Had a great time in San Francisco yesterday. Did some geocaching with necanthrope…unfortunately we only found one out of the three we searched for. Got to have dinner with tuliphead, dissonant_etak, crayonbeam, and other wonderful people who I haven’t seen in millennia. One of my dearest friends, who I hadn’t seen in about 7+ years, actually showed up…thanks man, really missed you! And several of us trooped over to a friend’s house after, where I learned something I wasn’t previously familiar with, thanks to gilmore427.

Today was pretty laid back, did some shopping at Torrid and got a cute miniskirt (I think this one) and pretty shirts (can’t find either on the website). We also went to BevMo where I was suitably stunned by the selection - remember, I come from little ol’ Virginia, where you have to shop at a state-run store if you want liquor! Alas, no Dr. McGillicuddy’s vanilla schnapps. No Kristov chocolate vodka either, but there was a Polish chocolate-infused vodka so we are having drunken egg creams anyway! I also took a really long nap and woke up at 10pm, whoops!

This morning I had to do that test for linguistics, but I couldn’t get the wireless working at all. I eventually gave up and used one of the computers in the lobby - thank goodness there was one available. I discovered that once you logged in, you couldn’t stop the test, or you would be locked out. Fortunately it didn’t take me very long, although it was long enough for one or two people to mill around hoping for a computer. I wasn’t about to give mine up, though! Luckily the other users moved out and the people waiting got to move in. I finished the test relatively quickly at least. While I was working on it, A negotiated a 25$ reduction in our total hotel bill. The hot water in the shower has quit working again, and the bathroom light and outlet still don’t work either.

We went to get breakfast but that turned into a fiasco. A wasn’t really listening to me at the Burger King drive-through, so I missed the opportunity to say “I can’t read anything but Pancakes and Hash Browns, can you tell me what else they have, since it’s all in Spanish?” I ended up with a packet of hash browns. We pulled over to eat, and I went in to see if I could figure out my order. No good - the desayuno menu wasn’t even inside, and all the lunch/dinner food was meaty. I was pretty discouraged, but I had seen a 7-11 down the street, so I said I’d walk down there. No dice: it was boarded up and closed. By this point I was really annoyed but I was also ready to give up. A was going to drive down the street looking for a shop she wanted to go to, but I saw a Subway so I asked her to pull over there. It turned out there was a bagel shop next door, so I went there, and waited about a million years for a bagel with cream cheese. Next we had to return the car, which meant I had to drive; when I was done with my bagel we pulled over and switched drivers. And I promptly got lost. We could have had the GPS do it but we didn’t have the actual address of the place, so we had to call them up and they talked us in.

After all the rental stuff was taken care of, their guy drove us to Calle Fortaleza in Old San Juan, which is a big shopping area. We wandered around shopping for hours. I was wearing my very old Lesbian Avengers shirt, and I got a couple of comments on that today. We stopped for lunch and I had a mojito and some weird Greek-inspired tofu dish that was kind of odd. We walked and shopped some more, and I kept having to sit down on the floor and then get up again as A moved from shop to shop. Eventually I asked if we could take a break, and we stopped at Barrachina to get drinks at the bar. We each had a Bacardi cocktail and a piña colada, though A had me help her with her piña colada. We shopped some more after that, and I happened to turn on my GPSr just 500 feet from a geocache, so I went and found it - a very nice one! After we finally finished shopping, we waited for the trolley to take us to the bus station. We waited, and waited…to no avail. We ended up walking to the bus station, which wasn’t as far away as I had feared. And then we waited, and waited…to no avail! There must have been 20 people waiting with us for the A-5 bus, and finally another driver took pity on us and told his boss that he was going to switch to the A-5 route. We all piled on his bus and got on the road. It was a little difficult to see out around all the people, and we worried we would miss our stop, but we managed to spot it in time and we got out. I got another comment on my shirt on the way off the bus, from a couple I’d pegged as lesbians right away, but who obviously didn’t notice that we were, since we’re both femmes. *snorts*

Anyway, we walked up the stairs of the pedestrian bridge, crossed the highway, and went down the other side. We came to the room, I got ice, and A started laundry in the machines that are available for guests. Right now I am drinking an old 20-oz soda bottle full of vodka, Diet Welch’s Grape Soda, and Tropicana Light Fruit Punch. Yes, it sounds vile, but it tastes okay. The reason I am drinking it is because we’re not allowed to bring alcohol on the ship (at least, not supposed to) so I have to drink it tonight! That’s why this entry might sound a little funny…as I’ve been writing it, I’ve been getting tipsier. Tomorrow we get on the boat. Checkout here is 12 noon and check-in on the boat begins around 1pm I think. We won’t be able to go anywhere after we’re on board, because Celebrity docks at the far pier rather than the one that’s at the base of Old San Juan. So once we’re on, I will relax, and try to figure out my powerpoint presentation thing for Sex and Gender class. Good night!

