Post-Pittsburgh Post
I went to Pittsburgh! IT WENT BADLY.
... not... not Pittsburgh, itself. Just the going there part. Pittsburgh was fine. Hopefully next time will go better! Hopefully there is a next time.
Basically, I spent almost a full day trying to get there. I arrived at the airport on time Friday, checked in, cleared security, but when they started boarding, I discovered that apparently my boarding pass did not actually qualify as a ticket (... despite having been printed right there at the airport). This happened to nine of us. I guess when United and Continental started to merge, they just RANDOMLY LOST information like that!
So we all missed our flight (and then I have a hysterical breakdown, because, yeah, that's in character, wtf wtf) and had to wait while they boarded the next flight and then we got to stand around for hours while they worked out new flights for us all, so basically I got home around 11 pm, got a few hours of restless sleep, and then had to get up again around 4 to be at the airport again by 6. And then I flew to Newark and discovered my connecting flight had been cancelled and that I was on a new flight, which would get me into Pittsburgh at 9:30 THAT NIGHT WHAT THE HELL I made them put me on a new flight, which resulted in my having a 7 hour layover in Terminal A at Newark, which is the most boring place on Earth. I mean, I can deal with layovers. I've had longer ones than that. I just am also usually aware of them, so I can, you know, pack things to entertain myself with. My original flight plan had me in-transit for only around 4 hours. I WAS NOT EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH THIS. So I went mad from boredom. Also I befriended a confused pigeon, who must've flown up one of the jetways or something. (See: went mad from boredom.)
BUT I FINALLY ARRIVED at like 6pm, and the airport was freaking EMPTY it was really creepy, BUT ANYWAY, so my friend and I and her boyfriend had time to grab a quick dinner (which I ended up not eating much of. It was delicious, but I had airplane-stomach and eating was disagreeing with me), and then we scurried off to the Benedum Center because YAY DISTANT WORLDS CONCERT EEEE
Also I was wearing my Chocobo Racing League shirt that I got for Christmas, which was fun.
BUT ANYWAY WE MADE IT JUST IN TIME and ran to our seats and had a very short wait (during which my friend commented that, wow, she'd been here a lot, but she'd never seen it this full, haha, THAT IS BECAUSE FINAL FANTASY IS AWESOME), and then YAY MUSIC STARTED
They did not have a choir, which cut some of my favourites out, but they also handed us booklets with the song listings, so that was cool. SO:
During the first half, we had "Opening Bombing Mission" from FFVII, the victory theme, "Don't Be Afraid" from VIII (with the dialogue boxes all in Japanese aaaa what are they sayiiiing ... like you don't already know) (... for slightly more details on the videos, see my post from when I went to Chicago), "Medley 2010" covering I-III, and then THE NEW SONG "Eyes On Me" as performed by Susan Calloway (I LOVE HER MORE EVERY TIME I HEAR HER SING AAAA) which you can hear/watch HERE (they tweaked the lyrics to that they sound a bit better, too). Then we jumpd to FFXIII for "Blinded By Light" BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME, "Dear Friends" from FFV, "Vamo'alla Flamenco" from FFIX, "Theme of Love" from IV, with the Chocobo Medley (again with the "sneak peak" of XIV's track) closing off the first half.
AND THEN INTERMISSION TIME and since my father had given me a bunch of money to spend, on the assumption that I would not spend the entire first day IN AN AIRPORT, I fought my way to the little sales table. I already have all the Distant Worlds CDs, BUT BUT BUT. Last time, they had the two FFXIV discs (field and battle, and they were $20 each, and so screw that, I'm waiting until the full thing is released), but I was thinking, well, if they have them again, maybe I will pick them up.
They did not. But they DID have the entire FFXIII score, as well as XIII+! MINE MINE MINE I almost had a sad, because while I was checking one CD to see if it really was the FFVII Reunion Tracks album (it was! AND THEN THE PERSON I WAS THINKING OF WHEN I BOUGHT IT DOES NOT WANT IT FFFFFF), they pulled the last XIII+ cd off the wall! NOOO! I was distraught! That was the last one?! I asked, and I was told, yes, did you want it? YES I DID D: so the woman nudged the other person and was like, hey, if the person you're showing that to doesn't want it, I have a buyer, AND THEN THEY DID NOT WANT IT AND IT IS MINE and I am SO SO PLEASED
and then someone complimented my shirt and asked where I'd bought it and I said I don't remember the site! But gave her some pointers on how to find it, so.
