I was visiting Lola T. and her husband Marty, who kindly put me up in preparation for going to PNI this year. I'd set my cellphone for 6:45, but in retrospect it's foolish that I'd sleep through the sound of Marty's alarm clock in an open loft. I'd squeezed 3 or maybe 4 hours of sleep. Took 6mg of melatonin but couldn't break through the barrier. I was well enough, got all of my things (except my formal shoes, of course), and headed to the Metra. Marty was also kind enough to drive me. I miss having my own friends sometimes.

I was there at 7:28am.

The station was filled almost entirely with ties and smartly pressed business attire. I couldn't see a single homeless person, although it was a west Chicago suburb. The ride was uneventful. An older guy next to me read about the markets. I examined a source book for White Wolf's not-new-but-new-to-me World of Darkness setting. The macabre material calmed the porcupine morning. Eventually I was spit out to the loop.

I was there at 8:15.

I went the wrong way up Canal St., followed by backtracking to Madison St. I headed down to Randolph, admiring the giant metal fingers idly stroking the overcast glass above me. I figured I needed food. I saw an M. Went in. Ate a reasonably healthy sandwich. Accidentally jostled an old, strange man. Left, straight, and then right, right along the destination of the station. My poor dumb ass thought the L train was that suspended car thing, and that there was a set of stairs to take up to it like at other parts. At this station, though, it was all indoors.

I was there at roughly 9am.

I bought my ticket, put my ticket into the turnstile for the bars to the left of me, shook my head at myself, entered, peered around for the blue line, then dodged underground. The ride was uneventful. I continued to read the source book, wondering about this or that short story, the myriad silly occult references that mostly got it right, and the temptation to once again be someone else for a little while for a little bit each week. The train was ejaculated up to O'Hare in short order.

I was there at 9:45am. My flight was at 12:20pm.

In a daze I crept through the security detail, past Brookstones and airport pubs and all the mutant embryos birthed by niche capitalism. I sat at my terminal. alone. Tired. So fucking tired. I was tempted to jam coffee down my meat tube, but I'm in the hole enough on this trip as is. After having the gate be switched, dealing with a no-nonsense black woman who would not let my poster tube on-board because I had 2 items already, and negotiating a check-on bag without paying for it, I entered the hybrid titanium polycarbon plastic cigar with tampax wings.

It was 11:50. I've spent many an hour in airports. Who hasn't. Abe Lincoln.

2 more hours, 30 minutes of waiting for my bag, 2 minutes of scanning the closed Budget desk for my car rental compatriots, 20 minutes from the rental shuttle to the depot, 30 minutes in line, 4 minutes replying to text messages from Shelly and wondering why in the hell my generation (myself included) can't talk into a piece of plastic anymore. Shelly and Alison came by the shuttle. I attempted to be intelligent sounding and failed miserably. I'd done so many dumb things today it didn't phase me. I'll enlighten: left my formal shoes so that I'll be wearing a suit with Adidas Sambas; constantly forgot every piece of information I had on hand; completely forgot what I did with my wallet and cards that I keep in a plastic organizer, worried where they were, and realized upon looking that they were in the coat I'd stored in the overhead compartment; saying dumb things.

I said several dumb but also amusing things on the ride to the PNI location. It was about 3:30pm. 2 hours later, we got to the resort town. I dropped them off. I expected some sort of 'hey, we're in town, we know we're in town, let's do X', but I guess not.

I got lost going up and down local route 9 here, saw some gorgeous cloud-enshrouded mountains like out of myth, checked into my hotel, dutifully checked facebook and then watched porn, went to eat at a great Mexican place, came back here after talking to Emily about camping plans, and came back here to write an actual update.

It is 9:26pm.

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