dirktiede (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dirktiede) wrote,@ 2007-12-13 15:34:00 |
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New York, New York!
Wow, we got back from our whirlwind trip to NYC on Monday, and only now am I recovering. It was a weekend of incredible highs and frustrating lows, but overall I'm very glad I went.
First of all, traveling with Spike & Matt is always a real joy. There's always this great mix of shop talk and geekery that does my heart good. Matt and I especially enjoy talking about tabletop gaming. It's inspiring.
We got on the road on Wednesday afternoon and travelled to Pittsburgh, where we stayed with my good friends Seth and Erika, and enjoyed chatting until the wee hours. The next morning, we got on the road to Philadelphia. We'd scheduled the extra day of travel so we could stop off there and take in the Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a truly wondrous place full of mutants, wax representations of diseases, specimens, and general medical horrors. It was awesome.
Trouble was, we were just about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia when my windshield wipers started acting up while I was using their cleaning fluid function. The control lever got stuck in the 'on' position and proceeded to spray cleaning fluid in a nonstop spray across the windshield. I was able to disable it only by applying constant pressure on the lever, which made driving difficult, especially while navigating in an unfamiliar downtown city environment. Nevertheless, we were able to locate the museum and park, vowing to attempt to repair the blasted thing once we finished at the museum. A vow I kept, at least in spirit.
Upon returning to the parking lot, I was unable to snap the lever back into the proper position, and after discovering I'd neglected keep my tools in the trunk we set off in search of a screwdriver so I could disassemble the steering column to get at the control mechanism. A couple of stops later, I had the tool in my hand, and we spent the next hour trying to fix the problem. In the end I only managed to disable the function along with the dashboard lights, turn signals and god knows what else. Calls to my engineer father also yielded no better solution. Ultimately I put everything back in place, and together Matt and I held the damnable lever in place for the next two hours on the road to New Jersey/NYC area. We ran out of wiper fluid about halfway there, and then it simply just came down to running the wipers nonstop, which I could live with. Anyway, so the trip out was not without problems, but as car trouble goes, this was pretty minor. We arrived safe and sound and in one piece.
Once at the hotel in New Jersey, we split up to go visit friends in the area. I had a fun time taking the bus into Manhattan and meeting up with an old friend in the East Village. However, on the ride home we all discovered that cabs in NYC are a hell of more expensive than in Chicago. Luckily, I had enough cash on me, but the lesson was learned. At least I was able to get back to the hotel in time to intercept Brion and Jen, who'd done the marathon 12+ hour drive straight from Chicago.
On Friday we made a leisurely start, taking a hotel shuttle along with all of our stuff for the tables straight to the convention center. Once there we discovered that Spike wasn't on the list for a table. After some squabbling with the organizers, we ended up both at my table, which ended up being a blessing in the end -- Friday ended up being incredibly slow. I was thankful to the folks who did stop by and pick up books (thank you, kind souls!), but overall the experience was humbling. After doing so many conventions this year, this was the first time I didn't make 3 figures on the first day. Yikes! Saturday was better, but wasn't enough to make up for the shortfall. Sunday was no better. I had expected such a big show in the largest city in the country to be a little busier. I was wrong.
Thankfully, there were plenty of friendly faces to commiserate with. Right off the bat, we ran into Dave and Raina along with John and Marion at The Comics Bakery and Zack and Steph of LifeMeter. We also bumped into Jaime of In His Likeness , Jim Z, Josh Elder, Jon Lung, Morgan, Hightower, and finally new friends Juno, and Mookie. Good meals were eaten, gossip shared, industry talk had, and general hangouts enjoyed. I had a blast catching up with everyone and learned a tremendous amount, too.
On the last day we were planning to do a 12+ hour marathon back home only to discover that an ICE STORM was barreling in on us between Chicago and New York. Thankfully, our Pittsburgh friends were able to let us stay again, so all five us caravanned back to the 'Burgh that night, and we were able arrive home safely on Monday afternoon.
All in all, I'm very glad I went. And although the travel frustrations were exacerbated by the slow sales, the time spent with friends and colleagues more than made up for it in the end.
