confession time part 3
Jul. 27th, 2008 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unbibiumSo, Sunday morning breakfast happened at the same location as the banquet. The conference admission price sure includes a lot of meals. The day would see me confronting three failed crushes.
So, I go downstairs, I pass Catholic girl in the hallway, and we basically wave and pass each other going opposite directions. I sit at a random table. They announce the next conference will be in Washington DC.
I know a lot of people are staying an extra day, and I try to arrange some hanging out, but I don't really have a lot of power left in the brain, so I do the same pacing around... I run into another woman, who is also there, never more than a few feet from her parents, who was my 2004 crush but more like a sister to me now. She was going to the Star Trek thing at the Hilton, which I also wanted to do. The timing didn't work out, because the second to last time I checked the ballroom, there was one table, and all the principal characters were sitting at it. Catholic girl, the photographer, the genetics doctor, all there. And there were a handful other people there discussing something gravely imporatnt. Even though my crush has gone away, my IQ points have not recovered, so I sit down and see what's going on.
I posted about this earlier. In America, albinos and their families face problems like apathetic teachers, unknowledgeable doctors, getting stared at on the bus, that kind of thing. In Tanzania, albinos and their families face problems like being unable to find sunscreen in Africa, there being only one hospital in a country of 39 million equipped to treat skin cancer, and oh yeah, albinos are being killed because our body parts are said to have magical properties. Major bum-out, and my contributions to the discussion generally cause the photographer to tell me that I'm getting off-topic. He's ultimately right, but I found it odd that he was the one interrupting me. And he, of course, is well-connected enough that he knows the cause as well as the Tanzanian representatives at the table, and who we can count on as resources, and so forth. Again, I should have left much earlier.
The Star Trek girl called me in the middle of this, and I elected not to leave the table. This decision was incorrect, as I gave up and left the table soon after, at the same time as the doctor. We commisserated about how frustrating the situation is. And then I doubled back, and the photographer was leaving. Something possessed me to ask him whether Catholic girl was still in there, he said yes, and I went in, and there was nothing but hotel staff clearing off tables. That struck me odd. But, it was enough of a confidence hit that I was bummed the rest of the day, and left me a little more suspicious of that guy.
I get to the Star Trek thing, can't find Star Trek girl, though I run into some other people from the conference. They take a picture of me next to the white-haired salt sucker creature from TOS. And I eat at Quark's and browse the stores. Star Trek girl eventually emerges from the rides, and we browse the merchandise together, and she doesn't say a lot. I hem and haw and decide, for the second year in a row, not to spend $50 for a 20-minute ride. Not necessarily because I can't afford it, but, to be honest, in my old age I'm starting to find Star Trek a little cheesy.
So I leave the Trek area, and go to the blackjack table, and win $125. I take a bus to Paris, where I go get some crepes, and lose $75. But I find I'm having a lot of fun at the blackjack tables, even when I lose. Complete strangers, all with a common goal, and even the dealer is happy for us when we win. Somehow I felt more like part of a community there, than I have in months. Charismatic dealers help. I may devote a whole post to that. The important thing was that I'd memorized the basic strategy table, and thus I didn't really have to make my own decisions, apart from how to bet and when to leave the table.
Then I saw the Penn & Teller show, as described in a previous post. If I'd gone to bed, or even to the airport, immediately after seeing them, then the vacation would have had Good Finish.
But then, I go back to my main hotel, and encounter all the conference stragglers... including, the trio of British girls, one of which was my 2006 crush. And they're all hanging around with, guess who, the photographer. By this point, it's too late to attempt to re-charm my 2006 crush, so I clumsily ask her for her email address, she clumsily tries to invent an excuse, I say "you don't really want to give it" and she says "yeah" and I go back to my room and fail to fall asleep.
So I started Saturday as a relatively healthy, independent human being, and ended Sunday as a lost puppy dog looking for a master.
So, I go downstairs, I pass Catholic girl in the hallway, and we basically wave and pass each other going opposite directions. I sit at a random table. They announce the next conference will be in Washington DC.
I know a lot of people are staying an extra day, and I try to arrange some hanging out, but I don't really have a lot of power left in the brain, so I do the same pacing around... I run into another woman, who is also there, never more than a few feet from her parents, who was my 2004 crush but more like a sister to me now. She was going to the Star Trek thing at the Hilton, which I also wanted to do. The timing didn't work out, because the second to last time I checked the ballroom, there was one table, and all the principal characters were sitting at it. Catholic girl, the photographer, the genetics doctor, all there. And there were a handful other people there discussing something gravely imporatnt. Even though my crush has gone away, my IQ points have not recovered, so I sit down and see what's going on.
I posted about this earlier. In America, albinos and their families face problems like apathetic teachers, unknowledgeable doctors, getting stared at on the bus, that kind of thing. In Tanzania, albinos and their families face problems like being unable to find sunscreen in Africa, there being only one hospital in a country of 39 million equipped to treat skin cancer, and oh yeah, albinos are being killed because our body parts are said to have magical properties. Major bum-out, and my contributions to the discussion generally cause the photographer to tell me that I'm getting off-topic. He's ultimately right, but I found it odd that he was the one interrupting me. And he, of course, is well-connected enough that he knows the cause as well as the Tanzanian representatives at the table, and who we can count on as resources, and so forth. Again, I should have left much earlier.
The Star Trek girl called me in the middle of this, and I elected not to leave the table. This decision was incorrect, as I gave up and left the table soon after, at the same time as the doctor. We commisserated about how frustrating the situation is. And then I doubled back, and the photographer was leaving. Something possessed me to ask him whether Catholic girl was still in there, he said yes, and I went in, and there was nothing but hotel staff clearing off tables. That struck me odd. But, it was enough of a confidence hit that I was bummed the rest of the day, and left me a little more suspicious of that guy.
I get to the Star Trek thing, can't find Star Trek girl, though I run into some other people from the conference. They take a picture of me next to the white-haired salt sucker creature from TOS. And I eat at Quark's and browse the stores. Star Trek girl eventually emerges from the rides, and we browse the merchandise together, and she doesn't say a lot. I hem and haw and decide, for the second year in a row, not to spend $50 for a 20-minute ride. Not necessarily because I can't afford it, but, to be honest, in my old age I'm starting to find Star Trek a little cheesy.
So I leave the Trek area, and go to the blackjack table, and win $125. I take a bus to Paris, where I go get some crepes, and lose $75. But I find I'm having a lot of fun at the blackjack tables, even when I lose. Complete strangers, all with a common goal, and even the dealer is happy for us when we win. Somehow I felt more like part of a community there, than I have in months. Charismatic dealers help. I may devote a whole post to that. The important thing was that I'd memorized the basic strategy table, and thus I didn't really have to make my own decisions, apart from how to bet and when to leave the table.
Then I saw the Penn & Teller show, as described in a previous post. If I'd gone to bed, or even to the airport, immediately after seeing them, then the vacation would have had Good Finish.
But then, I go back to my main hotel, and encounter all the conference stragglers... including, the trio of British girls, one of which was my 2006 crush. And they're all hanging around with, guess who, the photographer. By this point, it's too late to attempt to re-charm my 2006 crush, so I clumsily ask her for her email address, she clumsily tries to invent an excuse, I say "you don't really want to give it" and she says "yeah" and I go back to my room and fail to fall asleep.
So I started Saturday as a relatively healthy, independent human being, and ended Sunday as a lost puppy dog looking for a master.
