[ Previous entry: "Innocence Lost..." ] [Main Index] [ Next entry: "Gencon - Day 1 (late Tuesday - Wednesday, parts unknown)" ]

08/17/2004 Entry: "Gencon - Day 0" Pre-Gencon - Day 0 (Tuesday - Baltimore) Typing to you from a hijacked laptop running Slackware... As I type this, I am in a building older than most of your grandparents. I am guessing it was built in the 1860s, judging by the decor and the "Established 1869" on the marble front. It's in downtown Baltimore, and some of you may be asking, "Weren't you going to Indianapolis?" Yes, I still am, but today I am in Baltimore, typing from a disused office in an area decorated with pictures and ads from the late 1860s to early 1900s. I am not kidding. In the kitchen are some finely dressed men advertising alcoholic brews called "Tom and Jerrys" and "Slides" (which were only 5 cents at one time). The rest of the office has old and faded pictures of old ships and things the rich elite of Baltimore were doing around the Civil War. This building is old, and despite some modern touches covering the older facades, one with an eye for hints of history will note lines of marble demarking original floors, aged sconces and borders that speak of another time, and newer plaster and lathe or drywall barely covering up aged marble and basement walls that look less like masonry than they look like an archaeological dig in progress. The post-installations of several decades and various OSHA requirements lay in sagging rates of neglect here and there. The restrooms here, for instance, have a bumpy floor made of several layers of linoleum worn smooth and shiny from over a century of waxing and wear. Plumbing and electrical work hide behind crumbling ceiling panels like a technological afterthought. This is where Christine works about twice a week, in a shipping company founded in the late 1800s. I am here to help out a little, but also to spend some time with her before I am gone for the next few days. I got a huge headache yesterday, and spent most of Monday in bed, and not packing as much as I would have liked. Part of this stemmed from the fact that I couldn't find the duffel bag I wanted, and thus, was forced to try and pack things into a smaller one with a zipper about to break. Most of the packing was done in a scramble this morning, and I am sure I have forgotten something. The plan is this: I leave Baltimore around 4:30, get to a Metro stop roughly at 5:30 (depending on traffic), then ride the rail and get there around 6:30 or 7 (depending on how Metro behaves). I'll be meeting Allison as she comes home from work around 7 at that stop, and then Kory is picking both of us up. Then packing the vehicles, then dinner, then around midnight, I get into Liz's van and we start the 9 hour drive to Indianapolis. I plan to do this on the cheap, which won't be easy, but hopefully they'll be a supermarket nearby. We shall see how this works. The best laid plans in fandom...