RWA recap, take 1: Getting there is half the battle

My apologies for the lateness of this post. If good intentions counted for anything, it would've been up days ago.

 

That aside, as you know, the Romance Writers of America convention was in New York last week. I was supposed to arrive at 2pm on Monday the 27th, but Amtrak had other plans. See, my train was scheduled to leave at 1:30am early Monday morning, but two hours before, when I called to verify that the train was on time, I was informed that it had been canceled. O_O. I was told that buses were being gathered to take passengers from NC to D.C., and from there, we'd board another train to NY. But there was a catch: the buses weren't ready yet. I could stay at home and call back in an hour to check if they'd left the Atlanta station (a couple hours from my NC pickup point), or go to the train station immediately and just wait for them to arrive. ETA was 3am.

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I chose to wait at home versus a train station (that'll teach me, as you'll see!). An hour later, I dutifully called to check the status of the buses. Still not at Atlanta yet, I was told. Now the ETA was 4am. I was advised to call back in another hour to check their status again. An hour later, I called back. Buses were still delayed, they said, call again in another hour. So I did (it was 2am by this point), and this time I was told, "Buses? They're leaving the NC station in 5 minutes. Aren't you there?"

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To my credit, I did not respond with a torrent of profanity. Each time I'd called, I'd gotten a different person, so it wasn't this Unlucky Duck's fault that she was the one to inform me that they previous reps had all apparently been wrong. No, I couldn't make it to the train station in 5 minutes – I was two hours away. Never fear, she assured me. Another round of buses were coming at 4am and one of those would take me to D.C. I asked her to check and double-check her info, which she assured me she did. Then, weary but determined, hubby and I drove to the NC station.

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*grin* You can probably guess what happened. I arrive at 3:45am (we made good time because there was hardly any traffic at that hour) and informed the attendant that I was here for the 4am bus to D.C. He looked at me and said, "What bus? The buses left two hours ago. There are no more buses."
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By this time, I'm too tired to even start cursing. It didn't help that I'd documented the name and ID# of the Amtrak rep who'd given me this information – there were no buses, and that was that. There was, however, a train coming in at 7am that went to NY, so I could wait for that. Since it would take longer to go back home and return, I sat, bleary-eyed, at the train station for another three hours until it arrived. It was a different train from the one I'd originally been scheduled on, so it didn't have a private room with a bed or a dining car. That meant I sat up in a chair for the next 14 hours while hungry, but hey, it was a way to the convention in New York, and that was the most important thing.

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Feeling like a zombie, I arrived at the hotel around 10pm, checked in, and as a testament to how much I liked my roommate, Vicki Pettersson, did not fall straight into bed but showered first. Here's a side note to say that if I ever did become a zombie, your brains are safe from me, but hide your eggs. Vicki and I had a 9:30am meeting at HarperCollins for their Digital Day presentation, so we didn't have much time in the morning. I'd gone to sleep pondering if I should fill out the little room service pamphlet that would pre-order breakfast to be delivered to my room, but then decided it would be rude to pre-order breakfast without seeing if Vicki wanted anything. This was what I must have been thinking about as I finally went to sleep.

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An hour later, Vicki came into the room. She tried to be quiet, but even in my exhausted state, unfamiliar noises woke me. I meant to say hello and ask if she wanted anything on the preorder breakfast pamphlet. Instead, I slurred, "I like eggs. I'm having eggs to eat." To her credit, Vicki just laughed and said, "You should have eggs….but uh, maybe later."

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So if you ever see me wandering around mumbling, "Egggggggsssssssss…." don't worry. I'm probably just tired and thinking of preordering room service .

More to come later about the official start of the RWA convention!

Mirrored from Frost Light.