Absconding With The Tontine Funds

PART I | PART II

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DAY 5: I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE WORD STRATEGY MEANS, BRYANT GUMBEL

We weren't able to get Saturday tickets, and although we were missing several things we would have loved to see, like Dylan O'Brien's face at the Scorch Trials panel, having a day's reprieve from the nonstop madness of Comic Con was quite nice. Instead, jade_okelani and ropo drove down from LA to pick us up and ferry us all to more spa goodness. Sarea went back to Cascade, and the rest of us carried on to Karma. We all met up afterward at Oscar's, because those octopus tacos deserve to be eaten more than once. A girl in line behind me asked for a recommendation; obviously the immediate answer was the octopus taco, but she was not about that business, so I recced the surf and turf instead. Her grave loss.

Not for the first time, we lamented the lack of such good stuff in Seattle. We're a seafood town, too; why can't we accomplish the same standards?

( I mean, really )

DAY 1: EVERYTHING GOES WEIRDLY WELL

We started the day at the crack of dawn, sarea_okelani having stayed over the night before so as to not have to get up at ungodly hours to drive over. Plan A, which was to hire an Uber to get us to the airport, thankfully went off without a hitch. As did getting through security -- we were directed to the pre-approved line, so no requirements to remove shoes, toiletries, laptops, jackets, etc. (though I got through the metal detector just fine with both a hoodie and a denim jacket, Sarea set off the machine with her hoodie and was made to go through again without it). With plenty of time to waste, we strolled across the concourse in both directions and settled for breakfast at the food court. Breakfast was fish tacos, chowder, and coffee because at the airport, there are no rules.

The flight itself was uneventful, except for the defective latch for my tray table, which allowed the table to fall every time the person in front of me so much as breathed. Upon arrival, we hoofed it over to the courtesy van pick-up area for our hotel shuttle; it showed up right as we did, and when we alit, the driver gave Sarea her bag first, so we were able to check in without any wait. All these incredibly smooth and non-tedious travel experiences made us very suspicious; we waited the whole day for several snafu-laced shoes to drop.

( The suspense! )