Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: me in my fancy new Norweigan Resitance hat made especially for me by Paula Rice Beiver

I promised a picture of the hat that Paula made for me at Minicon, so here it is!  As I noted, I really feel like there are some magical ways in which the resistance here in Minnesota operated. The generation and distribution of whistles--you could not walk into a place of business and not see a bowl of them (bookstores, coffee shops, car repair places, restaurants, etc.) People handed out whistles on the street, in little free libraries, etc.. I feel like there are probably people who have a story that goes with "and then I was handed/picked up my very first whistle."

Similarly, the fact that so many people were making these very historically meaningful Norweign resistance hats as a way to promote visiblile solidarity, at one point, we had a shortage of red yarn. 

Up the revolution, y'all.

As for news from today, I may have mentioned that I am currently hunting for a job. The capitalist system is not kind to writers, and especially not to ones who have stalled out on their second novel in a series. So, I drove all the way out to Blaine in Anoka County to interview for a job as circ staff at their library system. It seemed to go okay? I was, of course, stumped by one of those corporate-speak interview questions: "tell us about a time you made a mistake and what steps you took to correct it." I suppose what I should remember is that they're trying to find out if you are the sort of person who handles critique well and I should just make something up so that I can say things like, "Even though I felt ashamed that I had made the mistake, I did not get angry. I was able to listen to my supervisor and cheerfully apply their suggestion!" Because that's what they want to know. Are you the kind of person who punches someone when they tell you that you screwed up. Alas, I fumbled around and, well, NOW I HAVE A STORY ABOUT A TIME I SCREWED UP. :-P

But, that's sort of all I know. There was a lot of rigamorale around the fact that everyone in my family needed to be somewhere this morning and we only have one car. Luckily, naomikritzer was able to loan me her husband's car (he really can't use it at the moment becuase he has a broken arm) and so half my family could go off to their dental and physical appointments, and I could head off for my interview in Ed's car.

As a bonus, we got to chat a bit when she gave me a ride back to mine, after I returned the car this morning. 

I am now trying to decide how energtic I feel. As you know, because I mention it a lot, my mutual aid place, ZCC, is still hopping. Even if I can only go for a few minutes, there is almost always something that needs doing. Since it's only 12:30 as I finish writing this, I think I will wander on over there and do a little good for the resistance efforts. Might as well, since, if I get this job, I'll have a lot less time to devote to things like that.

Last night, Shawn had a volunteer gig at the Ramsey County Library in Shoreview. As longtime readers know, my wife really doesn't like to drive. She's licensed, but she's generally a nervous and timid driver. On top of that, Shawn has some PTSD from an accident that happened while she was pregnant with Mason. Thus she mostly avoids driving, outside of emergencies (though she did some while I was in DC at Capclave. Go, Shawn!)

Anyway, what this means that I tagged along to the event as taxi driver. Shawn was in her meeting with the Friends for an hour... and I was left alone like a kid in a candy store.

I brought home eleven manga. Like, my bag was literally stuffed with books.

I finished one already: Two Guys at the Vet Clinic / Doubutsu Byouin no Ofutari-san by Sinonome. It's a boys' love/yaoi about a one-sided crush between a veterinarian and his boss. I'd say it's nothing to write home about, but I'll end up writing all about it over on my manga review site which you can check out if that sort of stuff interests you: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/

Okay, onward!

-----
Gaylaxicon, SUNDAY

There are a couple of things that I forgot to talk about on Saturday. One of the coolest things that happened on Saturday is that at the Murderbot panel I ran into a polycule that I'd met at the last ConFABulous. I instantly recognized them because they all wear matching rainbow masks, but also they're half the age of most of the people at our con. Plus, I feel like I would recognize them anywhere they all (there are at least four members of this polycule) because they played in a last minute Thirsty Sword Lesbians game that I threw together last ConFABulous when it was revealed to me that one of their number had come all the way from Chicago JUST to try playing this game (and when they arrived the sign-up was filled.) I still use a term that one of the players came up with for the future social media, which is "Blab" (as a Twitter/Insta/Facebook stand in.)

