I know, I know – it’s been two months, I have no excuse. Well, I do have an excuse – I’ve been busy! – but it’s not a good one. 🙂
The truth is that the longer I go without updating here, the easier it is. You’d think after 13 years of updating five days a week I’d miss it, but I guess that since I’m still updating Love & Hisses five days a week, I don’t really notice the difference.
In the time since I last updated, I:
1. Attended my very first Weetacon. Green Bay, WI in February/early March? Yeah – it was REALLY FUCKING COLD. Also, in that fucking cold? A sleigh ride! Attending a gathering where I knew a lot of people online but had never met ANY of them in person was way wayyyyyyy out of my comfort zone. I was very nervous, but figured if worse came to worst, I’d hide in my room all weekend. But they were the warmest, most welcoming group of people ever, and that’s no lie. I never attended any of the JournalCons despite the fact that I desperately wanted to, and I imagine that Weetacon was pretty similar to how those went, only there was no drama. (Okay, there was no drama that I’m aware of – it’s completely possible that there was a ton of drama that went directly over my head.)
It is really really WEIRD to know people from their presence online, to see pictures of them online, and then meet them face to face. Because, generally speaking? People look like their pictures! It’s like, “Hey, don’t I know you?”
When I flew up there, I flew through Chicago, and I had spent so much time looking at the list of other people who were going to be there and memorizing their faces, that when I walked through the Chicago airport, I thought I might see one (or some) of them, and thus everyone looked vaguely familiar to me.
I met up with Jennette, who was flying from Chicago to Green Bay on the same flight as me. She texted me when she landed in Chicago and asked where I was, then I kept an eye out for her, and guess what? Her face on the internet and her face in real life? SAME FACE. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
We landed in Green Bay on time (possibly even a little early, it’s been almost a month I DO NOT REMEMBER), and along came our ride.
Yes, people, that is correct. After 10 years of being internet friends, I finally met Jane in real life. Jane, in case you were wondering, is tiny and adorable, and did you know she lost some weight? True story! It was actually Jane who convinced me to attend Weetacon by (1) talking about how much fun it would be, and (2) saying “Hey, you should come to Weetacon next year!”
(I know. She’s so pushy!)
Again, it was SO WEIRD to see her face and think “I know her!” because she looks like, you know, JANE. Am I the only one freaked out by this phenomenon where people I know online actually DO exist in the real world?
I won’t do a blow-by-blow description of the weekend, but I will say it was FUN, and though there was plenty of drinking going on, I had a strawberry daiquiri at dinner the last night I was there, and that’s all the alcohol I consumed, and I enjoyed myself greatly.
There was karaoke, and although I attended, I was too much of a chicken to actually sing anything despite Shae‘s best efforts at convincing me otherwise. But if I attend next year (which I want to!), I WILL get up there if it’s the last thing I do. (Maybe.)
There were classes on Friday, wherein I learned that (1) coloring is more work than I remember (I guess I shouldn’t have chosen such a big picture to color, duh) (2) I am too much of a confused butterfinger to crochet and (3) the learn-about-getting-published class headed by the fabulous Wendy McClure did not last nearly long enough.
I met a lot of people (I’m not going to list them, because I will forget someone despite my best attentions, and then I will feel like a complete asshole), but listen close, people. I’m going to say something amazing: THOSE PEOPLE DO NOT JUST EXIST IN 1s AND 0s IN SOME SORT OF CYBERSPACE SITUATION, THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE WHO WILL HUG YOU AND CHARM YOU AND THAT IS BLOWING MY MIND, STILL.
Here’s something else to blow your mind: I took three pictures the entire time I was there, because it didn’t even occur to me to take my camera out until the night before I left, I snapped three pictures (two of them blurry), and then put it away and didn’t touch it again. Weird, right?
So I’m stealing the picture Jane posted on Facebook to prove to y’all that Jane and I existed in the same general area for a weekend, and perhaps some day NANCE and Jane and I will be in the same area, but I cannot promise you that the world would not implode at that particular event (and also, Jane and Nance would totally gang up on me and mock me, YOU KNOW THEY WOULD).
If you have ever considered attending Weetacon but thought to yourself “I don’t drink and I don’t karaoke and they’ll all point and laugh at me”, let me tell you – they will NOT point and laugh at you (though they might laugh WITH you), they don’t give a shit whether you drink or not, and even if you don’t sing at karaoke, it is super entertaining to sit and watch.
