Well, greetings from cool and semi-sunny Saskatoon. Actually, it's dark out now -- it's about 20 after 9 local time. This is still going to post in my time, though, so be confused or something. :)

Of course, since I'm updating in between commercials, this is going to take awhile anyhow.

So, I'm here in Saskatoon for a conference for work. I've never been to the prairie provinces, so when the opportunity arose, I took it. Of course, then my usual self emerged, and I wasn't as keen on going -- I miss my kitties, I miss my boyfriend, etc. Mind you, it's nice to be away from work for awhile...

Though in the end, this is more work than if I'd stayed home, if that makes sense. According to the conference materials, the booth that I'm manning is open from 7:30 a.m. until 5 or 5:30 p.m. That is offensive, in my opinion. I'm also vaguely annoyed that my colleague is leaving on Saturday, which I didn't know was an option -- I'm returning on Sunday, and that's crappy. Especially since my flight departs at 7:15 a.m. Yurgh.

But backing up... the flight in was fairly uneventful. I was originally booked on a 3-hop flight, but they were concerned that my transfer in Toronto didn't have enough time between flights, so they put me on a more direct flight. I was in Winnipeg very briefly, and I was going to call Jay and say hi, but I only had enough time to hit the washroom, get in the wrong lineup to board (they changed the gate), and then board. Very exciting.

Got to the hotel fine, got the laptop hooked up with the internet, and I felt human again. I'm a dork, I know. Called the folks to tell them I hadn't died in a fiery plane crash, and then had some food and decided to wander for a bit.

According to some literature I read somewhere, I found out that I'm staying in downtown Saskatoon. Here is my hotel, if you're curious. I've done a bit of wandering, and I've discovered that there are a *lot* of restaurants nearby, which is good. I'm also near two movie theatres, so I might take myself to a movie sometime later.

In addition, I discovered that there's an Arby's up the street, so I treated myself to some roast beef sandwiches. Yummy. I only had to fly halfway across the country to do it. :P :)

My wandering also showed me that Saskatoon is a bit different than Toronto, or other cities I've been to. At home, the streets get rolled up around 9 p.m., sometimes a bit earlier, depending on the location and day of the week. In Toronto, at least on the weekends, some stores start to close around midnight. Here, stores close at 5:30 p.m., or 6 p.m.... later in the week they're open later, but it's a weird feeling to wander downtown on a Tuesday night at 6:30 and have nothing open. I couldn't even find a drugstore to buy postcards. :P

Ah well... I tried to find out if my colleague had checked in yet, but they didn't even have him listed in this hotel. I'm 99% certain he's supposed to be here as well, though, so I figure I'll just run into him somehow tomorrow. We're not supposed to start putting the booths up until 2 p.m., so I'm going to go downtown tomorrow before lunch and check in, get the various details and so on. Theoretically. Basically, I'm just playing this whole damn thing by ear, and hoping to get enough sleep and/or time to myself in between.

In non-Saskatoon life... I don' tknow. There's stuff, and I've wnated to write about things, but I can't think of anything right now. My brain sucks. :) For now, though, I'm going to sign off on this and do some reading and/or knitting or something, and try and get some sleep. My body doesn't know what to think, especially since I was up late and then I slept some on the first plane. I have to give props to WestJet; their flight attendants were very friendly and funny, and the first flight I took had leather seats and the satellite tv. The tv is a good idea, but it's very difficult to hear properly, especially when your ears are half messed up due to altitude changes and so on. The first flight ended up giving me a headache that I think has finally now passed. :/