Just a Sci-Fi Kid Like Me

So CSECS went quite well; I gave my paper and got several kind comments and some folks who are interested because of their own research. Through happenstance I met Don Nichols, a big Alexander Pope scholar, who had just finished a project identifying a "lost" printer of The Dunciad of 1720, which, turns out, was Susannah Collins. So he wanted my contact info in case he has questions trying to make sense of other things. so I got to feel Quite Smart.

Also got to go to Macleod's Books, which, being in Vancouver, made my little Highlander fangirl self happy. Even better, I made out like a bandit, getting a 2 vol. reprint of the Encylopedia of Typographical Anecdotes, Plomer's English Printers' Ornaments, and a couple other bookish odds and ends.

Then I got home and nearly had a heart-attack as Varamathras had run off, and we eventually found him hiding under our porch, where he preceded to stay for the next 36 hours, and eventually I lulled him out with kibble, and ye gods, stressful.

Anyway, tomorrow, or, ah, in 5 hours, I'm heading to Rochester NY to go to APHA and hang out with Todd. So, my delight at getting to see my best bestie just about outweighs my existential terror of flying. So.

Having dinner at airport, waiting on my last flight. I am lagged and kinda retarded right now, but I'll be home in a few hours so all good. Of course then I have a crap load of chores to do, but still. :)

Am not throwing up. Can clearly call this decade a win and done.

You can buy wine at the CVS. On a Sunday.

I feel oddly provincial. Or possibly just more easily entertained than usual.

Scott pulled out Cannery Row and said I must read it, so I am. No, I've not read it, the only Steinbeck I've read is East of Eden and though I quite liked it I never went back for more.

We also bought two copies of The Possessed, adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them at a shop at Ferries Marketplace, and read the first chapter together tonight in front of the fireplace. (Our room has a fireplace. I've never been to a B&B before but I love this one!!)

Tomorrow we will go to the Aquarium.

I'm trying to soak in every detail of everything so I can write later, properly. Scott says fic is too much like work, but lets me get away with blogging--hahaha!

I think we quite confused one of the other couples staying here. We're in different cities and in California because we wanted to be. Not sure why that's so odd, but they seemed pretty staid, so who knows.

Trying to figure out plots. I wish I wasn't so sleepy!! Jetlag sucks.

Flight was delayed so ended up getting to CA at midnight/2am Texas time. Exhaustion, stress etc seem to have gotten to me--I've been sore and quivery all day. So we're taking it easy and will go play properly tomorrow. I'm downing oj and Dayquil in an attempt to nip this thing in the bud. It is foggy and misting where we are and because I am a fool, I think it's perfect.

Sitting at the airport. Have obtained: goldfish crackers, a coke, Details magazine (!),and cheese curds (IDEFK, but that's what they have here).

Will get in tonight a bit after seven, so home around eight. I can't wait to see the fur children, though I know my friends have been taking good care of them.

Watching some sort of gregarious family reunion group meeting at our gate. It's like watching a Hallmark movie or something.

Anyhow, gonna sit back and read a bit. More later!

ETA: Home safe! Yay!

At the hotel, back from dinner, half-retarded from long day. Thus, a picspam:

Milwaukee skyline from our hotel:



Which is apparently where someone tried to kill Teddy Roosevelt:



There's an AWESOME Thai place across the street though. For dinner, we had

-Thai beef jerky (which was fucking amazing)



-Pineapple duck curry (cf. omg the amazing)



-And drinkies! I had the Strawberry Colada and Candy had the Typhoon, which she described as a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster irl.



Yeah. So, we're here. I'm mentally writing my review of the SF anthology and plan to spend tomorrow morning working on article revisions. I have declared my talk "good enough" and am still waiting to hear when they'll fit me in. Keeps things interesting. Another presenter is doing a paper on Reboot fanfic so I shot her an email asking her if she wants to go to coffee while we're here, since I'm working on a paper that's pretty much the exact opposite of her talk. So.

More later!!

On the van home, listening to Beowulf in OE and writing fic.

Thought I would share, because I'm laughing at myself right now.

Yeah so the thing about traveling across the International Date Line is it so screws up your sense of time. We basically had two Wednesdays, both of which were very long. Oy. I got to catch up on movies on the plane.

I really liked Waitress even though I didn't get to see the whole thing because the sound was blippy. Nathon Fillion is so very pretty. Andy Griffith had a great role as a cranky ol' git. I want pie. Year of the Dog was weird and had the same sound problem. I got to see Spidey 3 again.

Book reviews: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare: read this when you can't get your Harry Potter fix. HP meets Buffy. Yummy. Inglorious by Joanna Kavena: very good novel about having a breakdown. When Darkness Falls by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory: satisfying conclusion to a fantasy trilogy. Got through the first third of the new Kushiel's Justice novel before our final flight.

Note: Never book United with multiple connections. Pure. Unmitigated. Traveling Hell.

Okay, time to get on the road again. More later.

Yesterday we took it comparatively easy, and slept in for us (by which I mean, 8am. Between time zones and a lack of daylight savings time, we keep getting up at around 5:30am...). We went to another shrine and a nearby flea market. Scott bought a pretty scroll painting we'll get framed back home, and I found a beautiful white embroidered kimono for $10 which still leaves me gobsmacked--and also wishing I'd combed through that bin for more, cos $10 trinkets for everyone would be positively cheap! Then we took a Shinkansen back to Nagoya, which is thankfully western: private showers! Yes!! And gods love 'em, they leave you a large pitcher of ice water. (Japan does Florida shame on humidity and numbers of cicadas.)

Today was Scott's first day at the Nagoya conference, so I accompanied him to the University to kill time as nothing opens until like 10am around here. On my own, I went to the Orchid Gardens, which is pretty funny as it's designed "with the image of a make believe European diplomat (Mr. Agonya Orchid) in mind." Yes, this is from the brochure. So it's basically a fake European house (which is actually pretty nice--you could sit and read books on flowers in the study, or chat or nap on the couches in the living room) with an atrium and a large garden and lots and lots of pretty flowers. Also amusing was their seasonal decorations, which were this summer...pirates! Yes, paper mache pirates and soldiers and cannons climbing over the tops of a greenhouse. Yes I will post pictures later. They had a nice little French restaurant where I had a nice lunch (how often can you get French lunches for $8? And in Japan?!) and then went trinket shopping at one of the big department stores, Matzusakaya, nearby.

And let me tell you, these people know how to SHOP. This one store was three nine floor buildings of, um, everything. They even had a mini-museum, art gallery, and KIMONO store. I went to the latter for kicks, innocently thinking for some reason if it was a mall type place they sell kimonos that are y'know, normal store priced. HA! I walk in, the cheapest thing I see is around $1000. Now I hate going into expensive stores, I guess cos I'm afraid I'll get kicked out for not being up to scratch, but I figure, "Hey, how many times will I ever get to go to a real kimono shop?" So I look around and try not to turn green at these thousands and thousands of dollars worth of pretty things. Interestingly I only saw older women shopping there--the madams (or whatever they're called) of the geisha houses do the shopping maybe? Who knows. Then I scurried back to the normal stores to buy pretty paper and trinkets for the kids of the family.

Tomorrow night we're off to Kobe for the next conference. Stay tuned...