Done yesterday (20110701 Fr)

( raw notes )

Not a good day. No. Some hugs from people I only see at Westercons -- that was very good. But...

I hate the Fairmont. Not having a room there helps, but creates problems of its own, especially for Colleen, who needs an accessible toilet and, these days, an assistant.

Let me back up a bit.

The day technically started around 2am, when I finally got to bed after our trip to the ER Thursday night.

Colleen had an appointment in the Fracture Clinic at 11:15, so I called in sick and took her in. More x-rays; the bone pieces seem to be in the right place this time. Sleeping with the sling on apparently helps a lot. She has an appointment for next week.

If you're keeping score, that's 2 ER visits, 3 clinic visits, and 4 x-rays so far since Sunday. And she's on her second bottle of percocet now, but probably won't be needing much more of it at this point.

In retrospect, I should have ended my experiment with a reduced dose of SSRI last Wednesday. The stuff seems to work mainly by increasing my supply of cope, and I could have used a lot of it this past week.

We had lunch at home, and took advantage of my sick day to go to Westercon, in the Fairmont hotel in downtown San Jose, somewhat earlier than I had originally planned. I hate the Fairmont; we stayed there during Worldcon a few years ago. Old, underwhelming, and overpriced.

We got to the con around 2:45; I got Colleen unpacked and drove off in search of a usable handicap parking spot; I eventually found several open ones about a block from the hotel.

After getting registered and spending some time greeting people, I sat in on the "What Is Filk?" panel around 4:30 just to have someplace to sit down. Unlike most convention hotels, the ballroom floor of the Fairmont has essentially no seating outside the function space. Did I mention that I hate the Fairmont?

Around 5pm we went to the bar, which is a sunken area in the middle of the lobby. We eventually found the wheelchair lift -- not a ramp -- in what appeared to be a converted closet. It took two tries to find a chair I could sit in comfortably. I had a glass of Hendrick's, which was predictably overpriced.

So was the in-hotel Chinese restaurant, where we went for dinner with the YD. The food was distinctly underspiced. In between, Colleen attempted to find an accessible lady's room, which eventually required getting someone from the hotel to go in and open the handicap stall in the one first-floor lady's room, which had been locked from the inside. Possibly because it wasn't flushing properly.

Did I mention that I hate the Fairmont?

At this point my back was hurting and I was bored silly; I left, and got home a little after 8pm. Went back for Colleen 9ish, and the YD around 10:30. By which point I was both sleepy and depressed. Oh, and getting Colleen's scooter was complicated by coughing while bent over (which reactivated my back spasm), and scraping the back of my hand on the seatpost of the scooter picking up the battery. I dealt with the latter by tying my handkerchief around it. Useful things, handkerchiefs.

No, not a particularly good day.

On the plus side, the combination of Chami (rolling backpack) and Minnie (sling shoulder bag) worked surprisingly well. Though it's pretty clear that Chami is not sufficient luggage for a weekend trip, she does a good job as a convention rolly. I ought to rig something that works as a top handle when Minnie is on board, though. (Although this, and the slight top-heaviness I noticed, is less of a problem when Minnie is slung over Chami's "shoulder" rather than attached around the handle. I'll try that today.

Only one link in the notes; I was busy with other things.