas was set when I struggled into the restroom at the tail of the plane and tried to get Business Done, only to be interrupted by someone jiggling the door handle.

"I'm in here!" I called out.

The door handle continued jiggling violently. I regretted that I have no extra appendages with which to jiggle the thing back. so I raised my voice: "I'm in here!"

The door handle continued jiggling and then the door rattled in its frame, as if — no, not "as if", the idiot on the other side was indeed trying to yank the door open anyway. That or pick the lock.

"WAIT YOUR TURN!" I shouted as loud as I could.

Yank yankity yank yank clatter.

I finally gave up (concentration's shot, can't do anything now), climbed out, and shot the old man standing there the meanest stare I could muster. Hearing aids in both ears. Deaf as a tree stump, most likely. I've been told I have the patience of several saints rolled into one, but at that point the saints had all gone marching out.

The airplane A/C was cranked up brutally high. By the time we made our descent, I felt like someone had been shoving slivers of ice into my sinuses with a funnel rammed up my nose.

The guy two rows behind me was playing with his iPhone 's GPS and accelerometer while we were landing. (Yet another in the endless list of reasons why I despise iPhones: they attract idiot users like fluorescent lighting fixtures draw flies.)

The business center at the Hyatt was out of stamps. Nope, they didn't have a postage meter either. I gave them the package I needed mailed along with $5 to cover the cost of getting it properly stamped. Now watch it come back to me because the date on the international mailing label is wrong or something stupid like that.

The in-room coffee tasted weirdly foul. The coffee packets didn't appear to have date stamps on them, but I suspected they were stale.

Post-travel inventory: one splitting headache, one runny nose, and a few new cusswords in my vocabulary.

</bitching>

... On the plus side, the shuttlebus driver was a real sweetheart.