LeakyCon Portland Journal

Wednesday June 26, 2013

Traveling always seems to have a way of making me so excited that I can’t sleep.  For instance, I’ve now been going for twenty hours.  Twenty-four before I’ll take a nap.  And then when I get to Portland, I’m going to do some exploring.  LeakyCon doesn’t start until tomorrow.  It’s an official travel holiday.  I’ve never been to the Pacific North West before.  Or the West Coast at all, actually.  Now seems as good a time as any.

It’s a bit muggy this morning.  Stepping out of the car the humidity was just … there.  Like an instant damp.  Lightning is lingering on the horizon, but it isn’t raining, yet.  It’s quiet in the airport at four in the morning, no traffic yet.  My flight leaves at 5:30 and I arrived really early.  Despite my regular habits, I love being early when I travel.  I don’t know why.  And, when it comes to traveling in the States, I would much rather fly than ride the train.  The airport system is laid out more logically.  If I’m going to enjoy riding the trains I will be sitting watching the English countryside roll by with Coldplay in my earphones and perhaps a cup of tea.

As its getting closer to the time, I find this funny; I’ve been sat waiting in a chair toward the far end of the lounge and three other people have come to sit relatively close to me.  It would seem people tend to clump together at 4:15 in the morning.

Checking in is painless and I was successful in cramming everything I will need into my carry-on dimension suitcase and my purse.  Half of my suitcase is stuffed with snack foods so packing it to come home should be a little easier.

Traveling has a way of resetting my mindset.  It’s like a secret that I’m privileged to discover.  Others have the chance, but they’re either too scared, lazy, or have no desire to discover the secrets travelers desire and pursue.  And it isn’t a secret you can easily share for the secret is different for every person on every journey.

I travel for the people as well as the sights.  While I travel, the people are almost always pleasant and helpful.  The check-in lady was extremely cheerful even at 4:30 AM.  Meeting new people outside of retail restores my faith in humanity so that when I go back to work the customers can drain my faith once again.  If only I could travel and write as a career.

I’m excited for Portland!  I’m not sure what exactly to expect from the city but I’m looking forward to it, no doubt.

Two strangers are sat talking about their travels a few seats away.  One is currently living abroad and will only be gone for another few years in Asia.  Perhaps Japan, but I missed that part of the conversation.  The rest of the lounge is filling up with other passengers waiting, but now the gate’s gone up and it’s time to go through security!

Whenever I travel, I like to wear colorful socks.  It’s part of my everyday life anyway, but especially when I travel I pick the brightest socks.  The security people always seem to enjoy crazy, wacky socks.  I’m sure it’s better than plain, old white socks time and again!

Going through security, as a process, isn’t bad.  It’s just a quick step through the arch after taking off your shoes and jacket.  And now that I’m through security and I have my boarding pass (although not in that order) the excitement is truly increasing.  With each “checkpoint” in the journey I’ll be getting more excited.  It’s been a while since I’ve been anywhere all by myself and I’ve missed the joy of observing the world by myself.

We took off into a pale pink sunrise.  And then, you’re in the clouds.  The world turns into nothing but clouds, mist, and sunrise.  The ground disappears and the puffy clouds surround you before you leave them, too.  The sights from flying are worth traveling in their own right.  To never have seen the world from a bird’s perspective is a sad thing in my mind.

I seem to get lucky a lot on flights.  I wind up with seats by myself.  I’m sure that on the other two flights today I won’t be as lucky.  However, one can hope.

I think taking off is one of my favorite parts of flying, watching the world dissolve into specs as the sky becomes a wide, huge place of adventure.  I love seeing things laid bare, made unimportant just by the scale of it all.  It’s invigorating. 

Weather is not necessarily your friend while traveling.  We circled Chicago for about twenty minutes (at least) before we could land and then we sat on the plane for an hour, waiting for the thunderstorm to move past the area for safety reasons.  Metal, lightning, and safety and things.

Once we finally got into the airport there was a very long, wait in a congested, stand still line of people being impatient as the airline worked to rebook all of our connecting flights.  Luckily, I still got on the flight that would get me into Portland before 10 PM.

I got lucky again on the flight from Chicago to Phoenix and there was a lady in the aisle seat but no one between us.  I fell asleep for about twenty minutes before we even left the tarmac.   Once in the air I was out for about an hour and a half.

