firstRainbowRose Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 Okay, so I'm going to warn all of you that this time it's going to be a lot less cohesive of an explanation. The reason for this is the fact that I spent over 40 hours awake. My memories of events got a little bit fuzzy towards the end there. But hey, that means it will be a lot easier to get through, right? So, Josh and I decided that the cold was not something we wanted to have to deal with if we didn't have to. As such, we didn't even leave for the line until Saturday at around 1. We kept our packing simple this time and decided to not bring a tent. (Hey, it was only two nights. Lots of blankets should be enough, right? * nervous laughter*) When we arrived we discovered that the 15 people ahead of us were smart and decided to move the entire line INSIDE of the student center. This made for a wonderful experience during the days. Not trying to freeze our butts off, not trying to fight the cold (which, I'd like to add the top temperature during this time was about 10 degrees so inside is awesome). At one point during the night on Saturday Brandon stopped by. He was awesome because he just sat around talking shop with the entire group (about 20 people by this point) for at least an hour or so. I can't say much about what they talked about since I was in the middle of reading a book at the time, and was more interested in that so I turned up my music and ignored the entire thing. (Yes, I know most of you reading this think I'm insane. That's what comes of running this site.) The night however... oh dear things I do not say. The night was so frigid cold. It was on average 0 or below. Thankful for Saturday night we had a wonderful friend who had a nice heater with lots of room for us to share. So, we went into his tent and had group reading time. (Someone brought a copy of A Memory of Light that they had picked up from Wal-mart who broke SoS and started selling the books early.) At about 3 our friend decided he wanted to sleep. Well, Josh and I were saved from having to sit in the cold and try to sleep by a couple of wonderful friends who decided they were willing to sleep in one tent and let us have theirs to borrow. It was nicer than trying to sleep out in the cold (which by this point was sub-zero), but we weren't able to get it warm enough to sleep comfortably. So, we laid in our respective sleeping bags, trying to not freeze until 6 when the Wilk opened. As soon as I heard the click of the doors unlocking I grabbed my pillow, a blanket, and laid claim to one of the couches. From there I slept until about 11:30. This will become important later, trust me. Sunday was spent about the same as Saturday was. Me, reading on my nook, and everyone hanging out in general. At about five everyone decided it was time to get official numbers, so we took some time to write numbers on hands with sharpie. From there Josh and I got our official position: managing the line. Now, I know this sounds like a simple enough job. And it is, in a way. If you get in line, you'll find me or Josh who will write down your name on the list, and write a number in sharpie on your hand. However, you would not BELIEVE how hard some people make this. I won't go into details about the many situations that rose, but I'm very glad we've done this before. The other half of managing the line is that you can't be hard to find, and you can't sleep. So, Josh and I set up chairs in front of the door to the bookstore -- out in the exposed air from about 10 pm to 6 am. In the cold. One person was really nice and let us borrow a space heater, the type where it sucks air in one end, and spits it out heated up from the other. Well, when it sucks in 0 degree air, and spits out 5 degree it doesn't help too much. But, that meant my feet were at 5 instead of 0, which wasn't too bad. There were other wonderful people who gave us shake-and-warm hand things that were heaven and kept me from loosing a finger or two. At six, we moved back inside (THANK HEAVENS!), and continued to grab names/give numbers. At about 7:15 I had everyone line up, in anticipation of the bookstore giving us numbers. However, apparently Tami (the people in charge at the bookstore) decided to do things differently this year. So, instead of the entire line taking about an hour, I was leading groups of ten back to get their number for about two-and-a-half hours. On no sleep. Yeah, you're starting to catch on. Once everyone had been given a number (I'm sorry, I don't know about this too much. Josh was running the leading at that point while I did announcements to the line, so he did my sign up.) Josh and I were free. I needed to grab some stuff from home, and we wanted to take a shower at our own home, so we ran back to Salt Lake (about an hours drive) and took care of the stuff we needed to, then went back. Now, Brandon had Memory Keepers for this signing, so we spent most of the afternoon being free to do as we will. What did we do? Go to watch a movie with a friend, and have dinner with a couple of friends. From there, of course we went to the Q&A that Brandon and Harriett did. (Side note, but Brandon was awesome and saved the front three rows for the first twenty five people in line. Yeah, he's awesome like that.) From here it's pretty boring. We went back to the bookstore, and stood around until four while everyone got books signed. Not much else really to say, besides that I'm STILL trying to recover from the lost sleep (Grand total I was up from 11:30 on Sunday to 5 am on Tuesday morning.) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 (edited) What I read: ...mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa At one point during the night on Saturday Brandon stopped by. He was awesome because he just sat around talking shop with the entire group (about 20 people by this point) for at least an hour or so. I can't say much about what they talked about since I was in the middle of reading a book at the time, and was more interested in that so I turned up my music and ignored the entire thing. (Yes, I know most of you reading this think I'm insane. That's what comes of running this site.) mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa mwa... Edited January 11, 2013 by Kurkistan 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubix Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Kurk, that's awesome. Mind, I agree with your sentiment. I at least was paying attention and participating a little bit. All things considered, though, fRR did a pretty good job summing up our little "trip". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurkistan Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 Why thank you, I do try. Your trip sounds a bit hellacious, to be honest. Can I take the story as a whole as a "bring a tent and space-heater next time" PSA? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCullough Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 (edited) Thanks to Rubix and fRR for letting me hang out with you guys a bit. I had an absolute blast, notwithstanding nearly freezing to death. Those walks around the building saved me. You guys are great! Edit:Typos Edited January 15, 2013 by McCullough 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterAhlstrom Posted January 15, 2013 Report Share Posted January 15, 2013 (edited) Kurkistan: brilliant. fRR: I didn't realize it was you two who were without a tent! Edited January 15, 2013 by PeterAhlstrom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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