Today we went to the mall to find something I could wear for the formal nights on the cruise. Our first stop was Lane Bryant but they had nothing even remotely close to formal. So we went to Macy’s, which used to be Hecht’s, and went up to the third floor where they have always stashed the “Women 14-24″ sizes. It’s way back in a corner so that on the off-chance you have to go all the way upstairs to buy some kitchenware, you still won’t have to see the fat chicks shopping. Anyway, I tried on a few things, but none of them looked right. A went back out to the floor and looked around and came back with a dress that turned out to look really good. We also got a blouse that could be worn over the dress, which means I have outfits for both formal nights. Now I just have to manage to bring them, unlike last time when I left my formal outfit home!

BTW, when I posted about my xyrophobia? At the time, many people suggested depilatory. Yeah, well, I tried that tonight, and now I remember why it wasn’t an option last time. My body does NOT like that stuff.

Mischa keeps having bad dreams. He woke up hissing a little while ago, and just now he was growling in his sleep.

Today we went to the outlets at Leesburg; it was more crowded than I would have liked, but less crowded than I expected. I needed to go to Lane Bryant to exchange some jeans I’d gotten in Rehoboth Beach - you can only return them to another outlet store, and I hadn’t felt like hauling ass to Leesburg before today. But I got the jeans in my size, and bought two sweaters and a long-sleeve fitted t-shirt. I almost bought a cute semi-formal minidress, but it just didn’t do anything for me. I also got a bunch of underwear - I tend to wear mine until they literally fall apart, and A had deemed that I only had about-to-fall-apart underwear, so she made me buy lots more.

Also, she put me on a strict diet. She introduced it in a kind of toppish way - or maybe that’s just how I read it, being a sub type - and so I’m following orders. It is like having my own personal diet coach who goes out to eat with me and everything, which is pretty cool. Right now I’m appalled by how little I get to eat, but I know it’ll get easier with time. It’s just frustrating right now. I think we started on Thursday morning? It feels like forever!

Oh, and my lolrus shirt arrived today. Woo!

Here is a good site for tech bargains - they don’t sell things themselves, but rather they direct you to deals on other sites around the web. They update frequently and you can get updates via RSS, which means you’ll have no problem snapping up a limited-time bargain on a great new toy. Like travel websites, you can get an email newsletter with the hottest deals. I was extremely pleased by their Buy a Wii page, which monitors multiple online vendors and tells you who has a Wii in stock and who doesn’t! Of course right now only Wal-Mart has them in a package with extra controllers and games for almost $700, which isn’t exactly a deal! But anyway, they list rebates as well as coupons, so you have multiple ways to get a bargain. Their search function lets you search their site as well as eBay, which is nice because “real” vendors don’t always have prices to beat eBay. I think my favorite page would be their Amazon coupons page. Their site is updated all day and all night, the Amazon page has some that were posted at 5am! It can’t hurt to add TechBargains to your feed reader, can it?

I subscribe to Lucky magazine because I wish I could afford the stuff in it. I can’t, but I just know if I could, and if they came in my size, I would be instantly supah-cool! Anyway, for those of you into shopping, here are some of the deals and contests from the Lucky Breaks section in the October issue. For all deals, the code to enter at checkout is “luckymag” and for all contests, click the “Lucky Breaks” icon on the site.
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I am now the proud owner of the best sweatshirt ever. (The chest detail is here.) It was astonishingly expensive, but it is fleecy. And I maintain that it is awesome. I like Emily the Strange well enough even if she is all over the place, but I don’t see her much among the people I hang out with so I will be the only one with this awesome piece.

I also got an outfit that I might use as formalwear for the cruise. It is a camisole-like top with a pencil skirt; put all together they become a matching outfit (I don’t have the choker, bracelet, or boots, obviously). When I tried it on in the store it looked much nicer than the punked up girl from the website wears it (I had to stitch that together from a series of closeups), so I think it could be worn elegantly. I wouldn’t wear it on a “normal” cruise, but I think on this gay cruise it just might be okay. I’m not 100% sure I’ll keep it, though - the skirt was only available in a size below and a size above what I need, though the salesgirl repeatedly offered to have one sent over from another store. I tried on the size top that I thought would fit and it was a bit too tight, so I bought a size larger without trying it on. I’ll see how they look at home, and if they’re good I’ll get the right size skirt; if not I’ll return it all. But I’m keeping the sweatshirt!

Oh, and Hot Topic is now $115 richer…they were all impulse buys.

I went to Filene’s Basement today to do a little shopping. I was rather surprised to see a Valentine’s display right inside the front door. It’s only a couple of days after Xmas! I know there’s no merchandising associated with New Year’s Eve or MLK Day, so Valentine’s is the next holiday they’ll be selling stuff for, but did they need to have a display up immediately after Xmas? Why can’t there be a generic display with some nice items that don’t have a holiday association?

