Beowabbit

Well, plumtreeblossom and I made it home, despite two delays and a quite serious sprint with our carry-on bags to a different terminal in Philadelphia to discover that our connecting flight had left and we had to go back to the original terminal to get on the next flight.

Our checked luggage has not made it home, and had not made it to Logan several hours after we landed. (plumtreeblossom needed to go to an event at theatreatfirst, so she grabbed a cab while I tried to find our luggage.) It may yet show up, but I am *ahem* displeased.

Suffice it to say that I will endeavour to avoid US Airways in future if possible.

In the past, I’ve mostly flown American, and they’ve had good coördination between ground and air about connections, and they’ve handled the case where a plane with a large number of people making a specific connection was delayed very well. Also, in the one case where I couldn’t find my luggage (which wasn’t their fault — another passenger with similar baggage had walked off with it), they gave me a meal voucher so I could get some food while I was waiting for them to try to track it down.

There are some good things I can say about how US Airways handled our troubles on the way home: A flight attendant whom we asked for connection information reseated us in aisle seats near the front of the aircraft so we could get off very quickly (which didn’t actually let us make our original connecting flight, but was probably instrumental in our managing to get on the flight we did make, so we were an hour and a half late rather than two or three hours late), and the person in baggage services we filed our tracking request with was very sympathetic and polite. Oh, and another person working in the baggage area gave us useful advice.

Anyway, our time in Vegas was great! It was excellent to see sionnagh and for her to meet plumtreeblossom, we had a couple really excellent and shockingly inexpensive meals among many very good and quite reasonably priced meals (reminder to self: eat at the Caravan Café at Sahara again next time), we had lots and lots of fun, and subtracting the money we spent on the casino floor from the money we won on the casino floor, plumtreeblossom and I both came out a bit ahead, which means the casino paid us $15 or so to sit and entertain ourselves for a couple hours and drink free strawberry daiquiris. (We spent most of that couple hours at video poker machines that advertised a better than 100% return; I think they’re loss-leader machines. But they brought us free drinks there all the same.)

We also got to see the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton and a really impressive aerial silks performer at Circus Circus as well as nifty aerial work as part of the Bite show at the Stratosphere. And we rode the monorail to the other end of the Strip and saw the impressive exterior of the MGM Grand and sat and had a very pleasant time on the patio of a bar in New York, New York and, um, I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff I’m forgetting. Like the toothbrush story; I’m definitely forgetting that.

Oh, and I won singing stuffed chickens for plumtreeblossom and sionnagh and myself at Skee-ball at Circus Circus. (That’s another reason I hope our luggage is found.) sionnagh’s is named Tandoori, plumtreeblossom’s is named Pot Pie, and mine is named Cordon Bleu.

Pictures may follow in a few days. (Fortunately, I pulled the memory card from the camera on the theory I might look at pictures on the plane. Unfortunately, the camera itself is in my checked luggage.)

All in all, it was a fabulous trip and we had a wonderful time!

[EDIT: We saw the smoke from this forest fire in New Jersey from the air. It was impressive.]

What a full and fine weekend! Saturday morning I had dim sum with plumtreeblossom and a bunch of her friends and mine (and in the process discovered that we have some friends in common I didn’t know about!). Dim sum was yummy as always, and I was ravenous when I got there, so I stuffed myself.

(I’d been running just a little bit late, so decided to take the car to the Quincy Center T station rather than walking. What I didn’t realize was that Quincy’s Veteran’s Day parade was about to start — I had no fewer than three intersections close just as I was about to go through them, had similar trouble getting back home (since some of the streets I’d come through were now blocked off), and ended up dropping my car off in a parking lot I could get to and walking. So I was sadly more than half an hour late, but fortunately that just meant there was lots of yummy stuff already on the table when I got there.)

Then the lovely (x3) minerva42, underwatercolor, plumtreeblossom, and I went to the Museum of Science, intending to see the Body Worlds 2 exhibit. Unfortunately when we got there we found out that the earliest entrance time that still had tickets available was 5:30 (6:00 by the time we’d finished talking about it), and minerva42 and underwatercolor had evening plans and hadn’t planned on spending that much time in the museum. So we all got exhibit hall tickets, and plumtreeblossom and I got tickets to a movie and to Body Worlds 2 as well.

