October 8, 2022
Race daaaayy!! Well, the warmup race anyway. The Aquarium of the Pacific 5k was scheduled to start at 7 am. This is a little bonus race we signed up for, a 3.11 mile run which gives a little preview of part of the marathon course, but ends with a dash through the actual aquatic zoo. It comes with its own t-shirt and medal, the things we like best, and if you do both races you get a third, special combo medal. Medals are great!
We got up, got our race clothes on, blended our shakes, acquired David, and got ourselves on the road at precisely 6:00 am. I was driving toward the same car park from the race last year, a giant, flat parking lot with a ramp in the middle of it for some reason and a singular entrance at the end of a long stretch of road that has several smaller roads filter into it in the quarter mile before you reach the lot, plus one lane is for street parking, just to make it extra confusing and annoying to drive through. The drive from the hotel is about half an hour, so while we weren't exactly cutting it close, per se, we did not have a comfortable amount of padding.
As we approached Shoreline Drive, i noted the lack of heavy traffic that i'd expected, given our experience last year. We turned onto the short side street that would lead us to the parking lot, and...nothing. Nobody. No cars.
I rolled up to the ticket booths. Empty. Closed.
Fuck.
I U-turned it and started heading out as we debated what to do. I still had the "Final Runner Instructions" PDF pulled up on my phone, so as Amanda was looking at maps to figure out where to go, i gave her the first address i saw on that document. I wasn't sure if it was the address for the lot we were just at, or where it would lead us, but i hoped it would get us somewhere.
Turned out to be the lot for the mall that the aquarium is attached to. Perfect.
We managed to get over there and into the lot without much issue, other than four different roads from opposing directions converging on the entrance to an unsuspecting parking structure (Long Beach, why are you like this?). The vehicle was stowed and we were walking away by 6:35.
My runner instructions document had listed this parking ramp at $15 for the day, however there were signs indicating that the aquarium could validate parking and drop it to $8. Nice. I hate paying for parking. In my youth i'd have called it a racket; as a more experienced adult, a necessary evil; and now, a symptom of the disease of car culture that infects the world but specifically this country but specifically specifically Los Angeles. Please invest my tax dollars in good public transit and trains, i am begging you.
The starting line was right outside the aquarium's front door. We lined up on the street, facing away from the building and toward the Hooter's on the corner, part of the clump of runners spilling around both sides of a large roundabout. David asked if the Hooter's logo had changed, and none of us had any idea. We haven't been to a Hooter's in probably 10 years.
You wanna talk about pee again? Because i'm gonna talk about pee again.
I had to, quite badly.
We were eight minutes from the starting gun. Sorry, that's archaic; the starting air horn. Fortunately, the restrooms were in an outbuilding right off of that roundabout; unfortunately, the line was so long it cut through the mass of runners preparing to take off. I got in line anyway, hoping for the best, and that i'd find them again before the start; the four of us were planning to run this one together.
One could argue that it's only a 5k, i should be able to hold it that long, it's not a big deal. However history has shown that, when i run at Amanda's pace and especially when i run at Alyssa's pace, this becomes nearly impossible. At my own speed, even if it's dark and cold, i sweat enough to counteract anything collecting in my bladder; at their pace, i don't, and the fleshy storage bag of urine in my abdomen just churns and waves hard enough to sink the Edmund Fitzgerald. Intestinal parasites, had i any, could try to hang ten but end up a kook.
I am a Californian.
While in line, i got my race bib affixed to my person, as well as the extra bib Amanda had picked up at the expo. There was a breast cancer awareness booth, and she'd gotten herself a Cancer Survivor ribbon, plus bibs for the rest of us that read "I RUN FOR" and a huge blank space to fill in a name, with cancer awareness signage on the bottom. She had already filled them in with "AMANDA."
Beach bathrooms are the actual worst, by the way. When there's a line leading up to one, it's always confusing where exactly you're supposed to go. Every toilet is in a self-contained room with an exit directly to the outside. This particular facility is in a rounded building, so no matter where the end of that line stands, you can't keep watch on every bathroom door. Some of them will always be beyond the horizon. Could be worse, i guess; the ones near the Santa Monica boardwalk, my favorite place to train, are in octagon-shaped buildings, so you have to roll the dice and pick one to queue up for, and commit to it.