Anyway, I gave them my contact info and I hope they actually reach out. Three of the four are local and so they invited me to possibly come run a game with them at some point. I hope they actually do reach out. I liked the four of them quite a lot. 

So that was really cool. Plus, I finally got to meet pameladean 's partner Cameron.  She was deep in discussion with my friend Rachel Gold and their partner(? friend?) Stephanie, so I think we exchanged nothing more than a confused back and forth (because Rachel bought a copy of Cameron's book for me, but it wasn't clear who was paying and if the book had gone to me or Rachel.) Still, it was nice. I'm only sorry that Cameron wasn't feeling up for being on more panels. I would have loved to have showcased her and her work more. ConFABulous is less of the kind of con where writers go, but maybe since she'll have a new book out maybe we could consider if she'd make a good GoH (again, if she's up for such a thing.) ConFABulous really doesn't do GoHs, but at least Cameron is local so it's not like it would cost the con a lot.

Sunday, of course, is generally the low key day at most conventions. Anywhere else people are hungover, etc. I, myself, was crispy. That midnight performance meant I got only five hours of sleep. So, I was definitely feeling "Sunday at the Con" in a very traditional way.

I put several "not to miss" panels on early, in the hopes of catching any folks who weren't conned out by that point.  I really wanted to catch "Problematic Favs" at 10:30 AM, because it was a panel that David Lenander suggested and I had initially resisted writing up, in part because Greg Ketter was a GoH. Greg, for those of you who aren't from the Twin Cities and/or don't know, runs Dreamhaven Books & Comics. Dreamhaven was the literal mailing address for Neil Gaiman for many, many years--so much so that the Minnesota Book Awards assumed that Neil actually lived in Minneapolis (he didn't, at the time he was living in Wisconsin, which disqualified him for the award and I was at leat partly responsible for making that clear to the MN Book Awards folks. That, however, is a story for another time.) Lisa Freitag, Greg's wife, had told me at some point that Greg is still very much in denial and won't talk about Neil. So, I started to self-censor myself/the convention, but then I thought, "No. That's not cool." David L. clearly really needed to process some of this stuff, so probably that means a lot of our local community does, too. Also, so many of us in the fannish queer community, particularly trans folks, are still pissed at the active harm that JKR continues to do. So, I decided, no, let's have at it. But, to make it work, I had put naomikritzer in charge because I know that Naomi has the skillset (and the wherewithal) to actually shout someone down and cut off the ramblers--which a lot of people (including myself) often THINK they have, but which Naomi has actively demonstrated on other panels I've seen her on.

Turns out this was a good choice.  

Most of the discussion was high level--there were some real, meaningful confessions and feeling and advice, but, inevitably, someone wants to relitigate this or that. Naomi just wasn't having it. In fact, at one point the person she had to actively cut off was David L., and I'm not sure I'd've been able to do that since he's an actual friend of mine (and Naomi's, to be fair. Also, I hope David is okay and knows it was done out of love.) We also had another guy, who I later found out was also disruptive in the "Superman is WOKE and other Media Malarky" panel, who was apparently wandering back and forth between the two panels demanding to be caught up on what he'd missed while listening to the other one. 

Maybe not the best start to Sunday, but you can't say it wasn't high energy!  *makes awkward face*

Post that start to the day, a bunch of us hung around and debreifed in the little lounge area behind registration. This is where I got a chance to talk to one of our special guests, Blue Delliquanti (https://www.bluedelliquanti.com/  <--if you are at all a fan of graphic novels and don't know their work, here's my recommendation: GO READ THEM NOW.)  It was from Blue and Lee Brontide, however, that I found out that that one guy was bothering both panels. Apparently, the only panel that went off without a hitch during the first hour was "Gay Vikings," which is only hilarious because I heard from both Dax and Eleanor Arnason that they felt unprepared. Adam Stemple who moderated the panel said that they were both so knowledgable and prepared it was almost ridiculously smart. I'm sort of sad that I coudn't be in three places at once. 