I went shopping today! My first stop was at the library book sale, where I picked up $8.00 worth of books:

• Murder at the Pentagon - Margaret Truman (I’ve been wanting to give the Capital Crimes series a try)
• Hearing Faces - Dotty Sohl (turns out this one is autographed!)
• Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies - Craig Shaw Gardner (part three in a series, but I couldn’t pass it up)
• Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed - Patricia Cornwell (those pictures are disturbing, why on earth did I get this?!)
• Unofficial Guide to B&Bs and Country Inns in the Mid-Atlantic - First Edition (I remember this from Rand McNally)
• Away for the Weekend: Mid-Atlantic - First Revised Edition (we have the original edition, but this is prettier)
• Japanese at a Glance - Barron’s (just in case we ever do go there)
• The Little Book of Calm - Paul Wilson (pocket sized!)
• Star Fleet Technical Manual - Franz Joseph (original 1975 edition! my mom has this too, but it was only $1 so I grabbed it)

After I was done at the library, I went to the mall. I received a $50 gift card for Hecht’s for doing some website work for one of A’s acquaintances; he gave her a card too but she gave it to me because I did all the work. I wandered around the entire store - lingerie, shoes, jewelry, electronics, kitchen supplies - before returning to the women’s clothing section. I hope purple is in this season, because I got three purple top, all by ie relaxed. One is a heavy purple turtleneck with little rainbow color flecks through it (suitable for work), one is a soft purple and lavender sweater with gray flowers, and one is a casual V-neck top with a purple base and black and aqua designs on top. A wasn’t with me, so even though I tried these on I’m not 100% sure they look good! I will have to ask her when she gets back if they are okay. The one I’m not sure about is the V-neck, because it’s got a weird black lacy bit on the neckline. I might be able to remove that carefully, though, and then it would be great!

My hives are pretty bad today. I’m hiding in bed for the rest of the day, I think.

On Thursday I really started to feel like time was running out. I had seen some shops mentioned in a tourist brochure, so I’d been wanting to visit their respective shopping centers. A agreed to go with me, and we got up around 9:45 to head to breakfast. To our dismay, the International Restaurant was already closed, but they told us to go over to Spicer’s instead. I’d seen on the daily activity list that Spicer’s was open from 10am on, so I figured this would be fine, and we went back across the resort and up the long stairs. What did we find when we got there? No food! Apparently they wouldn’t actually open until noon. A and I were amazed that a resort that purports to be all-inclusive there’s a two-hour period when you can’t get any food. (The employees at Spicer’s suggested room service, which we of course couldn’t afford.) While we were trying to figure out what to do next, C showed up - he never eats breakfast anyway. A and I hadn’t put on sunblock for the day, so the three of us went back and chit-chatted while slathering ourselves with SPF-50. By the time we were done it was almost 11:30, so we hung out for another half-hour before going back to Spicer’s. I ran into astonishing ignorance from the staff there, who had apparently never met a vegetarian before. The cashier didn’t know anything, and when we asked the manager about a vegetarian sandwich he said he’d have to ask the cook. There was a long pause before A finally said “well then can you ask the cook?!” He went into the back for a while, and finally said they could make a cheese salad sandwich for me. I’ve never heard of “cheese salad” before, so I asked for just a plain cheese sandwich. No, they could give me cheese salad - okay, fine, I missed breakfast, I’m hungry, gimme the damn cheese salad sandwich! When it was finally brought to the table, it turned out to be a very nice sandwich: a couple of different types of cheese, plus some lettuce, a tomato slice, and dressing I couldn’t identify (probably just mayo) between two innocent pieces of white bread. It was rather tasty. While we were eating, A and I told C about our plan to go shopping. He didn’t have any other plans, but I could tell he didn’t want to come along. He was nice, though, and sucked it up because I admitted I would enjoy his company. The three of us headed to the lobby and a cab came quickly. (They always do - I think they must be somewhere on the resort grounds or something.) We went to Spiceland Mall first, and I picked up some trinkety souvenirs because I knew I wouldn’t have another chance to get them. There was a supermarket in the mall, so we got snacks there, and C stopped in at a fabric store to buy a blanket for the picnic we were planning that night. We next walked across the street to the Le Marquis Complex, which was utterly boring; we could have walked a little up the road to the Grand Anse Shopping Centre but it was hot and we were all sweaty, so we found a cab and went back to the resort. A little later on I was browsing through the pictures already in my camera, and suddenly I noticed some that were very dark, as if the flash hadn’t been on in a dimly lit room. After that were pictures of people I didn’t know - the cab driver’s family had taken pictures of each other with my camera! It was amusing, but at the same time I felt vaguely violated. Then again, I know I’m lucky to have the camera back at all. C and I tried to go snorkeling, but his mask broke and I had a terrible time trying to swim with my eyes squinched shut, one hand pinching my nose, and another holding the snorkel - I gave up and just frolicked while C swam around with his goggles on. He decided it was too dark to see anything, so we went back inside. Our picnic went nicely; we set up our blanket on the beach after dark and lit citronella incense to stick in the sand around us. We had pizza delivered (I had to go to the lobby to get it, which I did barefoot despite the “dress code” that claimed I should wear shoes in public areas; if you carry yourself properly nobody notices your feet), and we ate some of the snacks we’d picked up at the grocery store earlier. The snacks, incidentally, included some British food - Cadbury candy bars and little cookies called Go Ahead, of which I’d picked the forest-fruit variety. The mosquito population left us alone while we drank the rum/eggnog :R: had bought at the distillery the day before; I didn’t like it and handed my glass off to C.