Four minutes left. I'm at the front of the line. I'm standing as near to the center of the building as i can. I'm beyond the first few stalls. If one of them opens up, someone behind me in line could easily slip in there before i even notice the door swing, and there'd be nothing i could do about it.
The door right in front of me opens up. A woman starts walking out. I start walking to the door. As i'm just a few feet from it, she stops moving, pushes the door open further, and a small child appears under her arm and walks out. They move in a wide arc around me.
Awkward.
I'm in. I'm doing the thing. I'm done. I'm out.
Where the hell is the sink? How do i wash my hands?
Two minutes left.
Eh, screw it.
Not like there's a global pandemic on that can only be stemmed by proper hygiene.
Amanda, Alyssa, and David are all standing right at the nearest edge of the chute, exactly where the starting line and the bathroom line intersect. I join them easily. We take pictures. I activate the GoPro i've mounted to my chest. I start shooting video with my phone.
The race begins. Dozens of poor sods are still in line for those bathrooms. But i made it.
The four of us stuck together, with Alyssa essentially setting the pace by default. As the aquarium (and the Hooter's) fell away behind us, we got out onto the streets of Long Beach, closed down to make way for the runners this morning. Before long, we were running around the harbor, past the yachts and classic old ships that dock there. The breeze blowing in from the ocean was lovely. It was a beautiful experience. Some people had worn costumes, some for fun, others for a cause. You see all kinds at these types of events.
We got onto the highway, and went over a huge concrete bridge. Up the onramp, down the offramp, right at the fork. To the left of that fork was ongoing road construction, and an LED sign with related instructions, including a slide that said "SLOW DOWN," which made a wonderful photo op.
Following that fork led us around the back side of the aquarium, and into the rear entrance, which i assume is used for employees and/or deliveries. As soon as we were in the building, i had to start filming continuously with my phone, because Amanda was having cartoonishly exaggerated, enthusiastic reactions to literally every marine animal she saw.
I guess i had hoped more of the race would be through the aquarium, given that's what it was sold on, but it was only the last tenth of a mile; we hit the three mile mark just before entering. We would cross the finish line as we exited through the main entrance.
The doors were wide open. We could feel the breeze and smell the fresh air outside. Irises were adjusting for the brightness of the sun, leaving the fluorescent interior illumination behind.
Amanda tripped over an irregularity in the tile on the floor and beefed it, slamming both knees and an elbow into the concrete-backed floor.
This was a disaster, but she was still riding that high from running through the aquarium and kept her spirits up, jokingly lifting her limbs into a Superman pose and maintaining that wide grin on her face. I was a little behind, so David and a kind stranger had already lifted her up by the time i had gotten into a position to help. She got back into motion immediately, and finished the race strong.
We collected our medals and snacks from the finish line, including cans of Liquid Death (canned drinking water "from the Alps"), and started looking for the medical tent. We got separated from David as we wandered back toward the roundabout where we'd started. I think he was the one that found the medics. We were milling in the correct direction when David found us again and led her to them, taking her provisions into his shirt like a kangaroo pouch.
The medics gave her ice and instructed her to get a compression wrap on that knee.
We walked back to the car to drop some things off and change a couple articles of clothing. On the walk back, we discussed the logistics of moving from our king bed room to a two-queen room. We had purchased an add-on to our Aquarium of the Pacific 5k run that allowed us drastically discounted regular admission, which we would be doing directly from here, so we wouldn't be back at the hotel at check out time and likely not back by check in. So if we had to move rooms in that window, we were screwed. Also, would we even be able to switch rooms directly, or would we need to stage our shit somewhere between check out and check in? In the Haerterichs' room? In the car? None of that works particularly well given how many dogs we have to move.
I posited that i had been surprisingly comfy on that king bed the previous night. If i've got one (1) and only one (1) positive thing to say about this hotel, it's that the bed is damn comfortable. If i've got two, it's that i love the shade of blue on their accent walls.