Landing in Phoenix was comforting, like seeing an old friend.  I was only there for about 45 minutes, but it was nice.  I got an overpriced turkey sandwich and sat against the wall enjoying my downtime. 

On the flight, I was offered the window seat because a mother and daughter wanted to sit together and didn’t mind giving up that seat.  I love sitting by the window so I was more than compliant.  Why fly if you can’t look out the window?!

I obviously fell asleep again, but I woke up in time to descend into Portland.  The first time flying down over a new place is always exciting.  It lends an idea to what the new place is going to be like.  As we descended into the cloud layer we then emerged . . . into another cloud layer.  I almost laughed out loud.

The cloud layer was beautiful to fly through.  The clouds were the big fluffy stacked clouds that I like to take pictures of from the ground on days when I’m feeling artistic.  Once we descended through that cloud layer Portland revealed itself.  Mountains, lakes, green.  Beautiful and fully what I was expecting except better.  I was hoping that having already taken two Sudafed, one before Chicago and one before Phoenix, I would be alright landing in Portland.  I was.

 I celebrated making it to my destination by having a coffee.  The airport was very nice!  As I was sitting enjoying my coffee there was a man singing and playing piano.  The whole experience was very pleasant after a long day of traveling and some slight stress.

Being as tired as I was, I decided to take a taxi to the hotel rather than try to work out another way on my almost dead phone.  Needless to say, my brain wasn’t functioning properly.  It was a bad idea.  The trip ended up costing me $42 which made me cringe.  A lot.  But the cab driver was nice and not creepy (for once) and I didn’t have to worry about getting lost in my no sleep stupor.  So that was the only good part about it.  Of course, I should have known better.  Thank you, hindsight.

Checking into the hotel was interesting.  Apparently there was an additional $200 more than what the website said I was going to owe as part of my check-in fee.  I believe it was the fee for just in case I broke anything or bought anything, but I still didn’t plan for that.  The man at check-in waived it for me until check-out.   I did not appreciate the additional fees that no one told me about, but I did appreciate the helpful manner of the hotel’s employee.  For future trips I suppose I will just budget an extra $200 for hotels just because of this.

The lobby was very lavish and impressive.  Dark and classy, there was a center staircase leading up to the next level with seating around the room and a place to connect to the internet.  The room itself wasn’t extremely impressive.  The PUBLIC Chicago strikes me as more inviting.  The Hilton’s bathroom was pretty nice though, even if the counter space was almost non-existent and the toilet was weird.  The Chicago Hilton was nice, but overall, I wasn’t overly impressed with the Portland Hilton.

I took a shower soon after checking in to feel human again and then I went walking.  The path I wove took me down by the river and then circled back around to the hotel.  The river was nice and it’s truly beautiful all over the city.  There were so many hippies out and about as I was walking and, no offense, but they smell real bad.  There seem to be a lot of people lounging in the parks and hanging out on the sidewalks, but they seem to keep to themselves for the most part and everyone else just goes about their way with no trouble.  As in a lot of cities, there were people asking questions and asking for money for bus tickets or food or, in Portland, weed.  I manage by saying, “I don’t carry cash, sorry,” and by keeping my eyes down when passing these people for the most part.

After a while I decided I should probably have something to eat even though I wasn’t hungry, but I couldn’t decide where to eat.  So, I ended up at McDonalds.  Not a very good traveler’s choice, but I didn’t want to waste money somewhere I wasn’t hungry for. 

Once I was back in my room, I sat and watched some TV while eating my McFlurry followed shortly by a cup of tea.  I got snuggly in my bed and finally fell asleep around 10:30pm my time which meant I was awake from 8:00am on Tuesday until 12:30am on Wednesday/Thursday. 

Thursday June 27, 2013

I was woken up at 8am the following morning at 8am when housekeeping knocked on my door.  Not appreciated Hilton, not appreciated.  They came back again around 9:30; I was still sleeping.  My mother also called at 9:40 and I didn’t appreciate that either.  Apparently I need to learn to make Facebook status updates in my sleep so that my family two hours ahead of me in the day know that even though it is 11:40 at home, I’m still sleeping after traveling for a long time the day before. 

When I finally got up and left around 11 o’clock I headed straight to Starbucks for a coffee and then I walked 1.9 miles to the Convention Center.  It was a nice walk, if not a bit warm once I got to the Convention Center.  But, it was a good sort or, I-just-had-a-good-walk warm.  I registered for the convention and got all of my stuff before sitting down against the wall to relax and cool off. 

