Day in the Life of an Idiot

 
Image: A red backpack with Minnesota State Park badges and pins on it.

Normally, on Fridays I have a Zoom with some of my writer friends. But, with Mason home for the summer, we're really trying to get as much practice driving in as humanly possible... while also making it fun.  As I've said before, my clever plan is to combine the driving with one of our favorite things: State Parks. Today, we're planning on making a longer return trip to yesterday's driving foray, Afton State Park. Afton is one of the closest State Parks to my house (Fort Snelling State Park being the closest, being only just by the airport.) The driving isn't terribly exciting at Afton, although with winding hills, Mason got in a lot of practice regulating his speed through turns and inclinations. We also *ahem* got in some very tiny practice getting one's wheel up out of the ditch when we semi-failed a y-turn on a narrow backroad. All important stuff, mind you!

Today, we're hoping to make more of a day out of it, stopping to do a little hiking and check out the park more thoroughly. 

I also wrote down a list of some of the other nearby (nearby meaning within 2 hours of us) parks:

• Banning State Park, a place we've hiked at least one, but long ago,
• Charles A Lindberg State Park, a place I have never been,
• Crow Wing Sate Park, another new one, and just at the very edge of 2 hours to get there,
• Father Hennepin State Park, a big giant question mark of a park,
• Frontenac State Park, which Shawn and I checked out during fall colors... last year? Year Before? But which might make for good driving practice now,
• Interstate State Park, which, I have, and there isn't--at least on the Minnesota side--much actual driving to be done there
• Lake Maria State Park, which I have never been to,
• Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, another one that is just under 2 hours, but which I've never explored,
• Nerstand Big Woods State Park, another complete unknown,
• Saint Croix State Park, which we've walked, but never driven,
• Wild River State Park, which we recently drove, but could return to to hike, and
• William O'Brien State Park, which I also have never fully explored.

So, this could easily keep us busy if we try to hit a new State Park every Friday. I think it would be especially fun to see just how many of these would CAN see, but, looking at the maps some of them would really not net us a whole lot of actual driving experience. We'll see what Mason thinks. My other thought is that, as he advances in his ability, we could always head to one of these more remote ones and try driving on county highways.  We'll see. He might also get bored of this exercise way faster than I will. Plus, in the next week or so, he's going to have a friend  (Mason's very best friend, actually,) in town, with whom he will then go visit in their hometown. So, maybe I will end up exploring some of these places entirely on my own.

Any of you local folks who spend a lot of time in State Parks who have advice or recommendations about good places either for me or for me and Mason, please drop in a comment!

In addition to continuing to try to fill-in my passport book, I've also started collecting either buttons or patches from the State Parks we visit to add to my hiking backpack. This is the one pictured above. It was Mason's old kindergarten backpack, so it is actually very child-sized small, but it fits a couple of emergency medical kits, sun screen, bug spray, a flashlight, umbrella, State Park guidebook, Kleenex (and a plastic baggies), a bear whistle, and other such sundries. (You might be laughing at the bear whistle, but I wore it religiously up at Bearskin Lodge, so it stays in the pack.)

This weekend Shawn and I are hoping to go to Deutsche Tage at the Germanic American Institute this weekend, here in Saint Paul, because: why NOT? It also looks as though rummage and estate sale season is in full-swing, so perhaps we will also check out some of those. We also have to do some boring mundane things like buy new shoes, but, honestly, I kind of enjoy that kind of shopping with Shawn. 

Anything fun planned for your weekend??

 It's Monday, so I thought I would recount some of the events of the past several days.  First of all, I dyed my hair. 


Image: My new hair color = mallard green.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I mean, I like the color, but I am really getting sick of my long hair. I miss being a cute, short-haired lesbian. The straggly long hair is making me feel like a long-haired bog witch lesbian. Both valid lesbians? But, I'm not used to all this HAIR... and I don't feel particularly cute right now. Sometimes it doesn't matter to me? But the other day, I was ready to find the razor set at home and just buzz it all off. So... I may have to figure out if I feel up to a barber finally, or not.

Given that I just had to tell a friend 'no' to a restaurant date I'm not sure if I can reasonably do a haircut in good conscious. To be fair, you have to take your mask off to eat and I don't to get my hair cut, However, it might just be the principle of the thing. 

Anyway, this is me now, mallard duck green, mostly black. 

On Sunday, I attended exactly one event at Gamehole Con. My friend tallgeese was the "Demiurge" (Game master) for a Lex Aranca game and I have a secret love of all things Roman Empire. It's a GUILTY pleasure, but I would totally watch Russel Crowe's "Gladiator" a million times. "Spartacus" is on? I'm there! Like, historically, the Romans are fairly terrible, but sign me up to be a Magical Praetorian Guard in fantasy historical Rome--yes, please?  And, that's basically what Lex Arcana is like. I explained it to someone as "Imagine a Rome that didn't fall because they used the magic of the Britons to to foresee and forestall the Gaul's sack of Rome."

The game itself was really fun. Because it was a one-shot, we picked from pre-generated set of characters. There was one among them that was perfect for my needs--a giant Germanic, red-head named Wulfgar. I basically got to play a barbaric version of Renji, which feeds my soul on a profound level. I even memorized a few German phrases for veritas. Not that I used them, but I was ready.

