Finally, a Chance to Rest
Sep. 6th, 2005 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeI'm back home in Fremont. We got packed out of the room, got Lisa's stuff into her van -- she was traveling relatively heavy because she could -- and put me on the shuttle to the airport. There was a minor dispute with my hotel bill. The room charge, of course, was at the convention's expense, with me responsible only for my incidental charges such as internet access and the like. They'd charged me a minibar fee even though I'd never taken anything from the minibar (they removed this charge without question). Then they had $18/day plus tax for valet parking. Parking was supposed to be free for the first car registered to any given room. They said that the fee was because we'd parked in the valet spaces instead of the self-parking lot. I pointed out that the only reason Lisa's van was parked in the valet spaces was because their parking lot is designed in a brain-dead way that forces all vehicles to go through the low-clearance parking garage to get to the open-air parking spaces, which we could not do because it would have torn the top of the van off. The desk clerk said she could do nothing about it, and I decided not to argue, figuring that either CascadiaCon could reimburse me or I could just live with it. I did resolve to complain to the hotel later. When I got back to the room to finish packing, I got a call from the front desk. Upon further reflection, they decided to take the parking charge off the bill. Thank you, Hilton!
The flight back to Oakland was uneventful. Crowded, but uneventful. I'd volunteered to be bumped (I could have used the free ticket), but they didn't need it. I even managed to doze a bit on the flight down, which shows how tired I am, as I don't sleep easily on planes (trains, yes, buses and planes, no). Then it was just a matter of wrestling my luggage onto and off of the AirBART bus, then up to the BART train to Fremont, then into a taxi back to my apartment because the next bus home wouldn't be for another 45 minutes and I didn't really want to wait that long. (The cabbie didn't offer to handle my bags; you can be sure his tip was adjusted accordingly.) I still had a bit to do; I had to run over to the post office and restart mail delivery, and get something to eat; then, I did some minimal unpacking -- mostly the pieces of the exhibit about which I was most concerned about being in the luggage -- and checked my e-mail for the most urgent messages. After I take care of this journal entry, I think I'm going to bed early. While I had a great time at CascadiaCon, I'm really tired, and I have to work tomorrow, at the new office where I've never actually been before. I hope I can find the map I printed out last week.
The flight back to Oakland was uneventful. Crowded, but uneventful. I'd volunteered to be bumped (I could have used the free ticket), but they didn't need it. I even managed to doze a bit on the flight down, which shows how tired I am, as I don't sleep easily on planes (trains, yes, buses and planes, no). Then it was just a matter of wrestling my luggage onto and off of the AirBART bus, then up to the BART train to Fremont, then into a taxi back to my apartment because the next bus home wouldn't be for another 45 minutes and I didn't really want to wait that long. (The cabbie didn't offer to handle my bags; you can be sure his tip was adjusted accordingly.) I still had a bit to do; I had to run over to the post office and restart mail delivery, and get something to eat; then, I did some minimal unpacking -- mostly the pieces of the exhibit about which I was most concerned about being in the luggage -- and checked my e-mail for the most urgent messages. After I take care of this journal entry, I think I'm going to bed early. While I had a great time at CascadiaCon, I'm really tired, and I have to work tomorrow, at the new office where I've never actually been before. I hope I can find the map I printed out last week.
