Trepidation

It occurred to me today that my recent not-so-great mood might have to do with my travel next week to an eight-day live (as opposed to online) scoring session. The last one I went to was five years ago, and it was not a good experience! Without going into a lot of detail (which I did do at the time), I'll just say that I was randomly assigned a roommate and she was a nightmare. The first night she asked if I minded if she had a drink. Thinking she would pull out a beer or a small bottle of wine, I said it was fine. Instead, she pulled out a fifth of vodka and a two-liter Pepsi bottle and did shots with chasers until she passed out. She did the every night we were there, the only alteration to her schedule being when she broke into sobs before passing out. I was trying this morning to remember what I did to cope with this nonsense; the only thing I could think of was that I spent a lot of time in the lobby with my laptop. I am not a "television-sleeper", and the other annoyance in rooming with her (as if the first wasn't bad enough) was that she had the TV turned up quite loud and always "fell asleep" with the one remote tucked in her arms. That meant that to turn it off, I had to extract the remote from her body without waking her up. None of that was fun.

Additionally, I got food poisoning from the food provided by the scoring company and spent an entire day curled up in the bed, drifting in and out of sleep. I sipped Pepto, Gatorade, and 7-Up and chewed on a few crackers, but otherwise did nothing. I found out later that several other raters had food poisoning too, and they went to the hospital. I didn't. I knew there wasn't much they could do and I needed to keep myself hydrated. I did get paid for the day, but I wasn't anxious to return to the buffet.

That year the scoring took place in Louisville. Perhaps the only upside (other than the pay) was that I had the chance to visit a city I hadn't been to before, and I took advantage of the limited off-time to do a bit of sight-seeing. This year the scoring is in Tampa. I've been to Tampa but never for an extended period of time. I like that I'll be driving. I'm something of a control freak when it comes to being able to come and go on my own schedule. Scoring hours are 8:00-5:00 each day, and we'll probably have an opportunity for some overtime. Oh, and did I mention I got a private room this time? I'm not taking anymore chances with random roommates, even if the individual room cuts into my profit margin a little. I have a few activities planned. I'll tell you about those later.

[A note to someone special. Yeah, you know who you are! I don't know how much you are able to do, but I think at some point you will read this. I hope you are past the worst parts and are feeling stronger every day. I have been thinking of you but don't want to text in case you are able to get some rest. Please know you are in my thoughts daily, and I wish you comfort and healing. 💖]