I was the only woman gamer in this group, which honestly didn't surprise me. I mean, I picked a Roman RPG, for gods' sake. I feel like the only other place you might expect fewer women is in a WWII RPG.  All I cared about is that people let me be a manly man among men, and they did. And, I had some fun character moments, because being a Germanic barbarian who happens to be working for Rome is kind of inherently interesting in terms of loyalty, etc. It was too short a game to explore all that kind of character stuff, but the situation we ended up in did give me some FEELS. So that added to my fun. Because I am there for character. Game mechanics, whatever. But, characters, yes--and one of the reasons I like gaming with tallgeese is that I know there will be a good mix of mechanics, character, and clever, engaging story.

All and all, an excellent experience. 10/10, would again.

Otherwise, Shawn and I spent much of Saturday doing some around the house projects.  With Mason off at college, we've gotten into a pleasant weekend routine, in which we go out to the recycling center in the early morning of Saturday (our recycling is terrible about picking up oversized cardboard pieces, so we have a lot that doesn't fit in our bin) and then we hit the coffee shop. Thus fueled, we tackle various projects that we've been putting off.  Last weekend, I finally got around to planting the bulbs I ordered--I have this dream of having a yard full of crocuses of all shape and color, though usually the squirrels dig them up and eat them. So, we went to Menards and got turkey grit so that I could fill in a layer around the bulbs that would make it a little more difficult for them to pull them out. I also bought bags and bags and bags of dirt because my front yard is at the top of a hill that gets a lot of erosion. Hopefully between the grit and layers of new dirt the squirrels won't be able to smell this crop of bulbs. I suspect I'll still lose some but if a few can be established, there is hope they will spread.

Speaking of Mason, he spontaneously contacted us to hang out on Friday. We chatted a bit about how classes are going, etc., and then he surprised me by offering to watch the first episode of Campaign 3 of "Critical Role" together!  That was wonderful. I worked on some of my sewing while watching and chatting with Mason.  It felt like he was here. And, I could not be more pleased that he thought of us... we have been very intentional in letting Mason go to do his own thing, so it was rewarding to have him come back to us on his own, you know? 

I think that was the majority of the weekend.

Oh, I just picked up a Yuletide Pinch Hit for something I haven't read--but the original source material is right up my alley and very short. This the first time I've done something quite like this, but I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do for the requestor. 

Okay, I have to head off to the laundromat to do a few of our rag rugs. 

How's by you?

 I'm a little distracted today because when I was going through my email this morning, I found a open mic invite to a digital event called, Cymera 2021.

I have a vague memory of asking to be on the mailing list. It's Scottish, but, you know, virtual, and they were looking for five minute readings. I thought to myself, "My UK publisher would probably really love it if I submitted something to this, eh?" 

Thus, I spent the morning recording and editing this thing and sending it off along with a short bio, etc. I have never been more grateful that, early in the pandemic, I just broke down and bought myself a video editing program. I initially bought it to make recording lectures for my remote classes the Loft easier, but this will be the second--maybe third time?--I've used it to send off recorded readings for various online events.  

There was nothing particularly difficult about this? But, it still managed to eat my morning. I'm sure you know how that goes.

I don't know if anyone else is planning on going, but I signed up for the low-key gathering WisCON: https://wiscon.net/2021/05/08/announcing-visioning-wiscon/ I had fun last year? And I kind of enjoy these digital events?  If you are, I'll see you there. I am technically also signed up for the Nebula weekend, the same weekend, but that's the joy of virtual, right? I can be in two places at the same time.

Speaking of lowkey, the big thing we did this weekend was go rummage sale-ing. Hamline-Midway does one of those big neighborhood things. After being reminded about it by a friend, Shawn and I hit the road. I normally love these kinds of things because I'm easily amused by sifting through other people's detritus. Twin Cities Geek had posted about one that looked promising, too, so we headed there. I was excited by the look of that one because two neighbors had joined together and had both front yards were full of tables. The geeks had mentioned it because the corner house had a bunch of geeky collectibles. I pawed through those, but I'm not big on action figures? There were some Hello Kitty pins? But I'm only moderately a fan of Hello, Kitty. But, from there we were able to walk over to another sale, and from that one we could see another down the street. 

Unfortunately, that was the closest cluster I found? And a lot of people seemed to actually take the GARAGE part of garage sale seriously, which was a bummer? Shawn and I like to do the slow cruise past the address to see whether or not we can just tell by looking if it's going to be tables full of baby clothes and nothing else, you know? And, you can't always do that in alleys. The first couple of times we parked and walked down to the alley only to find it to be a bust, we decided that with everything so spread out, alley ones weren't worth the minimum effort it took to park somewhere and walk. We're lazy garage salers, what can I say?

I did end up bringing a Chinese ox shaped butter dish home...


image: My garage sale find: cow/ox shaped butter dish, in classic blue and white china colors.


...and Shawn found a weird (but compelling!) cat statue for our collection of oddities on the porch. So, it wasn't all a bust. How was your weekend?

 A lot has happened in the last several days. I'll work backwards in time and see if I can remember everything. 

Last night, after dinner I got a text from a friend who sent, "I'm running late, but I'll be there in a minute!" Which prompted me to remember that I'd agreed to go out to The Allusionist podcast's "No Title" show at the Parkway Theater. For those of you who are introverts, let me explain that, as an extreme extrovert, I am literally up for anything that is out, with people, and often spontaneous. So, even though I had never in my life heard an episode of the "The Allusionist," when my friend said, "Would you be interested?" a couple of days agoI said, "Hell yes!" (and then promptly forgot about it until she showed up.) 

