Iowa State, the prequel

Preparing for Iowa State started badly and has ended well.

First off, I spent last night very ill. I blame a day spent eating nothing but oreos and beef jerky, then just catch up stress from the week. Plus period. During one of my many trips to the bathroom, the bottom corner of the door caught the top of my big toe nail and ripped it half off. There was much blood and the center bit of my toe nail hanging delicately off, as well as some chunks of flesh ripped up. Wooo! I had brought a small first aid kit, so that was bandaged, but it just wasn't a good night.

Stomach still queasy and unwilling to test it with anything further than a couple of sips of tea, we got up early with plans to make the 45 minute drive down to the Des Moines airport to pick up the stock order that came in a bit before midnight the previous night. I know that's precisely when it came in because I called the airline that morning before we left to confirm. I also confirmed that we could go and pick up the box any time today between 5am and 6pm.

So we made the drive down.

To find out that the ticket counter for the airline where our stock came in was empty. And that it would not be open until a flight came in through that airline, at about noon. But then the staff would only be there until about 1pm, then gone again, only to return when another flight came in at 3pm. To leave at 3:45 or so.

Keep in mind a few things that made this ridiculous - our stock had already come in. It was hanging out somewhere in the back room. The woman I talked to at information explained that no one else could get back there to grab it for us because it would be a little like going into another person's garage and stealing their stuff. Of course, for that analogy to be correct, it would actually be like me giving her permission to go into another person's garage to get my things because that person douched out and didn't show up to give me my stuff when they said they would. But I do understand why, professionally, no one else could get our stuff.

Another point - it took us 45 minutes to drive down. I'd had us leave at 9am, so at this point it was only 10am or so. But driving back up, to turn around and come back to make the 12noon deadline was ridiculous. And we still had to go to the college and unload everything into the room we'll be using for the week, so going back to Ames and then returning to Des Moines in general was a bad idea. This meant that we'd have to waste a couple of hours in Des Moines to make one of their ridiculous windows of time staff was actually around.

Which leads to the biggest, most ridiculous point. The shipment was made via US Airways Express, as a part of Delta. This wasn't a small, no name airline. The company itself confirmed that we were supposed to be able to pick up our stock between 5am and 6pm. I even called again and had them check, but the only thing they could do was confirm that no one was picking up the phone when they called. Which, of course, only made sense, because the desk was not staffed!

Ugh.

We ended up wasting time at a Walmart until noon. This worked out well, we got some groceries for the week and a few supplies we needed anyway.

Picking up the stock was a joke, they didn't ask for ID or anything. I mentioned a 27lb box and the guy was like, "Oh! I know what you're talking about!" and grabbed it. Which was great, in a way, but just further shows how ridiculously unprofessional this airport was.

Going to the college was fine. There was a bit of a worry when I realized the office of student activities was closed during the weekend, but I found a building manager to unlock our room and there was an elevator right night to it! Wooo!

Unpacking took some time but was uneventful. Oh, wait, not entirely. The elevator and main door to the Iowa State memorial union building both had really, really eager to close doors. That was annoying - Chris and I'd be wrestling with a pallet loaded down with boxes of posters and the doors would continuously try to close on us. I am slightly unimpressed by Iowa thusfar.

The room though is great! We get to lock in our stuff all week, which means no moving it around every day! It's large, plenty of space, air conditioned - great stuff!

After that we got dinner and wandered to a best buy, then a borders. I am now very happy. I've bought books. Mmm books. I nearly bought a large moleskin sketchbook, but they're so expensive. We do have a transmitter to listen to decent music in the van now. It's a little terrifying what the radio plays in the midwest. Country, lots of Christian music, a lot of really, really bad retro pop and the worst of the best of the 80's. Terrifying.

It was a gorgeous day outside.

Oh man, our hotel is in the middle of NOTHING!!!! We are literally surrounded by a gas station, a couple other hotels, the highway and cornfields! Fricking cornfields! Our window has a view of them! They run right up to the edge of the parking lot! Ah!

I am right now listening to the flobots' "fight with tools" album, which I like a lot, and contemplating the books I got and things I want to draw. It's a good place to be.