I was able to convince the other two that it wasn't worth the hassle of moving. After all, the night before, Amanda had already been musing about our mess that "we'd been in that hotel room for a matter of hours and it's already a disaster." Seriously, within 6 hours it looked like we'd been there 6 days. I wasn't thrilled to have to transport that mess.
From the second-story concrete bridge leading into the parking ramp, i called the hotel's front desk to release the hold they had (SUPPOSEDLY) placed on the double queen room for us. My signal dropped as soon as i crossed the threshold, so i stayed outside. They thanked me for the call, and asked if we needed room service. I firmly said no thank you, and indicated we'd be in an out of the room all day. This was of course not true. I thought later that i should have perhaps even said something about having a person sleeping in there during the day, just to ensure that they wouldn't go snooping around. After all, even with both Copper and Zuul in the other room, there's still three undeclared animals in there, and even if we had declared them, we don't want them making a bunch of noise while we're not around.
Amanda called her parents. They hadn't left the hotel yet. I was a little surprised, i know they were here specifically to see the marathon, but i thought they would have come out for the other race as well, since they flew across the country for this and all. As they hadn't left, though, she had them go to our room and grab a few things she forgot. She also needed some things picked up from a store.
Amanda also still needed an ace bandage or something to keep the compression up on her knee. She initially intended to ask her mom to pick one up, but in order to "save time," she suggested that we could find a CVS nearby and walk to get it ourselves. I searched it immediately, and found one that, according to Google Maps, was 0.7 miles away. Easy walking distance. Under normal circumstances, anyway. I didn't think about it any deeper than that.
While we continued to wait for Amanda to finish her phone call, a security guard chased a man in a wheelchair out of the parking lot and across the bridge. They were yelling obscenities at each other. The wheelchair-bound man said something about getting shot if he got kicked out, and the guard said he didn't care. We watched in stunned silence. The guard was holding some kind of long pole with a flat, square metal blade on the end of it. During the altercation, i had heard the presumably-homeless man dare the guard to hit him with it, which the guard insisted he would not do.
"Sorry you all had to witness that," the guard explained. "But we deal with that guy every day. He can walk just as well as you or i can, the wheelchair is for show. He rides the elevator up to the top, tears open the control panel, jams the elevator, and shoots up in there. I use this tool to pry open the doors and get him out."
I'm glad i didn't try to get in the middle of that, which had been my first instinct, but i hesitated. Don't get me wrong, i'm still against authority and i think the answer to homelessness and drug abuse is certainly not threats of violence and physical removal and kicking them to the curb, but helping them with their problems and giving them a place to stay and a robust, compassionate mental health care system. But what am i going to do in that moment? Have a philosophical debate with a bottom of the flowchart, daytime parking ramp security guard about the shortcomings of a system rigged against us all? The guard was a Black man, he knows, he fucking knows. The guy he just chased out of the ramp was also Black. They know.
What am i gonna do in this situation?
Lie to try and come to this guy's defense?
The guard will know immediately, if he really does deal with this dude daily.
What possible outcome could be expected? "Sorry, if he's your friend he's free to create an unsafe environment in our elevator and shoot up?"
Nah.
There was nothing i could have done there.
"Oh," David replied. I don't think any of the rest of us said a word. Amanda was still on the phone with her parents and did not contribute to the situation at all.
I'm still bothered by the situation and second guessing whether there was, in fact, something i could have done.
Her excessively long call finally concluded, we started making for that CVS. Google Maps always gives you distances "as the crow flies," and then gives you the actual travel distance after you've selected your method of conveyance and hit start, and i should fucking know this by now. Walking distance to CVS was actually 0.9 miles. Not a huge change, or so i thought, so i ignored it, not even mentioning it to the party.
We walked through some nice parts of Long Beach. Great walking paths through the city. We took the Promenade through Downtown Long Beach, eventually ending up on Long Beach Boulevard and walking parallel with the overland metro tracks.