I conspired with tallgeese to blow off my final panel of the con, "Ask a GM" in order to finish the Star Trek session we started on Saturday. This was another one of those probably-not-a-good-adult-decision moment for me, but I tried to mitigate it by warning Don K., one of my co-panelist that I was intending not to be there. I totally got the Disapproving Dad look from him, which normally I can't withstand, but the truth was I was so exhausted at this point I would not have made a good panelist. I probably should have explained it that way, but I didn't. Now I have to live with my guilt.

And while that sounds flippant, I do actually feel a guilty even now. I'd put myself on that panel so that there would be a woman GM to represent. I also know that several people were curious what I might have to say about GMing, so I feel like I let them down. 

But, God got me. I was, in fact, punished for my sins.

I decided to try to play a new character at the Star Trek game (a Vulcan doctor) and there was so little for the Chief Medical Officer to do in the third act of that game, that I literally threw her on a grenade at the end of the game just TO HAVE SOMETHING TO DO. 

Despite that, I'd say it was, generally, a really good convention. It helps that I was able to recruit so many skilled panelists. However, I think that, should we do a Gaylaxicon again (and if I lose my mind an volunteer for the programming committee again) I would do a few things differently.

1. Three tracks of programming was a bit ambitious, I think. I mean, you can't know how many attendees you're going to get, but three tracks is probably best for conventions that are regularly pulling THOUSANDS, rather than hundreds, especially since our crowd was also dipursed into two tracks of gaming as well. So, we essentially had five tracks of programming (if you count the games) and that just split the numbers too much. So, even the most popular panels weren't filling the rooms as much as I'd've liked. Maybe two tracks going forward? Two + gaming, at any rate.
2. The other really big mistake of mine was my assumption that someone else would've alerted Dreamhaven to the names of our attending professionals. I heard through the grapevine that JM Lee left the convention early (and irritated) because he discovered that none of his books were available in the dealer's room. I will make it a point to--as EARLY as possible--start feeding any book dealers a list of people's books to have on hand and/or alerting authors that they should bring their own books to sell at the signing tables. Joey (JM) was a really early recruit of mine (and he's trad published), so I can see why he was shocked not to see any of this books available. I will complain here, only breifly, that Greg is terrible about answering emails (as is Lisa). I would have had to make a regular DRIVE to Dreamhaven to physically talk to someone in the store, but I should have done it, anyway.
3. Then, obviously, as much previously discussed, I think the new rule going forward (again, if there is a forward) is no paneling after 7:00 pm. We just don't stay up that late. People can find their own fun the games room if they're late nighters, I guess. Midnight slash panel? Nope, "After dinner hour slash," is more like it.
4. Plan an actual lunch break for panelists. That way there's no way to accidentally (which I did to both Haddayr and Naomi) book someone over a period when they should go get a food. I had initially thought that the hotel restaurant would mitigate this since we had half hour passing time between panels, but it turned out they were closed at a time when someone could have popped down and grabbed a sandwich to go or whatever.
5. People really liked that half-hour passing time, though. So, that's a keeper.

Obviously, there were a number of things that I heard compliments about, regarding programming. Adam could not get over the quality of the topics and how amazing his fellow panelists were. I got this note from a lot of people, actually, so that made me feel pretty good. The other comment I heard a lot was that people were having trouble deciding among the topics in any given hour because they were all interesting. Again, I'll take that as a win, actually (though you could read it another way, I suppose. Depending on your preference for these kinds of conventions. There are people who like one-track paneling for a reason.) 