I’ve been writing to pass the hours until the Opening Ceremony.  It isn’t like last year where I could check in and then chill in my room.  The venue and the hotel are separate this time which makes it harder to waste time.  I’ve been sitting with a group of girls by the wall and I’ve kind of attached myself to their group.  So, we’ll see if I have a group to go to the Ball with!  We did a box challenge run by one of the non-for profit organizations in the Exhibit Hall.  It was a challenge to see how many people we could fit, standing, in a box.  We fit nine of all shapes and sizes.  A bit down the hall a whole group of skinny twelve year olds fit, well, twelve in the box.  Hard to beat small skinny people on a contest of sardines in a can.  Two other girls who were passing by sat down and played Harry Potter trivia with the group.  It was fairly intense and I was impressed. 

As I’ve been sitting waiting I’ve seen Bad Wolf written in chalk on the sidewalk outside, a toddler Harry Potter in Quidditch attire, a couple of house elves, and a slew of Hogwart’s robes.  Also a Starkid Ron Weasley and Dumbledore, a whole bunch of nerdy tshirts (including my own), and the Severus Snape cosplay who I saw last year.  This convention supports so many fandoms and, I think, that’s what makes it special.  It stems from Harry Potter and then extends to the Hunger Games, Starkid, Star Wars, Doctor Who, the Warblers, Buffy, and anything else with a fan-based following.  The nerdy here are in good company.

The Opening Ceremony was epic.  It’s going to be hard to beat next year.  It took form in a small skit that explained, in comedy, how LeakyCon has become more than a Harry Potter convention.  Through Team Starkid, Disney, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, and RENT the Opening Ceremony acknowledged the celebration of all fandoms.  The stage for the weekend was revealed to be the Forest of Fandoms, a brilliant design by Corey Lubowich.

Almost all of the big players at LeakyCon were a part of the Opening Celebrations: Hank Green, Team Starkid, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Cast, Tessa Netting, Alex Carpenter, Maureen Johnson, and Anthony Rapp.  It was a brilliant display of talent and entertainment.

After the Ceremony was over I went to the Wizard Comedy Jam featuring Andrew Slack, Harry Seinfield, and Joe Moses all moderated by Harry and the Potters.  Andrew Slack was pretty good as were the in-between jokes by Harry and the Potters.  Harry Seinfield told about 60 Hufflepuff jokes while watching his Twitter feed.  It was awful after the first five.  Joe Moses was, as always, absolutely hilarious.

While waiting for the Comedy Jam, I was standing in line with Professor Dolores Umbridge, also known as Michelle (for short).  She was standing with her husband, Jon, and the friends they made at the last LeakyCon, Brian and Sarah.  We sat talking about Umbridge for a while, debating who was more evil: Umbridge or Voldemort.  (We decided Umbridge was actually more evil.) 

We all left the Comedy Jam a tad early to go to the first Wizard Rock Concert.  In the first set list was Kristyn Hippe, Lauren Fairweather, Alex Carpenter and his The Remus Lupins band mates, Tonks and the Aurors, and finally the Ministry of Magic.  It was a good concert to end the first day of the convention.  We got out about 11:30 and I took the train back, in a mass of people, to the hotel.  I made the mistake of having a regular cup of tea when I got back and then proceeded to watch a marathon of the television show EXIT on SYFY channel.  I didn’t go to sleep until around 3am. 

Friday June 28, 2013

Because I went to bed late, I woke up later than planned.  I missed the Buffering Series panel but I then accidentally sat in on an amazing panel called the Art of Making Shit Happen led by Julia Albain and Corey Lubowich.  They talked about creativity, managing time, a bit about money, and the process that makes all of these things work together.  It was actually one of the best panels I went to at LeakyCon this year.  One of the things that Julia talked about really stuck with me.  She explained that creativity has a down time and it is necessary.  She had someone explain to her that creativity is like a wave.  Just as a wave rushes and recedes, so does the creative process.  The mind/creative soul needs the time of pulling back to prepare itself for the next rush forward and each time there is a rush forward, the creative process gains ground even though it pulls back again.  It was a very inspiring panel.

On the Main Stage following that panel was the Lizzie Bennet Diaries Extravaganza panel which was pretty entertaining.  It was interesting to see the entire cast together and how they all interact with one another.  Hank Green and Bernie Su were onstage beside the cast and everyone participated in an audience Q&A session.

