Journal transcript: trip to Austin (part 3)
At long last, the gripping conclusion of our trip to Austin:

One other detail I forgot to mention is that when we checked in, I asked if there was a refrigerator in the room that I might use for storing breast milk and other personal items. They said there was, and I was welcome to use it, but if I removed any of the beverages it was stocked with I'd be charged for them. I clarified: "So if I don't use any of the items, I won't be charged, even if I open the fridge?" "That's right," they said.

You might be able to see where this is going.

Well, so we get back to the room Thursday night, and it's time to put the milk in, and the fridge is packed. I mean loaded to the gills. Not even one bottle of breast milk will fit without taking something out. So I carefully removed a Dr Pepper, stashed the milk, and resolved to remember to put the soda back before we checked out.

Friday evening, when we returned to the room, the Dr Pepper was gone. I guess the housekeeping staff thought it was trash, or that it was for them.

I mentioned the missing Dr Pepper when we checked out on Sunday; I dunno whether we were charged for it, but an incidentals bill of $17.03 ended up on my credit card. Though that could have been from the long distance calls I made from the room (see Saturday, below). In any case, very annoying!

Saturday. At Hudson's the night before, after we'd all had a few, a couple of us had asked the coordinator of the symposium if we might start a wee bit later than 8:30 the next morning. She'd said, "Whyn't you show up at 8:30, get some breakfast, and then if we don't get started till, say, more like 9, you wouldn't complain?" We'd assured her no one would complain.

Again, you can see where this is going.

I managed to drag myself out of bed and get down there by 8:40, and they'd already started! So I had to sneak over to the table where the breakfast was while people were talking. Oops.

Otherwise, the morning went fairly smoothly. At around 11:50, though, just before lunch, I suddenly realized my ring was not on my finger. Déjà vu! I thought with dread. I'd taken it off to shower and put on hand cream that morning, so I'd surely left it on the counter in the room. The only question was, would the housekeeping staff resist temptation?

Ten agonizing minutes later, lunch was called, and I bounded up the stairs. To my utter horror, the ring was not to be found in the room! After five fruitless minutes of muttering, "Oh, God, oh, God" and tearing apart the bed, etc., I bit the bullet and called T., who had my cell phone with him.

"Yeah, I saw it; I hid it in the toiletries bag." Oh, thank God. And yay T.! Often, he is laissez-faire to a fault, and I'd worried that he would see the ring and not touch it, figuring I had a good reason for leaving it out. But this time, he actually thought things through and did the right thing. Whew! :-)

There was some confusion as to whether McG-H was going to pay for calls. In our binder it said they were, but the hotel didn't seem to think that was the arrangement. I told them on check-out what our binder said (and also about the Dr Pepper), and they said they'd "look into it." Harumph.

Anyhow, the symposium wrapped up at 2:45 or so, and I stopped at the business center to check email. Sure enough, my high school chum Eric S. had finally written back saying, Hey, yeah, I'm in town, call me when you get to Austin! I hastily scribbled down the number, then called T. from the room to let him know I was done. He'd been hanging out with his friends C. and E. and their two-year-old twins all day; their house is not far from the hotel, so he swung by to pick me up and we went back to C. and E.'s.





C. and E. are very friendly people. The last time I saw them was at the Big Math Meeting in San Antonio two years ago, when C. was 5 months pregnant and already huge with her twins, and I was just barely pregnant with a lima bean. So it was nice to see them, and to meet their kids. We showed them the pictures of our almost-two-year-old lima bean. They live in a fixer-upper out in the woods, and they'd done a lot of fixing-upping since T. had been there last (I'd never been). Among other improvements, a gorgeous master bath with blue tile and skylights that make you feel like you're in a swimming pool -- not an unpleasant sensation!

Meanwhile, I called Eric's number. The outgoing "message" was two solid minutes of what sounded like Spanish-language music, and then a beep. Eric is just eccentric enough that I didn't put it past him, so I left a message. Didn't hear back, and finally around dinnertime I realized that I had his correct number programmed into my phone -- I'd written a wrong digit. So I called and he answered right away. :-P

We took our leave of C. and E. with plans for brunch in the morning, and headed downtown to Stubb's for the symposium's farewell dinner. Not my kind of place, I'm afraid. We skipped the live music and instead hung out with Eric and had Amy's ice cream.

Sunday. I used my McG-H breakfast voucher in the hotel dining room while T. slept in. Chatted with several of the participants who happened to be there at the same time. I smuggled out some bagels, yogurt, and a banana.

A quick shower, then packed up and checked out in time to meet C. and E. for brunch at Kerbey Lane. Unfortunately, being Sunday morning, the wait for four adults and two high chairs was about 45 minutes, but the kids behaved themselves admirably while we waited and chatted, and eventually we got seated and managed to scarf down our meal. I'd had an egg Benedict and stuffed french toast for breakfast at the hotel, so really what I needed was vitamins, not food. I made a dent in Nabil's Mid-East Feast before it was time to say our goodbyes and head to the airport.

Note for travelers: you can carry as much breast milk as you want on board the plane, even if the baby is not with you (thanks for the tip, Kathy the awesome ticket counter lady!). That's the good news.

The bad news is that we got through security only to learn that our 2:25 flight was delayed until 6:00! A part on the plane had busted; they had the replacement on the tarmac waiting to be installed when a jet blast from another nearby plane knocked it off its pedestal and broke it! So then they had to wait for a replacement for the replacement to be shipped and installed. At that point I knew I would not be able to give Cameron the breast milk... So... <TMI>I drank it. It was pretty weird, but otherwise not bad-tasting. I kept getting askance looks from a woman sitting across from me. Heh.</TMI> If I'd known that was going to happen, I would have drunk it or dumped it right from the beginning, and then I wouldn't have had to worry about the Dr Pepper. :-P

I called to apprise the 'rents of the delay. Dad put me on speakerphone and told me to say hi to Cameron. I did, and Dad reported, "Oh, he's smiling now!" For the first time since Thursday I choked up. "I'll be home soon!" I said. "Mommy and Daddy will be home soon! We love you!" My baby.

T. and I played Hangman until it was time to board. We were assigned seats across the aisle and one row apart from each other, but the guy next to me was nice enough to switch with T. so we could sit together.

We finally arrived in San Jose. I wanted nothing more than to sweep C. up in my arms the instant I saw him, but he was strapped in his car seat and the airport won't let you stop for anything except loading, so we just had to hop in and go. C. gazed at me, grinning from ear to ear, the whole ride home, as if he couldn't believe we were actually back. Then, when we got there, he didn't want to get out. I mean, he threw a first-class tantrum. My leading theory is that he believed the car is where Mommy and Daddy went -- my folks didn't drive him anywhere all weekend -- and that if he got out Mommy and Daddy would be gone again. Once we all got out and I held him and reassured him that we were ALL getting out of the car and that Mommy and Daddy weren't going away anymore, he calmed down.

At bedtime, I offered to let him nurse, as always. He sat and gazed at me dubiously in the semi-darkness for a full minute, as if still wondering whether he could let down his guard. Finally he snuggled up, and things have been fine ever since.

T. kept saying, "This was a great birthday present!" So I'm really glad we went. We did need to get away, though I felt bad that C. is not old enough to understand why and how long we were going to be gone. As I wrote on the plane on the way home, "It was a fun time, but I'm glad to be going back. I hate pumping."