I don't know a lot about how the other departments did. Obviously, I participated in gaming, which, for me went well.  I think the banquet was, at least, a financial success. There were a ton of people there. I talked about some of the issues with the comedy show, but comedy is always a weird one for conventions as far as I'm concerned since, as I noted, humor can so easily fall flat with us neuro-spicy nerd types. The dealer's room seemed full and active, which is good, though tallgeese noted with some shock that we didn't seem to have a single vendor selling dice. Two of the community tables were perpetually empty: the Dungeons, Dragons & Drinks folks seemed to only show up long enough to refresh their free dice packages and Free Mom Hugs seemed entirely AWOL every time I passed their table, which was kind of weird. Possibly both groups thought we were a bigger con? I don't know what happened there.

But, yeah, otherwise, I felt it went off well.

 The reading last night at Dreamhaven went pretty much exactly as I expected it would.

As Eric pointed out in his introduction, the Speculation Reading Series has been going for something like forty years and I've been one of its most frequent readers. So... to put it less flatteringly, everyone who has ever wanted to see me read, out loud, has had more than their fair share of opportunities to do so.

Five people came.

They were, at least, five people I knew and like and am always happy to hang out with. *waves at abracanabra *  

I dressed up for the event, but was, admittedly, less prepared than I would have been if I thought there was going to be a packed house, standing room only. I read the full manuscript of the story that will be published in the shared-world dragon anthology. The dumb thing about that story is that this was the second time I've read it out loud and the second time that the ending of it (which, I'm going to be brutally honest is not worth this) made me sob and blubber like a complete sap. I mean, the ending is powerful in its way? But, what actually happens to me when I'm reading it is that I know all the news stories I drew on and THOSE are the things that actually trigger the tears, not my sort of low-stakes version of them in the story. I'm going to have to figure out how to get over it because it's actually a nice size, delightful little story, otherwise. 

Anyway, there's nothing like blubbering your way through your own story and looking up to see every eye is dry in the house, EXCEPT YOUR OWN.

Good times.

I didn't feel like an idiot at all.

*sigh*

But, then after that, I really didn't have anything else I wanted to read. I would have called it early, myself, and/or just hung out with everyone and chatted, but Eric seemed rather insistent that I go the whole time. So, I pulled out my computer long enough to discover that I couldn't easily get on to Dreamhaven's wifi, and then, like the modern 21st century woman I am, I pulled out my phone and read from "Lesbians in SPAAAAACE," the much-stalled out novel that I've been laboring through for the past couple of years.

So, I mean, other people might have considered this a bit of a disaster? I thought it was OK. 

The thing I was the most happiest about was that it was over quickly enough that I could still make it to D&D, which was only important because last night was the final showdown with the Prince of Rhyme and Frost and basically the "Season Finale," since after this, some of us will be switching out to alternate players for a change of pace (same world, same plot continues, however.)

 ...at the library. Wish me luck.

At least I've only agreed to work at libraries that are not opening at ALL to the public. Even so? I'm not looking forward to it.

 I still don't feel like I've been reading very much, but I am mostly keeping up with daily The New York Times. I also did some heavy skimming/light reading of the Star Trek: Adventures RPG; Science Division book that showed up the other day. I also got mostly through the introduction of the Indigenous SF anthology that came at the same time as the RPG manual before my brain did that thing that it's been doing during the pandemic where it just sort of goes "blah, blah, blah, wouldn't you rather think about how many potential virus vectors you encountered today??"

No, I would not.

Though I will say that working at the library was FINE. Like, probably the room is on fire fine, but it was so crazy-busy that I didn't have a chance to really think about it. Turns out, the good people of White Bear Lake pretty much think that paper books are as essential as groceries... and as a lifelong reader and erstwhile writer, I can not fault them? But, do wish a larger percentage of them would wear masks while picking up their "curbside" delivered books. However, the phone rang off the hook while I was there with people scheduling their pick-ups (which involves us checking the books they placed on hold out for them.) So, that was a blur of activity that I am only just now starting to recover from. 

But the people who work at libraries (librarians and circulation staff) are more often than not people who are very conscientious about rules and good practices and following policies and procedures... and helping OTHER people, so, like I felt like everyone I worked with was compliant to the best of their ability. 