The only thing I would have done differently: I would have started training myself to stay up later. I seriously could not keep my eyes open past 9 pm, and I missed some SERIOUS fun, from what I can tell!
2. My parents came to visit for a week, and they brought their wee dog Molly with them. Their Benjie passed away in September 2011.
They adopted Molly last May, and this was the first time I was getting to meet her.
I was a little worried, because – probably you didn’t know this – but we have cats? Like, a lot of them? And when my parents visited with Benjie, the cats were assholes to him? So I worried that they’d be assholes to Molly or Molly would chase them, or the existence of Molly in the house would cause a house-wide spraying epidemic, and my parents would realize what a pig sty we live in on a regular basis. But it was fine – there were a few incidents where Molly got too close to a cat, or a cat ran and Molly chased (“Why you run if you not want me to chase you?” Molly puzzled.), but pretty much everyone behaved themselves and we had fun. Probably anyone who ever comes to visit wonders why the holy hell I always want to go out to eat at, like, EVERY MEAL, but eating out is FUN. (We didn’t go out to eat for every meal, I DID cook. A few times. But yeah, there was plenty of eating lunch and/or dinner out.)
3. Back in April of 2008, I wrote about how I moved my bedroom from the big room on the first floor, to the big room on the second floor at Fred’s request. It bothered him to have us sleeping on separate floors because he was sure that, at any moment, someone was going to break into the house and kill me while he slept upstairs. So I moved upstairs, and I missed my room downstairs (which became the guest bedroom) ever since.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned to Fred that I missed having my room downstairs. We started talking, and pretty soon we decided that we’d move me back downstairs to what was the guest bedroom, then we’d move him from his small room to the big room I’d vacated, and THEN we’d turn what was his room into a cat room/ second foster room for the times when we had two sets of fosters. It was silly to have one of the biggest rooms in the house taken up as a guest bedroom when we don’t have guests all that often. This way, when we do have guests, they’ll take my room and I’ll sleep in the cat/ extra foster room on a rollaway cot (that is yet to be purchased).
It took the better part of a week to get me all moved into my room, and to get our bathrooms switched so that I have the downstairs bathroom and he has the upstairs bathroom, and finally on Friday night we moved Fred’s bed into his new room, and we are all set. Fred hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep since, but I think it’s just a matter of time before he gets acclimated.
I, on the other hand, have slept like a baby ever since I returned to the downstairs. I can get up and wander around the first floor if I want to (though I don’t usually), without having to worry about bothering Fred. He has a desk and the recliner in his room, and that’s where he prefers to write (usually sitting in the recliner, but he has the desk as an option), so it works out well for us.
I’m not sure my fragile bones and weak muscles could take another move, especially moving the 600-pound monstrosity that is Fred’s bed. GodDAMN that thing is heavy as shit.
Um. I think that’s about it. What else did I want to mention?
I had a pregnant mama who had five kittens last Tuesday, though if you’re reading Love & Hisses, you already know that.
Nance and I have been posting at Dinosaurs Can’t Eat Pizza and Nance and Rick have been working on the site design and I think it looks pretty damn awesome.
Fred’s been writing, and though he hasn’t published anything new, you can get the audiobook version of The Convert at Amazon and Audible and on iTunes. The audiobook for No Limit is done being recorded, but it’ll take a few weeks for processing or whatever the hell it is they do to it. He’s posted some interesting stuff from what he’s currently working on on his Author Facebook page, if you’re interested.
Okay, that’s it. I’ll try to update more often, but no promises!
Previously
2012: No entry.
2011: So what I’m saying to you is that there’s an ugly wasp on the loose in this house, and he’s got murder in his heart and my name on his waspy little lips.
2010: This whole section right here is just flat-out NASTY.
2009: Scenes from around Crooked Acres.
2008: “My flabby sections” would be an excellent band name.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: The spud is officially licensed.
2004: Ain’t it always the way that when you call someone names in your journal, secure in the knowledge that they’ll never see it, they always do?
2003: (And before you say it, yes. You shouldn’t give a shit what I think, either.)
2002: Is it just me?
2001: No entry.
2000: If you knew you’d get $341 million for being treated savagely and cruelly for 7 years, would you do it?