And then I want back to my seat and chewed on the cd cases and made squeeing noises, much to the amusement of people around me. AND THEN THE SECOND HALF, which started with "The Man with the Machine Gun" from VIII, then "Zanarkand" from X and ALL MY SNIFFLING WOE, then Susan Calloway came back to sing "Kiss Me Good-bye" from XII and oh man she nailed it so fantastically aaaa it is not on youtube (YET??) but I love her singing it so much more than the official, in-game version, which is maybe kind of sad? (Though I also love her version of "Distant Worlds" THE SONG NOT THE CONCERT SERIES better, too, and possibly also "Eyes On Me" now BASICALLY I LOVE SUSAN CALLOWAY'S SINGING?) AND THEN WE GOT "RONFAURE" FROM XI AND I MADE HAPPY NOISES and then "Aerith's Theme" from VII, during which they kind of hilariously edited out the SEPHIROTH DROPS OUTTA NOWHERE AND KILLS HER HAHAHA bit, just cut straight to her falling over and her hair ribbon untying (ZAAACK ALL MY TEARS) and the materia bouncing away. And then "You're Not Alone" from IX, the "Maria and Draco" opera from VI (featuring Tami Fire, Juan de Leon, and Kyle Oliver, and they were all fantastic, good job, guys!), and closing with "Terra's Theme" (also from VI of course), again doing that cool thing where they play the concert credits over the ending of the video.
AND THEN CLAPPING FOREVER until Arnie Roth admitted defeat and came back for the "One-Winged Angel" encore and I mentioned there was no chorus SO WE ALL GOT TO SING IT AGAIN WHOOO
I couldn't hear many people singing from where I was sitting, but from skimming a few videos, I am seeing that that was not the case, thank goodness.
AND THEN WE WERE ALL DEAD EXHAUSTED so we went back to her place and crashed, and then I slept for like twelve hours, since I of course got almost no sleep Friday night...
And then I got to wander a little around downtown Pittsburgh, but not much, and then it was BACK TO THE AIRPORT WASN'T THAT FUN??
Though I did get to see this sign, which is pretty hilarious.
Fortunately, my returning flights went much, much better.
... not better enough to keep me from writing angry letters to United, but, you know. It was a nice change of pace.
oh, and! This was kinda cool! On my second flight (had a short layover in Dulles), I ended up sharing a row of seats with a family. They had one young boy, and he was tired and cranky, but he was full on the other side of the plane (we both had window seats), and they managed to keep him quiet and resting, for the most part), BUT THEN. They also had a tiny little kid who didn't even qualify for her own seat yet, just sat in her parents' laps, and I saw that and was like, oh fuck why, because my flight out of PIT, I had been surrounded by screaming children and NOOO NOW I AM LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO ONE, but I try not to judge babies until they actually start up and OH MY GOSH! She never cried, not once! Not even a whimper! What a relief! What a well-behaved little girl! At the end of the flight, her father told me he thought I might have helped with that, because I was wearing a bracelet with dangling bits and I'd swing them around to distract her at times, and then after we'd landed, I was tossing my phone up in the air and catching it (what do you mean that's not why they're called "flip phones), which she also found totally fascinating. But that's cool, if I did help, then I am glad to have. Either way, it made for a nice flight back home.
But now I have a cold, which I am 100% certain I picked up in the airport on Saturday, and also my back is, I don't know, failing or something. I woke up this morning in so much pain! D:
But I had an early-ish shift, and I had to go to my therapy appointment, anyway, but then I got to work and was totally useless and in pain and ended up just sitting in a corner and crying at one point, so they sent me home after a whopping hour and a half.
AND HERE IN BED I HAVE REMAINED (well, aside from when I've been trying to do stretches on the floor). Man, I hope I feel better tomorrow.
But for now here is this entry, which I figured I should get up before I go outta town again on Friday.
... fortunately, we're driving, not flying.
NOW IF ONLY I GET TO COME HOME AGAIN TO MY FLUFFY LITTLE CATFACE? (Remember, it was during my trip to New York last year to visit my brother that "the worst thing ever" tagged events happened.) uuugh. SAZY, DON'T GO. :( :( :(
[Crossposted from DW. Comments:
]
... not... not Pittsburgh, itself. Just the going there part. Pittsburgh was fine. Hopefully next time will go better! Hopefully there is a next time.