About the time we turned onto Long Beach Boulevard, Amanda said something about how long it was taking us to walk 0.7 miles. I mentioned that the GPS had turned it into 0.9 when i started the directions, and how it always does that and i should know by now, but i didn't think it was significant enough to mention. And now, at this moment, Amanda says that we're starting to cut it uncomfortably close on time.
What do you mean? We're not on any time constraints.
Our tickets say we have to enter the aquarium before 10:00 am.
What.
I overheard David asking Amanda something about entry times as we were walking from the race to the car earlier, and from the way Amanda explained it to him at that time, it sounded like everyone received an entry time, and they were allowed to walk in any time after that. Now, she was saying that our window is 9:00 - 10:00 am.
We were getting close to that CVS, putting us nearly a mile away. It was 9:25. We are not even moving at a normal walking pace, since Amanda is still hobbling from her fall. We accelerated our pace. Some words were exchange about clarity of communication.
The math still worked out in our favor. As long as we were only in the CVS for a few minutes, we should still be able to get back to the aquarium in about twenty, and get inside with 10 minutes to spare, as long as Tammi, Phil, and Jack were in place by then.
We breezed through that CVS well within that tolerance, no issues aside from a bit of CVS's own unclear communication on where a Covid-compliant checkout line should be.
The walk back was brisk. We were only a minute or two out from CVS when Tammi informed us they'd arrived and were waiting in front of the aquarium.
The whole thing was pretty much a non-issue in the end; we made it back with the predicted ten minutes to spare, the family was right in front of the building waiting, and there was a sign at the front of the empty entrance corrals which read "now open to all entry times."
The Aquarium of the Pacific is quite expansive. We entered through the doors Amanda had nearly tripped straight through two hours before, passing the gift shop on our left...and immediately seeing the two penny smashing machines outside of it. I blurted something out about forgetting to bring pennies, since squished pennies is apparently my thing now (i've always had a passing interest in them, and never developed a specific travel souvenir collection like Amanda has with magnets, or like my straight-edge dad had with shotglasses; so a couple years ago, on our Rocky Mountains trip, Amanda convinced me to start collecting them. I've already filled one souvenir penny book). Amanda made it her mission to get me some pennies and quarters. I wasn't really in the mood to deal with it though. Plus, i figured we'll probably be back to the Aquarium of the Pacific at some point, we live close enough. We're even considering moving to Long Beach in the future.
Just beyond that, beneath the giant (life-size?) model of a whale suspended from the ceiling, we sat down at the tables in the cafeteria area so Amanda could refresh her ice packs and wrap that ace bandage around herself. We took a pause there for a few minutes, discussing our plan moving forward, and taking note of the additional THREE penny smashers near the garbage cans. This brings the total number of smushed pennies to collect from Aquarium of the Pacific to a staggering twenty. Soon, the small theater off to our left had a film starting, so we attended that. It was shown on a globe-shaped screen, so the seating was 360 degrees around and the images were projected from within the glass orb. There were also regular TV screens set up above the thing, playing a different video which also matched the same narration. Interesting experience. I think it was about population, i'm honestly forgetting now though. It was only a few minutes long.
Coming out of that, another documentary short on marine mammals (including otters and seals!) was being projected in three places against the white walls of the same large hallway/cafeteria area we'd entered. Between the walls getting the projections was a large glass wall, three stories tall, with a view into one of the large aquarium tanks. Lots of different kinds of fish swimming around, and lots of people gathered to look at them.
The race had brought us into this room from the hallway to the left of that tank. We instead proceeded down the hall to the right. We soon ended up outside, where there were lots of hands-on activities geared toward kids, from a tugboat playground and mounted water shooters, to shallow tanks with rays and sharks that you can reach in and pet. Amanda touched many of the animals, and was very happy. I was filming most of the time, trying to get good shots of everyone having fun, mostly Jack and Amanda. I only attempted to catch the attention of one ray, but sadly, it never came near me.
At some point in there, we also sat in a small amphitheater and watched seals play in their enclosure for a few minutes. Seals!!
All in all it had been a fun experience, a good time with the kid-
Wait there's more exhibits inside?
Oh.
