Washington D.C., Part Two - 12/27/05 (P.M.)
The first day of MLA is pretty much over, but there are a few items of note. I'm actually sitting here near the bar at the Wyndham w/ Cyndi, Yvonne, Heather, and Elizabeth plotting strategy for the next few days of the conference. Its really late, and all of us are beat tired, so of course no plans we make will be definite.
So after we got off the plane and out of the airport (Dulles), which is a maze thanks to a huge rennovation, we got a taxi (expensive) and came here to the Wyndham. We then found the Metro, which we rode to the wrong hotel, before finding a shuttle that got us to the Hilton. Believe it or not, this was actually my first time ever on a subway, having never experienced one before in my travels. I love having to hang on to the pole - living dangerously baby! We got to the right panel, but this time we were actually late by 5 minutes. Thankfully, the genius (no sarcasm, he's legit) giving a paper, who just happens to be a professor from Cornell University, was gracious enough to stop and let us take seats at the front.
After the panel we then all went out to dinner at a nice little restaraunt for some food. Its a little pub called Jury's Biddy Mulligans, and not only did they give us all different menus, and feature a hapless, confused waiter, but they also had some sort of Irish history lesson on the back of said menu. It was a nice meal though...I had some sort of Shepherd's Pie and a decently made Dirty Vodka Martini (a tad too much Vodka). Oh, and of course I had to try the Calimari, which had some sort of cornbread covering. In short, it was good - gets my thumbs up.
Oh, on the way to the restaraunt (we walked) I got offered a personality test and free indoctrination from the Church of Scientology. Our dialogue went like this:
Scientologist: Would you like a free movie ticket?
Matt (handed ticket then walks away): Sure.
Scientologist: The movie is over there!
Matt (in Norm McDonald sarcastic voice, or close to it): Sure it is.
Here's the ticket, courtesy of my scanner:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/wonkavisionviewer/scientologyticket.jpg
I think it was much funnier in person, though. So after the meal at Biddy's we went back to the hotel, tried to find some wine, but the liquour store closed at 6:30 P.M. Ugh! Apparently there's some kind of law here against selling alcohol after 10:00 P.M. in stores. Bummer :(
So after we got off the plane and out of the airport (Dulles), which is a maze thanks to a huge rennovation, we got a taxi (expensive) and came here to the Wyndham. We then found the Metro, which we rode to the wrong hotel, before finding a shuttle that got us to the Hilton. Believe it or not, this was actually my first time ever on a subway, having never experienced one before in my travels. I love having to hang on to the pole - living dangerously baby! We got to the right panel, but this time we were actually late by 5 minutes. Thankfully, the genius (no sarcasm, he's legit) giving a paper, who just happens to be a professor from Cornell University, was gracious enough to stop and let us take seats at the front.
After the panel we then all went out to dinner at a nice little restaraunt for some food. Its a little pub called Jury's Biddy Mulligans, and not only did they give us all different menus, and feature a hapless, confused waiter, but they also had some sort of Irish history lesson on the back of said menu. It was a nice meal though...I had some sort of Shepherd's Pie and a decently made Dirty Vodka Martini (a tad too much Vodka). Oh, and of course I had to try the Calimari, which had some sort of cornbread covering. In short, it was good - gets my thumbs up.
Oh, on the way to the restaraunt (we walked) I got offered a personality test and free indoctrination from the Church of Scientology. Our dialogue went like this:
Scientologist: Would you like a free movie ticket?
Matt (handed ticket then walks away): Sure.
Scientologist: The movie is over there!
Matt (in Norm McDonald sarcastic voice, or close to it): Sure it is.
Here's the ticket, courtesy of my scanner:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a76/wonkavisionviewer/scientologyticket.jpg
I think it was much funnier in person, though. So after the meal at Biddy's we went back to the hotel, tried to find some wine, but the liquour store closed at 6:30 P.M. Ugh! Apparently there's some kind of law here against selling alcohol after 10:00 P.M. in stores. Bummer :(