Basically, I spent almost a full day trying to get there. I arrived at the airport on time Friday, checked in, cleared security, but when they started boarding, I discovered that apparently my boarding pass did not actually qualify as a ticket (... despite having been printed right there at the airport). This happened to nine of us. I guess when United and Continental started to merge, they just RANDOMLY LOST information like that!
So we all missed our flight (and then I have a hysterical breakdown, because, yeah, that's in character, wtf wtf) and had to wait while they boarded the next flight and then we got to stand around for hours while they worked out new flights for us all, so basically I got home around 11 pm, got a few hours of restless sleep, and then had to get up again around 4 to be at the airport again by 6. And then I flew to Newark and discovered my connecting flight had been cancelled and that I was on a new flight, which would get me into Pittsburgh at 9:30 THAT NIGHT WHAT THE HELL I made them put me on a new flight, which resulted in my having a 7 hour layover in Terminal A at Newark, which is the most boring place on Earth. I mean, I can deal with layovers. I've had longer ones than that. I just am also usually aware of them, so I can, you know, pack things to entertain myself with. My original flight plan had me in-transit for only around 4 hours. I WAS NOT EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH THIS. So I went mad from boredom. Also I befriended a confused pigeon, who must've flown up one of the jetways or something. (See: went mad from boredom.)
BUT I FINALLY ARRIVED at like 6pm, and the airport was freaking EMPTY it was really creepy, BUT ANYWAY, so my friend and I and her boyfriend had time to grab a quick dinner (which I ended up not eating much of. It was delicious, but I had airplane-stomach and eating was disagreeing with me), and then we scurried off to the Benedum Center because YAY DISTANT WORLDS CONCERT EEEE
Also I was wearing my Chocobo Racing League shirt that I got for Christmas, which was fun.
BUT ANYWAY WE MADE IT JUST IN TIME and ran to our seats and had a very short wait (during which my friend commented that, wow, she'd been here a lot, but she'd never seen it this full, haha, THAT IS BECAUSE FINAL FANTASY IS AWESOME), and then YAY MUSIC STARTED
They did not have a choir, which cut some of my favourites out, but they also handed us booklets with the song listings, so that was cool. SO:
During the first half, we had "Opening Bombing Mission" from FFVII, the victory theme, "Don't Be Afraid" from VIII (with the dialogue boxes all in Japanese aaaa what are they sayiiiing ... like you don't already know) (... for slightly more details on the videos, see my post from when I went to Chicago), "Medley 2010" covering I-III, and then THE NEW SONG "Eyes On Me" as performed by Susan Calloway (I LOVE HER MORE EVERY TIME I HEAR HER SING AAAA) which you can hear/watch HERE (they tweaked the lyrics to that they sound a bit better, too). Then we jumpd to FFXIII for "Blinded By Light" BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME, "Dear Friends" from FFV, "Vamo'alla Flamenco" from FFIX, "Theme of Love" from IV, with the Chocobo Medley (again with the "sneak peak" of XIV's track) closing off the first half.
AND THEN INTERMISSION TIME and since my father had given me a bunch of money to spend, on the assumption that I would not spend the entire first day IN AN AIRPORT, I fought my way to the little sales table. I already have all the Distant Worlds CDs, BUT BUT BUT. Last time, they had the two FFXIV discs (field and battle, and they were $20 each, and so screw that, I'm waiting until the full thing is released), but I was thinking, well, if they have them again, maybe I will pick them up.
They did not. But they DID have the entire FFXIII score, as well as XIII+! MINE MINE MINE I almost had a sad, because while I was checking one CD to see if it really was the FFVII Reunion Tracks album (it was! AND THEN THE PERSON I WAS THINKING OF WHEN I BOUGHT IT DOES NOT WANT IT FFFFFF), they pulled the last XIII+ cd off the wall! NOOO! I was distraught! That was the last one?! I asked, and I was told, yes, did you want it? YES I DID D: so the woman nudged the other person and was like, hey, if the person you're showing that to doesn't want it, I have a buyer, AND THEN THEY DID NOT WANT IT AND IT IS MINE and I am SO SO PLEASED
and then someone complimented my shirt and asked where I'd bought it and I said I don't remember the site! But gave her some pointers on how to find it, so.
