August 16, 2004 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

August 16, 2004 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Recently, I spent 10 days traveling with my family and The Gryphon. The first leg of this was a beach vacation at the Jersey shore. During the second portion of my vacation, I served as a staff member for the 2004 Otakon in Baltimore.

Una, happy to be home

Day Ten: Denouement (Monday, August 3)

We had requested a late checkout, so we got to sleep in a little bit before getting our showers and putting our stuff together. Even though I know that both my sister and her fiancé gave me their hotel keys back, I couldn't find one of them. When we checked out, we explained that to the hotel.

After we were checked out and the car packed, we hung out in the hotel lobby, talking to other Otakon staffers. I was hoping The Cousin would come by, since I had promised to lend her my American Splendor book. But she didn't come through, and we determined she must have left earlier.

Most of the staffers in the lobby were people from the younger wave, maybe 10 years younger than my college friends, who had started the convention 11 years ago.

A friend of The Gryphon's, who works in the Special Ops department, asked if we could give him a ride back to the Philadelphia area. His ride had left, and if we could get him to public transport, he could get home to northern New Jersey. We agreed.

On the way home, we all chatted about Otakon and how things had gone before he fell asleep in the back seat, not waking up until 30th Street Station. He wasn't really familiar with that station or his transportation options from there, so we parked and went in with him, to help him figure out how he could get home.

I had the night off, and The Gryphon and I had resolved to spend a quiet night at home, after picking up my dog, Una, at the vet where she'd been boarded this whole time.

We stopped at the post office on the way to pick up my mail, and then we unpacked the car at home. I was frustrated to discover that my paycheck, which was supposed to be waiting for me, had not arrived. This was an issue it took me about a week to resolve as I eventually got the check replaced. Fortunately, my landlord was understanding about my rent.

When we arrived at the vet, they got Una and put her in a separate room, in a pen, while they finished up the paperwork with me and I paid them what I joked was her "bail money." As the woman went back to get her, we heard a loud barking commotion. I heard her voice among them. I don't think I've ever heard it so noisy there. Una was leading a doggie rebellion!

Finally, when they came out with Una on a leash, they explained she hadn't wanted to come out of the pen. I guess she hadn't realized she was coming home. She was very excited to see us, of course, and wanted to pull us out the door. Of course, on our way out the door, we startled a woman carrying a cat carrier, who claimed she'd almost had a heart attack.

Una was so excited to be home, running around, drinking water, eating food, running around some more, that she got sick on the bedroom floor. For the rest of the night, she was very affectionate and very needy.

One of the first things I checked upon arriving home was my basement, because I'd heard from some other friends in the Philadelphia area, namely The Cheshire Cat and The Paper, that there had been a huge storm. They were worried it might have caused flooding in their basement, where they store even more than I do in mine.

I was happy to discover that the water had receded and didn't appear to have come up high enough to get into any of the plastic containers I store down there.

The Gryphon and I ordered Chinese food and watched two movies we'd rented: Johnny English and Japanese Story. We should have watched Johnny English second, instead of first, because it was very silly. By contrast, Japanese Story was a tearjerker. While well done, it was difficult to go to sleep after watching it.

But it was good to be home, in my own bed, having a quiet evening with my favorite dog and favorite human.

So, what have we learned from all this?