Saturday, July 7, 2001

I did manage to make it up to Saalon’s. It was a tire this time.

Everything went smoothly — driving, parking, waiting, boarding — until we actually sat down on the tiny little plane at 7:00. The captain’s voice echoed over the intercom, telling us that there was a problem with a tire, and we’d have to wait a little while.

We waited patiently, then about ten minutes later, we got the funniest news I’ve had this whole trip. United Airlines, it appears, did not have a spare tire and would have to have one shipped from another airport.

We ended up being put onto another flight, which left at 9:35. At this point, I’m amazed that that flight went perfectly.

Saalon met me at the airport. I was hoping he’d been told about the change in flights, and he was…after wandering around the Byzantine labyrinth of baggage claim in search of someone to ask.

Not that I’m annoyed or anything.

We drove to Saalon’s place, in which I got my first glimpse of Boston traffic. People complain about D.C. area driving, but that’s a tugboat next to an ocean liner compared to Boston. I have never seen as much aggressive driving.

But now I’m here. I’ve finally met LWQuestie, and since she’s sitting next to me as I type this, I’ll say that she’s a longtime chat friend and all-around nice girl. ;-) Seriously, she is. Amazingly nice and easy to get along with.

Before we went to bed on Friday, Saalon showed me Oni and Zone of the Enders, two excellent anime-style Playstation games. Both were a lot of fun, though oddly I knew I’d never have the urge to buy them or play them for long stretches. They’re cool, but I’ve just outgrown video games, at least as a personal hobby.

Then today (Saturday), we watched Project A-Ko 2, Perfect Blue (an extremely well-made psychological thriller), the The Castle of Cagliostro, the season finale of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and a late-night episode of Tokyo Babylon (a modern cult-powers anime series, of which at least this episode really, really sucked).

And then, to bed.