Ya know … I really should know better than to check these things.
After only two months out of work (and yes, the posts about the previous job were taken down: out of sheer paranoia – I consider my former boss dangerous and would rather err on the side of caution for the present. As Harry Dresden said, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean there isn’t an invisible monster about to eat your face), I’m just about to start a new job. And by “just about to” I mean that in ten hours I’m getting on a plane to Florida to report for training in Tamarac, at the home office. The two men I’ll be working with (who I met briefly on Friday) and I will apparently constitute not only the entire staff in Wallingford, but also the whole training class next week … Anyway. (As an aside, that’s one thing I’m looking forward to about this job: it’s a tiny office, which I think I prefer to a large one – but in the past small businesses have not worked out well for me. (L, as they say, OL) This isn’t a small business, by a long shot. So: small office, big company – best of both worlds. I hope.)
So, Tamarac, Florida, leaving this afternoon, stopover in Charlotte NC, then to the hotel by maybe 9:00 or so, then training all week, then leaving Friday morning to come back, vegetate over the weekend, and Monday drive to Long Island (where the office is located that they decided to close and relocate to Wallingford – No hard feelings, folks? Please?).
What the post title refers to is that I received my usual update email from Renaissance Magazine, the sort of go-to magazine for Rennies. Which sparked me to go to Goodsearch and type in “Florida Renaissance Faire”… Which led to the discovery that there is indeed a Florida Renaissance Faire – sorry, Festival (which I didn’t doubt). On now. ‘Cause, you know, it’s … Florida. Just for kicks I mapped it out. And lo: while the faire began its run in the Keys (and is there this weekend), which would have been much too far for me to ever have even considered thinking about it, it’s changing location. Next weekend. To just north of Fort Lauderdale. To Deerfield Beach – about half an hour or less away from Tamarac.
Did I mention I’m flying home Friday?
I could just spit.
And yes, of course I considered trying to stay an extra day … but seriously, folks. I would have to find a way to postpone my flight – which sounds like it comes with some serious penalties, and would end up being on my nickel since I’m sure the company got a sweet deal on the fare (and I don’t have that many nickels); I’d have to book an extra hotel night, which would be in the ballpark of a couple hundred … and then, of course, I’d have to find a way to the faire Festival, and from the Festival to the airport. The hope died young on this one. But if anyone ever has a question as to whether God has a sense of humor, I offer this tale as proof that, oh, yes, He does. It’s like telling a cat that she’s just going to miss a catnip convention.
On the other hand, when I came down this morning (after actually getting about eight hours’ sleep – I haven’t been sleeping lately, partly due to a tendency to become nocturnal when given the chance (I like to keep vampire hours, and have done since before vampires were kewl) and partly due to nerves because in addition to New Job Jitters even though everyone else in the world thinks it’s just awesome that I’m going to Florida in the middle of a New England winter I don’t wanna go), I looked at the home page I never bothered to change from ATT.com, and there was a news headline saying “Clouds force shuttle delay, next try maybe Monday”. And I thought, Monday. Cape Canaveral. That’s in Florida… So, naturally, I mapped it. It looks like the city is about three hours north of Tamarac, give or take.
Endeavour on the launch pad - like, now
Hm.
I’ve always wanted to see a shuttle launch.
Oh, look: “Sometimes you just got to make the call,” replied commander George Zamka. “So we understand and we’ll give it another try tomorrow night.” Italics mine, because – A NIGHT LAUNCH???
Oh, crap. I’ve always wanted to see a shuttle launch – and I’ve really, really always wanted to see a night launch.
There won’t be many more.
And … I need to learn to read for content. For pity’s sake, I’ve been reading since I was four years old, you’d think I’d have the hang of it by now.
Launch time on Monday was scheduled at 4:14 a.m…
Idiot.
Still, maybe I can get out on the roof or something in the pre-dawn hours… Hope springs eternal. If I can’t have the glorious past, maybe I can at least see a little touch of spaceflight? *fingers crossed*
I probably won’t be asleep, after all.
But really. Next week is Florida – the following week Long Island… What’ll be happening there, that I’ll miss? Personal appearances by Sean Bean and the surviving Beatles, fifteen minutes after the last ferry leaves? A one-week-only-and-only-during-weekday-business-hours exhibition of Vermeers? It’s the Stewart luck – it could always be worse … but it could be so much better…
— ETA: Good Morning Connecticut, or whatever WTNH calls it, just gave a moment to the fact that the shuttle launch has been delayed, and ended it by saying there are only five launches left. And then to weather, and Matt Scott – you know, the one I keep trying to say is going to play the 11th Doctor, when I block “Matt Smith” – says “There are only five shuttle launches left? They’re grounding the shuttle??” Come on. It was news to me that not everyone knows this, despite the small fact that it’s BEEN IN THE NEWS FOR YEARS… OK, I get it, no one pays attention to the shuttle – that’s one of the reasons it’s being decommissioned. This country doesn’t give half a damn about the space program. I remember that being one of the attributed causes of the Challenger explosion: public apathy. But, Matt. Dude. You work in a newsroom. The other meteorologist, Geoff Fox, probably knows all about it; he usually incorporates space-related stuff into his spots, so I’m assuming a certain level of geekiness. Smack him, Geoff. Just one upside the head, for me. Thanks.
Stewartry 