Just a Sci-Fi Kid Like Me

I typically don't have Sunday blahs, but I do wish this week was less overloaded so I could fit in some extra sleep somewhere. It's the first week of classes, so that means all my regular meetings plus some extra meetings plus the start of teaching and extra teaching prep. *sigh*

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at an outreach event for new students; the theme was games and I was doing tarot readings. (I do like how skills picked up in otherwise fruitless endeavors--in this case, meant to bond with "friends" I have since left behind--eventually come in handy.) Across three hours I gave 21 readings, and apparently was the second-most popular table after the ones for Smash Brothers.

I also got a chunk of work done on my diss, which, well done me. I also found late Friday I have to do some extra paperwork, because of fucking course. I was told this like I should know what forms to fill out, and hopefully will find this info out tomorrow. ::sigh::

I also called Mom this afternoon because I might as well get some chores out of the way, the better to spend as much of next weekend as possible sleeping. She was on fairly good behavior actually, which was a relief. Apparently my 20th high school reunion was held recently, and she asked me a few questions about people who I don't really remember. After about half an hour I do think one of the names she mentioned was a girl who had beaten me in the creative writing contest my....junior year, maybe? I remember being irked because when I read her story it was poorly written with several words used incorrectly, and I was baffled. And apparently if THAT'S what I remember I'm petty af, but there you go. (I also FOR SURE remember that when it came to the awards ceremony my mother didn't even go, which led to me spending two hours on my own at an event where everyone else was there with their parents. See also me being petty, again.)

Anyways the weather has been the lovely sort of pre-fall weather I like best: golden sunshine, brief rain showers, crisp air and cool breezes. If I was less exhausted I'd love to bake, but maybe later when everything isn't absurd.

To my own surprise, it feels like. marthawells has epic posts here and here about the events and such. I hid out a fair bit with Martha throughout because I was in complete overload and she was one of (many, actually) friendly faces there. I've been very clingy the last few days and everyone has been amazingly patient with me (especially Todd, OMG, poor guy).

Okay, so, we knew Deeper Than Swords was gonna be a big deal, and we planned for it and everything, but holy cow it's another thing when you actually are there and SEEING it. When we went to pick George up at the airport he was stopped twice for photos in the twenty feet from luggage pick-up to exit. (Also, he's incredibly nice and patient with fans, I mean, wow.) So we dropped him off at his hotel to chill and then to go prepare for the exhibit opening, which as usual, it's opening at 6, it's 5:59, we're tossing the cleaning rag and the glue bottle. And then the hundred VIPS start to head up.

Now, for context, most exhibits we do are considered a success if there's like 80 people there. We broke records a little bit when Todd and I did 100 Years Hence a few years ago, because 300 people came to that. For George's event, we had three hundred people lining up for autographs alone; I have no idea what the numbers of people coming in for the opening Friday actually were. But the building was always busy, and we had the signing lines and the Texas Ren Faire actors and the food truck outside and Barnes & Nobles selling books and Anise Press displaying posters.

And so opening night. When people go to our exhibits, there's typically a consistent buzz of conversation as people talk. For 100 Years Hence, it was pretty loud. For this, I swear, NO ONE talked for the first half hour. I was pretty freaked, then Hal said they were all READING everything we'd written. OH. Well. Um. George didn't actually make it up to see his exhibit opening night--too many fans--an then before we knew it it was time for the feast. Which, YES. The Uni president came so they were going to bump Todd from the head table, which I thought was unfair, so I exchanged places with my boss so he could sit with George instead and then Todd and I sat together with Martha and Troyce and Dan and Scott, and the Uni Marketing head who was there just to see WTF and made small talk and was pretty lost. (Poor guy.) And that all went great and I actually got to relax for the first time in weeks maybe.

Then Friday. Dude. Let me add here that I had to wear a suit three times this week and it's a pain to not have pockets, which is why I always wear cargo pants otherwise; also, Carla commandeered me to make me look grown-up which everyone kept commenting on and so forth. (Not that they said I looked grown-up, just that I looked really good...you know what I mean.) Anyway so the morning began with meeting a reporter, doing our thing, then going to have lunch with George and Ty Franck and Martha Wells and Dianne Kraft (who is a friend to Cushing and to George) where we all got to chat about tv and writing and such. Then back to Cushing, running around doing prep, then secreting George into the building so he wouldn't be mobbed prior to his booksigning. Amazingly everyone in the lines got something signed. Then it was time to go to the Auditorium for his talk and the HBO screening.

