Comic-Con Day 1C: That's gonna leave a mark

I’m flying low on Harbor View drive or whatever the name of the road is on the way to the hotel. I’m pumped up to be in San Diego, and have had my trip start so well. And I had a nice ride to boot (the 350Z if you remember).

I get to the parking lot—it took me three times around the building to figure THAT one out—but I arrive. The Radisson. Not bad. It was the only spot the travel agent could find, since I was late, but the cost had looked really good.  Plus, I don’t need much when I travel, so this was going to be beyond perfect.

I walk in to find the lobby completely disassembled.  The desks were literally on plywood.  It’s hilarious, and I feel for the staff having to hit renovations right at Comic-Con rush time.  Someone planned GREAT for that.  Anyway, I check in and head upstairs.

I fumble around in the dark for the light, finally get it, and the first thing that hits me is that I have a spiral staircase IN my room.  What the…? Am I in the right room?  No way I’m in the right room.  I look at my itinerary again—it says 3 nights at Radisson.  $399.  Per night.  HOLY MOSES!  I guess I hadn’t read the itinerary right when I said yes to the travel agent back in Austin. 

Of course, no hotel anywhere near San Diego has a vacancy. Even the homeless shelters are filled to capacity. To make matters worse, I can’t cancel without getting nailed for one night at the hotel—so I have to stay for one night and figure out what I’m going to do for the next day.

Then it hit me.  I came to the slow creeping realization I had just officially earned a nickname my first trip for Dungeon Runners.  I just know the dev team is going to call me “FancyPants” or “HighMaintenance” or something equally messed up.  I’ll never live this one down.

I call our show coordinator Karen and give her the bad news.  She was quite nice considering she had just released several empty hotel rooms where they were staying, just a couple days earlier. She didn’t even call me names since I had called her at her home, late at night, back in Texas, because she couldn’t attend for the whole trip. Note to self, be really, really nice to Karen for a long time.

I settle in for the night, catch up on email, and turn in.