Wow, we got back from our whirlwind trip to NYC on Monday, and only now am I recovering. It was a weekend of incredible highs and frustrating lows, but overall I'm very glad I went.
First of all, traveling with Spike & Matt is always a real joy. There's always this great mix of shop talk and geekery that does my heart good. Matt and I especially enjoy talking about tabletop gaming. It's inspiring.
We got on the road on Wednesday afternoon and travelled to Pittsburgh, where we stayed with my good friends Seth and Erika, and enjoyed chatting until the wee hours. The next morning, we got on the road to Philadelphia. We'd scheduled the extra day of travel so we could stop off there and take in the Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, a truly wondrous place full of mutants, wax representations of diseases, specimens, and general medical horrors. It was awesome.
Trouble was, we were just about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia when my windshield wipers started acting up while I was using their cleaning fluid function. The control lever got stuck in the 'on' position and proceeded to spray cleaning fluid in a nonstop spray across the windshield. I was able to disable it only by applying constant pressure on the lever, which made driving difficult, especially while navigating in an unfamiliar downtown city environment. Nevertheless, we were able to locate the museum and park, vowing to attempt to repair the blasted thing once we finished at the museum. A vow I kept, at least in spirit.
Upon returning to the parking lot, I was unable to snap the lever back into the proper position, and after discovering I'd neglected keep my tools in the trunk we set off in search of a screwdriver so I could disassemble the steering column to get at the control mechanism. A couple of stops later, I had the tool in my hand, and we spent the next hour trying to fix the problem. In the end I only managed to disable the function along with the dashboard lights, turn signals and god knows what else. Calls to my engineer father also yielded no better solution. Ultimately I put everything back in place, and together Matt and I held the damnable lever in place for the next two hours on the road to New Jersey/NYC area. We ran out of wiper fluid about halfway there, and then it simply just came down to running the wipers nonstop, which I could live with. Anyway, so the trip out was not without problems, but as car trouble goes, this was pretty minor. We arrived safe and sound and in one piece.
Once at the hotel in New Jersey, we split up to go visit friends in the area. I had a fun time taking the bus into Manhattan and meeting up with an old friend in the East Village. However, on the ride home we all discovered that cabs in NYC are a hell of more expensive than in Chicago. Luckily, I had enough cash on me, but the lesson was learned. At least I was able to get back to the hotel in time to intercept Brion and Jen, who'd done the marathon 12+ hour drive straight from Chicago.
On Friday we made a leisurely start, taking a hotel shuttle along with all of our stuff for the tables straight to the convention center. Once there we discovered that Spike wasn't on the list for a table. After some squabbling with the organizers, we ended up both at my table, which ended up being a blessing in the end -- Friday ended up being incredibly slow. I was thankful to the folks who did stop by and pick up books (thank you, kind souls!), but overall the experience was humbling. After doing so many conventions this year, this was the first time I didn't make 3 figures on the first day. Yikes! Saturday was better, but wasn't enough to make up for the shortfall. Sunday was no better. I had expected such a big show in the largest city in the country to be a little busier. I was wrong.
Thankfully, there were plenty of friendly faces to commiserate with. Right off the bat, we ran into Dave and Raina along with John and Marion at The Comics Bakery and Zack and Steph of LifeMeter. We also bumped into Jaime of In His Likeness , Jim Z, Josh Elder, Jon Lung, Morgan, Hightower, and finally new friends Juno, and Mookie. Good meals were eaten, gossip shared, industry talk had, and general hangouts enjoyed. I had a blast catching up with everyone and learned a tremendous amount, too.
On the last day we were planning to do a 12+ hour marathon back home only to discover that an ICE STORM was barreling in on us between Chicago and New York. Thankfully, our Pittsburgh friends were able to let us stay again, so all five us caravanned back to the 'Burgh that night, and we were able arrive home safely on Monday afternoon.
All in all, I'm very glad I went. And although the travel frustrations were exacerbated by the slow sales, the time spent with friends and colleagues more than made up for it in the end.
