Gallifrey - Day Five

Yes, I know, Day Five is coming to you like a month after it actually happened. Better late than never though, eh?

Anyway, let me mention a couple of things that I forgot in the previous travelogue posts.

1. Whovians know their Doc Martens. I have a pair over 13 years old that I had gotten shined at the airport while I was waiting to board the plane to go to LA. I got many comments on them as people couldn't believe that they were that old and that I had never gotten the soles redone. People were actually feeling the leather because it looked so new. And I wear my Docs daily.

2. The Saturday night Scrabble game. It is a spectator sport when Lisa and Simon play. I felt horribly inadequate in my vocabulary as I watched them seriously get into the game and bust out words I'd never heard of. (Though I can proudly say I knew what 'bier' was. And not just from work.) I'd have challenged them, but I was terribly afraid the game would end with me in the corner, sobbing, and in the fetal position after I got my ass handed to me. Much more entertaining than any Scrabble tournament aired in ESPN2.

On to Day Five...

Day Five had me waking up relatively refreshed as I got the most amount of sleep since I hit LA. This morning I refused to give Starbucks any of my money and just drank the coffee the hotel provides in the room. I survived and it was actually rather good. Had a bit of fun drinking that coffee sitting in front of the Starbucks working some more on the post that would become the Special Edition: Lost Museum post.

Started saying goodbye to the hordes of new friends as people slowly went back home. Talked a bit about the Chicago TARDIS and heard some more convention war stories from those in the trenches. (By the way, they just announced the addition of Paul Cornell to the guest list for this year's event. Road Trip anyone?)

I actually left the hotel for protracted periods of time on Monday as Tim, Angelie and I hung out with an old friend of hers. We ended up in Santa Monica having sushi at this little place right on the water. I probably could've pointed to a fish in the ocean, said "I want that one", and have it on my plate in twenty minutes. As it was I went with the fresh sashimi which I speared inelegantly with chopsticks because I have no skill and I wasn't going to ask for a fork.

Then we went to this open air mall and walked around for a bit. We spotted a Borders that had a Seattle's Best shop inside. I was reticent to drag the others inside just to satisfy my coffee fix, but Angelie mentioned that she'd been so impressed with meeting Simon saturday night that she wanted to buy The Pirate Loop. It seems like Borders was reading her mind because look at how easy it was to find it.For the record I didn't do anything to their display. Some enterprising stock boy did it all on his own.

All good things must come to an end and we made our way back to the hotel to retrieve luggage so we could come back to Houston.

I've said it before and I will say it again, if you can manage to make it out to Gallifrey next year do so. It was by far the best convention experience I've ever had.