Friday, Washington DC

Well, I made it. Here we are in beautiful Washington, DC. How can I tell? Well, just out my window, beyond those buildings there, is the top third of the Washington Monument. Red light flashing on top to warn all those presidential hellicopters away.

When I pulled up in front of this de-leux hotel, I saw four valet men talking among themselves. And an empty rolling cart. After standing by my car for a couple of minutes, I shrugged my shoulders and unloaded the car, myself, onto the cart. Then I stood there waving my car keys until a valet finally decided to notice me. Suddenly it was apologies all over the place and "did you unload the car your self?" and sorry, sorry, sorry. Suddenly I was being escorted into the hotel by two men and another man tried to help me do "self-check-In" with a kiosk. Was he embarrassed when it said there was no room available for me. I whipped out my confirmation. He escorted me over to the registration desk and I was immediately processed. hmmmmmm.

I had requested two double beds but when we arrived at the TOP FLOOR, I saw that they had given me a king and had upgraded me to Regency Club grade. All without telling me.

wahoo. (wahoo only if it doesn't mean an extra charge on my bill.) It's an okay room, but it comes with a free breakfast and fruit during the day. ( And me with breakfast food in my suitcase -- bananas and oatmeal cookies. And dark chocolate M&Ns. oh well.) There's an 8 feet tall x 4 feet wide mirror on the wall. Cosy (men's size) overstuffed chair with an ottoman and table with lamp for computing.

I finally have the internet working. Had to talk with this nice boy in TEXAS before we could get my computer to talk to T-mobile. Funny, I've had no problems at other hotels, but this hotel's T-Mobil just wouldn't work. I've either purchased 3 or 6 or 9 days of T-mobile service. I can't tell. because I had to go through the purchase point several times before they decided their server would work.

Gotta go plan my day for tomorrow. Meetings to go to. Exhibits to see. Fun to be had at ALA.