postcards from alaska pt. II

the flight from utah to alaska felt interminably long. like i said before i don't like to fly and i didn't know what time it was because i moved a time zone to utah and then back two more to alaska.

at my layover in utah i went to this pubSQUATTERS. and i drank some of this


normally i don't go for blondes, but i always make exceptions for retrievers. and of course anything that says "chasing tail."

was that out loud?

anyway, i love that they also had a "polygamy porter" and the slogan was "you can't have just one."

so i timed the layover just right, got my to go food and had a couple beers to calm my nerves, then got to the gate before my "zone" was boarding. they said the flight was going to be 4 hours and 45 minutes. i swear it was like 6. when i boarded i felt like such a hick because it was HUGE. the HUGEST plane i'd been on. i was in seat 44D and my seat was just behind the MIDDLE of the plane. of course being in a D seat i was in the EXACT middle between two people, and, well, i don't sit still very well. and i was exhausted, only three hours of sleep before this "surprise" conference (knew about it for a year - and every year i promise myself i'll be more organized for conferences...) so i would try to nap but, i have this reflex that keeps me from really falling asleep in public, in spite of how much i want to. i'll doze off, and for some reason (fear of snoring, drooling, what have you) i'll JERK myself awake. and that's just as embarassing (and jarring for those in close proximity) as snoring or drooling.

and then i was a bit bitter because i had gone to all the trouble of getting food before i got on the plane and then after i ate it, they BROUGHT food. and the sad thing is when you grow up poor, you feel like extra crap if you throw food away, so i've been storing this airline sandwich on ice in the hotel and carried it around with me today and i'm pretty sure it's going to kill me when i eat it tomorrow after i've put it back on ice again and hauled it around AGAIN...

don't ask.

for now i'm going to finish working on my power point because apparently in spite of sending mine in on time before the conference and then volunteering to mule several of the other speakers' talks on disk and delivering them, my talk is the ONLY one of the session not in the computer of the AV company. sthweeeeeet. so like a freak i figured i could work on it more...