We had fun. "The Allusionist" is, as you might imagine, a word/linguistic based humor podcast and their "No Tilte" show is all about honorifics and gendered words. I told my friend afterwards that I suspect a lot of the content of this show is more mind blowing when they play Salt Lake City, but the origins of the singular 'they' is really kind of ho-hum in Minneapolis. It was still quite funny and I did learn a lot about the history of the words "miss" and "mister," which I hadn't known anything about previously.

Plus, I got to go out, at night, to a crowded theater, which prompted me to say to my friend at one point, "I forget that people in Minneapolis DO THINGS after six."

Tuesday morning was also very social for me, as I had scheduled a chat with jiawen and then naomikritzer came over for lunch, even though it was her book birthday! (Plug/ if you haven't picked up a copy of Catfishing on Catnet, what are you waiting for?? Do it! Do it NOW!! /plug) 

Now, moving back in time to Monday, my birthday. I turned 52 on Monday, which I feel is incredibly young, even though I'm sure to some of my friends here and elsewhere it sounds like someone's grandma's age. I got several cards in the mail through out the weekend, but, more excitingly, a package arrived from yhlee ....


Image: Tentacle porn with T-rex cowboys, bigfoot, and a seemingly random elf lady (apparently the rules are similarly baffling).

This was a welcome surprise! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Yoon! I think this was one of the things that very much made my day. The other being the box of SIX POUNDS of stamps that Shawn bought me. POUNDS. As I said to Mason as I drove him to school that morning, "I have a very weird hobby. I collect small, useless scraps of paper." He said, "Hey, I collect small interlocking pieces of plastic. At least your hobby is cheap." 

And I'm pretty sure six pounds will keep me busy for some time, too, which is nice.

Otherwise, my birthday was all about going out to eat (which is my other favorite thing). Shawn and I had brunch at Colossal Cafe, which we drive past all the time (it's on Grand, on our way to her work) yet had never been in. One of my hipster friends from my coffee shop had been ranting about it (positively) for years, and I knew that my birthday was the one time I could talk Shawn into going somewhere brand new. I had especially wanted to try their biscuits and gravy, which did, in fact, live up to the hype--though I had not realized they made it with bison meat, but whatever. It was lovely. I would totally go back.

Oh, and Sunday night we did our big meal out for my birthday with my whole family at Taste of India, which is a favorite of mine, as a break between proofing and finalizing Unjust Cause, the sequel to Precinct 13, which I am happy to report has been delivered to the publisher. It is expected out in spring of 2020. More to come on that as I know it.

That's been me!  Today, Eleanor and I are planning on visiting Terry at her nursing home. Having followed her Caringbridge journal religiously, I'm looking forward to seeing her, as it sounds like there have been monumental improvements. 

 I have a lot of stuff I should be doing right now. 

I need to finish doing the dishes. Somehow, over the weekend, my family and I managed to make a LOT of dishes. I don't actually understand how that happened, especially since I swear I didn't skip doing the dishes at any point. Among the other household chores that need doing, I could also add: a load of laundry and taking out the recycling bags that have also mystical multiplied since the last time I took them out, which I would have SWORE was Friday (maybe we just recycle THAT much??)

I need to put more skim coats on the steps. Today is really the day to do that, too, since there's even more rain in the forecast after tomorrow. But, it's annoying work and I don't want to.

I need to be working on Unjust Cause, but I having one of those moments where I feel like, even though it's not quite yet noon, somehow the entire day is over and I might as well give up on everything. 

When my family has a huge to-do list, we always end it with the phrase, "and learn Sanskrit." This actually came out of Shawn's graduate school years. She was in the history of science program at the University of Minnesota. Shawn, who ended up writing a masters thesis on Sir Isaac Newton, maybe, was actually far more interested in ancient sciences and so was forever lamenting that she needed to learn Sanskrit. Since that never got done, it remains on the "to-do" list in perpetuity. And, has become one of those things you say when what you're really feeling is overwhelmed with all the things you need to do, but don't really want to do ANY of them for no particularly good reason.

So, that's me, today.

I got a late start today because I met up with a former student from one of my Loft classes who paid me to critique his short story. It was a lovely get-together, though it started in a very Monday-like fashion, wherein, I ordered a breakfast burrito and promptly dumped the salsa on my jeans. On the flip side, I wandered into the MN Book Arts store and bought several lovely cards that I intend to use to write letters to my various pen pals. I am always on the look out, very specifically, for unique and pretty images of Minneapolis/St. Paul and/or Minnesota, in general. I guess I figure that if I were a foreign correspondent, as it were, I would love getting images of the place that the person who is writing me is FROM. But, I also have a ton of cards that I've picked up at various estate sales that don't fit that bill... in fact, some are down right "vintage." 

Speaking of vintage, yesterday Shawn and I went thrift store shopping after dropping Mason off at work at the Science Museum. I found a Japanese language book at Good Will and Shawn picked up a number of household items including replacement wine glasses for those I have broken over the months. After Good Will, I talked her into trying out Magic Noodle, which is a new fresh noodle joint on University. Shawn was very resistant at first, because it kind of looks like a dive. But, the noodles are insanely good as was everything--but especially the garlic edamame (which seems to maybe have been infused with garlic oil somehow?? SO GOOD.) 



