This weekend's trip to Philadelphia
Nov. 7th, 2005 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontA while back, I'd been asked to teach some classes at the "Noisemakers" heraldry and music schola that was held this past weekend in Philadelphia. I accepted, arranged for crash space, and so on. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
montuos decided she would go too, and the crash space was readily expandable to include both of us, so it was all good.
Friday: Headed out an hour later than I'd hoped for; partly my fault but with a LOT of help from a credit card company, a business, the inability of others to type and/or click a mouse correctly, and computer connections that go down at inappropriate times. I got the whole mess resolved, but it took most of one day last week and FAR too much of this past Friday to fix it. Ran into the usual traffic on US-15 in Leesburg, though not as much as a typical Friday. Then ran into traffic we hadn't expected: 5 miles of backup just *after* crossing into Maryland, the result of an accident that was completely cleared by the time we got to the scene. So it took *two* hours to get to Frederick MD -- but after that it was pedal-to-the-metal, just one quick pit stop in PA, and we got tokyleri and fosveny's in Bethlehem a little before 2200. Got to meet the "little brother" rat Reinhart and allowed him to climb on me. Also let the "big brother" rat Siegfried climb on me, but Siegfried was not so interested in doing so and mostly hid in a pillow-cave. Lights out a bit after midnight; cats intermittently curled up next to my back during the night.
Saturday:kyleri was too sick to make the trip, so the other three of us piled into the car about 0830, expecting to need 90 minutes to get to the site. But for once the Surekill Distressway did *not* have a traffic jam anywhere between the Blue Route and South Street, and as a result we got there about 0935. The school was *way* overheated so we started the day by opening every window we could. That helped. Signed in at Troll and was just hanging out in the front hall, when suddenly a wanderingpixie appeared behind me -- what a welcome surprise! I knew she'd considered coming from Pittsburgh, but thought she'd decided not to. Gwenllian also came in: I knew she was teaching so I'd been expecting to see her. A bit later sister_devora and pedropadrao got there, completing the "foreign" contingent (four teachers from Atlantia and one non-teacher each from Atlantia and AEthelmearc). (Later on, I did get to see suba_al_hadid briefly -- the busy day was starting to get to me by then...)
Class attendance was ... disappointing, to say the least. I had three people in my first class, on "Making Yourself Heard In The Space You're In," but one of them wasbaronadhemar who only counts as a ringer. No students at all for my "Basic Armorial Style" class -- likewise no students for Gwenllian and Pedro during that time, so the three of us hung out with Devora and Ailis, and Pedro talked some about the topic his class was supposed to be about. Then for my last class on "Regional Heraldic Styles" I had one student -- who had been in the SCA since forever, and had been a senior herald before I ever joined the Society. We did discuss regional heraldic styles for about 20 minutes before the conversation veered off into other topics. I had a really good time talking with him! The last period of the day was supposed to be a Heraldic Roundtable, which basically turned into a demonstration and discussion of the online commenting system that's being developed. I'll be playtesting it once we start getting actual content entered for the testers to chew on.
Went to dinner at a very good hole-in-the-corner Middle Eastern place nearby (Saad's at 45th and Walnut; they appear to have had a website once but their web host's domain name is obsolete.) After dinner, the other Atlantians headed home, and after talking with the autocrat for a while, we did too.wanderingpixie decided to crash with us as well, so the four of us piled into the car and headed back to Bethlehem. I waved hello to my parents as we went past Clearview Manor on the Turnpike; they live less than a mile away, and that's as close as we got to the family home this trip. Unloaded the car upon our arrival in Bethlehem, hung out with each other for a while, and went to bed earlier than we had on Friday night.
Sunday: lazy morning, nobody really wanted to get up. We did eventually need to, however; after hanging out for a little while we went to Tortilla Flat for lunch. Mmmmmmm... the food was excellent as usual, though they were so short-staffed that the wait was longer than expected. When lunch was over, we said our goodbyes, andfosveny and kyleri took wanderingpixie back to the bus station in Philadelphia. Then I took montuos over to Nuts About Ice Cream, to which I'd been before (thanks to bunnyjadwiga) but she hadn't. Taking her there seems to have been a Good Idea. After that we pointed the van in the general direction of home.
On the way home we stopped near the Harrisburg Mall to feed the minivan. We stopped at a Sheetz, partially as a way of saying hello togiselle0002 -- a helluvan indirect way of saying hi, to be sure, but one takes what one can get at times. This location looks brand-shiny new, and has a little more upscale-y feel to it. But what really blew my mind was the rack of M&M's dispensers. Each dispenser holds a single color... and there were something like 15 different colors, including ones I have never seen before, not even in the specialty packaging. They didn't have the old-style "tan" color though, which I found disappointing. But *still!*... Anyway, eventually arrived home safe and sound, caught up with online stuff, took out the trash, unloaded the car, and so to bed.