So we entered through a hallway beyond the seal amphitheater, and started making our way though the indoor exhibits. I was kind of pooping out by this point, but as long as Jack was still having fun, we were going to keep rolling with this.
Oh there's another exhibit after this one? Um. Okay.
Man i'm getting hungry.
Oh. Oh there's another one. I guess.
Oh there's O T T E R S in this one!! Okay i am back in!
Wait you really want to wait in this 20+ child line to pet starfish? But...but otters...
I waited for them for a little while, but eventually, i wandered ahead to see the otters. Didn't see much of them, honestly, they seemed to be hiding further back in the enclosure, either inside their rock formations or just far enough back to be too obscured by the fogged-up windows. One of them did swim up to me with a Kong in its little hands!! And i was SO EXCITED for the O T T E R with a snack in a K O N G ! !
They hadn't caught up to me, so i went back to check if they were still in that line. They had progressed far enough that they were at the beginning of the starfish petting zone. I tried to get some shots over Amanda's shoulder of her and Jack petting the starfish, but i don't know if they turned out.
As the rest of the group finally approached the otter tank, i very, very damn nearly had a nice shot of Amanda looking through the glass with a couple otters swimming around her...and my phone died.
I stole Amanda's phone to finish filming our aquarium odyssey, but the moment was gone. The otters did not return to the glass, and Amanda moved forward with Jack and the rest of the family.
Okay, we're out of this one. I'm so hungry. Everyone is hungry. I'm not the only one complaining. Let's go-
Oh. There's one more. It's at the end of the hall on this level, so it must be the last one, right? Looks like this is even the one that's on the cover of the visitor guide.
I think the crankiness was really setting in by the time we were wandering through the last exhibit, the "Babies" exhibit, the special exhibit for the season. Sure, we got to see a lot of baby fish, teeny tiny little versions of the cast of Finding Nemo, but we (at least Alyssa and i) were getting untenably hungry and more than a little exhausted. We'd already run a race today, and we had another race roughly nine times longer tomorrow, and we had been planning on maximizing rest and minimizing literally everything else for the remainder of the day. This aquarium thing had already taken up more of our relaxation time than expected.
But. We got through it.
We descended to the main level. I thought we were leaving. Amanda was still on that mission though. The mission to get me pennies for the squishing and quarters to activate the squash. All i had was a twenty dollar bill. No coin.
Of course, Amanda also wanted to get herself a magnet for the collection. This worked out; pay for the magnet, get the change in actual change.
Conveniently, there's a change machine next to each bank of penny machines, with a special note on it that every dollar receives 2 free pennies. Perfect! Nobody else ever thinks of that.
We found her a cool magnet for six bucks, leaving 14 dollars to mangle some legitimate U.S. currency with. I also ended up buying a new souvenir penny book, since my first one (with South Dakota's Cosmos Mystery Area branding on it) is full now. Paid for that with the credit card though. To preserve the cash for mashin' pennies.
The free pennies that came out of the change machines were all really ugly. Amanda didn't want to collect them. Fortunately, her mom ended up having a bunch of shiny ones in her purse.
Maybe preserving the details about the penny machine crisis expresses the tedium i was feeling at that moment. I know the pennies are supposed to be "my thing," but i said multiple times that i really didn't care, at least not right at that moment. What i cared about was eating, and getting rest before the big race.
We got the parking validated at the self-service machine on the third try, another dramatic beat that can in no way be adequately expressed in writing because it is so short and so uninteresting, but still contributes to the frustration of the moment.
As we were doing the pennies, Amanda had tasked her mom and David with picking out a place to get food. David had been commenting early in the day about how many cool-looking little independent restaurants he'd been seeing around Long Beach, and how nice it would be to try some, so she thought giving him the reins might produce interesting results. Phil had wandered away from us at least an hour ago, leaving the aquarium early and heading to Hooter's to see if they were playing the Badger game.
David and Tammi chose...
Chili's.
Because it was next door to Hooter's, and it was a known quantity. They decided they didn't want to look at menus and try new things.
