DCI Finals Week 2014
Travel and Arrival Days
Tuesday-Wednesday, August 5-6, 2014
Due to my new commute to my job in Downtown LA, I am now more comfortable with public transportation than I was before. I thought of parking my car at the Gold Line station, and taking the LAX FlyAway from Union Station, but I realized that I shouldn't trust leaving my car there for days. So I drove to Van Nuys to take the FlyAway from there. I made it just in time to take the 11:00 bus, and I was at the airport in less than an hour. So you're probably wondering why I didn't just park at the airport like I usually do. Well, they're building a new Metro station there, and I just didn't want to deal with the mess. Also, this way was much cheaper.
I had given myself plenty of time in order not to get stressed out, so I had some time to get lunch at CPK, and had enough left over to eat later for dinner. The Southwest flight to Vegas was easy, aside from the usual bit of turbulence when landing in such heat. The flight to IND was a bit delayed because of something that happened to the plane that we were supposed to use. The wait was about 30 minutes longer, but I was fine. I had just started reading "Ready Player One", and I'm really enjoying it, so the time went by faster than it usually feels.
My cell phone had almost no power when we landed, and the Visitor Information thing at baggage claim did not list my hotel. I walked over to Ground Transportation, and there wasn't anything posted about the hotel shuttles, other than that they were at Zone 2. I wasn't sure if I had to call for the shuttle to pick me up, because their website didn't have that information when I booked the hotel. So I used a pay phone. First of all, I actually FOUND a pay phone. A pay phone that worked. Do you know that it now costs 50 cents to make a 3-minute call? I'm old, because I remember when it cost a dime. Turns out that the shuttle comes by every half an hour, so I went out to Zone 2 and waited. The shuttle picked up 2 of us, and I told my fellow shuttle passenger about drum corps finals. He's here for business, so I told him that he'd be seeing a bunch of kids downtown at his lunch break today, competing at I&E. I hope that he checks it out. He acted like he was interested, but maybe he was just being polite.
I don't know why I thought that I had booked the same hotel that we stayed in last year, but it looked all weird to me, then I realized that I was at a different place, the Fairfield Indianapolis Airport. I was still wide awake and went to bed at 1:30 a.m., but still woke up in time to take a shower and get breakfast before 9am. I was irritated at the lady sitting at the computer desk while charging her phone, because I needed to print my Express Shuttle reservation. Once I was done with breakfast, I asked her if she was using the computer, and she moved. She didn't even say anything, like, "Excuse me" or "I'm sorry", or "No, I'm not using it, bitch, but I'll move for you because you made eye contact with me". Another woman had bumped into my chair without saying "Excuse me". I wasn't sure if people were rude or oblivious due to morning blues. But when Chair Bump Lady stared at me while I made my cup of coffee, and Computer Chair Squatter didn't say anything at all, I chalked it up to just plain rudeness. At least breakfast was decent.
I chilled out in my hotel room until checkout time, as I had reservations for the 1:30 Express shuttle back at the airport. After checking out, I stood outside with my luggage for half an hour. During that time, a pool guy drove up in his van, and asked if I work there. Dude, I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and I'm out here with my luggage. Do I look like I'm working right now? He found an actual employee, and as he was leaving, he said bye to me, and said, "By the way, you're beautiful." Oh, he was hitting on me! I'm dumb. Anyway, no shuttle came, and it had been 30 minutes, so I went inside to ask the person at the front desk if I was waiting in the right place for the shuttle. APPARENTLY, I was supposed to ask her to call for one. Last night, they said that it would just come every 30 minutes. They really need to put this information on their website or in their room literature.
I was picked up in 5 minutes and went to the airport to catch the Express shuttle. The hotel shuttle guy told me to ask for a room with a view of downtown, and told me a couple of things about the area, which I knew about somewhat already. I was early for the Express shuttle, and they still took me ahead of my reservation time, which was nice. Weird stuff: I flew on Southwest. The first hotel was on West Southern Ave. Today's hotel is on South West St. Why is Bro so surprised when I get lost here? The JW Marriott is a gorgeous hotel, and is one of the highlights of the Indianapolis skyline. Our room is on the 22nd floor, and the view of the river is quite lovely. I didn't ask for the downtown view because I'd rather see scenic stuff.
I walked over to Georgia St, humming "Indiana" as I am wont to do when I'm here. I watched some of the solo percussion players in the DCI Performers Showcase (formerly known as Individual & Ensemble competition). It's still a competition, and I scare myself when I recognize a judge. Yeah, I've been doing this for a while. I went to the mall where the auxiliary (and vocal!) competition was held, and only watched one dancer because I was hungry and couldn't deal anymore. I got a Shrimp Lovers roll and a seaweed salad at the food court, then walked back to the hotel to eat and chill out some more. Since this is such a nice hotel, they don't have stuff to buy or a gift shop or vending machines or ice on each floor. ICE. You can call to have it delivered. I didn't want to have to tip someone for ice, so I did the self-serve thing and took my square ice bucket to the 2nd floor, where they had about 5 ice machines in a row.
