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A cloud of white mist blanketed the city this morning...
Yesterday morning, at 8am, I got up and moved my car over into the other half of the parking lot, as the note posted to our doors Friday night had told us we had to do or risk being towed. I had to move the traffic cones out of the way to get in, but that was expected -- the construction workers didn't usually come in to start work until 9am. But no one else was out there moving their cars. This worried me.
So, around 8:30, after I'd taken a shower and gotten dressed and all, I went back down to see... that still, no one else had moved their cars. My car was sitting alone in the newly sealed half of the parking lot... with nasty tire tracks behind it where the still-wet sealant had stuck to my tires. So, since it was obviously NOT time to move into the new lot, but I didn't want to risk keeping my car in the old lot, and because I needed to drive around to get the black gunk off my tires, I headed downtown.
Nothing was open yet -- nothing opened 'till 10am, and most things didn't open until 11. So I went to the park, where a crowd of people were dressed in hideous pink ribbon stickers 'making strides against breast cancer'. It seemed to be some sort of protest march... against breast cancer. This sort of thing always puzzles me, so I sat playing Klonoa GBA and listening to the announcer rile up the crowd.
Around 10ish, I swung by the apartment -- no change, everyone was still parked in the east half of the lot, no one in the west half -- and started brooding. It was bad enough that they'd threatened to tow our cars if we didn't do something stupid, but how did EVERYONE ELSE KNOW not to move over? Was there some kind of psychic connection that I didn't have? A hive mind I wasn't a part of? What?
I went to Redmond Town Center, and Borders was open. I bought some books, and a map, and sat around reading John Stewart's 'America' while waiting for the other shops to open, at which point I picked up some boxes for my Kamigawa cards and the new Zoids GBA game. I'd hardly started playing it when I noticed it was time for the Sunday meet at Crossroads.
Darter and Soltris (and one of Darter's friends) were there first, and we talked about random things and had lunch while other people slowly filtered in. I eventually played a few games of magic using the new Kamigawa deck I'd thrown together -- an altered version of the Spirits Reborn precon.
Thief of Hope turned out to be fairly powerful in multiplayer... the deck's 'combo' turned out to be 'kodama's reach + spliced return-from-graveyard on a hama kami, which was then cast and sacc'd to get back the kodama's reach.' Repeat while mana held out, which got progressively longer as the game went on, ending with five mana untapped for a rend flesh + spliced return from graveyard in case anyone attacked. Yeah, the deck was WEAK, so people left me alone, at least after losing a creature or two, and I won by vulching when I won at all.
I didn't spend the whole time playing magic this week, though... I tried to circulate and talk to people, with mixed results. The meet came to a crashing halt when Kay decided to be a damnfool and get himself thrown out of the mall. See, a security guard decided that he didn't like Kay sitting on the floor (Kay insisted he was 'crouching') and handed him a list of mall rules. "I'll let you read these yourself."
They didn't have anything in them about sitting on the floor, so when the guard came back Kay decided to argue with him that he didn't have to get up (I mean, it was obvious what the guard wanted him to stop doing, since he'd handed the list over just after telling Soltris to stop sitting on the table). "I don't have to go with you! Get your manager!"
"Come with me," the guard said, and Kay refused, insisting that he didn't have to do anything the guard said, without written confirmation from the management. "I'm a representative of the management. Do you want me to call the cops?"
Kay indicated that he did, indeed, want him to call the cops, but the guard called his manager instead, and over the course of about an hour they explained in detail why Kay actually did have to obey them (basically, "This mall is private property") and what area he was now banned from setting foot in for the next year. They served him with written notice, and he had no choice but to leave, or they *would* call the cops.
While this was going on, Darter -- who was riding with Kay -- decided to leave and go to QFC to get some food. "Let me know where Kay goes," he asked me. "Um... he's about to get thrown out of the mall, you know..." Sure enough, Darter didn't get back until well after Kay had been forced off mall property, and while I could tell him which way Kay had headed, he wasn't still there. Since he was forced to leave the parking lot, too.
Anyway, Kay came back to the strip mall across the street to get Darter, and I took a few people down to Lex's... most people went over to Legend's to help him move. Apparently, he got thrown out of his condo over the big mess a couple weeks ago when everyone was gathered on the street outside his house loitering for an hour trying to decide where to go, since they obviously wouldn't all fit in Legend's place. Doh.
On the way down, while we were crossing the lake to let Kitsunetaur drop off the raw chicken he'd bought in his freezer, everyone remarked on the strange orange haze surrounding the city.
"Wow, look at that haze."
"Yeah, it's been unusually misty for the last few days."
"You think the erupting volcano has anything to do with it?"
"Oh! Of course!"
[smackhead]
But anyway, to pair people up, there were:
Lex and Morphy
Blake and Muttrunt
Kitsunetaur and Raven
and me there. Whee. 9.9
I traded some magic cards with Lex and Kitsunetaur, made a new deck (this one a remake of the Snake precon, with some added red burn), tried to watch Slayers (although Morphy decided to play his guitar all through it, so no one could hear what they were saying), and played a little GBA Zoids, until it was time to take people home. It wasn't very late, but I was *really tired*, and had to have Kitsunetaur drive up I-5 after dropping off Raven. Fortunately, that nap was enough to have me alert driving myself home.
And, when I got back to the apartment, everyone was still parked on the east side of the lot. No one had moved. I managed to find a spot -- not a *good* spot, but I squeezed in next to someone who was parked diagonally in two spaces (what a DICK!). And there, on the door, was a sign telling everyone to keep parking in the east lot for at least another day, and that they'd reschedule sealing the east lot.
I'm *almost* entirely sure that the sign went up after I left in the morning. I *usually* notice those sorts of notices even when I'm groggy and/or panicked.
