LA was pretty fun.

I got up at some ridiculous hour (5:15 am) and got a plane out of Midway at 8:30. Absolutely nothing of note happened. No Baptist preachers, groping TSA employees, or flights delayed by three hours. We got into LA about 11:30 and were supposed to be meeting Peter at the airport since he was coming in on a different plane (from San Francisco via Chicago, but that's another story). We waited by the baggage claim until 12:30, but there was no Peter. Odds of dead in a ditch-- 1%. So we got cabs to the hotel.

The hotel was nice (in Brentwood/Bel Air and right by the 405), but we were so hungry that we didn't really care. There weren't really any restaurants within walking distance, so we ordered pizza (from Papa John's-- how I miss Papa John's). Then we sat around and watched the best cartoons ever on PBS. One was some sort of historical thing about the Constitution that featured Warren Buffett as James Madison (and apparently Norman Schwartzkopf in some role, but we didn't see him). We saw this in the credits and got really excited about it. We then spent most of the show pointing to every character and saying "Maybe that's James Madison!" "No, he's not short enough. Madison was the one who was short, right?" Anyway, Warren Buffett only had about two lines, so it was a lot of buildup for not a lot of payoff. Still no Peter. Odds of dead in a ditch up to 5%.

Once at UCLA, we were ridiculously early, so we went to the bookstore/ student union. I was impressed. They had a giant $200 stuffed duck. And Haribo! Still no Peter. Oodiad up to 10%.

Back at the building, Ed is assigned the job of watching boxes. Since he's a paid employee of NAQT and all. And there is Peter!! Oodiad back to 0%, a healthy place for said odds.

Selene, Amanda, Murtaza, and I were on a standby team, so we only got to play if someone else didn't show up. As the team meeting ended, the team from Delaware hadn't shown up, so we were pretty excited. We walked over to the building that the games were being held in and went to the room Delaware was supposed to play in. And they were there! Those bastards. Selene and I now have a bit of a vendetta against the entire state.

So yeah. Murtaza and I weren't assigned to do anything, so we sat on the staircase and literally just talked for three hours while Selene and Amanda staffed. The building was basically laid out like a 1970's beach motel. That is, a large square surrounded a courtyard with lots of plants and palm trees. The rooms opened off of the exterior hallways that surrounded the courtyard. There was a funny metal slat ceiling that allowed light and rain through. The feel was very open, and I would not ever pay attention in a class I had there. So it got cold in the stairwell, which was basically open to the desert night. Also, by the end of the night, I was starving.

We made it back to the hotel after some taxi related mishaps (attempting to hail a cab in LA at a busy corner = bad). So it was late and we were hungry. We found a deli that was supposed to deliver all night, so the thirteen of us put together an order and ordered. They didn't deliver this late. So dinner came from the hotel vending machines.

Morning. I didn't get up for breakfast in the hotel, so my breakfast came from one of the vending machine oases that were scattered around UCLA. Seriously, you could just walk around the campus and suddenly you'd see a little collection of vending machines all clustered together. Murtaza was assigned to a room to scorekeep and I was supposed to moderate for this guy named Andrew. I assumed because he wasn't showing up, but then he was there, so I huess he was late. Anyway, I told him what I'd been told and he went to scorekeep for someone else. I felt bad about it, but I'm not really sure what I was supposed to do. So I had something to do.

Rounds were boring and then there was lunch, eaten outside at this sub place. It was warm and I was full and a nap sounded SO good. But there were more games, and then our A-team was in the finals. Playing a team they had beaten twice and despite the fact that their record was better by three games than anyone else's. The preparation for that game took forever, so we just threw the mutant leopard sperm (I can't find a link, but it's sould by Ikea. Basically, it's a plush leopard-print ball with a little tufted tail) around and hit a lot of people who didn't seem particularly amused. Then our A-team played and then we went to a pretty goodPersian place for dinner.

We got a cab with a funny Russian guy who told the others to "Stay right there. I send someone." at least 10 times. He drove around and found his friend and sent him back. He also told us he owned the company and had five people working for him.

Got the redeye back to Chicago, getting in about 6 am. Came home and collapsed.