Monday, May 09, 2005
The Epic of Reno, Day One (parte uno de quatro) an extensively long post...
As promised: My Reno adventure, told in a novel way!
The air was crisp, the atmosphere cloudy, the classroom warm, and the WASL unbearable. I had just finished the last math section and sighed with relief as the offensive booklet was taken off my desk. The clock read 9:01. I had 30 minutes to kill until I was on my way to the airport, bound eventually for Reno, Nevada.
...30 minutes passed slowly...
Finally, the bell rang, and I zipped to the parking lot and my waiting mother. Fastforward to 30 minutes after that. My mom, dad and I were all encased in Seth's small white corolla, the angry sounds of Muse floating into our ears. Seth dropped us off, and we commenced into Sea-Tac. The details of the airport are much as they always are, I suppose. We waited, were checked off, bags weighed, x-rayed. After another impatient period of dead time, the Shorewood jazz choir entered the plane. It was a royal blue/tan plane on the outside, which reassured me faintly. Stupidly, I was relieved that my first flight wold take place on a plane of a decently pretty color. I sat next to the window, at the very back row of the seats. Lucky enough to score seats next to two of my jazzy friends, I looked out the small window expectantly and gripped the side of my seat. Heidi my fellow alto and great friend noticed my white knuckles and attempted to calm my fears by telling me exactly what to expect. After fumbling with my seatbelt (which she kindly showed me how to fasten) and gazing wide eyed at the safety instruction, I was mildly surprised when the engine started and we took off down the runway.
Speed. Fast. Faster. Faster yet. Then liftoff. After an instant where my stomach was in my throat, my attention was caught by the window. I saw such a beautiful city. I could hardly believe that I knew it. The trees and greenery, the tiny cars and houses. The deep blue lakes. And the islands of Puget Sound, rising, all green and mysterious, out of the black-blue ocean. I found that I love flying.
After 1 and 1/2 hours we were in desert country, seeing hill after hill of orange, broken up by scattered black trees. We landed, after some truly exciting turbulence! One the the first things I saw at the Reno airport was (shouldn't have been a surprise) blinking slot machines. Well, we made our way out to the lobby and waited for our rental cars. And waited. And waited. We read magazines, played hacky-sack, listened to our cd players (or shared them with others). And hour later, we got the go ahead to go outside and wait for the cars there. Another half hour was talked and card-played away. Finally,we loaded our gear, included the huge bass "coffin" case into 4 upscale vans, and promptly got lost in the heart of Reno. My impression: How could anything as ugly as the casinos, etc... in this city be allowed to exist? More on that later, though.
We eventually found the hotel and parking for the hotel. We were staying at Fitzgerald's, the hotel directly next to the famous "Reno: The biggest little city in the world" sign. I would like to say we immedietly settled into our comfortable hotel rooms, but no! There was some trouble about our rooms and reservation, so... another hour passed waiting in the smoky lobby. To be precise, I actually couldn't stand it, and so went to wait with Heidi in a van outside. We had a "tea party" (haha!) and talked of cabbages and kings.
At 5:45 pm, we obtained our hotel key cards and went up to the 15th floor. My room overlooked the street and Reno skyline. The two other gals with me, Ty and Heidi, thumped their suticases down and suggested we go get food, and we went, together with the group of 3 boys next to us, down and out with alacrity. Several blocks down, we came across McDonald's and yes, we ate there. After Heidi forced me to eat an ice cream sundae, and unsuccessfully tried to get me to drink her coke, we were done, and went back to the hotel.
Everyone piled back into the vans then, and we went to an evening jazz concert at the University of Nevada. The U of N jazz lab I opened boringly for the Kenny Garrett Quartet. We slowly warmed up to the quartet, and during the second song, when the drummer had a series of mad, crazy, wild good drum solos, he had us in the palm of his hand.
Please note that at this time, Katherine (a first soprano) and the boy from Garfield's drama officially began. That, however, is a story for another day.
Well, we left the concert at 10:30, and wended our way quietly back to the Fitz. It was 11:30 by the time my room turned our lights off (Ty having done Bridget's hair in anticipation of the 8:45 performance in the morning, and breakfast plans having been made with the other room of girls) We drifted off to sleep, the desert wind whistling loudly through our window.