Yesterday morning, at 8am, I got up and moved my car over into the other half of the parking lot, as the note posted to our doors Friday night had told us we had to do or risk being towed. I had to move the traffic cones out of the way to get in, but that was expected -- the construction workers didn't usually come in to start work until 9am. But no one else was out there moving their cars. This worried me.
So, around 8:30, after I'd taken a shower and gotten dressed and all, I went back down to see... that still, no one else had moved their cars. My car was sitting alone in the newly sealed half of the parking lot... with nasty tire tracks behind it where the still-wet sealant had stuck to my tires. So, since it was obviously NOT time to move into the new lot, but I didn't want to risk keeping my car in the old lot, and because I needed to drive around to get the black gunk off my tires, I headed downtown.
Nothing was open yet -- nothing opened 'till 10am, and most things didn't open until 11. So I went to the park, where a crowd of people were dressed in hideous pink ribbon stickers 'making strides against breast cancer'. It seemed to be some sort of protest march... against breast cancer. This sort of thing always puzzles me, so I sat playing Klonoa GBA and listening to the announcer rile up the crowd.
Around 10ish, I swung by the apartment -- no change, everyone was still parked in the east half of the lot, no one in the west half -- and started brooding. It was bad enough that they'd threatened to tow our cars if we didn't do something stupid, but how did EVERYONE ELSE KNOW not to move over? Was there some kind of psychic connection that I didn't have? A hive mind I wasn't a part of? What?
I went to Redmond Town Center, and Borders was open. I bought some books, and a map, and sat around reading John Stewart's 'America' while waiting for the other shops to open, at which point I picked up some boxes for my Kamigawa cards and the new Zoids GBA game. I'd hardly started playing it when I noticed it was time for the Sunday meet at Crossroads.
Darter and Soltris (and one of Darter's friends) were there first, and we talked about random things and had lunch while other people slowly filtered in. I eventually played a few games of magic using the new Kamigawa deck I'd thrown together -- an altered version of the Spirits Reborn precon.
Thief of Hope turned out to be fairly powerful in multiplayer... the deck's 'combo' turned out to be 'kodama's reach + spliced return-from-graveyard on a hama kami, which was then cast and sacc'd to get back the kodama's reach.' Repeat while mana held out, which got progressively longer as the game went on, ending with five mana untapped for a rend flesh + spliced return from graveyard in case anyone attacked. Yeah, the deck was WEAK, so people left me alone, at least after losing a creature or two, and I won by vulching when I won at all.
I didn't spend the whole time playing magic this week, though... I tried to circulate and talk to people, with mixed results. The meet came to a crashing halt when Kay decided to be a damnfool and get himself thrown out of the mall. See, a security guard decided that he didn't like Kay sitting on the floor (Kay insisted he was 'crouching') and handed him a list of mall rules. "I'll let you read these yourself."
They didn't have anything in them about sitting on the floor, so when the guard came back Kay decided to argue with him that he didn't have to get up (I mean, it was obvious what the guard wanted him to stop doing, since he'd handed the list over just after telling Soltris to stop sitting on the table). "I don't have to go with you! Get your manager!"
"Come with me," the guard said, and Kay refused, insisting that he didn't have to do anything the guard said, without written confirmation from the management. "I'm a representative of the management. Do you want me to call the cops?"
Kay indicated that he did, indeed, want him to call the cops, but the guard called his manager instead, and over the course of about an hour they explained in detail why Kay actually did have to obey them (basically, "This mall is private property") and what area he was now banned from setting foot in for the next year. They served him with written notice, and he had no choice but to leave, or they *would* call the cops.
While this was going on, Darter -- who was riding with Kay -- decided to leave and go to QFC to get some food. "Let me know where Kay goes," he asked me. "Um... he's about to get thrown out of the mall, you know..." Sure enough, Darter didn't get back until well after Kay had been forced off mall property, and while I could tell him which way Kay had headed, he wasn't still there. Since he was forced to leave the parking lot, too.
Anyway, Kay came back to the strip mall across the street to get Darter, and I took a few people down to Lex's... most people went over to Legend's to help him move. Apparently, he got thrown out of his condo over the big mess a couple weeks ago when everyone was gathered on the street outside his house loitering for an hour trying to decide where to go, since they obviously wouldn't all fit in Legend's place. Doh.
On the way down, while we were crossing the lake to let Kitsunetaur drop off the raw chicken he'd bought in his freezer, everyone remarked on the strange orange haze surrounding the city.
"Wow, look at that haze."
"Yeah, it's been unusually misty for the last few days."
"You think the erupting volcano has anything to do with it?"
"Oh! Of course!"
[smackhead]
But anyway, to pair people up, there were:
Lex and Morphy
Blake and Muttrunt
Kitsunetaur and Raven
and me there. Whee. 9.9
I traded some magic cards with Lex and Kitsunetaur, made a new deck (this one a remake of the Snake precon, with some added red burn), tried to watch Slayers (although Morphy decided to play his guitar all through it, so no one could hear what they were saying), and played a little GBA Zoids, until it was time to take people home. It wasn't very late, but I was *really tired*, and had to have Kitsunetaur drive up I-5 after dropping off Raven. Fortunately, that nap was enough to have me alert driving myself home.
And, when I got back to the apartment, everyone was still parked on the east side of the lot. No one had moved. I managed to find a spot -- not a *good* spot, but I squeezed in next to someone who was parked diagonally in two spaces (what a DICK!). And there, on the door, was a sign telling everyone to keep parking in the east lot for at least another day, and that they'd reschedule sealing the east lot.
I'm *almost* entirely sure that the sign went up after I left in the morning. I *usually* notice those sorts of notices even when I'm groggy and/or panicked.
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