us transplant games - day 1

for those of you who don't know, i left this morning for the u.s. transplant games in pittsburgh. the day started with a flight on a tiny little plane that only sat 50 people. it was mostly smooth - bumpy on the landing and take off. but it was short and pretty painless and i think i kept the hyperventilating to a minimum....

there was only one seat on my side of the aisle so at least i didn't have to share or anything.

anyway - we're staying at the doubletree and it's a pretty nice hotel. gotta love anyplace that keeps tossing fresh baked cookies in your face when you go to the front desk. we ventured over to the strip district for lunch. we ate at this little place (name escaping me - i'll try to figure it out and get back to you) that had an outdoor balcony - very french quarterish. they have this lobster roll that is basically a giant roll that is like a roll slash garlic bread filled with lobster claw meat that has butter and garlic and nom nom nom nom. and they had excellent seasoned fries. it was sooooo good. and the area was cool. kinda the loop meets soulard meets the french quarter in new orleans. we didn't actually have lunch until 4 or so. and it kinda freaked us out that as 5 pm approached - all the stores were rolling up the street vending and locking up the doors. like the place tunned into a vampire haunt or something at 5:15.

most of the night was spent trying to figure out tomorrow - which is going to be the first real day of craziness. we have a hospitality suite for the team and we have to get all the shopping done for it and get it set up. then it's the cards/pirates game tomorrow night.

the real games start saturday with swimming and the opening ceremonies - which i'm told is quite the emotional experience. i can't wait to really get going.

we just finished dinner an hour ago - we ordered in pizza. it's now midnight and i'm totally exhausted. i've been told that dinner this late is the norm - so i'm sure my system is going to love that.

this is going to be quite the experience and i'm going to try to update every day - provided i don't colapse into my kingsize bed and sleep for a year.

i'm going to try to crash now. this will be my first stay in a hotel room by myself. i survived my first flight without jeff - so i think i'll manage this okay too...

nite nite.