June 22, 2016

 Last night I didn't get to sleep until after one o'clock. I decided to go ahead and get a ticket for Universal Studios to kind of force myself to go. And then I printed off my shuttle confirmation because I realized I needed that. I also go distracted researching other things. When I finally went to bed it took forever for me to fall asleep so when my alarm clock went off at 4:45AM it felt like a cruel joke.

I had the realization this morning that I hadn't printed out the class itinerary or the list of sessions I was interested in so I did that. I also thing I printed off something later. It was the same thing last night where I printed something, closed everything up and shut down my computer, and then remembered I needed to print one more thing. Annoying.

Because of my need to print stuff, and kind of dragging my feet, we didn't leave to go pick my sister up until shortly after six o'clock, instead of already being at her house by six o'clock. This stressed my mom out a little bit.

Adding to that stress was the fact that there was construction and the exit my mom usually takes to go to the airport was closed the the detour, if there was one, wasn't clearly marked. We ended up driving past the exit we think we should have taken and we took an exit we probably shouldn't have. My sister and I were both trying to look at a map on our phones and figure out what to do but my mom ended up saving the day. She found another little exit to get us turned around and then she may have made an illegal U-turn at a stoplight to get us going back in the right direction. After that we actually saw a sign for the airport so we knew we were back on track. There are so many signs for the airport when you're right next to it but definitely not enough before that point.

We got to the airport around 8:30AM so they dropped me off so I could check in while they went to find a place to park. Checking in went fine but finding a place to park was apparently a little more difficult. It took them awhile but they eventually made it into the airport. We stood around and talked for awhile and then shortly after 9:00AM we parted ways so I could go through security.

That process actually went pretty fast. The slowest part was me putting my shoes back on. After that I found a place to sit down and started reading my book for class. Not too long after that an older woman sat down next to me and started reading a newspaper. She struck up a conversation with me after awhile and it turned out we were both going to the ALA conference. I also learned that she founded the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) which is pretty freaking cool. She kind of a big deal. She's retired now but she was telling me all about various projects she started and worked on and little tidbits about her career which were pretty cool. Small world. I wish I had more interest in government documents because she would be a really good resource.

Once on the plane I sat next to two women who looked like librarians. One of them complimented my ring and I told her that I made it years ago when I was briefly into ring making. I asked if they were going to ALA, which confused them at first because they were not librarians, although one said she always wanted to be a librarian. They were actually coming down here for a scrapbooking convention. We talked about that for awhile and then random things throughout the flight. We ended the flight talking more about scrapbooking and one of them gave me their card because I said at some point I could see myself getting into scrapbooking, which is true. It was a really nice time. I was also able to finish my book for class and I read some of the library security book.

After landing I made a stop at the restroom and then set off trying to find baggage claim. I followed the signs that led to a train/shuttle to go to the A and B baggage claim. I figured because everything else with my flight was a B that my bag would go to the B baggage claim. So I walked across the terminal and road the escalator down to B. Just in case, when I reached the bottom I walked over to the little information desk and asked how I would know which baggage claim to go to. The girl there was super nice and looked up my flight and told me I actually needed to go to the A baggage claim. So I walked back across the terminal and down to the A baggage claim. And my timing was perfect because right as I walked up to the carousel my bag came by and I was able to grab it without a second of waiting. It was meant to be.

With my bag in tow I checked the directions on my shuttle confirmation, looked around until I saw signs, and then headed downstairs again to go to the shuttle counter. I got my tickets printed and the lady behind the counter told me where to go outside. It was a bit of a hike but once again my timing was great. I checked in with the guy there and he gave me a buzzer and said he would notify me when I was good to go. I walked back to stand by a bench and as soon as I stopped walking the thing buzzed and the shuttle van pulled up.

I got on with four other people and then we drove around to another terminal and picked up two more people. When we got to the second spot one of the girls that got on at my stop recognized a girl getting on at the second spot. From what I gather they are sorority sisters and they're here for a sorority thing. They sat behind me and for most of the ride one told the other her adventure getting to Orlando. Her original flight got delayed two and a half hours and then three and a half hours. Other things happened and she ended up having to take a taxi ride to another airport to catch a different flight so that she wouldn't miss her connecting flight. I'm glad my airport adventure wasn't even close to that bad. I would have been in a horrible mood. Thankfully, they both sounded like the most stereotypical chipper sorostitutes, so good for them.