The cool thing is that you can watch them hand-pulling the noodles. The guy is behind a glass plate and so somehow I managed to get a weird flash across his eyes which looks like I intentionally intended to protect his identity. Which, I mean, other people were talking pictures, but I do feel strange about posting pictures of people I don't know, so this odd phenomenon makes me feel a bit better about it:



It was a fun experience and amazing food all around. Highly recommend. 

 That'll be Tuesday.

Let's see, going back in time.... Thursday night was Wyrdmiths. A good meeting, actually, as always, but, for me, the best part was the stranger coming into the coffee shop wondering if anyone had a jack. Their tire had gone flat and they had a spare, but no jack. I told my compatriots at the table that if I _didn't_ have a jack my lesbian badge my get revoked. Sure enough, I had one!  Alas, it was missing all the parts (the crowbar we had was, apparently, not the original and didn't fit.)  I plan to go get a replacement tomorrow at Menards, but I was pretty darned pleased that I had the TOOLS!!!

Friday, my Canadian pen pal was scheduled to arrive... I thought at 1 pm? But, it turned out 10 am.  Unfortunately, when I got the text that her plan had landed I had already coaxed Eleanor and pegkerr out to the coffee shop. So, we had a VERY SHORT get together before I ran off to Brooklyn Park to pick up my Canadian and together we went off to the Walker.




The sun was out, but the wind was cold, so we wandered the sculpture garden a bit before heading inside to look at the exhibits. Shawn was having a crisis at work (an unfortunate regular part of her job now that she's a director, but also "Senators Try to Slash Historical Society's Budget Over a Sign,") and Mason, being an independent 15 year old, agreed to take the bus/train home so that I could spend extra time with my international visitor.  So, from the Walker, we wandered over the poetry bridge and into Loring Park. It was cold enough that we quickly zipped into the nearby Dunn Brothers and relaxed for awhile until Shawn texted. We picked her up, got caught up on all the work drama, and then went out to Dinkytown for hot pot, as a place I've been trying to get my family to go for ages, "Tasty Pot: A Taiwanese Restaurant." Unlike the usual hot pot, the bowls are pre-filled with food and it just sits and boils at your table. I had a curry hot pot, which was quite amazing. After a leisurely meal, we took a stroll around the University of Minnesota's campus.  There was some kind of "battle of the bands" that was set-up outside of Coffman Union, but we missed the show. Though we did get to hear the winners! Yay?

While I was out to eat on Friday, I thought I was missing my monthly gaming group, but luckily that was planned for Saturday. So, I sent a stupid "Aaaah! I'm not there" message only to have to write back, five seconds later, "Oh. Today is Friday. Nevermind."

Saturday, after dropping Mason off at his work (again he agreed to train home), I headed out to pick up Anna and take her to dim sum at Yangtze in St. Lous Park, which is the restaurant near the new Minicon hotel. SO. GOOD.  I need to note that I have never HAD dim sum before, anywhere, ever, so this was particularly wonderful for me. I am now going to try to convince my family that this is what I need from now on for my birthday meals and whatnot.

After delivering the leftovers back to Anna's hotel, we went off to another museum, Mia (Minneapolis Institute of Arts.) 



We spent HOURS wandering around the third floor of the Mia, and I don't think we even saw half the things on that floor. I will say that i was surprised how BUSY the Mia is these days. Maybe they're always like this on a Saturday? But, it seemed like every gallery room was filled with people milling about, students hanging out chatting, and there was just a general air of activity--though not at all in a BAD way, at least not for _me._  Perhaps because it's free all the time now? I mean, if I lived closer, I might consider hanging out there on a regular basis. 

From the Mia, we went to a cat cafe... Cafe Meow on Hennipen.  



Because of health codes, the cats actually have to be in a room completely separated from the food and drink.  We ordered our drinks and hung out until our reservation was called. Yeah, that's the other thing. You have to pay to go into the room with the cats, by the hour.  So, I left my house with three cats I can hang out with for free, to hang out in a room with cats who don't know me and who basically ignored me the whole time.  Whatever. It was still fun, because I was hanging out with my friend with cats that ignored me.

Pretty darned cute cats, though:



Then, I rushed home for an excellent gaming session, which went until 11 pm. Many Borgs were blown up. My character ran like the chicken he is. All was good.

Sunday, I got up early and drove out with coffee from Claddaugh for Anna, and we hung out until she and her mom had to get on the shuttle bus to head to the airport, It was quite a lovely time. The only bummer was that my family and i had some miscommunication about lunch, and whether or not they should wait to eat, so I came home to some hangry folks who needed food ASAP. Alas, that interfered with my weekly video chat with my folks, but we did at least get to say hello/goodbye, so all was not lost.  

Mason then announced, "Fun fact: I agreed to go help R with some pre-Calc tonight, so we've been invited to dinner at the Randalls!" So, I quick made some M&M cookies and we spent the evening chatting with R's folks about politics, National Geographic, and a host of far ranging things. Her parents are currently fans of "Mayor Pete," and even went down to South Bend the day he announced his campaign. So, we heard about all that and chatted about the state of the world (grim) and the rest. Since Mason and R broke up, we haven't had much of a chance to spend time with her folks, whom we like tremendously, so we were very glad that Mason has figured out how to remain friends (something I'm not sure I have YET learned, though to be fair, I haven't had an "ex" in several decades, so maybe I'm better at it now? I'll never know.)

