Okay, as an established buffista booze hound, I am fine with reducing the bar tab. I'm at the F2F to be with my peeps, I can get drunk at home ;)

I'm fine with reducing the bar thing. But then again, I'm a lightweight who doesn't booze much. If there is cash bar after, then all should be ok, right?

Remember how the liquor turned out to be really cheap in Wisconsin so we had to burn off the tab with premium shots and then finish up at the bar?

Yeah, that was cool.

yeah, that was kind of awesome.

What's all this about a toasted bar?

It appears I'm being let off moving-in duty and getting a ride to Plei's on Saturday morning. Ish. So I will see peeps there, and possibly move on to the HS later in the day, as folks migrate. I probably will wilt before Prom, but I'm excited about seeing as many of you as possible before you all go off to get fancied up. Silly to be this close to F2F and miss it!

to me Fernet : cough syrup :: Guinness : soy sauce

I can see what people mean when they say those things taste like that but at the same time I don't think they taste like that at all.

Jagermeister, on the other hand, I think tastes exactly like cough syrup.

and now I'm having Fernet AINFG... Turns out a Vernors back is not just as good as ginger ale.

We can reduce the bar! It's not like we won't buy more booze if we wants it.

SA! I was just thinking about you -- clearing out the hideous mess that is our bedroom, I found your little present for Matilda and the sealed letter addressed to her on the occasion of her 13th birthday. Both will be on prominent, enticing yet not quite accessible display, to give her life a touch of mystery and secret benefactors and all that good stuff.

Man, I wondered about that! I was thinking the other day about how this is the first time ever that I get to meet Matilda. I have such a strong memory of when she was born, even though I was half the world away; I was in Galway, walking along the high road, and saw a little shop and thought of her. When I was little, having a secret letter I could only open on a certain birthday to get a certain present would have been so ridiculously cool (and like all the fantasy books I read) so I thought, let's do it for her. I'm glad you found it. I hope it's worth the wait.

Ahem: Note to those who may see my house, notably those who may be seeing it Thursday night (er, SA and Vortex): it's now after midnight, I just finished the work I had to mail in by tonight, and my house is still not clean. I have a flight to catch at 7AM (which means leaving my house at 5:30AM). I am not yet packed. I will return from that flight on....Thursday night.

So, um...when you see my house? I'll be cleaning it. Please understand. :)

Reduce the bar! We can support our own booze habits, far better than risking more financial woe the already unemployed.

So, it's 4.45, which is the time my flight departs Bangkok!

....and I am in my apartment, instead of in the 'plane.

Long story short - evidently my travel agent didn't mention the exciting form I need to fill in (which isn't a visa, but is still mandatory) in order to be allowed into the country, and I - being stupid, and never having needed to fill in any such form on previous visits to the US - didn't have the wit to go checking whether there was exciting new paperwork to complete.

I got as far as the Gate, before they stopped me and said that I couldn't get on the 'plane after all.

I have not at this point abandoned all hope of making it - I'm going to be at the US Embassy when they open at 7.30am, suitcase in hand, to see how they can help me fix this. And if it all works out, I'll email Pete & come tell you in the thread - hell, I'll come tell you either way.

Weird feeling. I am determinedly not being sad, and seeing the funny side of it, because this is SO TOTALLY TYPICAL of me and travel arrangements.

sighs

Anyway - I'm going to email Pete, but just in case he checks here first - don't come meet me today. I'll not be there.