Wi Fi

Wi Fi does not mean free Wi Fi, I found out.

We looked up the fact sheet for our hotel in San Francisco so we knew what to expect in the room, like iron, coffee pot, etc. The list did say internet service. And it did say there was Wi Fi in the public areas of the hotel

I discovered that Wi Fi does not mean free.

The cost for wired internet service in our room was sixteen dollars a day... and this after already paying $225 per night. That was just sick... I don't pay sixteen dollars for one month of internet service at home.

The public area Wi Fi was only accessible if you had paid for internet in your room.

Now I was really sick. I had brought my laptop and digital camera for the conference and promised to post all about the conference. But I could not afford $16 per day.

I went to the front desk to ask about the internet access. The very nice gentleman at the desk showed me a brochure and explained the high speed internet in the room. There was a cheaper option for DSL in the room for only $8 per day. He explained that I could order it for just one day at a time, then skip a day if I wanted.

He also told me a secret. If I sat in the lounge behind the bar, at the tables, I could get free Wi Fi from the provider. There was an option to choose "Free Trial Day". The secret was you could choose that. . . every day!

So that's how I got free Wi Fi to blog and check e-mail. It was not convenient to lug my laptop down to the lounge and composed posts, but I did it. I would download the pictures from my camera to the laptop in my room, then go down to the lounge to blog.

Yup. . . I am a cheapskate. After paying $130 per night just for my share of the room, I just could NOT pay them any more money for internet.

And many thanks to Bob at the main desk for that little secret!!

Reflections on San Fran

Thinking back of my trip to San Francisco, one of the things that really stuck with me was the amount of international tourists in the city. There were LOTS of tourists. Every bus we rode, every street we walked, every stop we made had lots of tourists in the city. Many of the tourists were international. I expected Asian tourists because we were on the west coast. But there were many European tourists, too. Like French, German, Spanish, British, and other languages I could not figure out. The dollar is weak overseas and touring the USA is reasonably priced for the international tourists.

The public transit drivers could not have been nicer to all the tourists who, collectively, were trying to get to the same place. I really have to put in a plug for all the bus, etc, drivers that we met. At one bus stop, the entire bus (save a few locals) exited the bus to catch a connection to the downtown area. A few tourists were confused as to where to pick up the next bus. The corner was the same where we got caught the connection before, but now we were going in the opposite direction.

I walked to the bus stop on the side of the street I knew we had to be on. Shortly a bus showed up, but the other riders from my bus had not gotten there yet. They hurried toward the stop, but were still far away after we had loaded. But the driver still waited for them to catch up. I expected him to leave, but he waited.

Many times, Rita and I would tell the driver we wanted to get off to go to a certain place and he would stop for us and call out the stop. Often, other tourists were headed to the same place.

A few times, we would wait at the bus stop and ask the next bus driver which bus we needed to take to get somewhere. The drivers were always courteous and gave us good directions.

On the last bus we rode in the city, we needed to go down Stockton street to Market, to our hotel. We asked the next bus that pulled up if she went to Market. Yes she did. But the bus was full. She stood up to yell at the riders to "Move on back so we can get these ladies on the bus." lol..

Rita and I had an enjoyable chat with her as we hung on to the railings as the bus barreled down the street. The driver had been a nurse but didn't like nursing. She had only gone into nursing to please her mother. She didn't particularly like driving bus, but it paid the bills. She could not afford to live in San Fran and lived to the west of the city.

We told her we were from Ohio. She had been there once, flying into the Cleveland airport to drop off a relative. Then she got back on a plane to return to California. She says Hello to all the buckeyes.

Great people, all of the transit workers.

Gone Camping

In case you were wondering what happened to me, upon my arrival home from RWA and San Fran, I was whisked away to another vacation week, this time camping. Yes, I went from the Marriott to a tent within the same day. I didn't even get a chance to sleep one night in my own bed before being subjected to a cot and sleeping bag. However, the campground is a beautiful one in Ontario. And, as usual, here are some of the pictures I took.

Fisherman's Wharf and China Town

Pictures from Fisherman's Wharf and China Town.

Golden Gate Park

On Sunday, we had some free time for sight-seeing before our plane left San Francisco. We visited the Golden Gate Park and the Japanese Tea Garden within the park. Here are some of the pics. The park was very crowded and its amazing I have pictures with no people in them.

Check out the little Go-Cars which are little cars for tourists to rent to scoot around the city. Aren't they adorable?

RITA Awards

WOW..!! What else can I say. The awards ceremony itself was fabulous. You can read about the winners on the rwa website. I want to tell you about the glamor. The formal dresses were out in full force. Everyone looked beautiful. Here are some pictures from the reception afterwards. I got to hold a RITA..! eek... Maybe one day I will own one.

It's all about the shoes... bay..bee...

Star Struck

I am not a movie person and do not read People or the National Enquirer. But when surrounded by big name writers, I become a blithering mass of mush, unable to act in an intelligent manner.

