Most people will probably share their experiences at the tournament, but I figure I'll never finish that given my logorrheic WSC trip report. So I offer the boringest NSC post of the season, my plane ride home trip report:
1) Pay off the um People.
2) Leave Tourney Hall.
Gladly.
3) Catch cab outside Biltmore.
Cabs are queued up and the cabby won't drive over to pick us up. I have to walk 30 yards to the cab to get his acknowledgment of my existence. He cracks the window an inch and asks "where are you going?" Like if he doesn't like it, he ain't gonna take me there. You think I'm paranoid. Here is a god honest truth exchange between me and a cabdriver Saturday night.
Him (cracking window, with the car in drive): Where are you going? Me : The all-night store two miles down on 95. Him : Why? Me : I need to get baby food. Him : They close at midnight. Me (looking at clock on dash) : It's 11:20. Him : They might be getting ready to get closed. Me : Oh? Him : Yeah. Me : Well, open the door and let's get crackin'. Him : (thinking ... )Finally he lets me in, and somehow I run up a $9 fare on a cab ride that seemed awfully quick. Before giving him the money I asked for a receipt. He hemmed and hawed and said the last cab driver didn't leave him any. I say that's fine, just write your name and the itinerary and the amount on a piece of paper for me. He starts bellyaching more. I give him $7 and get out. He doesn't say anything. The cab ride back cost $6 from a random (other) vendor. That was my first encounter with the people of Providence. My second through final were while waiting outside the store after midnight while person after person came up and when the doors wouldn't open would start haranguing me about the store being closed while I'm standing there with my grocery bags:
Them (pushing unmoving doors) : Is the store closed? Me : It would appear so. Them : What time is it? Me : I don't know, after midnight. Them : It says open 24 hours. Me : Why are you fucking telling me? It's your loser city, not mine.Anyway, I think me and the people of Providence now have an understanding.
So the cabby finally takes us in and wants to take us on route 15 to avoid some jam on 95. As we approach 95, I say, I don't see a jam, let's take it. He feigns ignorance and procedes on his merry way. It could've been worse I guess; Mike and Pamina who were in the cab behind us, said their guy kept falling asleep while driving...
4) Check bags.
Seemingly uneventful, but the skycap manages to jab me in the chest a couple times with his double-wide black felt tip marker. Lucky for me I was wearing my favorite white cotton knit Phoenix Suns shirt. No apology from him.
5) Get on plane to Baltimore.
Read 2nd half of David Remnick's book on Ali in the 60's called "King of the World." Best book I've read all year. I have an Ali quote pinned up at my desk at work: "The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses. It is won behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
6) Go to Pizza Hut in Baltimore airport.
Get pepperoni pizza and a medium Pepsi.
7) Get on plane to Phoenix.
Watch end of Woodstock DVD on laptop for half hour. Go back and re-watch Santana part. Spend next 4.5 hours playing SOWPODS Maven. Decide that I need to get in 2000 games v Maven over the next year plus, in addition to an hour a day studying. Also wanna drop about 30 pounds in that time. Given that I did about zero studying, zero playing and zero exercising for the 2000 NSC, I gotta figure that it might help. I was surprised that I couldn't just will myself to win against the top players in Providence the way I could against the 1800-1950s in Reno. Hope that having a Richardsian mastery of the big book will provide those tools for next year. Deathbed conversions are nice; we'll see how it's still going in November....
Last Modified 11/27/00
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