I stayed put for the Joe Moses Showses which, in Joe Moses fashion, was excellent!  We saw the return of the Doctor, the Wrong Direction who did the N’SYNC dance to Bye, Bye, Bye (it was fantastic), there was a funny skit about Batman and Spiderman, Joe Moses Supposes (a hysterical Q&A session moderated by Joe Walker who decides whether or not he likes Moses’s answers and then makes him change the answer), and the show was ended with a brilliantly done Les Mis parody.  It was absolutely mind-blowing!  The Showses featured Tessa Netting, Curt Mega, Devin Lytle, Joe Walker, and a few other people.

I ran into Michelle and Jon after the show.  We sat down and ate from the little deli at the Convention Center while we waited for Brian and Sarah to join us with their friend Nola.  They were at the costume contest and won best group costume for their hand-crafted Victorian Gryffindor Quidditch Supporters costumes.  They were beautifully made and a lot of people stopped to ask if they could take pictures. 

Michelle was dressed up as Umbridge again, complete with a little pink tea cup. The other two days she just wore nerdy tshirts like me.  Jon didn’t have any nerdy shirts at all, so he was like our “pet Muggle.”  (Hey, it’s a Harry Potter convention after all!)  After lunch we went to the Exhibition Hall to look at all of the vendors.  We sat and watched the Lizzie Bennet Diaries cast play Quidditch with Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan in the Harry Potter films) and then there was an open game that decided to play in.  Quidditch is fun to watch even in the Muggle World. 

We then went to the panel “Can Fandom Change the World?”  It was a more of a serious subject panel, which was fine and it was a good panel, but I was getting tired and starting to lose focus.  Afterwards Jon, Michelle, and I went and got coffee from one of the little shops on the other side of the Convention Center.  We chatted about life for a while before going to visit Brian and Sarah at their craft fair “booth.”  I bought two of Sarah’s buttons, one with Harry Potter on it and one for Ravenclaw (my Pottermore house).  I also wanted to buy a ship (think pirate) necklace but I showed restraint and I didn’t. 

The second Wizard Rock Concert followed the craft fair.  This one featured a clever sister duo called the Double Clicks who had awesome and hilarious songs (one was about how it is lonely to be an apostrophe!), Rae Sterling who absolutely rocked the set, Justin Finch-Fletchly and the Sugar Quills (this was the Hufflepuff jokes guy . . . definitely funnier on the rock stage), Hank Green who performed his newest Harry Potter based song (along with other of his songs), the Whomping Willows, and finally Harry and the Potters.  This concert lasted until midnight and I didn’t get back until about 12:30. 

I walked to the Convention Center every morning and rode the train back every night.  Walking was not only a good way to get exercise, but also a good way to see the city.  With the walk only being 1.9 miles it wasn’t too far.  From the hotel, it only took me half an hour to make it to the Convention Center.  I crossed the Steel Bridge along the pedestrian walk across the bottom of the bridge.  A section of it lifts up to allow larger boats to pass under the bridge.  In the event of a larger boat, the little gates close and the green walking symbol turns to a red hand, as it does, and that section lifts up.  It’s kind of fun to watch, but it takes a bit of time so if I would have been in a rush I would have been annoyed.

Saturday June 29, 2013

Saturday began early.  MinaLima, the graphic designers from the Harry Potter films, were doing their panel at 9am.  I left early enough to get coffee and then I walked to the Convention Center.  I missed MinaLima’s panel last year, but I’m glad I got to go this year!  They talked about some of the research they do before designing things and they had a presentation of a lot of their designs that ended up in the movies.  A lot of the posters and newspapers they designed only appear in the film for a few minutes, but a load of work went into all of those props.  It was a fascinating panel to be sure!

Following MinaLima was the Men of Lizzie Bennet Diaries panel.  This was a funny panel featuring Maxwell Glick (Mr. Collins), Daniel Vincent Gordh (Darcy), Wes Aderhold (George Wicham), and Christopher Sean (Bing Lee).  These four actors were very well spoken and the audience provided a good Q&A session at the end.

I remained in the same room for the following panel: Fandom in the Dark Ages which featured Pat Brady (Team Starkid’s lovely and loving manager), Melissa Anelli (one of the main contributing members to LeakyCon), and Anthony Rapp (best known on Broadway for his role in Rent).  This panel talked about how fandoms existed before the internet and how the Harry Potter fandom phenomenon grew up around the expansion of the internet and other technology.  Julia Albain was the moderator and I do have to say this was a very well-managed and well-spoken panel.