The air was crisp, the atmosphere cloudy, the classroom warm, and the WASL unbearable. I had just finished the last math section and sighed with relief as the offensive booklet was taken off my desk. The clock read 9:01. I had 30 minutes to kill until I was on my way to the airport, bound eventually for Reno, Nevada.
...30 minutes passed slowly...
Finally, the bell rang, and I zipped to the parking lot and my waiting mother. Fastforward to 30 minutes after that. My mom, dad and I were all encased in Seth's small white corolla, the angry sounds of Muse floating into our ears. Seth dropped us off, and we commenced into Sea-Tac. The details of the airport are much as they always are, I suppose. We waited, were checked off, bags weighed, x-rayed. After another impatient period of dead time, the Shorewood jazz choir entered the plane. It was a royal blue/tan plane on the outside, which reassured me faintly. Stupidly, I was relieved that my first flight wold take place on a plane of a decently pretty color. I sat next to the window, at the very back row of the seats. Lucky enough to score seats next to two of my jazzy friends, I looked out the small window expectantly and gripped the side of my seat. Heidi my fellow alto and great friend noticed my white knuckles and attempted to calm my fears by telling me exactly what to expect. After fumbling with my seatbelt (which she kindly showed me how to fasten) and gazing wide eyed at the safety instruction, I was mildly surprised when the engine started and we took off down the runway.
Speed. Fast. Faster. Faster yet. Then liftoff. After an instant where my stomach was in my throat, my attention was caught by the window. I saw such a beautiful city. I could hardly believe that I knew it. The trees and greenery, the tiny cars and houses. The deep blue lakes. And the islands of Puget Sound, rising, all green and mysterious, out of the black-blue ocean. I found that I love flying.
After 1 and 1/2 hours we were in desert country, seeing hill after hill of orange, broken up by scattered black trees. We landed, after some truly exciting turbulence! One the the first things I saw at the Reno airport was (shouldn't have been a surprise) blinking slot machines. Well, we made our way out to the lobby and waited for our rental cars. And waited. And waited. We read magazines, played hacky-sack, listened to our cd players (or shared them with others). And hour later, we got the go ahead to go outside and wait for the cars there. Another half hour was talked and card-played away. Finally,we loaded our gear, included the huge bass "coffin" case into 4 upscale vans, and promptly got lost in the heart of Reno. My impression: How could anything as ugly as the casinos, etc... in this city be allowed to exist? More on that later, though.
We eventually found the hotel and parking for the hotel. We were staying at Fitzgerald's, the hotel directly next to the famous "Reno: The biggest little city in the world" sign. I would like to say we immedietly settled into our comfortable hotel rooms, but no! There was some trouble about our rooms and reservation, so... another hour passed waiting in the smoky lobby. To be precise, I actually couldn't stand it, and so went to wait with Heidi in a van outside. We had a "tea party" (haha!) and talked of cabbages and kings.
At 5:45 pm, we obtained our hotel key cards and went up to the 15th floor. My room overlooked the street and Reno skyline. The two other gals with me, Ty and Heidi, thumped their suticases down and suggested we go get food, and we went, together with the group of 3 boys next to us, down and out with alacrity. Several blocks down, we came across McDonald's and yes, we ate there. After Heidi forced me to eat an ice cream sundae, and unsuccessfully tried to get me to drink her coke, we were done, and went back to the hotel.
Everyone piled back into the vans then, and we went to an evening jazz concert at the University of Nevada. The U of N jazz lab I opened boringly for the Kenny Garrett Quartet. We slowly warmed up to the quartet, and during the second song, when the drummer had a series of mad, crazy, wild good drum solos, he had us in the palm of his hand.
Please note that at this time, Katherine (a first soprano) and the boy from Garfield's drama officially began. That, however, is a story for another day.
Well, we left the concert at 10:30, and wended our way quietly back to the Fitz. It was 11:30 by the time my room turned our lights off (Ty having done Bridget's hair in anticipation of the 8:45 performance in the morning, and breakfast plans having been made with the other room of girls) We drifted off to sleep, the desert wind whistling loudly through our window.
