Grass and Sky

Yesterday was such a big day, and I'm still exhausted, but if I put the recap off, it won't happen, and I want to get a recap up, so bear with me, here.

3 hours of pseudo-sleep on the bus was enough to keep me functional for most of the day yesterday, so the plan to stay up overnight on Friday worked.

We got in to DC almost an hour earlier than planned, which was good because everything else for the rest of the day took far longer than expected. We spent half an hour trying to get coffee (what we got was vaguely brown water that had almost certainly been poured over previously used grounds) and then made our way as close to the rally site as we could get. Turns out, because we were coming in from the east (buses parked at RFK stadium) we were behind the stages. Everyone packed in as much as they could, none of us realizing we were blocked from getting where we were going for a couple hours. We did, eventually, realize we needed to go around and come at the rally site from the west. We kept getting told, go one/two blocks this way and then come back around, and then when we came back around, getting pushed further out by the next security people. We finally ended up at the very back end of things, on 14th St, pretty close to the Washington Monument. There was a large screen a couple blocks in that we could just barely see, and we caught the very tail end of the speeches, although we were far enough from the screen that we couldn't actually tell what they were saying. We never, at any point, managed to get in to the official rally or march, but there were so so so many people that we were right in the thick of the overspill.

Despite all that, it was an amazing, energizing, uplifting experience. There's a certain feeling you get when you're in the middle of something that big and everyone is speaking in one voice, demanding to be heard and counted. It was a very positive energy. People were helping each other and welcoming strangers into their conversations. I can't vouch for the entire thing, but I didn't see any unrest or outbursts of anger.

Extricating ourselves from the whole thing was more difficult than we had expected. Things were still growing, really, at 2:15 when I realized I was done. I was starting to feel very disoriented and unbalanced (due in large part of the shuffling start and stop motion of the crowd combined with lack of sleep and patchwork food). We didn't have to be back at the bus till 6 but it seemed like it was time to get out of the crowd. Harder said than done, since the crowd was EVERYWHERE! We made one stop at a food truck to get some chicken tacos, and another for a bathroom break at a warming station (schools and other buildings were open to provide charging stations, bathrooms and places to warm up) and got back to the bus at 4:45. Long, long day. According to the app on my phone, we walked over 11 miles. According to my best attempt at recreating the day on Google Earth, it was more like 8.5. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.

( Lots and lots of pics )

I'm very disappointed that the item I ordered from an Amazon wish list for Standing Rock has not been delivered. I've received no notifications that it couldn't be delivered for any reason, but when I checked its status, it says "Not yet shipped. Delivery estimate: we need a little more time to provide you with a good estimate." It's been nine days.

When I contacted customer support, they told me the item was out of stock, with no idea when it would be available to ship. Funnily enough, it is still listed as having plenty in stock, on the website (for $20 more than it was 9 days ago). It was suggested I try ordering it through a different seller (the original seller was amazon), but I have little faith that would do any good. The people who are maintaining the wish lists suggest that if you have a problem getting an item delivered, order it outside the wish list and they give an address to have it shipped. I had the original order canceled and I guess I need to figure out whether I want to try again or if I'm too pissed off with Amazon to give them any more money.

Okay. That...did not go well.

It's going to take a long time to process all the thoughts and feelings I have after this debacle.

shirebound asked for fall pictures to counteract the heat in her area. We're getting fall in small little dribs and drabs this year, so no sweeping vistas of glorious color, but here are two of the pictures I've taken this week.

I've got a pretty darn cute group of kids this year. Can't understand a word most of them say, but they are adorable in their mushy-mouthed ways.

( kids making me happy )

( Rainbows! )

In other news, I stopped at Target to do a grocery run and instead bought two pairs of pants and two sweaters. New clothes, woohoo! And then tried to buy some pizza at the little Pizza Hut in the Target but they didn't have any - probably fourth time today I experienced a food fail. Looooong day.

eve11 picked me up after work on Wednesday and we split the trip between two days, rolling into Atlanta (at a slow crawl because it was rush hour) on Thursday afternoon. We checked into our condo (rented through Airbnb), picked up our badges, and made a trip to Walmart. We had to buy a floor lamp because there was almost no lighting in the place, and we hadn't yet figured out the A/C so I got a wee little fan to aid in sleeping. And then we crashed.

So many pics ahead (and I didn't even take that many pictures).
( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

I honestly hated to be done - I wanted to stay out all night and keep Dragon Con going - but all good things must come to an end and this year's DC was no exception. I had a fabulous time and the weekend ended on a high note. I got a lot of compliments on the skull makeup, as awful and amateurish as I thought it looked, so that was hours of staring at youtube clips and greasy makeup practice put to excellent effect!

Financially and because of work schedules I know I won't be able to go next year, but maybe in 2018 we can all do it again.

Objectively, I don't think it actually took more than ten or fifteen minutes in this small apartment to find my Jabe headpiece. Subjectively, it was a lifetime of 'crap, please, please, please tell me I didn't throw it away in a fit of pique when I moved, omg, I'm so screwed if I threw it away, why would I do that, no no I'm sure I wouldn't do that, arg!' before finding it jammed into the farthest and least accessible corner of my closet. But I found it, and it's in good shape. I want to adjust the paint color if I get time and I badly need to address the make-up portion of the costume. But that's what tomorrow is for. No excuses, I've got to get out to Party City and pray they actually have the makeup that I need.

I found out this evening while looking at store hours, that one of my preferred art supply stores moved from it's previous location on the Southside (nearly impossible for me to get to these days) to Walnut St, 1.5 miles from my current place. Yay! That means I'll at least be able to go look at paints and should be able to find a lighter but matching paint shade for Jabe, since that's where I bought all the paints in the first place.

lyda_pearl and I went kayaking this afternoon.

( Adventure Time )

( Plumbing woes )

( Book review )

I think I'll look for a good movie to watch tonight. Tomorrow I have to get back to work on sewing - I'm hoping that step two, the shirt, will be fairly quick and easy.

I came home from work to a very constipated and unhappy cat. Poor Mal. There's not much I can do to help him, other than just let him prowl around the apartment, crouching wherever he pleases until he manages to work it all out of his system. The first time this happened, it really freaked me out - he's so uncomfortable, he'll puke up all his food, it's hard to see (not to mention having to clean up the mess when he finally gets things going). But it does seem to be something he just has to work out on his own.

Meanwhile all I really want to focus on is the Pens game tonight. If they win, they win the Stanley Cup. If they win it at home tonight, it would be the first time since 1960 that a Pittsburgh team won a championship actually in Pittsburgh. So it's just a little bit of a big deal.

I guess this one is down to Photobucket, which is where I had the photo saved that I used for my background image here. Photobucket has apparently gotten rid of all my pictures between this morning and this afternoon, with no warning to me. When I log in, it still shows them all, but if I try to click on a particular picture, either it doesn't load at all or I get a message saying I have a bad link. :( So now I have to settle for some generic theme that doesn't make me happy when I look at it. I loved that background I had. It didn't work well on every screen size and such, but the image made me happy. My journal title really doesn't match this theme at all, but I'm too bummed right now to come up with some new title that matches so I'm just keeping the old one for the time being.