Today it is rainy and dark. My big plans are to get to the store so that we can have these new homemade fried chicken patties that I recently learned to make for dinner. They come with a spicy coleslaw topping and, weirdly, my family LOVES this addition, so I have to make sure I have the right cabbage, etc.  

Ugh! So VERY busy, but very fun. 

How was your weekend???

On Saturday, after taking Mason to work, Shawn and I decided to check out the ReUse Center of the University of Minnesota. That place is kind of a trip. Check out all the--I assume, abandoned--bicycles



There were all sorts of other things, too, like all the weird old science equipment that a mad scientist might want:



And, of course, books that had been culled from the University libraries:



We didn't find anything to take home, alas, but it was really fun to see all the stuff. We had much better luck at our earlier thrifting spot, GoodWill. Shawn found a few baskets, including a big wicker basket for laundry (something she always covets.) Also, she found more of a set of dishes that we'd picked up earlier. We swear that GoodWill has the whole set, but it only putting out a few pieces at a time.

So, while the rest of you fools are decluttering, Shawn and I are digging through your castaways.

Why? Because it brings us joy.

Saturday was actually a very good day all around. Mason came back from work and we had a lovely dinner. Shawn and I watched "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018) which we had on DVD from Netflix (because we still get DVDs from Netflix.) I... didn't hate it? Shawn seemed to enjoy it, but woke up this morning to inform me that she'd had epiphany: "They should stop making sequels of these." I mean, she's not wrong? But, as I pointed out, DINOSAURS. Like, how else are we going to get a dinosaur movie in the future? Pretty much anything you do is going to seem like a rip off the Jurassic franchise. So, let them keep making them? I honestly love any movie where I can root for the dinosaurs. But, I will say that "Fallen Kingdom" had some moments that made me VERY SAD. ( Spoiler )

But, at the end of the evening, Shawn turned to me and said, "This was actually a *good* day." I had to agree.

Today, Sunday, was pretty good, too. We didn't do a lot, played Smash and hung out. I've been writing a lot of fan fic, some of which I posted today.  Then, we were going to have pot stickers for dinner tonight, but Mason's GF had to cancel last minute, and so we randomly decided to have fried chicken fingers and onion strips a meal we make while literally sitting in front of the deep fat frier.  Such a terrible meal. SO GOOD.  

I still need to do my spell of the day tonight, but, otherwise, I'd say it was a lovely weekend. 

How've you been?

 Mason made it home safely, but his phone did not.  Hopefully, it is winging its way to us now, having been sent by the hotel.

We heard a lot of the New York stories as they happened, via text.  They visited the Columbia campus as Ms. Auyeung has a friend teaching there.  Mason's text read, "Ah, Columbia. If you breathe deeply enough you can smell the New England money."  He then texted back and forth with me that, despite his snark, "not gonna lie," it'd be pretty cool to go there.  

At one point they spontaneously stopped at the Natural History museum and Mason texted, "Forty-five minutes at the Natural History Museum. I'm in physical pain."  Not more than a few minutes after that, I heard that we HAD to return to New York because there was just so much to see and do there. More importantly, Mason thought that the city was _made_ for the way he and I travel together. He's not wrong. The experience he's referencing was the time he and I conquered Washington, D.C. via metro and guide book.  He had all the metro stops memorized by our second day, and I was always the one both getting us terribly lost and then found via randomly saying, "Let's try this bus, it looks like it's going the right way." (Mason still "hates" to this day that I was right.)

Ms. Auyueng ran those kids ragged, so Mason was pretty pooped out for most of Friday. I will say that he got me the most thoughtful gifts. He bought me a "lucky coin" from Chinatown that is supposed to bring in money, because he knows that I always carry foreign coins in my pocket. He also bought me a couple of packets of stationary. So perfect! 

Yesterday, Mason had an appointment at the University of Minnesota with a History Day coach. They reviewed his documentary and offered suggestions for improvement.  The twenty minute session was at Wilson Library, which I haven't been to in so long that I initially mistook it for Walter (which is the one on the East Bank.)  But, I dropped him off and found a parking spot on Riverside Avenue (amazingly!) and got myself some lunch at the Hard Times Cafe.  

I hadn't had lunch because I spent the entire morning talking at Claddaugh Coffee with an acquaintance who is a beer brewer.  My agent got some interest, ie, an editor asking "Do you have anyone doing x...?" about the craft beer scene.  Probably someone more knowledgable than I am will end up writing the perfect cozy mystery for this editor, but I thought I'd give it a try, since Martha thought she might be able to sell on a proposal and a few sample chapters. That second bit, the sample chapters, usually bogs me down, but I literally have nothing to lose. Plus, it's kind of amusing for my brain to try to plot a murder mystery, especially when you need red herrings, clues, etc.  Of all the mystery genres cozies are at least in my wheelhouse in terms of the kinds of characters they usually involve. I don't, for instance, have to know anything about being a police officer or a detective.  

At any rate, I hadn't been in the Hard Times Cafe since the Riverside Cafe used to exist (so.. 1990s?) and I'm much older now than I was then. I forgot about writing your own order slip, and was unaccustomed to the blaring punk rock (speed metal?) music playing at one in the afternoon.  I'm glad cooperatively owned places like this still exist, however. Seeing the young turks with their anarchy symbol patches on their ragged jean jackets made me nostalgic and happy.

The vegetarian biscuits and gravy were good too.

