May 30, 2003
Travelogue of DOOOOMentry,
As I write this, it's 12:25pm local time, and I'm just over five hours away from take-off... I'll be in the belly of mucking great jet, seat 67G, where I'm stuck for twenty-one hours and ten minutes. I'm afraid that "G" is a middle-of-the-row seat in the center section, which means that this is going to be a looooong trip home.
It's been a long trip already. The flight out was fine, what with the Gameboy (Advance SP, Metroid Fusion...), the David Drake novels (Killer and Legion of Bronze), and the sleeping pills (Excedrin PM, powered by diphenhydramine citrate), but I'd been in town for less than 24 hours when I got sick. Twelve hours after that, at something like 4am, I had a South African doctor sticking a pair of needles in my left meat-cheek. You'll be happy to know that I got better, and that I remembered to ask him his name -- after all, we'd been almost intimate. Heck, I even got him to write down the names and amounts of the drugs he gave me.
So... doped to the gills and sporting a bruised bum, I found myself ill-prepared to do what I'd actually come to South Africa to do -- teach. My first day's worth of sessions were very, VERY tiring, and I feel bad that I wasn't my usual hyper-animated self. By the end of the day I was exhausted, and although I felt better, I didn't feel THAT much better.
Then I found a McDonalds, and had my first real meal since the one that I think made me sick. I got the #5 -- two cheeseburgers, a side of fries, and a Sprite. I then trooped on down to the cinema where they were treating the conference delegates to a showing of The Matrix: Reloaded, which I've seen before, but which I was happy to see again.
My second day of sessions went well, as I had a bit more energy to spare. There was a party, which I stopped into just long enough to eat. I went to bed at 8pm.
My third day of sessions - today -- is now over, except for one "Panel of Experts" thing I have to sit on. The last time I did a panel was at Comic-Con 2002... I suspect this is going to be less entertaining than that one was, but I'll see what I can do.
Anyway, I'm uploading this letter, and then getting back to work. Y'all might hear from me again sometime Monday, provided I haven't been stranded in Ilho do Sal, or arrested by customs agents in Atlanta.