So. An innocuous little piece of news, the Queen dropping the puck at the hockey game on Sunday night.

Well. I had to go to lottery training in Richmond on Monday morning 8:30 am, and the logistics of trying to get from Horseshoe Bay to Richmond in 25 minutes after taking the first ferry in the morning weren't good so I decided to stay overnight in Vancouver. Picked a hotel, went to check in. Funny thing, though, it said it was close to the Greyhound station and it most positively wasn't. Quite a little hike, in fact. Across the bridge and everything.

I checked in and ate supper, and then went to watch tv. The hockey game finished, and some lunatic with a set of bagpipes started skirling and wailing in the parking lot outside GM Place, and I swear he knew maybe two songs, one of them that Scotch Porridge Oats thing and the other I can't place but I know I've heard it before. I looked out the window but I couldn't really see anything, and damn if the guy didn't keep playing those same two songs over and over until almost midnight.

When quiet seemed to be restored, or at least as much as it ever is in downtown Vancouver, I went to bed but I couldn't really sleep. So I lay and watched the headlights make patterns on the ceiling for a while, and I think I finally drifted off. Must've been about 1 am or so, the fire alarm went off. Just like when I used to live in residence at the UofA, that incessant ring. I got out of bed and wandered around a bit, wishing it would stop, but it didn't. So I put my pants on and stuck my head out into the hallway. An assortment of really big men were also poking their heads out of all the other doorways. Hockey players? Maybe. I wouldn't know. So we milled around for a bit, wondering what to do, and eventually one of them said, "stairs, maybe?" and we all started down. When my feet hit the concrete, I realized that I'd forgotten my shoes and my wallet. If we ended up outside all night, it'd be not much fun....

We didn't, though, they turned it off eventually, and the firetrucks came, loudly singing in the night and I think it was about 2:30 I got back to sleep again. Things were further complicated in the morning by the fact that the alarm clock given in the room didn't work, and I had to take a hugely expensive cab to Richmond....