The regular exhibits were fun, but not particularly new to any of us. (The electricity show, with the huge Van de Graaff generator, suffered from a presenter who could give Mumbles a run for his money.) Definitely fun, though, and we got to see tamarins! Yay monkeys!

Then we said goodbye to minerva42 and underwatercolor, and plumtreeblossom and I saw the ( 3D Mars movie ).

And finally, we got to go to the Body Worlds exhibit, which was amazing and somewhat awe-inspiring. ( Body Worlds 2 exhibit )

I could go on and on for ages about this exhibit (feel free to ask questions, or browse through the exhibit catalogue if you’re over at my house), but I’m running out of LJ-posting steam, so I’ll stop babbling now. (I definitely want to go back while it’s still in Boston, more than once if possible.)

plumtreeblossom and I then took the T to Quincy, where we both slept very well. I dropped her off at home, since she had a busy Sunday planned. [EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention introducing plumtreeblossom to Sarsfield’s, an Irish pub in Quincy. We had a couple of yummy pints, but I like going there on weeknights better — it was extremely crowded.]

I had a busy Sunday planned, too, but so far I don’t seem to have actually gotten to any of it. :-)

I was recently introduced to Pandora by darxus; you can read his post about it, but basically, you tell it music you like, and it plays similar music. For free, over the net. And you can give it as many different seeds as you like, and keep them separate, so you can listen to fast bluesy jazz instrumental stuff today (what I’ve been listening to today) and Europop tomorrow. I think this site is going to seriously affect how (and how much) I listen to music.

Aargh. I recently tried to get in touch with my doctor about getting a referral for a sleep study, to discover she is no longer practicing (or if she is, not through Fenway, and I don’t have a way of getting in touch with her).

cathijosephine had previously given me a glowing recommendation for her doctor, Kevin Kapila, who also works with Fenway. He sounded perfect for me in a number of ways. Tragically, I just discovered from his office that he’s no longer seeing new patients. (cathijosephine, if you want to ask about that next time you see him, in case his receptionist is more certain he’s not taking new patients than he is, I’d be delighted.)

So, looks like I’m in the market for a new doctor. Any recommendations? Here are my preference, in approximate order of importance. Note that only the top few are absolutely essential.

• Is taking new patients. :-(
• Takes Blue Cross (is there anybody who doesn’t?)
• In reasonable walking distance either from my house near Quincy Center or from Northeastern University (or T-accessible on a lunch hour from the latter).
• Can get me a sleep-study referral quickly.
• Will share information with me, take things I say seriously, and generally not talk down to me.
• Is comfortable with queer, poly, kinky patients.
• Will want to take his/her time with me when we have appointments.
• Is email-accessible, and willing to do quick simple followup things via email or the phone.
• Can make appointments for relatively urgent stuff in a timely fashion.
• Takes a relatively holistic approach to his/her patients’ health. (For instance, my previous PCP wanted to know about emotional stresses in my life in case they were affecting my health.)
• Is affiliated with Fenway Community Health. (I’m assuming this would make the transition go more smoothly.)
• Is willing to give me advice and not write me off if I don’t take it. (For instance, I’m not going to give up salt or red meat, or stop going out in the sun without sunscreen, even though I know those things might be better for me. I’m happy to hear that they would be better for me, but then I don’t want to fight about it.

bearsir, a/k/a S. Bear Bergman, is a wonderful performance artist. I’ve only seen one of his shows, but it was really amazing. (Aside: Bear, I bet you and Kala would have stuff to talk about.)

Anyway, his latest show is called Monday Night in Westerbork. From his post about the show:

My new solo play, Monday Night in Westerbork, recounts the untold stories of Jews imprisoned at Camp Westerbork, Holland. These Jews - actors and performers - wrote, directed, and performed six different shows over the course of twenty months. The shows were performed each Monday night for SS officers and Nazi dignitaries as well as the rest of the camp’s prisoners on the same stage that the names of those to be sent to the death camps were read on Tuesday mornings.

He needs funding to go to the Netherlands and research the show (e.g. interview survivors). Having seen some of his work I have no doubt that he will do a spectacular job, and his show will be an important resource and a powerful piece of art.

I’ve contributed $50. If you would like to support this project, you can read his post, or if you want to cut to the chase, you can go directly to https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2151 and make a contribution by credit card. Make sure you write “S. Bear Bergman” in the field where you can specify what the contribution is earmarked for if you do that.

