TOC 2011

The TOC experience has gotten crazy. Simple as that.

We were held up for hours in LaGuardia on Friday, waiting for our flight. It being the one direct NY to Lex flight of the day, it had been seriously attractive, especially compared with some of the other possible routings, like all those flights from JFK with a four hour layover in Beirut, the kinds of flight O’C specializes in. Hunter, Stuyvesant and Regis were traveling with us. We hung out at the food court, and every time Eric DiMichele checked the schedule, the flight was delayed another half hour. We begged him to stop checking the schedule and slowing us down, but you know how those Catholics are. He actually claimed it wasn’t his fault. (For the return trip, we tied him up at the airport and locked him in a custodian’s closet where he couldn’t do any damage until the flight actually started boarding.)

By the time we arrived in Lexington and got to the tournament hotel for registration it was around 9:00. I found Andrea, the tournament director, who pointed me to my printer for the weekend. After borrowing Dave Huston’s USB cable (like they should sell you a printer that comes with all the cordage—aaargh) for a minute, I proved that I could print like a house afire by pumping out schematics for round 1 and all the ballots, then ran across the street for dinner. Panivores notwithstanding, the Sailor army (that doesn’t sound right) marches on its stomach. (I had hoped that this open evening would mean a nice dinner with the traveling tab room. My late arrival meant otherwise.) The minute the pasta arrived, Andrea called to announce that they were shutting down, so Charles and I ran across the street to collect the printer and whatever crap was lying around, and got back before the steam had begun to rise. Charles was impressed with how fast I could walk. Charles has never seen a hungry Sailor before.

Our hotel, the Blue Grass Extended Stay Clean It Up Yourself and Don’t Bother Complaining Express, was about ten minutes down the road, no big deal in Lexington time and a lot cheaper than the tournament hotel. Kaz and Devin were also in residence. For Kaz, this was a repeat visit. I admire her loyalty. We sent Charles off to Devin’s room, the P went to hers and I went to mine, and a minute later, the logs were being sawed.

We were on the precipice of the craziness. We would fall off first thing on the morrow.