Mysterium 2002 Logo


Table of Contents:

Thanks to SR388 who
made this year's logo
for Mysterium. :)

Friday, July 19th, 2002
For the past two weeks I was worrying about every little detail about my trip... especially about money and how much I'd have to spend. I knew I was cutting it close but atleast I already had my plane tickets ready and paid for. *whew* The night before I did alot of last minute things like cleaning up the apt, taking out trash, putting things away, last minute packing. I was a wreck. I managed to get a bit of sleep in but not much.

Finally it was about 11 pm and I had showered and dressed, gotten last minute things packed and was waiting to head to my plane. It wasn't till around 2:30 am I finally took off to the airport. I had been dawdling around the apt doing things and printing out a picture of Grey Dragon for the trip to get signed. Finally I was off!

I arrive at the airport which had changed significantly since my last visit and was there at 3 am wandering around trying to figure out which way to the terminal. I was mostly afraid of getting mugged out in the empty airport parking lot since I was alone. I finally get to the terminal and after a 3 hour wait, I finally get to go through security and get checked as one of the LUCKY people who had to remove their shoes. Mind you I was wearing sandals. :P Still it wasn't as awful as I had imagined. The woman was quite nice although she didn't ask me to sit which would have been preferred to standing on the nasty ugly looking carpet in the airport in barefeet as she patted me down and checked my sandals.

Atlast at 5:30 am they let us board. I was so nervous but I had a window seat and was able to look out. Being early, it was still very dark and I wasn't able to see too much but a few hints of other planes, airport runway lights and people moving around outside. I didn't mind the window seat too much except for the fact the plane was narrow and I was squooshed. I did managed to snap a few pictures from the window but only a few came out. The first window I had was clean, the next plane had scratched ones. The flight wasn't half as bad as I had figured... more like my last memory of a roller coaster ride. I was a little skittish on the first flights over, feeling every bump, drop and rise in the plane. It made my neck feel like it had been compacted... similar to what it must feel like to have 3 huge volumes of Webster poised on your head as you walk. It wasn't the greatest feeling! :P Still, I really enjoyed the ride and loved seeing the clouds and landscape when it was clear from the sky. Most of the time It was like flying over a huge dense white forest of tall trees. It was fantastic! I could see so many things when the clouds weren't covering up the landscape. I think we passed over the Mississippi at one point. I kept seeing some HUGE snaking river. It was so cool!. Plus when we would pass between layers of clouds it was so odd. You could actually discern the different layers so clearly it was really awesome!

My first and only connection from Texas to Philly was in Memphis and I had to walk it's length to find my terminal. They had all sorts of restaurants and such in there including a CHEERS bar. I should have taken a pic but I figured on doing it on the way back (didn't but I did consider it). I was only there in Memphis an hour or so before my plane took off. By then it didn't bother me too much to be on the plane. I just hated being squooshed! I think we were in the air about 3 or so hours and I kept seeing white outside. It was very surreal. I mean nothing but white made me think of that silly movie "The Langoliers" or some other weird movie where people get kidnapped in a plane by aliens. LOL Every now and again the sky was cleared enough for me to see things but my window on this flight was scratched pretty good and I couldn't get any nice pics out of it. After a while we started to descend and it cleared slightly but the haze was still pretty thick. I could see lots and lots of water and in it islands and shoreline all around. For a second I thought it was the Atlantic but that couldn't be. Now I realize it was the Delaware river. OMG it has to be huge cause from the angle I saw it, it looked like a huge chunk of ocean. I kept hoping as we descended we wouldn't fall into the water. LOL I was still a bit scared. When we finally landed, it was fantastic! I loved seeing Philly from above and on the ground. The humidity stuck to you like a thick plastic glove and it made you gasp for air. I thought TX was hot but Philly sure had it beat in the humidity dept. :P

Now I had to grab my luggage WAAAAAY on the other side of the airport, find a cab or shuttle and hope it was cheap and find a way to get to the hotel. I had forgotten in my haste to leave to bring along my hotel's address. Lucky me, but Imanaged to get that from information and found a good but cramped cab for $8 bucks from the airport to my hotel. I snapped a few shots on the way in the cab which came out pretty good but a bit skewed. I found the whole city to just be more amazing than anything I had ever seen. It didn't take too long to get to the hotel either; Maybe 20 mins. I do regret not getting this one funny shot. It was a junkyard with a huge crane feeding scrapped cars to a huge pile of metal. I so wanted it on film as it was so weird looking. Very post apocalyptic! When I finally got to the hotel, I was so happy to be there I almost forgot the pay the guy for the cab. *blushes* I looked around for people but didn't find them right off so I ran up to my room to freshen up. Though I was there fairly early, I didn't bump into anyone since most of the early birds were out seeing Philly in groups.

After a nice shower and change of clothes I managed to bump into a few people, among them was Khatie, lonelyto25 and Lee booklover. We all got into the meeting room early and hung out till the rest of the group came in. By then it was time to get all the events up and running. First we had readings, arts and crafts, songs and w/o much ado Alahmnat, SR388 and their friend Ian showed up late ;) but in time to do presentations. :) Everyone hung out and had fun. I wore a costume Salar gave me and took lots of pics. Late in the evening Mourning Rose showed. I didn't know who it was at first but finally I realized who it was and we hugged and started talking. By then I was just on auto pilot I was still so tired from my trip up and lack of sleep. That night we must have stayed up till 1 am before we were all in bed. It was a long day but a most eventful and fun one. :)