(By the way, I took the picture my userpic is from in the Hague. It’s the flag flying in front of the International Court of Justice. bearsir, maybe you’ll get to see it while you’re in the Netherlands.)

I should have been in bed hours ago, but I’m still up, and I have to say, R. K. Milholland rocks my socks. Something Positive is a funny webcomic, but sometimes it’s also literature. Here’s today’s comic, but if you haven’t been following it, you should first start here and read forward, and you might want to read this comic and the following two first for context.

If any of you out there isn’t already reading Something Positive regularly, you’re welcome.

So sionnagh and I went to the Turbo Tabla bellydance concert at Karim Nagi Mohammed’s Arabesque series at Club Passim. Wow, that was an awesome experience.

( micro-review, with pictures )

If you like Arabic music or dance music, you should go to http://www.turbotabla.com/cds/ and follow the links to listen to some samples and consider buying a CD or two. I haven’t listened to the first Turbo Tabla CD, but I’ve listened to several tracks of the Bellydance Overdrive CD (which are very similar to the second half of the concert, but more processed), and it’s great.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, already in progress.

So, recent events. Doctor’s appointment on Wednesday — just a checkup, but in the process I managed to finally get the last in my series of Hep B vaccinations done (had already completed Hep A), and had blood drawn and a swab taken for an STD screening. Go me! And my doctor is supremely excellent, respectful and open and relaxed and easy to talk to. I think she’d make a great therapist if she ever wanted to switch professions, come to think of it.

Then Wednesday night I attended a most excellent birthday dinner for Cory at the Cheesecake Factory and got to hang out with some other good people I hadn’t seen in a while. Yay!

Thursday night I met burnthappiness at Desi Dhaba, a newish Indian restaurant in Central Square. Thanks for introducing me to it! The food was good, and I found the variety of menu choices particularly good. I really loved the Peshawary naan.¹. It was nice to catch up, and let him know how the room was managing without him. :-)

---

¹ Peshawary should be capitalized, right?

I was really wiped out Friday night by the time I was done at work, so I didn't even go over and register at Arisia. (Also, between a wonderful week behind me with Kala and a wonderful week ahead of me with Dreaming, I figured I needed a quiet night at home.) ( Background for what follows )

I ended up getting to Arisia really late, around noon, but it was good to get the sleep. ( Saturday afternoon; entertaining story about picking up my phone )

By the time I got back to Arisia, there wasn't much time before a big dinner that some wonderful people had organized (dunno if the organizers want to be mentioned by name, but thanks!). Got to see lots of good people there, and while there was some stress involved in getting seated, the meal itself was lovely, and very inexpensive for the quality and quantity of food and accommodation. After that, I was really tired, so I went on home, even though there was still some programming I wanted to see.

Sunday I got to a couple of panels, managed to connect with Dreaming, and had a good time, although most of the panels I'd wanted to see were on Saturday.

I was especially happy to get to see bensong1 and A. and G., up from New York. And it was also particularly great to see [corrected LJ name] pheromone; although I'd seen her since she got back from Kripalu, this was the first time I'd seen her while she wasn't being silent, so it was our first opportunity to do anything like catching up.

( Sunday night and Monday with Dreaming )

I've had some great conversations so far with Dreaming, and am looking forward to the week.

So, I had a lot of fun at the first Arisia I've actually been registered for, despite missing most of the programming I wanted to see. Resolutions for next year: (1) Plan attending much earlier, so I'm actually prepared. (2) Don't lose my phone. (3) Despite all the travel I'll no doubt be doing before Arisia, stay plugged into the right social circles enough to be invited to those sorts of parties. (I did get to test a truly lovely backside for doneness. Nice and tender; it was done.) (4) Get enough sleep going into Arisia (although I have absolutely no regrets about this year!). (5) Be on some panels.

As those of you who slogged through my list of firsts and lasts last night will know, I saw Master and Commander with Andrew last night. It was utterly androcentric. It was an unapologetically uncritical war movie. It had a very simple plot. It had plenty of rum and a bit of the lash, but no sodomy. Nevertheless, I loved it. I can’t really say any more about it than Dreaming already has in his little review, which is part of what inspired me to see the movie. I second his comment that the soundtrack was excellent. I’d see it again, soon.

PS — Bits of it actually reminded me of Star Trek in tone. Russell Crowe is hundreds of times (well, dozens of times, anyway) the actor William Shatner is, but Capt. Jack Aubrey could have been the model for Captain Kirk.