And then I want back to my seat and chewed on the cd cases and made squeeing noises, much to the amusement of people around me. AND THEN THE SECOND HALF, which started with "The Man with the Machine Gun" from VIII, then "Zanarkand" from X and ALL MY SNIFFLING WOE, then Susan Calloway came back to sing "Kiss Me Good-bye" from XII and oh man she nailed it so fantastically aaaa it is not on youtube (YET??) but I love her singing it so much more than the official, in-game version, which is maybe kind of sad? (Though I also love her version of "Distant Worlds" THE SONG NOT THE CONCERT SERIES better, too, and possibly also "Eyes On Me" now BASICALLY I LOVE SUSAN CALLOWAY'S SINGING?) AND THEN WE GOT "RONFAURE" FROM XI AND I MADE HAPPY NOISES and then "Aerith's Theme" from VII, during which they kind of hilariously edited out the SEPHIROTH DROPS OUTTA NOWHERE AND KILLS HER HAHAHA bit, just cut straight to her falling over and her hair ribbon untying (ZAAACK ALL MY TEARS) and the materia bouncing away. And then "You're Not Alone" from IX, the "Maria and Draco" opera from VI (featuring Tami Fire, Juan de Leon, and Kyle Oliver, and they were all fantastic, good job, guys!), and closing with "Terra's Theme" (also from VI of course), again doing that cool thing where they play the concert credits over the ending of the video.
AND THEN CLAPPING FOREVER until Arnie Roth admitted defeat and came back for the "One-Winged Angel" encore and I mentioned there was no chorus SO WE ALL GOT TO SING IT AGAIN WHOOO
I couldn't hear many people singing from where I was sitting, but from skimming a few videos, I am seeing that that was not the case, thank goodness.
AND THEN WE WERE ALL DEAD EXHAUSTED so we went back to her place and crashed, and then I slept for like twelve hours, since I of course got almost no sleep Friday night...
And then I got to wander a little around downtown Pittsburgh, but not much, and then it was BACK TO THE AIRPORT WASN'T THAT FUN??
Though I did get to see this sign, which is pretty hilarious.
Fortunately, my returning flights went much, much better.
... not better enough to keep me from writing angry letters to United, but, you know. It was a nice change of pace.
oh, and! This was kinda cool! On my second flight (had a short layover in Dulles), I ended up sharing a row of seats with a family. They had one young boy, and he was tired and cranky, but he was full on the other side of the plane (we both had window seats), and they managed to keep him quiet and resting, for the most part), BUT THEN. They also had a tiny little kid who didn't even qualify for her own seat yet, just sat in her parents' laps, and I saw that and was like, oh fuck why, because my flight out of PIT, I had been surrounded by screaming children and NOOO NOW I AM LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO ONE, but I try not to judge babies until they actually start up and OH MY GOSH! She never cried, not once! Not even a whimper! What a relief! What a well-behaved little girl! At the end of the flight, her father told me he thought I might have helped with that, because I was wearing a bracelet with dangling bits and I'd swing them around to distract her at times, and then after we'd landed, I was tossing my phone up in the air and catching it (what do you mean that's not why they're called "flip phones), which she also found totally fascinating. But that's cool, if I did help, then I am glad to have. Either way, it made for a nice flight back home.
But now I have a cold, which I am 100% certain I picked up in the airport on Saturday, and also my back is, I don't know, failing or something. I woke up this morning in so much pain! D:
But I had an early-ish shift, and I had to go to my therapy appointment, anyway, but then I got to work and was totally useless and in pain and ended up just sitting in a corner and crying at one point, so they sent me home after a whopping hour and a half.
AND HERE IN BED I HAVE REMAINED (well, aside from when I've been trying to do stretches on the floor). Man, I hope I feel better tomorrow.
But for now here is this entry, which I figured I should get up before I go outta town again on Friday.
... fortunately, we're driving, not flying.
NOW IF ONLY I GET TO COME HOME AGAIN TO MY FLUFFY LITTLE CATFACE? (Remember, it was during my trip to New York last year to visit my brother that "the worst thing ever" tagged events happened.) uuugh. SAZY, DON'T GO. :( :( :(
[Crossposted from DW. Comments:
]