In the evening I played taxi driver. Apparently, Mason was in New York during Rosemary and his anniversary, so they had a big date night on Saturday. She took him to see "Pacific Rim: Uprising," He took her out to dinner (well, I paid for Firehouse Subs, so nothing super fancy).  Then they came back here and hung out watching YouTube videos and anime until 9:30pm.  I kind of wasted the evening because, honestly, I was tired and really wanted to go to bed around 7pm! But, hey, my Bejeweled scores are AMAZING.

Today has been slow and sleepy. Mason is facing homework that he was able to blow off the entire spring break.

I had a fair number of panels this weekend, many of which went very well, but a lot of my con was plagued by me NOT KNOWING WHEN THE LIVING HELL TO SHOW UP.

For instance, Friday--for some reason I got it into my head that my first panel ("Roundtable Discussion: What are You Reading?") was at 7 pm. I got dressed and headed out around 6:30 pm. I got there with 5 minutes to spare and started freaking out because I could not find a space anywhere in the hotel parking lot. I happened to see my fellow panelist, Bryan Thao Worra, walking up the sidewalk and so I shouted to him and asked him about overflow parking. I might even have said something like, "Well, I'll see you fifteen minutes. If not, you'll know I'm still hunting up parking!" I'm surprised he didn't look at me and say, "What are you talking about?"

Because our panel didn't start until 9 pm.

Bryan said that he'd heard that it was okay to park in the lot for the Wildlife Refuge Center, so I did, despite actual posted signs that said, "NO HILTON PARKING." I decided to risk it (spoiler: I was fine) and I dashed in, figuring I'd quick stop and register, because if I was late my fellow panelist at least knew I'd be on my way shortly. I'm glad I did, because in my manilla program participant packet was my schedule. WHICH CLEARLY SAID THAT MY FIRST PANEL WAS AT 9 PM.

Suddenly, I had almost two hours to kill.

MarsCON, I have decided, is a weird con. Don't get me wrong, I like it. I go every year. I kind of consider it the opener for the con season. But, given the situation with the parking lot, you'd figure I'd have no problem finding someone with which to pass the two hours hanging out. Nope. I don't know if it's the way the hotel is laid out, or the fact that I don't do much with the extremely popular musical track, or that the party floor is nine stories removed from the paneling area, or everyone else is invited to secret parties to which I did not get the memo/invite, or what, but I would NOT have guessed that this con apparently attracted between 900-1,000 people. I would have thought it was half that. The halls seemed empty.

This is also not necessarily a down side. I mean, it's nice to have a con that is not as overwhelmingly crowed as say, CONvergence. BUT, one thing that I told Minicon when preparing for my Guest of Honor gig there this year (in a matter of weeks!!), it's actually almost better to overbook me as a panelist than to leave me with huge swaths of time with nothing to do. As an extrovert, I really do feed off the high energy of a con. If I'm sitting and staring at the wall wishing I had a book, I crash. It's a lot harder for me to ramp back up to my "performance level."

So, I can't say that, by the time I actually sat down next to Bryan in the "Eagle's Nest" conference room, I was super peppy.

I did, at least, think ahead and prepared a list of stuff I'd been reading over the past few years. Bryan recommended a number of poetry books--like, full length books. Later, when i saw Bryan again, I thought to ask him a question that I should have at our panel, which is, is there a proper way to read a book of poetry? Are you supposed to just start on page one and power through? I've never done that with the few books of poetry that I own (granted at least half of them are Shel Silverstein). Mostly, I randomly pick poems and read them. There are Marge Piercy poetry volumes I own where I'm sure there are still dozens and dozens of poems unread, because I just never hit that page when I was leafing through. Bryan confirmed that that's totally how it's done, so I guess I haven't been missing some key to appreciating poetry all these years.

Because I'm a weird combination of extrovert and morning lark (opposite of you night owls), I went home directly after my panel.... oh, right, there was another reason I did that, too. I texted home at one point to let people know I'd arrived too early and wouldn't be coming home until after 10 pm, and I got a text reply informing me that our problem kitty, Inky, had peed all over the basement floor. Everyone was apparently very upset about this because Mason didn't see the mess until he plopped our brand-new beanbag chair right into the center of it. There was worry that it was completely ruined FOREVER. Problem kitty is also usually my responsibility, so everyone was mad at me for not being around to do the clean-up on aisle 5. (Before you assume the worst from my family, my responsibilities include one that I fail all the time. I'm supposed to pill our cat, because he has fewer accidents when he's consistently on his Prozac. My family rightly surmised that if he was peeing inappropriately, it was because I had forgotten to pill him. When he pees inappropriately when I'm the one who forgot to make sure he got his daily pill, it stands to reason I should be the one to deal with the fall out, as it were.) So, I rushed home to change kitty litter and to wrestle a pill into Inky.

In the back and forth with the kitty trauma, I ran out of minutes on my phone and so I also had to problem solve THAT on the fly at the hotel (it involved finding the business center and logging into TracFone)... it was, shall we say, an inauspicious beginning to my con. My only consolation (?) was that Bryan had had to deal with a puking puppy all day, too. (I don't know that that actually made me feel BETTER, per se, but at least my misery had company, as it were.)

So, that was Friday.