Many many thanks tokyleri and fosveny for providing crash space (and a venue for montuos to get a Cat Fix). I'll be traveling to Pittsburgh this coming weekend for the Pelican (Sovereign of Arms) meeting, as a very busy month continues.
montuos decided she would go too, and the crash space was readily expandable to include both of us, so it was all good.Friday: Headed out an hour later than I'd hoped for; partly my fault but with a LOT of help from a credit card company, a business, the inability of others to type and/or click a mouse correctly, and computer connections that go down at inappropriate times. I got the whole mess resolved, but it took most of one day last week and FAR too much of this past Friday to fix it. Ran into the usual traffic on US-15 in Leesburg, though not as much as a typical Friday. Then ran into traffic we hadn't expected: 5 miles of backup just *after* crossing into Maryland, the result of an accident that was completely cleared by the time we got to the scene. So it took *two* hours to get to Frederick MD -- but after that it was pedal-to-the-metal, just one quick pit stop in PA, and we got to
kyleri and fosveny's in Bethlehem a little before 2200. Got to meet the "little brother" rat Reinhart and allowed him to climb on me. Also let the "big brother" rat Siegfried climb on me, but Siegfried was not so interested in doing so and mostly hid in a pillow-cave. Lights out a bit after midnight; cats intermittently curled up next to my back during the night.Saturday:
kyleri was too sick to make the trip, so the other three of us piled into the car about 0830, expecting to need 90 minutes to get to the site. But for once the Surekill Distressway did *not* have a traffic jam anywhere between the Blue Route and South Street, and as a result we got there about 0935. The school was *way* overheated so we started the day by opening every window we could. That helped. Signed in at Troll and was just hanging out in the front hall, when suddenly a wanderingpixie appeared behind me -- what a welcome surprise! I knew she'd considered coming from Pittsburgh, but thought she'd decided not to. Gwenllian also came in: I knew she was teaching so I'd been expecting to see her. A bit later sister_devora and pedropadrao got there, completing the "foreign" contingent (four teachers from Atlantia and one non-teacher each from Atlantia and AEthelmearc). (Later on, I did get to see suba_al_hadid briefly -- the busy day was starting to get to me by then...)Class attendance was ... disappointing, to say the least. I had three people in my first class, on "Making Yourself Heard In The Space You're In," but one of them was
baronadhemar who only counts as a ringer. No students at all for my "Basic Armorial Style" class -- likewise no students for Gwenllian and Pedro during that time, so the three of us hung out with Devora and Ailis, and Pedro talked some about the topic his class was supposed to be about. Then for my last class on "Regional Heraldic Styles" I had one student -- who had been in the SCA since forever, and had been a senior herald before I ever joined the Society. We did discuss regional heraldic styles for about 20 minutes before the conversation veered off into other topics. I had a really good time talking with him! The last period of the day was supposed to be a Heraldic Roundtable, which basically turned into a demonstration and discussion of the online commenting system that's being developed. I'll be playtesting it once we start getting actual content entered for the testers to chew on.Went to dinner at a very good hole-in-the-corner Middle Eastern place nearby (Saad's at 45th and Walnut; they appear to have had a website once but their web host's domain name is obsolete.) After dinner, the other Atlantians headed home, and after talking with the autocrat for a while, we did too.
wanderingpixie decided to crash with us as well, so the four of us piled into the car and headed back to Bethlehem. I waved hello to my parents as we went past Clearview Manor on the Turnpike; they live less than a mile away, and that's as close as we got to the family home this trip. Unloaded the car upon our arrival in Bethlehem, hung out with each other for a while, and went to bed earlier than we had on Friday night.Sunday: lazy morning, nobody really wanted to get up. We did eventually need to, however; after hanging out for a little while we went to Tortilla Flat for lunch. Mmmmmmm... the food was excellent as usual, though they were so short-staffed that the wait was longer than expected. When lunch was over, we said our goodbyes, and
fosveny and kyleri took wanderingpixie back to the bus station in Philadelphia. Then I took montuos over to Nuts About Ice Cream, to which I'd been before (thanks to bunnyjadwiga) but she hadn't. Taking her there seems to have been a Good Idea. After that we pointed the van in the general direction of home.On the way home we stopped near the Harrisburg Mall to feed the minivan. We stopped at a Sheetz, partially as a way of saying hello to
giselle0002 -- a helluvan indirect way of saying hi, to be sure, but one takes what one can get at times. This location looks brand-shiny new, and has a little more upscale-y feel to it. But what really blew my mind was the rack of M&M's dispensers. Each dispenser holds a single color... and there were something like 15 different colors, including ones I have never seen before, not even in the specialty packaging. They didn't have the old-style "tan" color though, which I found disappointing. But *still!*... Anyway, eventually arrived home safe and sound, caught up with online stuff, took out the trash, unloaded the car, and so to bed.Many many thanks to
kyleri and fosveny for providing crash space (and a venue for montuos to get a Cat Fix). I'll be traveling to Pittsburgh this coming weekend for the Pelican (Sovereign of Arms) meeting, as a very busy month continues.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-08 04:59 pm (UTC)Drat. We have to go to Toronto this weekend for a family shindig.
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Date: 2005-11-09 03:57 am (UTC)Hope you have a safe trip to Toronto and back!