One thing I learned, though, is that, if it is hot, it is impossible to get a drink of cold water without taking your mask off momentarily. It's also unreasonable to imagine that you or your colleagues won't need a single drink of water the entire time they're working. So, masks did come off now and again. It simply can't be helped. I did my best to be away from my colleagues when I took my sips, but seriously, I can not go to the car or something every time I need a drink, not when the phones are ringing constantly. 

I mean, we all did our best? But this isn't a surgical theater.  

They were quarantining books for a week, however, so at least I didn't have to deal with check-in. However, I was doing the delivery one box load at a time so that I could do it in the few seconds when the phone wasn't ringing. Because, if we don't keep up with simple maintenance, there will be no books available for people to check out.

It was pretty insane.

Not sure how often I'm going to be willing to do that again. Fortunately, I don't need this job. I feel so much more empathy than I already did for essential workers and anyone else doing service/public-oriented work. I had already been doubling my 20% tip, but I'm not sure that's enough gratitude to gap the inequity of the distance between those who can drop-in, maskless, for a cup of coffee and wander back to their work-at-home and the people who spend all day working to fill those cups.

 Not necessarily in that order.

Yesterday was a lot of picking up prescriptions for Shawn, doing laundry, and general "oh, you've been away, this needs doing" stuff. Including a trip out to our new vet in Maplewood to pick up more of Deliah's prescription for her pain meds. Considering all the cat illnesses we've had this year, Deliah is doing really well. ( Cat medical issues under the cut )

I also took Mason in to Washington for an appointment with his counselor. The way things work at Mason's school, the counselors are the ones who set schedules. He brought in the courses he'd signed up for already at St. Paul College (a history class and an English comp) and worked things out for himself so that he FINALLY HAS A DECENT START TIME.  Yes!  He's not going to have to be at school next year until almost 9 am (8:40 or something more like that, because of how classes are).

For Mason, this is ideal. 

As a teen and college-age adult, I craved the earliest morning classes. That's when my synapses are firing best. But, I was also never one to stay up until so far past midnight that it's technically the next day. 

But he got all his requirements sorted and decided to take AP (or CIS, "college in school," I can't remember which,) Statistics, since he didn't quite manage to test out of Calculus I and didn't feel like retaking it again right away. I think that was wise. He also may end up really enjoying statistics. 

That's all good news on the school front.

Meanwhile, Shawn texted me and said that she did NOT place at the State Fair for her rugs. Boo! Robbed!

As I predicted: suddenly, there was an influx of entries. Last year, there were only two (three ribbons are available) and other weavers must have noticed, because this year there were SEVEN entries. Shawn noted that the woman who won in BOTH categories (same woman, two separate size rugs) not only had been last year's winner, but also is what is known in the weaving business as an "art" weaver. Usually this means a smaller, hand loom. Not an industrial, working-class loom, like ours. We suspect we were dissed for being too "country" as it were. Shawn and I are going to make time to go, if only because we need to check out the competition. 

Last night I worked at Maplewood Library, which was strange on a lot of fronts. First off, I haven't worked in so long that I made a few rookie mistakes (the game CDs do not go on the shelf!) and generally felt like "what is work??? How done?" But, luckily, the people I was working with felt the same way as they hurried to get some of the end of the night stuff done on time so that they could watch "Big Brother" in the backroom. I have not seen an episode of "Big Brother" since it was first popular a thousand years ago; who knew it was still going? They were both super into it, though, which I found very charming. And, honestly? It was pretty dead. Yesterday was the first day of the State Fair and you could tell. Every place that wasn't the Fair Grounds was pretty slow.

Also I heard all sorts of stories about weird things that happen in libraries, including, last night, about the time that one of the circulation staff discovered a dead body. 