When standing in line for the book signings today, I struck up a conversation with a nicely dress attendee. I commented on her clothes to her only because I decided to dress down a bit today. My feet hurt from the walk around Fisherman's Wharf last night and I wanted to wear my athletic shoes. My feet should be in better shape for my red heels for tonight's award ceremony.

I looked at the name tag of this nicely dress woman and about drooled down the front of my sweater. It was Hank Phillippi Ryan, a RITA nominee. I babbled incoherently and then apologized profusely. I'm sure she thought I was a total idiot. Sorry Miss Ryan, I really can string together a sentence.

Once in the room, my mush brain didn't get any better. I babbled at other authors, collected autographed books and ran out.

As stupid as it seems, I went to another room with more authors signing books. I was a glutton for punishment. This time, I settled down and wasn't quite as bad. I had wonderful chats with Connie Brockway, Anne Stuart, Kristin Hannah, Vicki Lewis Thompson, Deb Stover and Geralyn Dawson.

I took some pictures and got my picture taken with Lisa Kleypas and Christina Dodd.... until I met Jo Beverly.

Back to mush brain.

I had to leave before I really embarrassed myself. The problem was all mine. Every author was gracious and polite as possible. I was the one who was the idiot.

I grabbed a box from the shipping department and took it up to my room. I packed up all my books that I collected so far, used the promotional bookmarks as packing material and took it back to the shipping department set up in the hotel.

All those lovely books are being shipped home. I filled a medium box and the cost was $25. Much cheaper than the airlines. It will take a week, but I shipped it to my work. If it comes when I'm not there, the receiving department at work will take it up to my desk.

Thank you to all the authors for signing and the publishers for providing the books.

Workshop

I have completed my commitment to the RWA by presenting my workshop yesterday afternoon. I had a room big enough to hold 120 people and I had about 20 people in the audience. Taxes must be ultra boring... or the time slot of 4:30 on Friday afternoon discouraged people.

But, I don't get paid by the person and I didn't choose the time. I did my part by informing the audience of my topic.

Done...

Then we went to dinner. My roomie, Rita, brother-in-law, Bob, and I caught a street car to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner. We ate at Boudins. We all ordered fish and all agreed it was excellent. I have to go back Sunday morning to buy a loaf of sourdough bread to take home.

After dinner, we walked down to Pier 39, one of the famous piers on the Wharf. I was ~forced~ into seeing the sea lions.... Rita insisted that to have the full San Francisco experience, I had to see them.

They were... animals on docks.. um... and not exciting at all.

I guess the excitement is that the sea lions are wild. They are not in cages. They naturally come into the bay and congregate at the pier and the docks. All the tourists come to ooh and aah over them and snap endless pictures.

I was more thrilled with the view of the city. You could look back at the city on the hill and see all the buildings lit up for the night. That was beautiful!

Of course we had to walk through the shopping area and look at the endless tourist shops. Very typical tourist fare, jewelry, art, candy, chocolate, souvenirs, etc. And of course, we had to stop and buy somethings. We are tourists in San Francisco, you know. I bought salt-water taffy for the family and sugar-free chocolate fudge for me.

(To hubby: I might have some left when I get home, sweetie, but no promises. It's very yummy!)

We road the streetcar again back to the hotel. Riding the streetcars puts you in ... uh... close proximity with the public. Many times closer than you really want to be. On the way out to dinner, one man on the car was loud and obnoxious and not playing with a full deck. On the way back, the car was just packed.

Moonlight Madness Bazaar

Last night was the Moonlight Madness Bazaar where the chapters sell items to the conference attendees. My chapter was selling Fairy Muse Jewelry. We had a lot of fun at the bazaar. As you can see, I am wearing head boppers which caused many smiles from the shoppers. Many thanks to Katrina from my chapter who made the stand up signs. We received many compliments on the artwork. One women was so taken by the art that she bought the sign...! Hey Kat, she wants more!

The room

Our room has a mini bar and a selection of snacks available to purchase. Isn’t that a great opportunity? Is the hotel so wonderful to provide such convenience for its guests?

Well.. such convenience comes with cost. The prices of the items are enough to take away any hunger pangs I may have been having.

A bottle of Miller Lite costs $6.50. One bottle, not a six-pack.

A bottle of Evian water costs. $4.00. A bottle of Coke or Pepsi is also $4.

Those cute little bottles of liquor are $8.

The can of almonds will set you back $9, the Pringles are $5.

The rest of the items: Snickers, M&Ms, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Reeses, Rice Crispys and Famous Amos cookies are all $4 each.

And get this, don’t even touch them. They are sitting on electronic sensors that will automatically charge your room when an item is removed. Any accidental movement may cause an unintentional charge.

And to add insult to injury, the items are subject to 8.5% sales tax and a 20% restocking fee.

Thank goodness coffee is free otherwise I would be in big trouble.