use Perl

Last minute packing panic: I almost left the house without my toiletry bag. The prospect of an unshaven undeodoranted untoothbrushed Nat was not appealing. Jenine freaked out when she heard my plan was to find a hotel tonight after the show, somewhere south of San Francisco. And to just turn up and rent a car. "You can't do that! You'll get screwed! Are you insane?!" Um, no, just naive.

After all that panic, I have most everything I need. Forgot to bring the car power adaptor for the laptop. I'm sure there was something else I was kicking myself over, but I don't know what it is. I'm hopeless. Some good, though: one of the Frontier crew did some standup before the flight took off, and he wasn't too bad. Good way to get the passengers' minds off the swarthy guy in 3B.

Bought a cellphone just for conferences. I don't like 'em when I'm at home--if I'm in the office, call me in my office. If I'm not in the office, I don't want to be disturbed! It's already proved invaluable, calling Jenine en route to find out what rental car company I'm renting from, etc.

So here I am, in my hotel in Chinatown, doublechecking locations of restaurant and the theatre where we'll see Bela tonight. I'm going out to dinner with a bunch of talk.bizarre friends, then off to see a Flecktones show.

There are only two things I feel the absence of: shorts and a nondorky backpack. If I carry mine around, I look like a feeb. And it's hotter than it ought to be here, and I'm baking in jeans. Praise Allah that the conference this week will be indoors, with central air. Aaah.

Tomorrow AM I will visit some of Jenine's relatives, then hook up with conferences folk in the afternoon. Might just reacquaint myself with Frys. Assuming I don't get deaded on the way back from the theatre, that is ...

--Nat