Yet again I didn’t move rooms as the Nerdfighter Gathering was held in the same room.  Hank sang some songs on request, and talked about stuff, and was just awesome.  Some parts were serious, some silly and some in-between.  It was my first Nerdfighter gathering and hopefully next year John will also be in attendance and the brotherhood with be complete!

Again, again I stayed put for the Finding Hogwarts (with live commentary) showing.  Finding Hogwarts is a documentary following the journey of Melissa Anelli, Andrew Slack (of the HPA), John Noe, Frankie Franco, Paul DeGeorge (of Harry and the Potters), Rita Gill, and Bre Bishop as they attempted to find out why Harry Potter was so special to the world.  I did enjoy watching the film and the commentary was insightful and funny.

I met up again with Jon, Michelle, Sarah, Brian, and Nola before we lined up for the Starkid event.  We ended up sitting pretty far back, but Starkid was just singing all of their Harry Potter songs in show order, so visually there wasn’t a ton to see.  Not to mention, the screens were showing the action as well.  There was a bit of dancing, a lot of music, a lot of talent, and (of course) a whole lot of silliness in true Starkid fashion.  Watching them perform live is magical.  Britney Coleman, Dylan Saunders, Joey Richter, and Nick Strauss killed their performances and Clark Baxstresser sang as well making the experience amazing.  Team Starkid is almost ridiculously talented and their shows, whether concerts or performances are always spot on.

There was a break in programming after Team Starkid to allow everyone to go back to their hotels to get ready for the Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball.  I ended up getting sidetracked watching an NCIS marathon on television before taking a shower and getting ready.  I brought two dresses with me because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to wear but I decided on the bright green dress with plans to wear the cream and black dress for my upcoming housewarming party.

For once, I rode the train to the Convention Center, mainly due to the fact that I was wearing fairly tall heels.  I was only half an hour late and when I walked in, they had only just started letting people in anyways.  So in fact, I wasn’t late at all!

The ball was a lot of fun!  They played a lot of awesome songs, there were a few conga lines, Team Starkid made some rounds through the crowd (right by me . . . and followed by a LOT of fangirls), Hank Green made a photo op for some people happen, there was a ton and a half of dancing and a heap of good times.  Brian and Sarah had dressed for the day as the tenth Doctor and the TARDIS and we were stopped a lot so people could take pictures.  They were phenomenal costumes!!  They wore them to the Ball as well and we still had a lot of people come up and take their picture.  It was like being friends with celebrities!

Finally, the traditional ending of the Ball came around: Total Eclipse of the Heart, LeakyCon’s coming home song.  It actually happened twice this year.  During this song, we all dance together and sing as loud as possible.  It really brings us together as all the presenters of LeakyCon are onstage singing the song and dancing and everyone on the dance floor mirrors them singing the song and dancing.

Both years I’ve attended LeakyCon, there seem to be songs that become that year’s LeakyCon throwback anthem.  Last year it was Call Me Maybe (a song that is absolutely awful).  This year the song seems to be Love It by Icona Pop.  I actually like this song.  Two different performers played it, one at each Rock concert, and it played at the Ball to lots of dancing and jumping.  It’s just a fun song!

My feet were really tired after the Ball and I had to sit in my room for a bit readjusting my feet to being flat before I could walk around and take another shower and get ready for bed. 

Sunday June 30, 2013

I slept in on Sunday and didn’t get to the Convention Center until around 12:30 or so.  I went to the Exhibition Hall and bumped into Jon, Michelle, Brian, and Sarah (the latter two dressed as Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris).  We did a little bit of shopping which boiled down to me donating a book to the HPA, and buying two books.  No tshirts this year, which is probably a good thing.  The two books I bought were City of Bones by Cassandra Claire and The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson.  I’m pretty happy about both of these.

Jon bought us butterbeers and then we sat out in the hall and played Cards Against Humanity.  What a great game to play with friends!  It was a pretty epic game, if I do say so myself and we all laughed a lot!

And then, it was time for the last Pottercast and the Closing Ceremony of LeakyCon Portland.  I don’t think any of us really wanted it to end.  LeakyCon is always a blast.  It’s a place to make new friends and be yourself and celebrate being yourself with other people who appreciate being yourself.  It’s an accepting, encouraging environment to immerse yourself into.  Beautiful, wonderful things happen at LeakyCon.  The Pottercast touched base on some of these ideas and ended with a wonderful ‘Are you smarter than John Noe’ segment.  They had Anthony Rapp and Maureen Johnson as guests on the show and it was an emotional ending for Pottercast and in turn, LeakyCon Portland.

