Akimbo.
Phew, what a weekend! I was gone for thirty-six hours but it felt like a week. I certainly slept like it was a week long.
It was a four hour car ride down. Eight people in two vans, three less than we were expecting (Mr. Bybee's wife stayed home with their injured son and two other girls canceled at the last minute) meant that we were comfortable for the ride. Our van had a happy atmosphere with two smokers who ignored the large crossed-through circle on the window. Unfortunately our driver, Jon, developed this massive migraine and was hard to get along with that evening until about 9 when the excedrin kicked in. We finally made it to our hotel at 11 or 12 and had lunch, ready for the afternoon.
Our first visit was the Saint Louis Science Center. Not much chance to geek out though (they have an exhibit called Nano Days- OMFR I wanted to go into that so very badly!) We went through Darwin though, that was... well, it wasn't overly exciting, admittedly, but still cool. Bybee's friend, Dave, works there, and gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of maintenance and such things, in hopes to recruit people to work there. It is an amazing job he has, but I wouldn't want it.
After we finished that we decided to wait for him to get off work so we could take him out to dinner. We ended up watching an Omnimax film The Ultimate Wave Tahiti. It was stunning, only 45 minutes long and beautiful. I want to make an Omnimax film now, one about scenery and landscapes, since that is truly that medium's strength. The foreground action always made my eyes water, however. I told Anne that I wanted to see The Lord of the Rings - specifically, the Two Towers - in that format. Her reaction: "Fifty Foot Legolas!" No. Just- no.
Afterward we went to Modesto, a Tapas bar. Tapas is clearly an anagram for Saapt, which is kind of the noise our Art Club funs made when we paid the bill. It was amazing though, I ate too much and enjoyed it immensely. I ordered A lemon curry chicken which Anne and I were reluctant to share with the rest of the table. However, two of us ordered lamb skewers, and I believe both were left over afterward. Not a big lamb group, I guess. Desert was amazing, I ordered Pastel a las tres leches, Jon ordered Flan, and Ellen ordered fried donuts- all three were simply divine.
From there we went to the Loop. That was brilliant, once I found a toilet. Anne and I, anticipating getting hit on by drunk guys (we found quite a few actually, singing loudly and without shirts) pretended we were a couple. Sadly, we didn't get to back it up with any actions. We did find, however, a comic book store. It was amazing. And the record store was great fun too.
It was dingy and unkempt and beautiful. There was a band playing in the back, nobody caught their name, but the frontman- couldn't call him a singer - looked to be about sixty or so, was wearing a ton of makeup, and had pink hair. To make it better, he played the saxaphone and periodically barked into the microphone. I couldn't tell you what the music was that they were making, other than 'vaguely psychadelic porn noise' I loved it, but I didn't admit it to anyone else for fear they would kill me.
Afterward we all reluctantly piled back into the vans. Ryan told me that Repo! The Genetic Opera was playing in a theater down there, and we both threw a fit about having to leave, but to no avail. We made it back to the hotel at about 9:30. Anne threatened me with a lap dance, I took a shower, and we sat in our beds drawing and reading our comic books until it was eleven and we collapsed in exhaustion.
Saturday was even better, but brevity and the fact that Ontinia just texted me forces me to put it off until later.
It was a four hour car ride down. Eight people in two vans, three less than we were expecting (Mr. Bybee's wife stayed home with their injured son and two other girls canceled at the last minute) meant that we were comfortable for the ride. Our van had a happy atmosphere with two smokers who ignored the large crossed-through circle on the window. Unfortunately our driver, Jon, developed this massive migraine and was hard to get along with that evening until about 9 when the excedrin kicked in. We finally made it to our hotel at 11 or 12 and had lunch, ready for the afternoon.
Our first visit was the Saint Louis Science Center. Not much chance to geek out though (they have an exhibit called Nano Days- OMFR I wanted to go into that so very badly!) We went through Darwin though, that was... well, it wasn't overly exciting, admittedly, but still cool. Bybee's friend, Dave, works there, and gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of maintenance and such things, in hopes to recruit people to work there. It is an amazing job he has, but I wouldn't want it.
After we finished that we decided to wait for him to get off work so we could take him out to dinner. We ended up watching an Omnimax film The Ultimate Wave Tahiti. It was stunning, only 45 minutes long and beautiful. I want to make an Omnimax film now, one about scenery and landscapes, since that is truly that medium's strength. The foreground action always made my eyes water, however. I told Anne that I wanted to see The Lord of the Rings - specifically, the Two Towers - in that format. Her reaction: "Fifty Foot Legolas!" No. Just- no.
Afterward we went to Modesto, a Tapas bar. Tapas is clearly an anagram for Saapt, which is kind of the noise our Art Club funs made when we paid the bill. It was amazing though, I ate too much and enjoyed it immensely. I ordered A lemon curry chicken which Anne and I were reluctant to share with the rest of the table. However, two of us ordered lamb skewers, and I believe both were left over afterward. Not a big lamb group, I guess. Desert was amazing, I ordered Pastel a las tres leches, Jon ordered Flan, and Ellen ordered fried donuts- all three were simply divine.
From there we went to the Loop. That was brilliant, once I found a toilet. Anne and I, anticipating getting hit on by drunk guys (we found quite a few actually, singing loudly and without shirts) pretended we were a couple. Sadly, we didn't get to back it up with any actions. We did find, however, a comic book store. It was amazing. And the record store was great fun too.
It was dingy and unkempt and beautiful. There was a band playing in the back, nobody caught their name, but the frontman- couldn't call him a singer - looked to be about sixty or so, was wearing a ton of makeup, and had pink hair. To make it better, he played the saxaphone and periodically barked into the microphone. I couldn't tell you what the music was that they were making, other than 'vaguely psychadelic porn noise' I loved it, but I didn't admit it to anyone else for fear they would kill me.
Afterward we all reluctantly piled back into the vans. Ryan told me that Repo! The Genetic Opera was playing in a theater down there, and we both threw a fit about having to leave, but to no avail. We made it back to the hotel at about 9:30. Anne threatened me with a lap dance, I took a shower, and we sat in our beds drawing and reading our comic books until it was eleven and we collapsed in exhaustion.
Saturday was even better, but brevity and the fact that Ontinia just texted me forces me to put it off until later.