Homeward Bound

06282010 Monday

It’s a little bit before 11PM; Prime and I were listening to the Brewers game. (Stinkin’ Astros…) We’re home. The 'Con is over and we’re home. To be blunt, I have mixed feelings about that, but we'll get into it later.

We had to get up today at 3:10 in the morning; since we got to bed so late we both decided to hell with it and didn't really sleep much. I don't know if that was such a great idea or not. When we got up, we finished what little packing we had left (it wasn't much, believe me) and got ready. We did a little last minute cleaning up, grabbed our luggage and checked out.

I wasn't really surprised when we got to the front desk, the person who was taking care of us never asked for our door keys. I'm guessing a lot of people keep them as souvenirs. Pretty cool, if ya ask me. Once that was done, we headed outside and waited for our shuttle.

The shuttle got there early and we were on our way. Oddly enough, as we began to pull away from the hotel, I started to smile. I didn't feel too terribly sad about leaving. In fact, as we started our trip to the airport, I said under my breath, “Next stop, California.” You wouldn't believe how broadly I smiled when I said those words.

We arrived at the airport at around 4:45. We got through security, got to our gate and began to play the waiting game. While I was waiting, I grabbed my cell and sent a quick text to DA. He zapped me back, which put a pretty big smile on my face. I needed it, believe me. (And for pit's sake, ya gotta tell me about the dumbasses at the SuperShuttle! I'm betting it's one helluva story!) I managed to choke down a little food and spent the rest of the wait either reading a USA Today that Prime snagged from the hotel room or snoozing.

At 6:30, we began boarding our flight. It was a pretty full plane so I'm pretty glad that Prime went ahead and bumped us up to zone 2. We got to our seats and headed home. I pretty much spent the entire flight sleeping.

We got to Milwaukee at 8:40. We got off and I decided to hit the restroom. While there, I started digging in my pocket, trying to grab my cell so I could turn it on.

It. Wasn't. There.
My. Phone. Was. Gone.

The only thing I could come up with was it fell out of my pocket and into my seat while I was on the flight back home. Yeah, I damn near had a fucking heart attack right there in MKE. I tore through both of my pockets, trying to find her, then ran outside and asked Prime if he had my phone. He said no. So I raced over to the podium by our gate and managed to tell the woman there that I might have dropped my phone on the plane. She said I wasn't allowed back there, that someone would check and bring it out if they found it. Thankfully, one of the flight attendants came out and was told what was going on, so he escorted me back onto the plane and helped me find my cell.

I found my phone. She's sitting on the nightstand near the bed. I was never so grateful in my life.

Needless to say, I thanked that attendant profusely for his help (I believe his name was Christopher) and dashed off the plane so they could start boarding the next flight. Primus really cut me a break and sent one of his heralds my way. I am so blasted lucky and I can’t thank Primus enough for his divine intervention.

And those cute little Capri pants I was wearing? They're gone. They're not going on vacation anymore. If I get another pair similar to them, I’m checking the pockets. If they're shallow, I’m not buying them. I'm not risking anything falling out of my pockets ever again! Next time it could be my slagging wallet!

After handing Talkback (Yes, my cell phone has a name!) to Prime, we headed outside, got picked up and headed home. While in Milwaukee we did manage to stop by Miller Park and grabbed a couple of tickets for the September 7th Brewers/Cardinals game, so I have a bit more awesome to look forward to. As we journeyed through Milwaukee on our way back home, we passed a Chevy dealership, stocked to the gills with Camaros.

One was yellow, with black racing stripes. My guardian angel followed me home, it would seem. :)

We got home, crashed out and have been relaxing ever since. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little depressed. But I'm not as down as I was last year. Yes, this chapter is over, but I know exactly when the next one will begin. All I have to do is wait until next June. I'll be heading back to Cali, the home state of one of my best friends. If I'm lucky, maybe he'll be able to head out on one of the tours with me. (Primus forbid! We'll drive everyone on the tour bus insane. It will be awesome!) We already have our hotel room reserved and we can book our flight a helluva lot earlier than we could this year. And our food budget might be a bit more reasonable next year; if the Sheraton has a mini-fridge and that grocery store is still located across the street from the convention center, we're good. (If we do snag some food while we're there, feel free to help yourself, DA. I don't want you starving while you're on vacation. I'm not that evil, you know!)

BotCon 2010 is history. This chapter is over. But, to quote Simon Furman, “It never ends!”

--Weasel, already looking forward to next June.