SF Blog #1

So...after a long and tiring day...MILIEU HAS ARRIVED! Finally good to say it. For those of you who were afraid I'd die in a plane crash - fear not! I am alive and well.

The trip started on a chaotic foot though - first, we stayed up ALL NIGHT the night before our flight, packing and worried that we'd forget something important. After finally sitting down to sleep for 30 minutes, my cell phone rings: it's Sophia's mother telling us our dog Morgan (who had just boarded at the kennel the day before) had been sent to the emergency vet after having three seizures! We immediately went to the vet to see what was up, and apparently, between the ages of 2 and 5, a dog who has epilepsy can do what's called "unmasking" with their first seizure via any triggered event (in our case it must've been the stress of us leaving town) that will then make her full-on epileptic for the rest of her doggie days. Thankfully, she's been in the vet's care since then and has shown no signs of any other problems and the epilepsy is under control. Beyond that, the treatment is a simple inexpensive prescription that she'll need to take daily from now on. Phew!

So from there we ate some food and I didn't even bother trying to sleep any more considering we had to leave in 2 hours to drive to the Charlotte airport and fly out. Once we got through the airport security and all that, the flight turned out to be one of the worst I've had! Despite being a bearable 5 hour trip, these three catty girls in front of us cocked their seats back as far as they could go, wreaking absolute hell on my claustrophobia and rendering me nearly unable to move for the entire ride. There were also horrible pressure issues and for the last hour of the flight it felt like someone was grinding forks into my eardrums. Not cool!

Finally upon landing and shuttling from the airport to our super hotel, we unwound a bit, ordered some FANTASTIC pizza from a place called Napoli's (we ordered "The San Francisco" which comes with pepperoni, ham, beef, green olives and feta cheese on it) and promptly passed out.

So today we slept off our jetlag and tried to get in touch with Rudolf and Alex (the masterminds behind Dyson) to see how and where we could meet up, which proved harder than we expected! They were already at the GDC and we had a good deal of trouble working out how exactly we had to add their numbers in our cell phones so we could text or call them. Finally we met up and decided to find a place to eat, which ended up being a fantastic restaurant called King Of Thai. I ordered a sea bass in green curry and Sophia got a really interesting pumpkin curry, and we all had a great time. From there we went across town and ended up at a bar called Brick which is conveniently right next door to our hotel. At Brick we met a very nice couple from England who are also in the running at the IGF for a different award than Dyson is. Had a BLAST just talking and laughing with everyone and all in all, just a wonderful time in this new huge city.

Rudolf and Alex, it must be said, are really fantastic guys who I am even more proud to know now that we've met in person. It will be a really great week to hang out with people this rad! I also have a bit of good news regarding Dyson which I'll withhold until I can clear it for public posting by Rudolf...but things are happening!!!