So, The whole "Call a random # and find out about your car" bit worked shockingly well.
Almost like those folks had done this before. Car was a Caddy, as apparently it was the only one in the area, so I got nudged up for nothing.
Driver was a very chatty guy from Thailand, originally.
We got along well enough, except that about halfway to my hotel, he started talking about how he was going home for a vacation soon, and while there, he planned to visit prostitutes, because that's what you do on vacation. That segued into a long, drawn out diatribe about how marriage is bad and.... I kinda put him on mute, in my head, after that.
He loves his daughter though, a ton. Talked about her a lot. Didn't see the disconnect...
Checked into my hotel, it was 7:45, which is 10:45pm in my head, and in my empty belly.
Hotel's on an island, there's...one restaurant, at the OTHER hotel on the island. Guess I'll eat there.
Was offered a table by a portable heater, on the patio, overlooking the river and downtown Long Beach. Realized that everyone there was seated by a heater. It was sixty out, still.
Um.... yeah. Ok if I sit by the water over...there?
A $21 quesadilla and one beer later, and I'm walking back to my hotel.
Day 2: I stayed up crazy late watching TV, in hopes that I would NOT wake up at 2:30 local time this morning. Forgot to turn off my phone, so the text my wife sent me at 2:15 CA time.... woke me up real good.
Curses.
Drifted back for a bit, eventually, but overall, I sink further into the hole.
Hoped to stumble across fellow employees at Residence Inn's free breakfast. Dare to hope, even though I had no idea what they looked like. I needed a ride to the conference...
Didn't really matter what they looked like, because the room was full of eastern european men in business casual, sitting together, and a couple tables of folks so obviously, stereotypically dressed to go on a cruise that I wondered if they were play acting.
2nd cup of coffee went really well with the sunrise.
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