We walked over to the Chili's, only to find that their dining area is closed and they're only taking take out orders at the moment. I thought it was weird that they would still be enforcing Covid regulations at this point, not because i don't think they should but because nobody else is, but Tammi said something about how they probably can't find waitstaff. Might be true that they can't find waitstaff at what they're willing to pay. Still seems like an interesting choice to me that all these corporations would rather destroy their businesses entirely than pay their employees what they're worth but okay.
There were some food trucks across the street. I went for Mr. Falafel. Amanda got taquitos from the Mexican truck next to it. Everyone else was able to find something to their liking, and i ended up with a bounty of additional fries that others couldn't finish.
And with that win in the books, we finally began the return trip to the hotel.
Amanda had been insistent throughout the day that we needed to take the dogs down to Rosie's Dog Beach today. They've been cooped up inside the car and the hotel rooms for the whole trip, which was just coming to a middle, and they needed some activity. I didn't disagree with this point, but also i didn't want to do it. I wanted to rest up before my race. I decided to stay behind at the hotel.
Everyone else went to Rosie's. I was a little surprised Alyssa didn't choose to stay behind as well. She had also been complaining the entire day that her intention was to relax and get ready for the big race, her first and presumably only full marathon, but i get that she also wanted to go to the beach with the dogs. It would have been difficult for Amanda to watch both hellhounds, Zuul and Vinz, and no one from Amanda's family would really be able to absorb that function in a meaningful way, nor would they want to.
So i relaxed at the hotel room. I let D out of the bathroom and snuggled up with her in the bed and worked on writing out this log. I wrote in this log for four solid hours and didn't even get to the present day.
Alyssa decided to leave the beach after an hour or two. She called me to coordinate getting food. I said i already had a place in mind, Valentino's Pizzeria, which had been another pasta place that came up when i searched the night before. From the menu i was seeing online, it seems that they are a bit more expensive than Ameci had been, but their portions were larger. The pastas i was looking at were all listed as intended to serve two. She asked me to put in the order and she'd pick it up on the way back.
The lady who took my order seemed confused what i was asking for. The lasagna combo, i said. It's twenty bucks. "Yeah i think so," she said. Which...?????? You should know how much your items cost??? She said it would be ready in 30 minutes. The place was very close to the hotel, 3 minute drive according to Google Maps, so Alyssa should spend most of that prep time driving there from Rosie's and have just a short wait.
It was 5:44 pm. I called Alyssa back to let her know the order was in and the wait time would be 30 minutes.
At exactly 6:15, Amanda texted me, asking if we had gotten food. "It's ordered, she's picking it up," i replied. "You're eating with your family?"
"Yes. Just wanted to make sure you got something."
"Yup. There was another pasta place i had been looking at last night, thought we'd give that a try."
"Where."
"Close to the hotel. Près de l'hôtel."
I gave her the information for Valentino's Pizzeria, and continued about my writing. It was 6:18 pm.
6:38 pm. Alyssa texts me. "OMG it's still not done I just want to be in the hot tub!"
"Holy shit wtf. They said 30 min, it's been an hour!"
I texted Amanda. "Might want to pick something else."
"Too late."
They had literally just gotten off the phone with the restaurant, putting in their order, when i texted.
Knowing the restaurant was close to the hotel and that there would be a bit of a wait, Amanda decided to drop the family off first, and then her and her mom would head back out to pick up the food. She called me once they were in the parking lot to let me know the plan. A few minutes later, Alyssa pulled up next to her. Amanda always uses speakerphone nowadays, so as soon as Alyssa parked, i could hear her yelling and complaining about the restaurant.
Jack really wanted to go in the hot tub, so David took him straight upstairs to get ready. Tammi went back up to the room with the family while Amanda waited for her in the car. We ended the call, so i could eat my dinner.
Alyssa walked into the hotel room with our food. She set it down on the bed next to me, and i tried to wrap up the thought i was working on in my journal. She was still walking around, settling dogs, whatever she needed to do, when Amanda called me back. It was 6:55.
"David and Jack are in the hot tub. David says it doesn't work. It's not warm and the jets barely do anything."
"Oh no. Well, thanks for letting me know."
