In Which We Return Home
Apr. 27th, 2025 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI had high hopes for today. I wanted to attend a noon panel about portal fantasy’s enduring appeal. I had paid in advance for late checkout for both rooms. Alas, I failed to nail this plan down with my sister, and she had a very different plan. B. had shoulder surgery, and this was his first weekend without in-house support post surgery, so she really wanted to get back and catch up on what he needed, and to do that before it got really late because they both get up super early (like 5 am or earlier) to go to work. No way to argue with that, and also, when I made the late checkout plan initially, I had no idea about the shoulder surgery.
Meanwhile, A. had not successfully attended any panels this con (or gone to the art show or the dealer room). I dragged her to a laser presentation on the terrace, but it was too warm. I dragged her to The Glen for the costume showcase, but the lights were upsetting to her. Today, we attempted a 10 am about story structures other than the Hero’s Journey, which was mostly about the Hero’s Journey, with a side of generalizations about how other cultures tell stories in other ways but I can’t think of them offhand in any detail. It would be so easy to talk about, oh, I don’t know, Becky Chambers’ work or anyone doing Found Family group of protagonists rotating point of view stories, but nope. Instead, a mention of Ammonite by Griffith which is from 1992, along with mention of Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea trilogy + 1. Anyone who thinks that Tehanu fixes anything is super confused.
So we bailed halfway through and tried the 3D printing panel, but that was currently whinging about people uploading large batch files for sale for 3D printing that compiled lots of other people’s work without attribution or payments or whatever. Reprehensible, for sure, but in no way what we were expecting.
We gave up.
My sister departed the hotel without telling us, but after knocking on her door, I pulled up Find My and then called them to find out if they were running an errand or actually headed to the restaurant. They were headed to the restaurant. We got out the door, and the restaurant at noon was, as expected, very, very busy with the post-church crowd (Kitchen 33). Yet my sister had chosen to sit in the car rather than get into line to start the process of getting a table.
We had a very, very good conversation once we were in line, about what the original plan was, how I had not communicated it, and how I understood largely why she was doing what she was doing, and she volunteered that she should have communicated better herself, which was nice and sincere and honestly I’m super happy that all of us have reached a point where we can have these conversations well in advance of meltdowns and resentment and arguments. She said that traffic into DC would get really ugly after a certain point in time (in the event, she was wrong, because the direction of travel meant she wasn’t going to have to deal with it today anyway, which I had already figured out ahead of time but whatever) and that, in conjunction with they hadn’t had much breakfast worked out to really wanting to get to the restaurant. I didn’t bring up the failure to line up for a table.
I expect we’ll have several more rounds of this type of problem before we finally get it figured out. One of the problems was that I referred to meal plan for today as “brunch” and in her mind, that meant “between breakfast and lunch at noon”, which obviously no one has ever in the history of brunch meant. I mean, that isn’t even elevenses, because she was expecting a full meal. Whatever. She had a plan, and I couldn’t say have fun, enjoy see you in May because A. was already feeling somewhat left out and this was the last element of the trip.
C. held the door for people doing in and out (at least it wasn’t hot where we were waiting just outside), and at least one elderly lady remarked several times what a nice young man C. was and who was raised right, which on balance I thought was extremely cool, even tho in all the obvious individual elements was hilarious. My sister said the credit should go to C.’s dad, a remark that didn’t penetrate the elder lady’s discourse at all. I thanked her for her kindness.
After we left and were driving to the airport, I realized we were going to get there very, very early and I asked A. if she wanted to do something else before heading to the airport. I had google us an art museum and we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine arts. There was a parking spot right in front with no apparent meter or need to pay. There was no fee to enter. We found a nice bathroom right away, and then wandered until I saw a sign for Faberge and I showed her some Faberge eggs and lockets and so forth. Then we backtracked and looked at a collection of metal buckles and belts and hair combs and so forth that were Art Nouveau, and also some furniture. We also poked our heads into an exhibit of Indian art.
We got to the airport at 4:42 and it took us about 15 minutes to get to the gate. The equipment was late arriving, but we got to Logan in a reasonable time and no issues retrieving our car and getting the rest of the way home. I fed A. a 2 egg scramble with bell pepper and american cheese and chips on the side. She’d eaten a bunch of carrots and a banana on the plane. I’d eaten a bunch of strawberries and a banana. While I brought a lot of my snacks back home, we did eat almost everything we’d bought at the Publix (except half the apple cider, hardly surprising).