We went back to Jon and Michelle’s room for a little while before going to a nearby burger place for lunch.  We finally went our separate ways around 6 o’clock.  I took the train back to the hotel and then sat in my room watching television and enjoying my downtime.  I did, at one point, decided I wanted a chocolate milkshake, so I went down the street to McDonald’s and got one.

I really have enjoyed my stay in Portland.  It’s a wonderful, beautiful, weird city with a million coffee shops, street musicians, hooligans, and everyday people meandering about to create such a diverse city.

I feel like there is a lot left to the city of Portland that I’ve not seen; partly for time reasons and partly because I’m all by myself.  I would like to return to explore more of this city and its secrets!

Monday July 1, 2013

The key to sleeping in, I’ve discovered, is indeed the “Do Not Disturb” sign.  I slept pretty late on my last day in Portland.  After I got all of my things packed, I checked out.  I didn’t have to pay any additional fees so I don’t know what all of that other stuff at check-in was all about.  How frustrating.  I’m having them hold my luggage until around 8pm when I’ll head to the airport for my 10:20pm flight to Charlotte, North Carolina.

In the meantime, I went to Powell’s Books.  Oh my gosh!  What an amazing store!  It is a gigantic display of literature.  There were so many floors and rooms and aisles and books!  I wandered through the bookstore for about two hours.  And I still probably only skimmed most of the bookshelves.  I’m proud to say it was busy in the bookstore, too; lots of people buying books.  I myself bought about $60 worth of books which works out into 9 new books for me.  On average, I paid about $6.67 per book.  I’m glad I don’t live in Portland because I would be so poor from buying so many books!  Nine books was me holding back!! I ended up buying two Anthony Bourdain books, two Agatha Christie Poirot novels, a Bronte novel, two Rudyard Kipling books, a Chinese Literature Anthology, and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.  The two Kipling books are beautifully bound in red leather with gold writing on the cover and they are old, the last copyright date being 1920!

I’ve now been sitting in the Starbucks on the corner by the hotel for the past few hours catching up on the events of this weekend.  I suppose now that I’m caught up I can sit and read somewhere.

As I have picked up eleven books of varying sizes and a lot of my snacks are gone, I wonder if I can fit them all into my suitcase.  I hope I can because I don’t want to have to ship them home separately.

Portland has been really warm these past few days while the weather at home has been in the 70’s.  It seems the weather is crazy everywhere!  I’m going to miss Portland.  But I think I’ve discovered something my past couple of trips into a big city.  I enjoy short amounts of time in the city, but I don’t think I could live permanently in the city for a very long time.  I do enjoy walking places and not having to drive, but there are too many people for my liking.  Traveling is a good way to get a little city life without the stress of dealing with it all for huge extents of time.  Being a multi-city traveler is more fitting for me.

I left Starbucks and went back to the hotel to sit in the lobby for a while before leaving for the airport.  I am happy to say that I managed to squeeze in all of my eleven books into my little carry-on suitcase, with the exception of Tolstoy which I fit into my purse along with Clash of Kings, the book I initially brought with me.  I even managed to fit in a souvenir t-shirt and shot glass.  So, what it boils down to is that I’ve apparently learned the art of packing.  I’m pretty impressed.

I am happy to say that when I had to use the restroom, the hotel’s front desk assistant lent me the key to the bathroom.  I was worried because technically I was no longer a guest.  I guess I needn’t have worried!

I left fairly early for the airport, but I’m glad I did.  At first, I left because I was bored, but when I got on the train I found out it was a forty minute ride to the airport and I was happy that I hadn’t waited any longer.

We passed a Panda Express in a shopping center on the way to the airport which, of course, made me want Panda Express.  I got into the airport and what did they have?  PANDA EXPRESS!!!  Well played Portland, well played.

Walking into the airport I felt incredibly stupid because the train was easily accessible from the exit where I came out.  I guess in further travels, no matter how tired I am, if I don’t have someone waiting to pick me up, use other forms of transport than a cab to get where I’m going.  It’s cheaper by far and less stressful somehow.

