Sense of Adventure

Yesterday was a day from Heck.

Definitely not a Day from Hell, thank goodness. A Day from Hell is when somebody dies or a major body part falls off. Or at least a concatenation of lesser but still substantial evils.

I slept fitfully after getting back the night before. I started getting wakeful and worried after only a few hours because I hadn’t gotten the check back for a contract I had sent off before leaving town (from a place that’s usually very prompt), and because my cats didn’t seem to be eating. The latter was especially troubling, since as most of you who know me in person are aware I almost lost both of them to liver failure brought on by not eating - for only a couple of days! - two years ago.

I was finally roused from my pitiful attempts to sleep by a rap at the door. Proved to be FedEx Guy, bringing - the missing check! Worry One resolved.

(Worry, of course, is one of the few emotions that simply has no benefit at all. Doesn’t always stop me, though.)

So, being up anyway, I pulled myself more or less together, made myself my customary morning cocoa, which I hadn’t gotten to do in STL. To avoid paying an extra day for Emma Dog I had to collect her by noon. It’s usually a twenty minute trip to the kennel. I left about ten after eleven, figuring I had plenty of time.

(more…)

Just got back from St. Louis a couple hours ago. Pretty exhausted.

Squeak (the black cat) bitched at me for a solid hour. Then she came and cuddled with me once I got ensconced on the bed to catch up on email after a couple days sans Net access. She’ll stick to me like a bad reputation for the next day or so, then remember how miffed she is at me and spurn me for a couple days, if she runs true to form.

Her brother, the saintly TJ (the orange cat) seems to’ve forgiven me already. He’s sitting next to me grooming himself.

Had a great time. I hope to catch up a few events at the con later - as I said, I was in dark territory for a spell as far as online went.

Now I’m dissolving slowly into my bed with What’s UP Thailand on AZN on the tube. The book I’m finishing up is set in Thailand. The show has peculiar Thai music videos. Also the hostess, June, is just indecently cute. Why she’s dancing with a pair of Brazilian woman in semi-scanty Carnaval costumes is beyond me. Not that I’m complaining.

More later. Seriously.

We just finished doing tech rehearsals for the Masquerade this afternoon. One extremely … healthy-looking … young woman is portraying Jessica Rabbit in her entry. Suffice it to say, she can.

At the meeting before rehearsals even began her mother came up to me and said “Jessica” wanted to rub up against me - that’s, the MC - in the course of her act. She asked, very diffidently, if that would be okay.

I said, “You have to be kidding.”

I love this job

===

Yesterday was my 53rd birthday. It passed with little acknowledgement as a birthday per se. By the end of the day, more than a bit irrationally, I was somewhat sad. I put great stock in birthdays, as I do in Christmas. I felt I had missed something.

But indeed that’s silly. I had an extremely full day, and a very fun one. I spent time with old friends and some delightful new ones. I got to ham it up in the dinner-theater play Mike Smith and Florence Achenbach put on for the GoH banquet. Whereas when I have a birthday at home I’ll generally do something special to mark it - which I didn’t get to this year - I’m also often as not solitary. In general I spend too much time in that condition.

So on the whole, really, it was a pretty fine birthday. Even if fatigue and the tail-end of this infection put me in a less-cheerful state at the end of it.

Tonight’s Masquerade should be great. It’s the smallest in memory; a lot of locals aren’t able to attend because of $100+ NASFiC full-membership tag. They’ll be missed. And it’ll still be a fine Masquerade.

Don’t try to tell me you didn’t. I saw who was there.

Granted, it was in a somewhat obscure location (I had to ask directions; so did the person who came in to read after me.)

But it may be you didn’t miss much. I was off a bit. Flat. The audience (all six of them) were kind. But the response was nothing like what I got at the ASFS reading. Even though I added the element of a soundtrack of Renaissance music, which I still think is a good touch. Although I need to compile a special playlist for the reading that leaves out vocal pieces.

Ah, well. Thanks to those who showed up and heard me out. I don’t think I did justice to my story or to you. It wasn’t from lack of trying: I gave you all I had.

Apparently I just didn’t have much today.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. As always it’s great seeing old friends at the con…

That’s, Holiday Inn, in official Archon abbreviation. Not Hawaii. I’d say, “sadly,” but I’m pretty thrilled to be here.

I’ve been offline for a couple days. Now back thanks to the hotel’s wireless net. At least until the Nerd Wave crashes it sometime Friday evening, along with the elevators.

Did an appearance tonight with Guest of Honor Barbara Hambly, an excellent writer who’s also quite nice, at the Brentwood Library, courtesy of Sheila Lenkman, the Masquerade Goddess. It was fun; we got twenty-five people. We talked a little, read some excerpts, signed some books. Sheila was disappointed that I didn’t bring the famed Toy Dinosaurs; I told her people would have to come to the reading tomorrow at 4:00 PM at the Holiday Inn (or HI.) Although sadly a fair number of attendees can’t make it because of the steep NASFiC membership rates.

Instead I read a couple passages from my story for the upcoming Wild Cards anthology, Busted Flush. It seemed to go over pretty well.

More later. I’m pretty fuzzed, having started the day on an early expedition to do Cowboy Action shooting at a local club and pretty well kept running since. I’ll be a busy lad, writing on my latest Rogue Angel as well as doing a bunch of con stuff.

I’m really looking forward to this con.