Overnight Observation

I'm in Seattle now. We flew up on Southwest this evening. I have never flown Southwest before, and while the service was better than I had experienced in recent flights, the mad dash for the first open seat on the plane, was a pain in the ass. I didn't check any of my things, so I had to go to the back of the plane to find an open overhead compartment just for my smallish garment bag. I stowed my laptop under the seat in front of me, and took the closest seat I could find. It was kind of odd just because I'm so used to having an assigned seat. Nevertheless, we landed safely.

And then the comment was made that D and I seem to travel when America is striking or being stricken. The last time we traveled together was September 11th. I don't think I have bad travel karma. In fact, I have rarely, if ever, had a bad travel experience. *knock on wood*

I booked my own room in the Seattle Hilton, contrary to the original plan. D and I were supposed to share a room to save on cost. But considering that she's in a family way, albeit early on, I didn't want to bother her by staying up late, waking up early, smoking, talking on the phone, watching TV, etc., so I got my own thing. They were all incredulous at the front desk when I gave the desk clerk my name. "What?" "You got your own room?" "Are you serious?" What's the big deal? I didn't think it would be a problem. It's my card, my money. Whatever.

I've never really been to Seattle before. I can't see much of it now, though, because at 10:45 pm, it's kinda dark. The hotel is right downtown, and with the windows open, the traffic below is kinda loud, but it's OK.

I watched the end of Queen of the Damned and had to wonder why they bothered making a movie at all. I know that movies sometimes don't hold true to the original novel's storyline, but there was no mention (that I could see) of Maharet's twin sister, Mekare, and it just ended too quickly. I'm a purist. I like books so much that watching them transformed into a movie to span less than 120 minutes is sometimes painful. Can you understand that? And I especially like Anne Rice's vampire novels. They are so full of imagery and action, that movies cannot possibly do them justice. And besides, they skipped over The Vampire Lestat. Whatever. That's why I keep the books. I'm really hoping that they don't even try to bring The Witching Hour to the screen. Lena Olin was pretty good as Maharet, though. I was thinking more like Susan Sarandon with the red hair and all, but Lena was good. Maybe I should see the whole thing before I judge it so harshly?

And then we bomb Iraq. Can't say much more about that.

I was silly enough to write this at 9:29 AM