This is actually a sad story, as it involves a homeless person who probably OD'd. Apparently, the library used to have a small homeless camp sheltering UNDER their back deck. This is not surprising, as libraries are becoming the front lines for homelessness and other social work care. When I was working last night, three people came in for "care packages," which are just basics: a water bottle, a protein bar, some other stuff like that. But, they just come up to the information desk and ask for one and the staff puts them together in a plastic bag. I do not think this is standard. I think this is something that the Maplewood staff took on themselves. 

At any rate, the story of the dead body is basically that the staff person was taking her lunchtime walk, which brought her past the homeless camp, and a regular resident there had a "not home" sign on her camp for just too many days for the staff person to be comfortable with, so she got a social worker to investigate and sure enough, she was "home," just dead. The mystery is: who put up the sign? Speculation is that there was a boyfriend well known to the staff and that the boyfriend supplied the drugs, knew she might OD, and put up the sign. Not cool, boyfriend. But, that's it. I mean, Roseville, will get dirty diapers in their book box, but not so far as I know, dead bodies under their deck....

Maplewood, for all that it is a suburb, does have it's share of weirdness. I have worked there when fist fights have broken out and the police needed to be called. People muttering about Jesus is just background noise, so long as it doesn't disturb the other patrons....

So you know? If the staff want to hide in the backroom for an hour, who am I to point fingers?

 Me, apparently.

And, then I promptly forgot I was supposed to be at White Bear Lake library until I got a call from my boss about twenty minutes after I was supposed to have started, who said, "So... are you planning on going to White Bear?" There was some work inappropriate swearing, fumbling, and rushing out the door. I made it in an hour late.  White Bear was surprisingly gracious, even though I kind of looked a bit like I'd rolled out of bed. 

The other funny part of this story was that I was doing the dishes before my boss called, and I was watching a very SPECIAL episode of "Morose Mononokean." It was a story about saying goodbye to a friend and I was sobbing like a fool. So, when I answered the call from my boss I was clearly coming off a crying jag, which may be why I got a question instead of a stern talking to?  

I'm going to go with yes.

Surprise!Work, of course, derailed all the things I was going to get done yesterday, but I mean, it was a rainy, dreary day anyway, so I might as well have spent it making a few dollars.

I have double-checked the calendar. I do NOT work today. So, hopefully, between that and the sunshine, I will get some stuff done today.

 I have to get up out of the warm blanket and go fetch some kitty food from Menard's. I just don't want to. Did I mention that my blanket it electric? And i had to squeeze my car into a parking space halfway up the block?  

Just another five minutes, then I'll get up.

So, what do I have to report? The most my family did for Valentine's Day was exchange a card or two. Mason had robotics until almost 5:30 pm, which meant I had time to start our "fake" naan recipe.  So, we had a favorite meal, something we call "Indian Butter Chicken" (because that might be what it's called on the box that contains the sauce I make), rice, and naan.  Then, because Mason is a teenager, somewhere around 7:30 pm, he says, "Uh... so, I'm supposed to bring some ingredients to Chinese tomorrow, because we're making dumplings again."  But AT LEAST he remembered to bring them with him this morning. The night before, he'd stayed up late to do some art-type project for AP Human Geology and then promptly forgot it at home. Luckily, I could text him a picture of it, so his teacher would know that it was, in fact, done on time, even if it didn't make it in on time.  

Because today is payday, we're hoping to all go out to Tavern on Grand tonight for fish.  Mason has to be at robotics again, because the wrap day (or whatever they call the day that they have to shrink wrap their robot) is coming up early next week. But, Shawn and I are thinking about hitting Roseville Library to browse the shelves and hang out until he's ready to join us.  When you think about it, that's pretty romantic. Looking for books together at the library?  HOT, am I right???

Also, I have to laugh at myself. You know how I've ALWAYS claimed that the reason I've been unable to write is because I can't write unless I have a contract?  THIS APPEARS TO _ACTUALLY_ BE TRUE, much to my chagrin.  I have an apocalypse story due the first of April, and, yesterday, I wrote almost 2,000 words on it. What the hell, brain. What the H.E.L.L.