Later, I got hungry again and went exploring, finding the walkway to the Courtyard. At the Courtyard, they had a little bistro and a marketplace for snacks. So I ordered some wings, bought Gatorade, and made my way back to the room. But you know I wouldn't be telling this story for nothing. I think I got onto 3 elevators before I was on the correct one to get to my room. There are 2 banks of elevators. I'm supposed to take the low-rise one. I kept taking a high-rise, which shouldn't be possible to go up to those floors with my key, but on up it went without me even pushing a button. Oops. It was just a comedy of errors, and the other guy waiting for his elevator was not as amused as me. He must be a bundle of joy at parties.
I don't feel like getting dressed to go to the Hall of Fame thing, plus I'd have to walk there by myself at night. I do miss the proximity of the Crowne Royale. So now I'm full and watching "So You Think You Can Dance", and prepping for tomorrow. Bro and V are due to arrive after midnight. I'm in the shorts that make me beautiful, and it's too cold, so I'm wearing a nice hotel robe. The view at night is also gorgeous. Time to rest up for all of tomorrow's corps.
Next Up: World Class Prelims
I chilled out in my hotel room until checkout time, as I had reservations for the 1:30 Express shuttle back at the airport. After checking out, I stood outside with my luggage for half an hour. During that time, a pool guy drove up in his van, and asked if I work there. Dude, I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and I'm out here with my luggage. Do I look like I'm working right now? He found an actual employee, and as he was leaving, he said bye to me, and said, "By the way, you're beautiful." Oh, he was hitting on me! I'm dumb. Anyway, no shuttle came, and it had been 30 minutes, so I went inside to ask the person at the front desk if I was waiting in the right place for the shuttle. APPARENTLY, I was supposed to ask her to call for one. Last night, they said that it would just come every 30 minutes. They really need to put this information on their website or in their room literature.
I was picked up in 5 minutes and went to the airport to catch the Express shuttle. The hotel shuttle guy told me to ask for a room with a view of downtown, and told me a couple of things about the area, which I knew about somewhat already. I was early for the Express shuttle, and they still took me ahead of my reservation time, which was nice. Weird stuff: I flew on Southwest. The first hotel was on West Southern Ave. Today's hotel is on South West St. Why is Bro so surprised when I get lost here? The JW Marriott is a gorgeous hotel, and is one of the highlights of the Indianapolis skyline. Our room is on the 22nd floor, and the view of the river is quite lovely. I didn't ask for the downtown view because I'd rather see scenic stuff.
 |
| Panorama View from our room. Our windows are very blue from outside, can you tell? |
I walked over to Georgia St, humming "Indiana" as I am wont to do when I'm here. I watched some of the solo percussion players in the DCI Performers Showcase (formerly known as Individual & Ensemble competition). It's still a competition, and I scare myself when I recognize a judge. Yeah, I've been doing this for a while. I went to the mall where the auxiliary (and vocal!) competition was held, and only watched one dancer because I was hungry and couldn't deal anymore. I got a Shrimp Lovers roll and a seaweed salad at the food court, then walked back to the hotel to eat and chill out some more. Since this is such a nice hotel, they don't have stuff to buy or a gift shop or vending machines or ice on each floor. ICE. You can call to have it delivered. I didn't want to have to tip someone for ice, so I did the self-serve thing and took my square ice bucket to the 2nd floor, where they had about 5 ice machines in a row.
Later, I got hungry again and went exploring, finding the walkway to the Courtyard. At the Courtyard, they had a little bistro and a marketplace for snacks. So I ordered some wings, bought Gatorade, and made my way back to the room. But you know I wouldn't be telling this story for nothing. I think I got onto 3 elevators before I was on the correct one to get to my room. There are 2 banks of elevators. I'm supposed to take the low-rise one. I kept taking a high-rise, which shouldn't be possible to go up to those floors with my key, but on up it went without me even pushing a button. Oops. It was just a comedy of errors, and the other guy waiting for his elevator was not as amused as me. He must be a bundle of joy at parties.
I don't feel like getting dressed to go to the Hall of Fame thing, plus I'd have to walk there by myself at night. I do miss the proximity of the Crowne Royale. So now I'm full and watching "So You Think You Can Dance", and prepping for tomorrow. Bro and V are due to arrive after midnight. I'm in the shorts that make me beautiful, and it's too cold, so I'm wearing a nice hotel robe. The view at night is also gorgeous. Time to rest up for all of tomorrow's corps.
Next Up: World Class Prelims
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