Saturday... let's see, I started my day off with probably the highest energy panel of the con for me, "Marvel Cinematic Universe." We talked a lot about "Black Panther," of course. We had two PoCs on the panel--Rob Callahan and a young woman named Kianna--so we were at least spared the awkward that is a bunch of white fans yammering on. Kianna had an interesting take on Killmonger (whom, it seems, is often misread by white people) and Rob talked a lot about the Indigenous response to the movie. That was probably the best panel of the con, for me.

Oh, but I forgot that my Saturday morning actually started way before that panel, when I was at home frantically making a powerpoint presentation because I realized when I got my schedule the night before, I was still the ONLY person on the "Manhwa/Manhua Explosion," and I thought, that as hard as it was going for me to fill an hour all by myself, I thought it would be even worse if I couldn't show visual representations of what I was talking about. I want everyone reading this to know one thing. I HAVE LEGITIMATELY NEVER MADE A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION BEFORE IN MY LIFE. Yet, the program is simple enough that I managed to cobble together ten or so slides before I left for the con.

I did, however, spend some of the downtime between the MCU panel (at 11 pm) and my solo presentation (3 pm) making more slides and genuinely TRYING to prepare... Even though I had no idea whether or not the room would actually have AV equipment that I could use. (Spoiler: it did. MIRACULOUSLY.)

So, I can't say that the "Manhwa/Manhua" panel was an unmitigated disaster, because I did attempt to mitigate it, but... I mean, there's a reason I prefer panel discussions. When there's at least one other person there, you have a CHANCE at a dialogue. I did tell my audience that I was not an expert, and that I had, in fact, proposed the panel because I wanted someone ELSE to tell me more about it....the other thing I warned them is that I could only talk about what *I* was reading and, frankly, what I read is SMUT. (Did I mention they put this in the "teen" track!?) But, the audience was sympathetic and somehow we limped through it.

My last panel was at 7pm and it was called "Writing Humorous Science Fiction and Fantasy." I... might not have been in the best head space for that particular panel. For one, I had had to kill a lot of downtime. Much of which was taken up by the other problem with the MarsCON hotel, which is they are in a virtual food desert. The Mall of America is within spitting range, but to go there, one has to be willing to leave their parking spot (or, I suppose, have enough time to hop the light rail.) There is a hotel restaurant, but the restaurant seems to always been chronically understaffed (I swear the SAME surly waiter who served everyone last year, served us again this year.) The hotel also has a kind of convenience store, but it's stocked with the sort of convenience store food that we have in this part of the country.... sandwiches wrapped in plastic that are fresh, but which have clearly sat around long enough for the various condiments to have made the white bread soggy and gross, you know? The con suite serves food, but it can not feed a multitude before having only pumpernickel as a bread option in the PBJ room.

I'd had lunch with Naomi, her family, Rob Callahan and his friend Jei. We braved the restaurant and heard a lot of cool stories about Jay's students (they teach at a Native charter school). I'd kind of blown my con budget on that --not that I really had one, but the food at that restaurant is not varied enough--or cheap enough--to warrant a lot of return visits, so I ended up eating a couple of hotdogs in the con suite. I will say? That hungry, those hot dogs tasted AMAZING.

Anyway, I found myself feeling a little... professional jealousy towards MaryJanice Davidson, who was on the humor panel with me. MaryJanice Davidson was someone who was hot when I first started publishing paranormal romances as Tate, and sitting on that panel with her gave me a stab of the classic green-eyes "why is SHE still publishing, when I'm not." That kind of threw off my game. Luckily, the panel was totally ruled by Ivery Kirk (Melissa Buren) who co-wrote a book with possibly the single greatest title for an erotica ever: TIMEBANGERS:One Does Not Simply Walk Into Tudor.

I ran into a friend, Jason, after the panel and I told him that what was especially weird about my reaction to MaryJanice Davidson was that it caused me to attempt to talk seriously about the topic of humor in SF/F.  Jason looked aghast and was like, "What? You?  I would have wondered where my Lyda was and demanded a refund!"  And, yeah, see, this is my con persona... and, of course, the one of the dangers of running into someone you long considered a rival (I was told I couldn't use DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS for a book title of mine, because MaryJanice Davidson was putting out a book that same year with the same title.) I think I was thrown too because sometimes you set up in your mind this kind of rivalry and the other person LITERALLY has no idea who you are. (Davidson totally give me a blank look when i said i wrote paranormal romance as Tate Hallaway).  

Anyway, so that one was kind of a bust, despite how cute and hilarious Kirk/Buren was.

Today was another WAIT, WHEN AM I SUPPOSED TO BE THERE days. Shawn told me that my first panel was at 1 pm today, and, since she'd been right about the 9 pm one on Friday, I believed her.  So, I'm sitting in my chair, cat on my lap, thinking about having a nice, relaxing morning when I decide to look at my printed schedule. Oh no! According to my sheet, I'm actually supposed to have an 11 am panel. I quick throw things together and rush out the door.  I get there, miraculously find parking in the lot, jump onto an opening elevator and arrive at Krushenko's at 11 am SHARP. Only, Eric tells me that the schedule has been changed. My 11 am panel was moved to... 2pm. 

Now, I could have stayed, but I'd already run out once to get Starbuck's so I thought, no, I'm going to go home, go grocery shopping, have a decent lunch and come back for my 1 pm panel.  That actually worked out really nicely. By chance, I even arrived at my house in time to introduce myself and Shawn to neighbors who are moving in across the street from us. I had a nice sandwich at home and headed back. Two panels in a row, in the same room, on similar topics.  The first was "Androids, AI, and Gender Theory" and the second was "Artificial People in Science Fiction."  My favorite fellow panelist (besides Naomi, of course,) was Justin Grays, who was on both.  Post panel, I instantly cyberstalked him and became FB friends, etc., like you do in this, the era of social media.