One of my pen pals died. I recently acquired a pen pal in Duluth. Normally, I don't like to have pen pals that I don't know that close. (Like, you live in Minneapolis and we've met or we're on social media together and you want to be my pen pal? SURE!) However, this woman took Friend Books. Friendship Books are a very weird aspect of the pen pal subculture, that are fascinating, but also a burden. I've written about what they are here before, but a quick look at Wikipedia might help you understand how they work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_book The point is, I started conversing with this person, mostly so that I had someone to whom I could pass on Friendship Books when I got a bunch of them from the two other pen pals who tend to pass them on to me.  The other day, I got a letter from her daughter. This woman had some 60 pen pals by her own reckoning, but so that might explain the brevity of this note. But, it simply said, "I know you exchanged letters with my mom. I'm sorry to tell you that she and a friend were involved in a head-on collision and died instantly."

But I can't find any information about it. No obit was included. I mean, there's no reason not to believe this, but, wow, what a shock.

Anyway, my eldest cat is staring at me. I'd better get up and fetch her food from the store or she will guilt me wit that amber-eyed stare of hers.

 Well, CONvergence has been over for almost a week now and I never managed to write-up my con report.  All I can say to that, is that this week STARTED with me showing up to my library gig at New Brighton at quarter to five on Monday only to hear them announce that the library would be closing in fifteen minutes.... 

Luckily, it wasn't that I had completely missed my shift, BUT that I'd showed up a day early.

OMG.

I had somehow mentally shifted my entire week in my head, because then I also had a panic about a talk I'd agreed to give at the University of Minnesota, which I suddenly worried conflicted (it didn't. That was last night, Wednesday.)  The only good thing that came out of that is that one of my colleagues at work might have me come to her library science class at St. Kate's and have me talk about manga/anime for libraries, which would be neat.

Last night, I was a guest at "From Rocket Ships to Gender Politics." There were only about 11 students, so that was a pretty perfect size, and they had all just finished reading Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH, which was a nice segue into my version of cyberpunk. I only feel a little badly because I am a very bombastic personality (Scorpio with a Leo Rising, heavy on the Leo Rising!) and I pretty much dominated the classroom discussion for 2 and a half hours. I gave away various copies of books that I had lying around, which was great.  I'm almost nearly entirely out of RESURRECTION CODE hardcopies.

But, that was a good time. I had initially expected to only have to carry 45 minutes or so of the class, but we were having too much fun and I ended up staying longer and longer.  :-)  In fact, I ended up staying all the way through and even listened to the class discussion of SNOW CRASH, which was interesting, since I haven't tried to re-read that book since it came out.

Okay, so, backtracking to CONvergence....

My CONvergence was fairly good.  It ended on a down note for me, but that was kind of me just feeling like a fraud/loser who hasn't published anything since 2013 (which is accurate, but mostly I don't feel the loser/fraud part so keenly.) I think having two panels in a row about literary awards is what caused that, alas.  

One of the first things that happened when I got to con on Thursday was that I ran into my old editor (now writing colleague) Laura Anne Gilman.  Laura Anne and I ended up hanging out together, getting coffee, and generally having a great time chatting about state parks and road trips and things like that.  I mean, I never know how she feels about me, but, this many years later, I have nothing but fond memories.  I ended up following her to her panel on "How to Say 'No' to Your Editor." I probably embarrassed her by publicly commenting that I thought that her editorial letter, while LONG, actually made my novel better.  Which is all true, and it's not like sucking up to her NOW would help my career any.

From there I had a panel, which I moderated, on DEATH NOTE a manga which has spawned a zillion adaptations, including an American remake for Netflix.  I thought that panel went very well. I think it helps that I reread the entire manga a few days earlier, so all the character interactions were fresh in my mind.