I hung up. Alyssa looked at me in anticipation. "What was that?"
"David's in the hot tub. He says it doesn't work."
And i swear to god i saw Alyssa's soul leave her body.
She lost whatever cool she had left about this whole situation and started carrying on about how she might as well just go home. The hot tub. The only reason we had gotten a hotel at all. Now even that was ripped away from her.
"I don't even want to take a bath anymore! I'm just going to eat this food and go to bed!" she cried.
After a few minutes she calmed down enough to compose herself. She pulled the food out of the bag and set it on the bed.
"That's over $20 worth of food?" i said.
"No it was only like $14."
"Then they did not give you what i ordered."
There was only 1 fork in the bag. I texted Amanda, "Make sure they give you enough silverware."
We later determined that the restaurant sold their pastas in increments of either "for one" or "for two," which was not at all clear from the internet. I guess when i was on the phone with that lady i could have clarified that i wanted it "for two," but still, when i said $20, and that didn't match up with the "for one" price, you'd think she could have figured this out? Or asked me to clarify?
The "for one" meal turned out to be enough food for Alyssa and i. I definitely would have piled more carbs into my gut in preparation for a marathon, given the option, but as a day-ending meal, it was enough. Neither of us wanted the sad salad that came along with it. The cheesy garlic bread was nice though.
While we were eating, D tried to steal some of that bread. I didn't let her, but i took my remaining portion off of the plate, stuck it in with my lasagna, and gave her the plate back. "This is not for cats. But since you are dying, i'll let you lick the plate."
Alyssa started to say something, then stopped and considered for a moment, and said, "I was about to say, 'stop being so dramatic,' but then i realized she might actually be dying."
A few days later we would find out that yes, in fact, this is going to kill my cat. She is going to be pampered in every possible way until then.
After we ate, Alyssa went to take a shower, and i decided to go down and have a look at this hot tub. It was about 7:30. I figured it was worth evaluating on my own; even if it wasn't very hot, or if the jets weren't very powerful, it might still be nice to lounge in for a little while.
I took a bag of trash down to the dumpster with me, which included a bunch of D's pee pads. The dumpster itself was nearly to the full line, and was sitting outside of the little brick alcove that most places around here build to house their dumpsters. The gate to the alcove was open. As i passed by it, i saw a wheelchair sitting right in the middle of the big empty space. No apparent damage, just a perfectly normal wheelchair, all on its own, in an empty trash alcove. Where does that register on the creepy scale? Seven? Out of how many?
The rumors about the hot tub were true. David and Jack had already left, so I just took a moment to stand there alone, my feet in on the top step, ankles deep in the lukewarm water, listening to the jets desperately try to churn the water through this three foot wide concrete crater, and fail. The jets sounded like someone listening to loud nü metal on cheap headphones on the other side of a public bus. After like three minutes, i fully gave up, and went back upstairs.
I was back in the room before Alyssa came out of the shower. Amanda was down in the other room, eating dinner with her family. When Loosk came out, she looked like a normal person who had just taken a shower. This was unusual.
See, Alyssa generally likes her showers hot enough to melt Schwarzenegger's skeleton at the end of Terminator 2. She bathes in Satan's fiery butthole. When Alyssa steps out of that steamy bathroom alone, if you've known us long enough, you'd get Farewell Spit flashbacks. Like the sun had had its vicious way with her epidermis. Is that Alyssa coming out of the bathroom? Why not Zoidberg?
"The shower doesn't get hot!" she shouted. "Fuck this entire hotel!"
Will the disappointment never end?
Amanda came back, intending to at least take an Epsom salt bath, but hearing Alyssa's report turned her off of that.
We quickly prepared the few things we would need for the race the next day, and crawled into bed. Amanda rubbed a free sample of magnesium gel from the race expo into her damaged knee. They were asleep pretty soon after that. I tried to keep working on my log for a little while, inexplicably thinking that i wouldn't have too terribly much to say about Saturday and i should be able to breeze through and get caught up. By the time i wrapped up the tale of Friday, though, it was almost 9:30, so i stopped and went to bed.
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