Escape From LA

So on the whole I think it’s fair to say that my arrival in America did not go smoothly. After missing my connecting flight at LAX due to a late departure from Melbourne, I proceeded to spend seven and a half hours aimlessly wandering the airport, occasionally reading or writing or drinking. Aside from a lovely chat at the airport bar with a neurosurgeon, there is really nothing to report from this time lest I bore you as much as I myself was bored.
     But the flight to New York started to make me resent this country. Steep prices for inflight entertainment and refreshments did very little to alleviate my tired frustration, and being seated next to the kind of man who will glare at you if you so much as cough or shift in your seat had me hyper aware of every little move I made as I made it. Upon arriving in New York I then spent about an hour on the subway, surrounded by various aggressive/drunk/crazy people yelling at each other or just singing loudly and finally reached my hotel at 3:30am only to learn that a) wifi would cost me 15 USD a day, b) the hot water in my shower (the one thing I wanted after all of this) did not work properly and c) my room was fitted with an absurdly loud air regulating system that apparently cannot be turned off. So all of that was really nice.
     Luckily, things got better very quickly this morning. After several hours of blessed deep sleep, I woke up to find that the hot water system had miraculously fixed itself. This sense of sweet relief set the tone for the rest of the morning; I had my first meeting with the folks at the International Emmys and found that they were lovely and extremely helpful and immediately put any lingering concerns I had about the weekend to rest. Plus I’m about to sort a sim card so this hotel and its wifi can go fuck itself.
     Tonight is the opening cocktail party of the International Emmys, and then first thing tomorrow morning I’m being presented with my award, so I figured I’d drop an update now before things get way too busy. But at this moment I have several hours of freedom ahead of me, so I’m going exploring.