By the time I got done eating my delicious Chinese food, I was able to go through security and do a bit of souvenir shopping on the other side of the airport.  Specifically, I was looking for a Portland magnet.  So far in the trip I hadn’t found one I liked that wasn’t gaudy and awful or completely unrelated to Portland.  I did actually buy one that says: “I haven’t had my coffee yet.  Don’t make me kill you,” and I was about to give up on finding a Portland one when I happened across one in the last shop before the gates.  Lucky me!

I sat in the gate for a bit just being tranquil and tired, watching the sun trickle away into the inky dark.  When we finally boarded the plane, I had a window seat right behind the wing so that the wing extended back into my view.  Not my favorite really, but it was dark anyways.  However, in the dark, the cities light up and spread out their feelers into the black.  The orange-ish glow scatters on the horizon and watching the lights twinkle below you is its own wonderful experience.

I didn’t sleep well on my coast to coast flight.  The fourteen year old boy next to me didn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space and kept elbowing me in the ribs.  Not particularly hard, but enough to be annoying which resulted in me trying to squish myself as far into the right side of the seat as I could.  I also had a crick in my neck and I couldn’t get comfortable that way either.

Monday July 2, 2013

The flight from Portland to Charlotte is only a four hour flight.  But, due to time zones, we left Portland at 10:20pm and arrived in Charlotte around 6am.  I lost sleep, not that I got much either way.  I made sure to take my Sudafed on time so that my ears weren’t bothered too much.  It’s a trick I picked up at my Study Abroad pre-departure meeting.  Without Sudafed, descending in an airplane is almost unbearable for me and afterwards, my ears still ache for the rest of the day.

Charlotte’s airport had a certain charm to it.  In the main concourse there was a line of living trees with white rocking chairs beneath them instead of benches.  The concourse smelled of cinnamon and coffee.  What I really wanted was a donut or two and a coffee, but I had to settle for a large cinnamon roll from the little restaurant.  It was delicious and a bit messy because I, of course, ate it with my fingers.  Silverware didn’t seem to make much of a difference honestly; the family at the table across from me was having difficulties even with forks and knives.

I sat and ate breakfast with my phone plugged into an outlet.  Before, I had stopped to get Starbucks and I sat for quite a while in the hall with my phone plugged in.  I’ve learned that stopping to charge every once in a while is good so that you don’t end up with a dead phone and a $40 cab ride.

My layover was about three and a half hours long and I sat pretty dazed and tired through most of it; the coffee did little to nothing and for me that’s a rare thing.  But, before I knew it, I was back sitting at a gate waiting for them to call my flight to board.

There was a girl sitting across from me who, after a while, took out a book to read to pass the time.  It was Game of Thrones and I had to smile a little to myself, feeling as my friends had felt for me: excited for her about the journey she was about to embark on.

When I got on the plane I found out I was in the middle seat.  It was alright, but the window seat really is best.  The gentleman sitting next to me was cheerful and really nice.  He was pretty talkative until we got in the air and we all fell asleep.

Once in Chicago, I had a fairly quick turnaround before getting on the final flight to Peoria.  The plane to Peoria is a much smaller flight and they (both times) had us “check” our carry-on luggage at the gate to be picked up at the gate once we landed.  It wasn’t as stressful on the way back because I didn’t have a connecting flight waiting for me in Peoria.  But, I’ve seen how they throw luggage around and I had a shot glass among other things that I didn’t really want damaged, so it made me nervous.  Lucky for me, everything came out in one piece.

Even though the flight from Chicago to Peoria only lasts half an hour, I still fell asleep!  Talk about tired, half an hour is literally gone in the blink of an eye.  I was a bit glad to leave the airport largely due to the fact that the last fifteen or so hours of mine had been spent in airports or traveling in some way, shape, or form.  I still had half an hour’s drive, but it was the homestretch, finally.

I pulled into my driveway around 2pm and then went directly to the shower.  I felt really disgusting after that 

many traveling hours.  Somehow I managed to stay awake fairly late before sleeping for over twelve hours.  I woke up on Wednesday, ate a piece of carrot cake, and then proceeded to nap the entire day until band rehearsal at 7pm.

The question is raised every time I travel: Was it worth it?  My response is always the same.  Of course!  Traveling is always worth it.  Always.  It expands the mental and physical world we live in.  It forces us to realize that the world doesn’t revolve around us and that we have to relate to others in order to understand how the world really works.  The world is a fluid creation, twisting and morphing and flowing together as a whole.  It makes traveling a beautiful experience.  Every.  Single.  Time.