a few things

[kaigou]

1. Last night someone must've been picking up the room service tray from outside my room -- around 3am -- but it sounded like someone was in the bathroom knocking stuff over. And then, pause, and knocking more stuff. Another pause, and more things hit the floor -- enough by that point I got up, put on my glasses, and went to see. Everything was fine. So I presume it was someone just being very clumy with the room service tray.

2. This morning around 6am, someone knocked on a door -- maybe across the hall, maybe next door. I recall distinctly waking up long enough to say, "unh-hunh, I'm getting up, sorry," and then realizing I wasn't home, CP wasn't reminding me it was 9am and an hour after I'd wanted to get up, but I didn't get back to sleep, not really. People kept knocking on doors all around me, I suppose delivering breakfast. Ended up getting up half-hour before alarm went off. Sigh.

3. zania has given me the long-distance fashion blessing on a single-breasted quasi-peacoat empire-banded knee-length black coat. It's one of those few times I wish I did have photography capability on the phone, just to take a picture and send to fashionista friends to say, "okay, does this look okay?" But at 40% off, it seems like a good investment... if I can figure out a way to squeeze it into my luggage. Hrm.

4. So tired. Ready to come home now.

also, #5: airplane rides can be cramped, uncomfortable, and generally annoying, but nothing makes them hell like being congested. My ears crackled with every swallow (once popping of their own accords, and I'd forgotton how painful that can be). I hate the crackling. Makes me feel like someone shoved a bundle of cellophane into each ear.

Comments

[cosplayeriori.livejournal.com]

A. your icon is awsome and B. I wish to see this coat of which you speak. You had better take pictures to share once you get home! (oh..and even though you are not happy with the traveling at the moment...you need to come visit. CP too!)

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

It could be worse (than the crackling.) Last time I came into the states, I was so generally congested/ill that my ears would not pop at all. I was stone deaf in one ear for several hours after I landed, because the pressure differential was so great, and it hurt like a bitch the whole time.

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have a coat like that but I think I'm too short to pull it off.

[pixiepilot.livejournal.com]

Ow. I'm so sorry your plane ride hurt so bad. Going from London to Madrid, it was a short flight, but I was congested, too, and it was ok on take off, and ok in the air, but as soon as we started descending, it hurt so bad I could barely, well, anything. I couldn't breathe, I wanted to cry. And the food they gave us was soooo good, and I couldn't even enjoy it! Rar. -_-+

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

K. has started snoring (lightly) of late, so I bought some of these (http://www.amazon.com/Hearos-Bulk-Pack-Ear-Filters/dp/B0002CZYRA/sr=8-2/qid=1170383424/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-9327628-3691333?ie=UTF8&s=electronics). They're soft enough that I can sleep without too much of a problem, and I can actually hear the alarm clock enough to stir, notice, and take them out/wake up. But if you normally sleep through the alarm clock, might not be a good idea...

Also got a face mask to keep the light out when sleeping in unfamiliar places with too much light from streetlamps etc. Light seems to disturb my sleep more than it used to, to the point that we got blackout shades for the bedroom.

Took both with me on my most recent trip to MA to visit my middle sis and the nephews, since noise/light are definitely issues there. Yeah, I feel a little silly sleeping with the face mask and earplugs. But if it works, it works.

Speaking of traveling, I now have a double-bed sized futon couch in the guest bedroom, so have a proper space for guests again. Just sayin'.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I've been carrying earplugs on the last two trips and just never bothered to dig them out and put them in (and I'm half-deaf in one ear anyway so it's not like that ear probably needs the help, eh?). But I put those puppies on my wishlist, because if you can still hear some without hearing other stuff, that'd definitely be excellent for flights.

I keep meaning to get curtains for the bedroom window -- it really is bright at night down here, for reasons I've still not figured out. The problem then is that the bedroom would be dark in the morning, and I need that eastern rising sun to bring me out of deepest sleep.

Although the past few weeks, even that hasn't really been enough. Sigh. My sleep schedule is honestly all mixed up.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Hehe.

The coat I ended up getting is a little like this one (http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2907402/0~2376776~2374327~2374337~6004086?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6004086&P=1): same color, same basic lines in front; the pockets are more subtle, the hem is just above knee rather than just below, and there's no belt in the back. (In fact, the lines in the back are stronger vertical just like the seams in the front.) In all, relatively classic as a single-breasted peacoat, if a little longer than most peacoats (which usually are mid-thigh).

I am so totally planning on another trip to SF, this time with CP, believe me! It's just a matter of figuring out when we can come that won't be a bad time for him in terms of school. What's the weather like in August? Muggy, or just mildly warm? -- and remember, in Texas in August it's easily 100F some days...

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Oi, I went through that the summer I flew to Sweden and back again, and within 24 hours of returning from Sweden... was on a plane to Arizona (from VA). Average 50F for two weeks, and landed in 100F+, and I felt okay until twelve hours after we landed, when my nose started running and I was sneezing and it was somewhere between allergies and a cold, yet it was June (a rather odd time for me to come down with either, really).

The flight back from Arizona, my ears plugged up, I developed a horrendous-sounding cough, and I couldn't hear for three days after we landed. My ears simply never unpopped, and I sat at work (having used up all vacation & sick time available) with this horrible cough and unable to hear even my own phone ringing, until my boss came over and sent me home, telling me I could make up the time, somehow, but he was tired of seeing me looking (and sounding) like death warmed over!

So... yeah, ears not stabilizing after you land, probably the absolute worst aftereffect of a flight I can possibly imagine. The cough, the sneezing, the bleary eyes and runny nose, all those could've been manageable but plugged ears and painfully plugged at that? Yowser, major ow.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say that's true. I'm 5'6"; some of the coats were mid-thigh on me, and a good number were low-hip, too, and higher. So you just might find something that works on you... except that you're in the Deep South, woman. When would you have a chance to wear it? Two days a year?

*prepares to dodge*

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

And the food they gave us was soooo good, and I couldn't even enjoy it!

Right there I know you were on death's door. Awwwww.

hrm.


"Duo's going south! Get the doctor, stat!"

"How can you tell?"

"Look! He's not touched any of his meal!"

"Crap! You're right! Duo's DYING! Forget the doctor, get the priest!"

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

For some reason, global warming seems to be affecting us in reverse. This has been the coldest, dampest winter I can remember. (It's still the tropics compared to the MidWest, but I like to complain.)

I'm getting a lot of use out of the coat I bought last year for New York.

[pixiepilot.livejournal.com]

But I am a pr... ok, heheh, well, not really. :P

This not-eating thing is incredibly lame. I'm not kidding. ^^;
You don't know how tempted I've been to write Duo getting depression as a I'm-never-going-to-show-anybosy-this fanfic.

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

Me, too, despite the earplugs. I think it's work stress. Thursday of last week it looked like our IT guys had managed to lose a few week's worth of work on our new traffic software (order entry, at this point), and I woke up at 1 AM worrying about where the data files might have gone. Dumb... There's NOTHING one can do about it at 1 AM! Sometimes I come up with good ideas in the middle of the night, but more often than not, it's a bust.

They did find the data files, fortunately.