You can check out any time you like ...

I had an interesting night. Er, morning. Umm, at this point it's kind of all blurred together, I'm not sure whether this is yesterday or today.

Last night was Land Grab Eve, the parking lot party. I have very fond memories of parking lot parties past ... it's one of the first things I look forward to about Pennsic, because it's the very first night you can be there, and you begin to experience the sights and sounds of the upcoming Pennsic - people in garb, drums, etc. You know it's really happening and you're finally home for another year.

For the past two years I wasn't able to go first weekend due to dogsitting logistics. Then this summer, after a couple of discussions with Greg and a dog-loving friend of mine, it was decided that if I wanted to go some place basically for the night only, it wouldn't really traumatize Tyler at all. You see, being older, he loves to sleep anyway. His preferred bedtime is about 9:30 p.m., and once in bed, he'll sleep soundly through the night, not waking up till 7:30 or 8:00 or later.

If I leave the house in the evening (or, for that matter, anytime I'm gone for more than a few minutes), he'll just go get in his bed and sleep till I come home - or, if it's late in the evening, till morning. So the theory was, if I was only gone over night, he'd never even really miss me or notice I was gone, and it certainly wouldn't trouble him. I wasn't even worried about it not being 'safe' in some way because, heck, I'm gone for 8 1/2 hours every day and he's here alone - overnight is no more dangerous than during the day. He doesn't get into things or bother things, so that's no concern.

I first experimented with this when I went to the Bardic Roundhouse in Chardon a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that time I stayed up too late, and by the time I realized I had it was 3:00 a.m. and I was afraid if I went to sleep then, I'd never be able to wake up in time to get home before Tyler woke up, and the one thing I wanted to avoid was him waking up, needing to go outside, and having to wait hours for me to get home. So I decided to drive home then. (Bad idea, but all's well as ends well).

So last night Greg and Matt and John had loaded up the vehicles and headed out, and I was sitting here watching the sun go down thinking about the parking lot party, and suddenly decided, "I'm going!"

I threw a blanket and pillow and bottle of rum in the truck (because what else do you really need, for an impromptu adventure?), waited till about 9:30, set Tyler up in the bedroom (turned on the ocean-wave sound machine thing we always have on at night, and turned the TV on with the sleep timer set, something else he's used to), and headed out to Cooper's Lake.

I had a good time ... it was a great parking lot party! Dirk's was hopping, as usual - seemed almost everyone on site was there. I saw a shooting star! Early this year - there's a meteor shower that goes on during Pennsic every year, but this was the earliest I'd ever seen anything. I sipped my rum judiciously (and was very pleased with my restraint!), and tucked myself into my truck to sleep about 1:30. (I briefly considered trying to drive home instead, but decided against it - probably wisely).

I set my alarm and got up around 6:30, and headed out about 6:45. Or tried to.

Getting out of the battle field parking lot on Saturday morning is a real trick. No one leaves at that point, it's only people coming in, and people waiting to get on site to set up their camps. All the usual exits were blocked off, so that all incoming traffic could be funneled through just the one main entrance. But I wasn't sure I could get back out that main entrance, or if it was all kind of set up 'one way' at the time. (Seems unlikely in retrospect - surely they'd realize someone might have to leave at some point - but in my early morning fog it seemed a dilemma; and apparently, it kind of was).

I asked three different people on my drive through the battlefield if I could get out that way, and all three of them gave me vague, fuzzy confused looks - "You want to leave?" One guy said, "Leave? What, to like go to McDonald's, and come back?" No one could fathom coming out for the night, then actually leaving site Saturday morning.

When I finally made it to the main entrance, that guy was more confused than any of them, as to why I was going the wrong way. But eventually it got sorted out and I did in fact make it off site and home by 7:30.

Tyler was fine! He was sleeping in one of the kid's beds instead of in his own, which I doubt he'd have done overnight, which leads me to believe he might have woken up this morning before I got home ... but if so, he didn't seem too disturbed, he'd just gone back to sleep. I was home early enough that if he was up, I'm sure it wasn't long before I arrived. When I woke him up he was happy to see me, rolling around on his back and wagging his tail. But he was certainly none the worse for it, didn't seem the least upset about anything, and after a trip outside and breakfast, we settled into our weekend routine.

So I think that's a little trick I can use to good purpose in the coming week. Of course, it takes a very fine finesse to make it work for me - I have to be very careful to (a) not drink too much, and (b) get at least a few hours of sleep so I can then get home and still function the next day.

So Pennsic's officially on, I'm wearing my medallion, all checked in, and am not even remotely ready for any of it. I've done the least to get ready this year of any year, not even having any garb pulled out of storage, or anything else.

But ... it'll get done, and with this Tyler scheme I can now come and go as much as I can manage the first week. And I'm going today to check out the kennel for second week. Yay!