Marriott City Center Hotel, Pittsburgh. Sunday, 2:37 AM.
Jolted awake by a fire alarm and a pounding on the door.
Quickly dress, grab briefcase, slowly herded down 15 floors with other bleary-eyed folks.
Lobby is jammed with guests, including some players on the UMass basketball team, kids in pajamas. several firemen, who all assume that some village idiot, after too much libation at the Steelhead Grill, banged an alarm.
After 10 minutes, desk clerk confirms: the idiot was on the 14th floor.
Wait ten minutes by non-working elevators.
Cursing silently and breathing heavily, I make the 15-floor trek at 3 AM, stopping once at 9.
In no shape for Everest, that's for sure.
While lying around, trying to return to sleep, enter a hallucinatory dream-state, including a segment with someone opening an envelope with an old photo of me as the stamp. The rest was a jumble,
Sidenote: If you're in Pittsburgh or environs, tune into 105.9 FM, the X. On Sunday morning nthey were playing two-fers: Marley, Elvis Costello, Sting/Police. Also the home of Penguins broadcasts. Not bad at all.
Need to do some Thanksgiving dinner logistics, so Mike Casey is covering for me tonight at the Garden.
I'll be back for Tuesday's game against the Canes and in the Burgh next weekend for the Rangers-Pens rematch. Hopefully, the Rangers will have rediscovered their power play by then and have some new faces in the lineup.
And maybe my room will be on a lower floor.