So, that was my con in a nutshell.  I think the only awfulness of the con was the audience member in the Gender Theory panel who wanted to insist on an old-fashioned and outdated (and now considered offensive) term for intersex people.  But, the panel dealt with the person quite gently, IMHO, but there are always some people who take the changing terminology as some kind of personal affront, it seems.  I mean, "Oops, my mistake, [use correct term offered]" is the easiest response. It's also okay to say, "I didn't know it had changed," once, but then go away and Google, for crying out loud. The panel is there to educate to some degree, but the topic was not changing terminology, so... time was wasted on that.

There were a few other awkward moments in the two Sunday panels, but, I think, for the most part, people were unintentionally awkward, instead of malicious... which I guess makes it a little better? I hope so, anyway. (For broad context, let's just say things get weird when white people try to explain away reasons for slavery.... even in the out of historical context and about why we might have clones.)

I dashed home after that, too, because WEATHER is supposed to be on its way.  In fact, Saint Paul schools just closed in anticipation of another afternoon storm tomorrow. (I imagine the superintendent does not want to deal with another situation like last time.) I think it's the right call, but if it ends up raining all day tomorrow and not snowing, people will no doubt say he was too hasty. Honestly, the poor guy can't win. I think it was smart to err on the side of caution this time, however.

Right, that's me to bed.  Hope you guys all had a good weekend.

Robotics is coming to a close. Tonight, in fact, is the last night for building. Mason's team has until midnight Eastern Time (11 pm for us) to finish tinkering with their robot. After that, they have to shrink-wrap it and put it away until competition. I have no idea when I'll see my child tonight. I suspect the Washington team will go as late as possible (and my son will LOVE every minute of it.)

Luckily, he got to bed early last night.

And Shawn and I get a mid-week date night, so that works out pretty well. I suspect we'll catch up with "Victoria" and eat a lot of popcorn. Who says romance is dead?

Speaking of movies, I saw two this weekend. You'll never guess what the first one was.... yeah, actually, it WAS "Black Panther." My Marvel crew is always on top of things, so Mr. Murphy got tickets a week ahead, which was good because theaters were selling out. I had work at Maplewood from 10 am to 5 pm, and so I joked to Mason (who had spent from 8 am to 3 pm at "Week Zero" robotics, where they test their robot against the obstacle course for the first time) that both of us would be lucky to keep our eyes open. Hahahahahaha, yeah. No worries there. "Black Panther" was amazing. I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been said, but I will add my voice to the chorus that recommends you to go, if you haven't already.

The other movie we watched was "The Great Wall." When Mason noticed us watching it he snarkily said, "Oh, I see, we're having the complete opposite experience from 'Black Panther' now, eh?" [If you're curious about the controversy around "The Great Wall" and somehow missed hearing about it when people were discussing it, Huffington Post pretty much sums up my argument about the movie: "No, 'The Great Wall' Isn't Racist Whitewashing (but The Question if it is a White Savior Movie is a Bit Tricker.)"]

What these two movies had in common was kind of surprising. Somehow, I missed that "The Great Wall" was a fantasy, where the Great Wall of China was kind like Wakanda in that it was fantastically science-fictionally advanced... the ancient China we want, full of amazing costumes, beautiful people, impossible heroics and acrobatics, and super-powered monsters.

Of course, in "Black Panther" the white people were superfluous to the plot (( Tineey-tiny spoiler )), and the 'monster' was actually one of the more sympathetic characters who actually brought with him a legitimate conflict with real world implications.

It was an interesting double-feature, though, given the controversy around "The Great Wall."

I am not, by the way, recommending "The Great Wall." I found it to be somewhat vacuous, if pretty. The only thing going for it is that it very much had the vibe of a SUPER big budget version of a Hong Kong film, ala "Once Upon a Time in China" or "The Bride With White Hair" but with the annoying addition of Matt Damon. I can see why people cried "whitewashing," actually, because even though 8 out of 10 actors were Chinese, Damon's role is OBVIOUSLY the sort normally occupied by someone like Jet Li. It's kind of weird to see a white guy get the slo-mo slides and off-the-wall jumps, while shooting arrows... that's clearly supposed to be Li or Chow Yun Fat or Jackie Chan or Brigitte Lin or Michelle Yeoh.

So, I mean, "The Great Wall" and "Black Panther" both had the same number of white actors (3), were directed by PoCs, but one of these movies is a giant ball of Fail (at least in the US market. I have no idea how "The Great Wall" played in China. Okay, quick check reveals that Wikipedia says, "The film went on to gross $170.9 million at the Chinese box office, which is considered a disappointment.")

It was an interesting movie weekend.  The rest was same old, same old, I suppose.  I hinted at the fact that I worked at Maplewood on Saturday. That was another full day, but, wow, it was so much nicer to be at a place that respected my work. It went so much faster, despite being the same 7 hours. I also, because it's Maplewood, came home with a new manga series, which I read the first two volumes of last night called: The Girl From the Other Side / Totsukuni no Shoujo by Nagabe.  It's very "spoopy" as the kids might say.  I'm probably going to write up a review of it later today.

I guess that's me. You?