I did a lot of bumming around at con this year because I was semi-chaperoning three teenagers: Mason, his girlfriend, and their mutual guy friend.  So, I took them all out to dinner and whatnot and ended up watching part of the "Infinity War" panel with them. But, while waiting for my teens to get their acts together, I ran into opalsong and talked fandoms and the various things she's been podcasting.  I made Thursday an early night, though. I think we were all home by 8pm-9pm. 

Friday I had a 9:30 am panel. I saw Eleanor having breakfast in the hotel restaurant and so I crashed her table for a few minutes (and an extra cup of coffee) before my panel. Anne Lyle was there so we ended up talking about the World Cup and some of the other differences between American and U.K. life.

My panel, another one that I moderated, seemed to also go pretty well. This one was about Timothy Dalton as Bond and I think we ended up with a fairly lively discussion, despite the early hour.

At some point later, I ended up at "Judging a Book By its Cover."  CONvergence always has this track of panels that are really more like entertainment, Villification Tennis, Power-point Karaoke, the Poetry Slam, etc.  This one is one that Mason and I have seen before and it is almost always quite hilarious, even if the 'panelists' flail, because the covers they find for it are always worth the price of admission.  But, the performers were all amazing, so it was very entertaining.

I spent a LONG time sitting on the floor near the costuming atrium near the pool/cabana area chatting with Ty Blauersouth about... kind of everything, which was lovely.  

Then, I was one of the judges for the Poetry Slam, which went very well. It was enough fun that I think I'm going to try to catch it next year, even if I'm not a participant.

The final panel of Friday for me was another one I moderated which was the Chuck Tingle fan panel. I'm not sure how well that one went, but the audience seemed to enjoy it as one of them gave me a "good job" ribbon afterwards (which is only ironic since I really felt like I'd flailed around a lot.)  But, I mean, the subject matter alone is fairly entertaining, so there is that.

Saturday was my off day, but I did get to have lunch with naomikritzer and Ms. Shannon Paul, which prompted me to hit the comedy show to watch Ms. Shannon perform, which was, by far, the highlight of my day.

I ended up skipping con entirely on Sunday because I was WORN OUT.

Yeah, I know it's not necessarily unseasonable weather, but, frankly, I'm tired of it.

I'd been hoping that the snuggly weather would make me feel in a writerly mood, but, instead, I've been kind of zoned out or distractible all day. This kind of weather always makes me want to cook and eat All The Things. So, I distracted myself with some cooking. I made a big batch of borscht again this morning and had two huge bowls for breakfast/brunch. I pity my co-workers at Maplewood tonight. (Beets make me FART.)

I didn't really want to say 'yes' to work tonight, but, somehow, I managed to miss the call last month for regular hours for THIS month.  It's kind of on-call for me for April, or nothing at all. Of course, tonight is kind of the worst possible night to have to drive all the way to Maplewood (and back after 9 pm!) They're expecting as much as 8 inches?

Did I mention how done I am with this weather?

We keep getting random texts throughout the day from Mason.  Today's best one was, "Have seen three street preachers in two days so far.  If you listen closely you can hear hundreds of people's un-given f*cks."

That's my boy, the comedian.

He also reported today that they were on the Staten Island ferry, so presumably they made it to see the Statue of Liberty and all that.  Ms. Auyeung's itinerary for them was fairly ambitious. They had to bail on a bunch of things yesterday, though I notice things aren't so tightly packed today.  Today it was supposed to be: Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, Battery Park and ferry to Staten Island (for AM), in the afternoon: Manhattan Chinatown for lunch, Museum of Chinese in America, some shopping time after, and then...?  She has nothing for the evening, but they're staying in the Chinatown in Queens (which apparently at one time was known as "Little Taipei" for all the Taiwanese that settled there) so I suspect they'll explore their own neighborhood, as it were, in the evening.

I'm really sad that I'll miss whatever texts come through while I'm at work tonight, but I'm so glad that he seems to be having fun.  Apparently, they only briefly lost some students in Times Square....