I’m sitting at the coffee shop component of the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge. There is a SFF conference going on all around me, and I feel like a time travelling alien sitting in an isolated, protective bubble, watching all of the participants scurry about around me.

I am untethered from my usual reality. Time is weird, no longer flowing in a straight line, but instead meandering like a river, occasionally stopping altogether to form a chronological lake. It’s hard for me to tell what day it is, and I’m very much alone.

I’ll recount my time from yesterday, starting pretty much from where I left off in the last post.

The plan and the hope was to sleep a little on the plane from Salt Lake City to Boston. A doomed plan from the start, it might have worked if the trip hadn’t been so turbulent. The infant in the row behind me fussed only a little bit, and the puppy in the seat immediately next to me cried a bit at the end. The plane shaking me and rattling me around like dice in a cup… that is what kept me awake.

I arrived at the hotel early, around 6:30AM, and asked about early check-in. Not a problem, if I coughed up an extra $100. I needed sleep, and as early as I was, they could have charged me more, so it felt like a bargain. I went up to my room, laid my head on the pillow, and that’s when my time travel began.

My alarm went off multiple times. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed a little after 1PM local time. Registration was open, and I found myself in front of Elaine Isaak working the registration desk. She’s the author of A Wreck of Dragons, and one of the few people I’m acquainted with at this event. Arisia had me in their system, comped only for Monday, which was a problem since my membership from last year should have carried over. Elaine and someone else behind the desk was able to take care of it, but I nearly started this con on a rather sour note.

I wandered a bit, after that. I familiarized myself with the geography of the con. I observed where I could eat, the prices, where the dealer’s room would be when it opened… things like that. I watched for more familiar faces, but I might as well be Michael Smith here, a Stranger in a Strange Land, and while these may be my people, they don’t know me, and opportunities for introduction are few and far between.

At some point, I returned to my room, unpacked properly, caught up on Internet stuff, and then fell asleep again. I discovered at previous cons that naps are the key to dealing with time zone differences, so I listen to my body when it says to sleep.

When I got up, I had no sense of time whatsoever, but my stomach told me it was time to eat. I went to the more expensive in-hotel option at 5PM local time and ordered fish and chips with a Guinness. Good stuff. They seated me at a table suitable for 4, in the back, out of the way from other folks. The staff were very friendly and checked on me frequently.

After dinner, I wandered through the dealer’s room. I thought I might buy a book and read it over the weekend, but there are surprisingly few book sellers here. There is one selling old paperbacks, which was absolutely packed, and the Broad Universe table had some interesting titles, but that’s about it. I wandered on, my hands still empty.

I checked the schedule of panels and events. Not much for me, there. I floated around. Eventually returned to my room again. Watched some videos. Fell asleep yet again, for some reason.

I woke up at 10PM local time. My body told me, “Welcome to Saturday morning!” But it was still the first day. Oh shit.

Again, I wandered around, looking for where the parties might be. I found a bulletin board describing two for Friday evening, and went to the 5th floor for one of them. It was the Brisbane Worldcon bid party, and I sat and talked with some folks there for about an hour. Human contact! Incredible!

If I was going to get my body in phase with the local time, I was going to need to go to sleep again, and try to wake up with the clock. But I wasn’t tired. I tried the bar, thinking some alcohol might help me sleep, but the bar was closed.

Back in my room, I found sleep again around 1AM, and I fussed out of bed around 8AM. The girl behind the counter that served me coffee and a breakfast sandwich was named Isabella, and I almost told her that one of my character’s shares her name. But she was busy, so I took my breakfast to a table, setup my laptop, and started writing this post.

People float past me. They see me, I see them, but we’re disconnected. At some point, I’ll see an opportunity to walk up to someone and say, “Hi! I’m Brian. What are you reading these days?” and maybe I’ll make a friend. Or maybe an enemy! It is a crazy, strange world I’m visiting.

This might be a really long weekend. I’ll see how it feels to write.