My Hunting days, part 1
I'm still catching up on LJ (again!), but I thought I should write about my recent trip. I thought I'd knock it out in a few minutes, ha ha. However, since this was my first airplane trip ev-ar, I apparently had a lot to say about just that part! So here, after the cut, is merely what happened on Thursday. More to come!
My (two-hour) trip to the airport was blissfully uneventful.
Jacksonville's economy parking signage is ... not good. Lot B is open? Great! Now which one is Lot B?
Had a charming moment of confusion about whether I was supposed to wait a while before going through security and to my gate, but I figured it out by watching other people who looked like they knew what they were doing. Security was about as uneventful as it probably ever is (I imagine), but I am very much not a fan of having to take off my belt in a hurry, while also walking forward and pushing a bunch of my stuff along. (Why not take the belt off earlier? Because the belt is there for a reason.)
My flight (first ever!) was with JetBlue, and was running about 30 minutes late, but we apparently made most of that back due to a good tailwind. I was lucky enough to have an open seat next to me--that would've been cramped indeed. My not-quite-next-door-neighbor seemed like a talky fellow for a moment, but he stayed quiet for most of the flight. Only near the end did I have stock market symbols explained to me.
I looked out the window for most of the flight, and was thrilled the whole time. I was worried that the "being way off the ground" part was going to be frightening, but what I actually found disturbing was something I'd never considered before--when the plane has to nose up to gain altitude, or when it banks left or right, you feel it. I guess I thought they had the passenger cabin inside some sort of gyroscopic device.
The Earth is beautiful. Looking at seemingly-random banks of fog dotting the landscape, and at all the "little" variations along the coastline, and at the very distant horizon that I almost thought I could see the curve of ... and then it was cloudy for about 10 minutes, and then when that broke, we were flying over Long Island, and everything was covered in snow. Squee.
I feel it important to state that I am not exaggerating the following in any way: JetBlue has TVs built into the backs of its seats, which pick up a few dozen cable channels live. 10-15 seconds after we touched down at Logan, at around 3:30 PM on Thursday, when we're still not even slowed down to a speed you could call taxiing, I see BREAKING NEWS coming through on CNN about three rows ahead of me. Yep, it's the plane that "landed" in the Hudson River. Holy cripe. If that had come through two minutes earlier, I might have gone into shock.
I proceed to baggage claim, where my bag comes out of the chute at the precise moment I arrive. (I'm telling you, it's sick how perfectly this flight went for me.) Due to my awesome foresight of writing down the arrival times and flights of several of my Beginner's Luck compatriots before I left, I managed to affix myself to
projectyl and Yeardley/Alison shortly thereafter. We navigate public transit, drop our stuff off at the sleeping place (thank you thank you Liz for sleeping place), play 2/3 of one round of a game I've forgotten the name of but it looked neat, and then we're off to Bertucci's for the pre-Hunt team dinner.
The majority of the on-site members of the team are either there already or arrive shortly thereafter. They all prove to be awesome, as was expected. (This is where I would try to start listing them, except I will leave people out because I suck, so no.) I don't eat very much of my spaghetti even though it's delicious, probably due to adrenaline from all the awesomeness. (Thus begins a pattern for the whole weekend.) We head back to sleeping place, I stupidly overexert myself carrying groceries up three flights of stairs, we play a few rousing rounds of Numberwang! (seven-and-a-hat!), and then attempt to sleep.
Tomorrow: Hunt begins! Will I get an autograph from Scotchy? Will I be able to read it?
My (two-hour) trip to the airport was blissfully uneventful.
Jacksonville's economy parking signage is ... not good. Lot B is open? Great! Now which one is Lot B?
Had a charming moment of confusion about whether I was supposed to wait a while before going through security and to my gate, but I figured it out by watching other people who looked like they knew what they were doing. Security was about as uneventful as it probably ever is (I imagine), but I am very much not a fan of having to take off my belt in a hurry, while also walking forward and pushing a bunch of my stuff along. (Why not take the belt off earlier? Because the belt is there for a reason.)
My flight (first ever!) was with JetBlue, and was running about 30 minutes late, but we apparently made most of that back due to a good tailwind. I was lucky enough to have an open seat next to me--that would've been cramped indeed. My not-quite-next-door-neighbor seemed like a talky fellow for a moment, but he stayed quiet for most of the flight. Only near the end did I have stock market symbols explained to me.
I looked out the window for most of the flight, and was thrilled the whole time. I was worried that the "being way off the ground" part was going to be frightening, but what I actually found disturbing was something I'd never considered before--when the plane has to nose up to gain altitude, or when it banks left or right, you feel it. I guess I thought they had the passenger cabin inside some sort of gyroscopic device.
The Earth is beautiful. Looking at seemingly-random banks of fog dotting the landscape, and at all the "little" variations along the coastline, and at the very distant horizon that I almost thought I could see the curve of ... and then it was cloudy for about 10 minutes, and then when that broke, we were flying over Long Island, and everything was covered in snow. Squee.
I feel it important to state that I am not exaggerating the following in any way: JetBlue has TVs built into the backs of its seats, which pick up a few dozen cable channels live. 10-15 seconds after we touched down at Logan, at around 3:30 PM on Thursday, when we're still not even slowed down to a speed you could call taxiing, I see BREAKING NEWS coming through on CNN about three rows ahead of me. Yep, it's the plane that "landed" in the Hudson River. Holy cripe. If that had come through two minutes earlier, I might have gone into shock.
I proceed to baggage claim, where my bag comes out of the chute at the precise moment I arrive. (I'm telling you, it's sick how perfectly this flight went for me.) Due to my awesome foresight of writing down the arrival times and flights of several of my Beginner's Luck compatriots before I left, I managed to affix myself to
projectyl and Yeardley/Alison shortly thereafter. We navigate public transit, drop our stuff off at the sleeping place (thank you thank you Liz for sleeping place), play 2/3 of one round of a game I've forgotten the name of but it looked neat, and then we're off to Bertucci's for the pre-Hunt team dinner. The majority of the on-site members of the team are either there already or arrive shortly thereafter. They all prove to be awesome, as was expected. (This is where I would try to start listing them, except I will leave people out because I suck, so no.) I don't eat very much of my spaghetti even though it's delicious, probably due to adrenaline from all the awesomeness. (Thus begins a pattern for the whole weekend.) We head back to sleeping place, I stupidly overexert myself carrying groceries up three flights of stairs, we play a few rousing rounds of Numberwang! (seven-and-a-hat!), and then attempt to sleep.
Tomorrow: Hunt begins! Will I get an autograph from Scotchy? Will I be able to read it?