We dropped them off first, then a group of three people, and then it was my turn, along with another lady who was also a librarian. She checked in and then I was up. At first I was almost charged the full prize of the room but when I told her I should only be paying half and my roommate would have the other half, she got it fixed. We also got a deal on the rate and the hotel came out twenty or thirty dollars cheaper than expected.

The room is nice for a single person but it really isn't built for two. Hence the one bed and the pullout couch. There is a built in kitchen, which is nice, but when I got into the room there was a growing puddle originating from the refrigerator. I went back down to the desk and asked if they had a mop because the refrigerator was leaking, kind of assuming they would send someone up to take a look at it. Instead she handed me a couple of towels and told me I could come back down if I needed more. Thanks. I dried up the puddle and wiped out the inside of the refrigerator. Then I left that towel in the refrigerator to catch the drips that were still happening and then shoved the other towel under the bottom of the closed door to catch all that was still dripping. I'll check it again tomorrow.

I went down again later because the air conditioner is right next to the bed and was only cooling that side of the room. It was frigid and the side with the couch was hot. I debated about it and was texting with my sister when my mom called to tell me I needed to go complain. I said I might but I didn't. I just went down and asked if they had a fan, which they did not. So I went back up to the room.

I got to the room shortly after four o'clock and after all the walking around I sat down and started writing this so I wouldn't forget anything. About two hour later my roommate showed up and he was immediately awesome because the first thing he said was “I'm going to be the best roommate ever because I'm not going to stay here.” Hooray! He brought his family down with him because his in-laws live here and as I hoped, he is going to stay with them and come to the hotel when we have group stuff and possibly to hangout and talk about our website. That totally works for me. I was really dreading and stressed out about the idea of having to share a room with a stranger for a week and not really getting any time to myself. And now I have a room that I can escape to at the end of each day and decompress after all the people activities. The trip instantly got a thousand times better.

We hung out in the room for the next hour occasionally talking but mostly we both worked on our individual conference schedules. I still need to narrow mine down but I'm getting closer. Before heading down to our professor's room for dinner we talked briefly about the website we have to build and we thing we're going to go with a gaming thing. We both plan on going to some of the GAMERT sessions and he has some middle school students he works with that are building game simulators with Raspberry Pi. That sounds like a pretty cool project and it is nice that we kind of have the website figured out already.

We met everyone down in the professor's room for dinner at seven o'clock and it was a random collection of food. I put together a cheese sandwich with four skinny slices of different cheeses, some chips with salsa, and a few grapes. Not a great dinner but better than I was expecting. There was some random talking about things but I spent most of the time just kind of standing around, pretty much what I do at any social gathering. At the beginning of it one of the ladies who I've had in several classes came over and congratulated me on my new job. Then at the end of dinner I told her about meeting the founder of GODORT because she's really interested in government documents. Also at one point during the dinner a couple of the girls said they were going to Harry Potter so I caught up with them in the hall and asked if I could tag along. They are also going with some work friends and said I was welcome to join, which is nice because I was anxious about the idea of going on my own. We will be getting on a shuttle tomorrow morning at 9:25AM. I would like to sleep in but that will have to wait. Maybe I can get in a nap tomorrow. Or just go to bed at a decent hour. Right now it is only nine o'clock my time but ten o'clock here. And I am way too tired for either of those times. The morning is going to be rough but it should also be a lot of fun. As long as my sunscreen works and I don't get fried. That would make for an uncomfortable rest of the trip.

When I got back to the room I ironed all my shirts and pants so they will be ready for the week. Maybe I should have saved that for another night so I could have gone to bed earlier but it's too late now and I think future me will appreciate the effort.

Now I'm going to stop typing so I can do a little research on the Harry Potter stuff and then go to bed. If nothing else I'll get more sleep than I did last night, so that's good.