It took A. forever to get to bed. R. got home around midnight, but didn’t say anything so I wound up having to go back downstairs to confirm he’d put the thawing meat into the fridge (he had). The laundry took a while, but I got it all folded and put away.
Meanwhile, A. had not successfully attended any panels this con (or gone to the art show or the dealer room). I dragged her to a laser presentation on the terrace, but it was too warm. I dragged her to The Glen for the costume showcase, but the lights were upsetting to her. Today, we attempted a 10 am about story structures other than the Hero’s Journey, which was mostly about the Hero’s Journey, with a side of generalizations about how other cultures tell stories in other ways but I can’t think of them offhand in any detail. It would be so easy to talk about, oh, I don’t know, Becky Chambers’ work or anyone doing Found Family group of protagonists rotating point of view stories, but nope. Instead, a mention of Ammonite by Griffith which is from 1992, along with mention of Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea trilogy + 1. Anyone who thinks that Tehanu fixes anything is super confused.
So we bailed halfway through and tried the 3D printing panel, but that was currently whinging about people uploading large batch files for sale for 3D printing that compiled lots of other people’s work without attribution or payments or whatever. Reprehensible, for sure, but in no way what we were expecting.
We gave up.
My sister departed the hotel without telling us, but after knocking on her door, I pulled up Find My and then called them to find out if they were running an errand or actually headed to the restaurant. They were headed to the restaurant. We got out the door, and the restaurant at noon was, as expected, very, very busy with the post-church crowd (Kitchen 33). Yet my sister had chosen to sit in the car rather than get into line to start the process of getting a table.
We had a very, very good conversation once we were in line, about what the original plan was, how I had not communicated it, and how I understood largely why she was doing what she was doing, and she volunteered that she should have communicated better herself, which was nice and sincere and honestly I’m super happy that all of us have reached a point where we can have these conversations well in advance of meltdowns and resentment and arguments. She said that traffic into DC would get really ugly after a certain point in time (in the event, she was wrong, because the direction of travel meant she wasn’t going to have to deal with it today anyway, which I had already figured out ahead of time but whatever) and that, in conjunction with they hadn’t had much breakfast worked out to really wanting to get to the restaurant. I didn’t bring up the failure to line up for a table.
I expect we’ll have several more rounds of this type of problem before we finally get it figured out. One of the problems was that I referred to meal plan for today as “brunch” and in her mind, that meant “between breakfast and lunch at noon”, which obviously no one has ever in the history of brunch meant. I mean, that isn’t even elevenses, because she was expecting a full meal. Whatever. She had a plan, and I couldn’t say have fun, enjoy see you in May because A. was already feeling somewhat left out and this was the last element of the trip.
C. held the door for people doing in and out (at least it wasn’t hot where we were waiting just outside), and at least one elderly lady remarked several times what a nice young man C. was and who was raised right, which on balance I thought was extremely cool, even tho in all the obvious individual elements was hilarious. My sister said the credit should go to C.’s dad, a remark that didn’t penetrate the elder lady’s discourse at all. I thanked her for her kindness.
After we left and were driving to the airport, I realized we were going to get there very, very early and I asked A. if she wanted to do something else before heading to the airport. I had google us an art museum and we went to the Virginia Museum of Fine arts. There was a parking spot right in front with no apparent meter or need to pay. There was no fee to enter. We found a nice bathroom right away, and then wandered until I saw a sign for Faberge and I showed her some Faberge eggs and lockets and so forth. Then we backtracked and looked at a collection of metal buckles and belts and hair combs and so forth that were Art Nouveau, and also some furniture. We also poked our heads into an exhibit of Indian art.
We got to the airport at 4:42 and it took us about 15 minutes to get to the gate. The equipment was late arriving, but we got to Logan in a reasonable time and no issues retrieving our car and getting the rest of the way home. I fed A. a 2 egg scramble with bell pepper and american cheese and chips on the side. She’d eaten a bunch of carrots and a banana on the plane. I’d eaten a bunch of strawberries and a banana. While I brought a lot of my snacks back home, we did eat almost everything we’d bought at the Publix (except half the apple cider, hardly surprising).
It took A. forever to get to bed. R. got home around midnight, but didn’t say anything so I wound up having to go back downstairs to confirm he’d put the thawing meat into the fridge (he had). The laundry took a while, but I got it all folded and put away.