Welcome to the future!

[maradydd]

#include <iostream>
using std::cout; using std::endl;
int main() {
    for (int i=0; i<500; ++i) {
        cout << "When I am travelling to another state on a tight timeframe, I will check to see what time zone the state is in." << endl;
    }
    return 0;
}

So I left for Ann Arbor around 10:30, anticipating something like a seven-hour drive. No big deal; I've done worse in the past, repeatedly. Unfortunately, I did not count on a few things:

1) Really horrible traffic in Chicago, which made "let's get lunch!" turn into not just a Bad Idea but a Really Bad Idea
2) Really horrible rain in Michigan
3) Even more really horrible construction in Michigan
4) The fact that Michigan is in Eastern time, not Central.

(Other things I did not count on, like 55MPH speed limits in Indiana, had no effect on the total journey time. This should surprise approximately no one.)

I ended up hitting Ann Arbor around 9pm, an hour before the poster session was supposed to end. I then failed all my direction-sense rolls, wandered aimlessly for 50 minutes, and finally called the hotel where I'm staying (not the conference hotel; it's a small enough conference that it hasn't got one) for directions. Thanks to Kurt, the extremely patient front desk clerk, I arrived and checked in, and set out to find someplace to hop online. "Head up Eisenhower to State and you should find something in central campus," advised Kurt, so I did. At the first open eating establishment I saw, I stopped, bought a chicken Philly cheesesteak (is it still a cheese*steak* if it's chicken?) and asked for more precise directions. One of the other customers pointed me to Espresso Royale, the coffeeshop where I am presently seated.

Well. Outside of which I am presently seated, I should say; apparently Michigan's classes are done with, so everything in the central campus area is on summer hours. They closed at ten, I arrived ~10:30. But they left their router on, so I can sit under an awning on an otherwise wet street in an empty college town, eating my sandwich and reading email, LJ and Slashdot after a long, stressful drive. I feel like some kind of high-tech bum.

Welcome to the future!