this is a hot town--and i don't just mean trendy.
They didn't do it again on our flight to Austin. What gives? Mary says they did it on her United flight from Seattle, but American has stopped doing it.
I happened to notice because of Seinfeld's routine about how flight attendants are still telling us how to buckle our seat belts--in case no one's been in a car for the past 30 years.
Darin and I flew to Austin today for the Austin Film Festival/Heart of Film Screenwriting Conference. This is a conference many of friends have gone to several years running, but I've never attended before, so I've been looking forward to it.
When I stepped off the plane I said, Jesus H. Christ, it's hot here. I checked the date--yup, late September.
"Darin?" I said.
"I know, I know--we're never moving to Texas."
Yesterday I got a letter from the Driskill hotel apologizing for all the construction going on, but they're doing it to increase our enjoyment there.
If I weren't experiencing it, I wouldn't believe it.
They've torn up the roads on two sides of the hotel. The lobby and restaurant levels--the restaurant level contains the bar, which is where, you know, writers gather?--are hazard zones. It's a mess, it's aesthetically unpleasing, and worst of all it's not at all conducive to social gatherings.
I'm so glad they're having a conference here.
We checked in and the clerk mentioned we had a room with 2 queen-sized beds.
"Could we get a king?"
The clerk had a giant smile. "Gladly!" she said. It seems that during a conference, the rooms with multiple beds are at a premium, and our giving one up was much appreciated.
Pooks arrived and she has very red hair. She wants to be sure you all know she has red hair and not brown, because evidently I called her a brunette earlier.
She arrived at the hotel and called. We agreed to get some dinner, after I'd napped a bit. I napped, Darin watched Babylon 5 and ER. Pooks went to the bar and socialized.
After I woke up, the three of us headed out to the Salt Lick BBQ to meet Darin's college roommate Paul and two of Paul's friends. We ate a lot of barbecue and pecan pie and talked a lot about films.
When we got back, Pooks's roommate Mary (whom I had met a few months ago) had checked into the hotel room. Mary was supposed to have arrived a few hours earlier, but she missed her connection in Denver. (Urgh.) Pooks, Mary, Darin, and I spent an hour or so chatting in their hotel room.
Then Mary conked out on us, Darin and I headed upstairs, and Pooks went back to the bar to socialize. I don't know how she did it--she must be the Energizer bunny or something.
The Driskill's phone system is not, shall we say, sufficient: the data port entry on both phones in the room didn't work, and the "line 2" button was completely useless. I ended up unplugging the line into the phone and plugging that into the computer.
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Copyright 1998 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com