Totally genius.

Last night I said that for all the trouble it took me to get to Alabama and back, I might as well have been traveling to Denmark. In retrospect, that isn't strictly true, since there are direct flights to Copenhagen. It was mostly Atlanta that did it - two hours' delay both going and coming thanks to weather. Even so, it wasn't that bad. The delays were so enormous for the entire airline that I knew there wasn't any possible way I could make my connecting flight, and the airline knew it, too, so they rebooked me without me having to call them.

So if I've learned anything from this trip, it's that one shouldn't connect through Atlanta, and to always travel with some way to rebook or contact the airline. Just in case. I was lucky that I was only delayed a couple of hours and was working with flexible schedules - pretty much the only things on the to-do list were go hiking, bake bread, attend a roller derby match, and watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And we saw to all of them.

While I can no longer bring a room to silence by saying "I've never seen Buffy" I think I can probably still get some strange looks when I say it took me so long to get to it. But I said the only way I'd start is on a friend's couch, and that was how I did it. I'm genuinely enjoying myself, and while I doubt there's fic or meta for the exact sort of things I want to read and discuss, the fandom's been around long enough I might be pleasantly surprised. Since I'm only midway through the second season, and plan on going concurrently with Angel once I get to that point in continuity, so maybe by the time I'm finished with it all someone will have gotten around to it.

Then again, I've always had very specific desires.

There was a lot of parallel socializing while we watched - I paid attention and made silly comments, she worked on a paper and sometimes responded - that was ideal for a pair of introvert-leaning individuals who wanted to share each other's company without getting burned out. We'd take breaks that sometimes included discussions of the fundamental appeal of AUs and the semiotics of color theory in True Detective, and on Friday I made challah in the morning, caught a tiny frog on a hike in the afternoon, and roasted a chicken with root vegetables in the evening. Alabama has some stunningly beautiful mountains, and for those alone it's worth a trip. Just bring water and wear clothes that breathe.

Saturday morning we went out to an indoor artists' market, which was full of great stuff and shiny things, as all artists' markets should be. There was a giant metal insect on a radio tower outside, and strawberry Jarritos and a great burrito for lunch. That night was roller derby, which I'd never seen before - and I'm glad I saw it live, because there's so much to keep track of I'd have been lost if I'd seen it any other way. There's always something happening in the ring, always something to pay attention to, whether it's the jammers trying to get in front, the blockers trying to hold them back, the pivoting players shifting the whole state of the bout, and this is all while it's always moving around. Nothing's static. The announcer was a fabulously dressed old woman in a giant purple hat, everyone on the track had smile lines on their face, the local team won by a 200 point lead, and I caught a firefly when I took a little walk around the building during halftime.

And coming back, I was so late I circled all the way around to arriving just in time to catch the last of the Pride fireworks on the Hudson river, which made the delay very much worthwhile.