As I suspected, my best method for finding someone involved not looking. Once I tried that tactic, I turned a corner and there she was :)

An interesting week. I'm tired. Trying to catch up emails, doodads, real mail and all that. I also remember what a lonesome experience being away from home can be, especially when you don't really know anyone particularly well. If I didn't run into John Ratcliff every day, my spirit would have been very dismal indeed. I practically tackled him the first day he came up to me because it was like, "Thank god! I'm not invisible after all!"

Being a shy person, surrounded by people who all seemed to know each other, was lonesome. Everyone else seemed to have someone else they knew and were gabbing away with, which made it difficult for me to get up the courage to speak to anyone. Even at the Thursday night thing, I was ready to fade away within 5 minutes, but a couple of cheerful guys started talking to me (I was trying to peer past them to see the hockey score on the TV; it looked like the Red Wings were playing, and as they got trounced by San Jose, I was interested in seeing how they were holding up) and I stuck around for a while.

On Tuesday, the group I was in designed a game garnering enough votes from the entire session that we got to actually play it. In "Scramble," everyone got one Scrabble tile and within 60 seconds had to find other people with whom to form a word. We were so loud during the game play that the sessions to either side of us complained. Always a sign of a good game, no? :)

I spent some time on Friday trying to find a shop in which to buy a bag suitable for checking in as luggage. All my freebie things, even though there aren't that many, were too much for my backpack to handle. Downtown San Jose, though, is not like downtown Seattle. It was pretty deserted. The guy at Starbucks said they didn't have any office supply stores downtown. A lot of the shops were empty, too, which added to the deserted feel. I finally gave up looking after a nice toothless man asked me for my spare change, and headed back to my hotel through the Fairmont. Lo! in their gift shop they had an inexpensive, wheeled suitcase. I wished I started there, instead of dashing past them to find a 'real' store!

As I suspected, my best method for finding someone involved not looking. Once I tried that tactic, I turned a corner and there she was :)

An interesting week. I'm tired. Trying to catch up emails, doodads, real mail and all that. I also remember what a lonesome experience being away from home can be, especially when you don't really know anyone particularly well. If I didn't run into John Ratcliff every day, my spirit would have been very dismal indeed. I practically tackled him the first day he came up to me because it was like, "Thank god! I'm not invisible after all!"

Being a shy person, surrounded by people who all seemed to know each other, was lonesome. Everyone else seemed to have someone else they knew and were gabbing away with, which made it difficult for me to get up the courage to speak to anyone. Even at the Thursday night thing, I was ready to fade away within 5 minutes, but a couple of cheerful guys started talking to me (I was trying to peer past them to see the hockey score on the TV; it looked like the Red Wings were playing, and as they got trounced by San Jose, I was interested in seeing how they were holding up) and I stuck around for a while.

On Tuesday, the group I was in designed a game garnering enough votes from the entire session that we got to actually play it. In "Scramble," everyone got one Scrabble tile and within 60 seconds had to find other people with whom to form a word. We were so loud during the game play that the sessions to either side of us complained. Always a sign of a good game, no? :)

I spent some time on Friday trying to find a shop in which to buy a bag suitable for checking in as luggage. All my freebie things, even though there aren't that many, were too much for my backpack to handle. Downtown San Jose, though, is not like downtown Seattle. It was pretty deserted. The guy at Starbucks said they didn't have any office supply stores downtown. A lot of the shops were empty, too, which added to the deserted feel. I finally gave up looking after a nice toothless man asked me for my spare change, and headed back to my hotel through the Fairmont. Lo! in their gift shop they had an inexpensive, wheeled suitcase. I wished I started there, instead of dashing past them to find a 'real' store!