NGL I don't remember that much there. I was intro'ing George and had somehow put off the terror of talking to 2500 people until I actually saw them all. I do know that everyone laughed at my jokes and several people said they thought it was a great speech. Ty said he didn't know I was nervous, but Scott did because apparently I didn't breathe for all five minutes. Okay, well, yes.

Then George spoke, and Todd and I collected audience questions and sorted them so that Todd could do the Q&A. We ditched the obnoxious ones ("when's the next book coming out" "My plot theory is .... [ten lines later] Amirite?" etc) and Todd asked the good ones plus some conversation starters we got going. Then there was the screening of the HBO S3 opener.

We actually missed that, because we spirited George away to see his exhibit. Which he liked. We could tell he liked it, and then he said he liked it, and it was clear he was impressed, and if I hadn't been so exhausted from everything I probably would have cried in relief. Ty wanted to know who wrote all the text (I wrote, Todd edited/made it all better) and was amazed that he saw stuff he'd never seen before because he thought that would never happen. (He's George's Senior Minion, apparently he's seen it all, and refused to be a Dothraki extra because he didn't want to take his shirt off and be cold for three hours. Also, he's hilarious and awesome.) And it was great and it made the pain of the last six months totally worth it.

So then we went back for the HBO after-party. Scott saw the episode--I was bummed my prediction was inaccurate--and a number of people came up to me to thank me for making everything happen, which was also touching and a balm to my soul. (NGL, I was really hurt when, during all of the speeches Thursday night, no one said anything about me or Todd, except for Hal who made a joke that was a bit of a non sequitor if you didn't know the context. 'Who's Cait and why should we care her office is messy?' I mentioned it to my boss, who realized that maybe saying something about who did everything was maybe a good idea, which was why he thanked Todd and I on Friday night.)

And then we went to the concluding dinner with George. That was maybe the best part because everything was done and we could all chill out. So we talked about comic books and Avengers (his favorite is Ant Man, who Ty hates), why Prometheus sucked, what it's like shooting Game of Thrones, and I don't remember what all else. And then we dropped him off at his hotel, and he said we did a good job, and he hugged me bye.

AND THAT WAS HOW I SURVIVED DEEPER THAN SWORDS.

Now I've gotta go catch-up on homework. I don't have any excuses now. Hoo boy.

ETA: Here's a link to a video of the TV spot Todd and I did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-SmkvEJd9s&feature=youtu.be
(Todd points out that I got scolded for calling George a SF writer instead of a Fantasy writer. Pssht!)

Mostly. Every step forward on my big project at work is an epic battle for no real reason--just other people's egos who want in on what they see as the glory (where was "the glory" when I was quietly trundling away for five years?). It's absolutely exhausting and emotionally draining and physically debilitating. Thursday afternoon Todd took me aside to show me some stretch exercises to help, which may have saved my life.

School is good. I really love all my classes this term, including the one I'm auditing through skype at another Uni--a prof is kind of reviewing me to see how I do as a student before she agrees to be my outside reader. It's a history course in book history that meets for discussion irregularly, and it's pretty great because it's all of the stuff I've learned but from the other side of things. In literary courses you can examine texts that have been censored, how the text varies and what that means, but in history, you're looking at the specific statutes and economics of censorhip and privilege etc etc. Yes I know I'm a unique and special snowflake, but I still think it's neat.

In adult news, we have four wedding invitations on the fridge (guess it's time to pick what family members we like best) plus two sets of our other friends just had babies. Adulthood is weird, man.

So, hi, Internet. I've missed you.

Last night they took down the shiny scifi banners on the building.

This morning, they put up these:



ETA: I was on my way to lunch when I ran into a coworker, who stopped me and said, "So, I heard you're doing the death-defying plunge and going up for tenure early." I said "Yeah, I have my Captain Kirk-like reputation to live up to. I'm trying to decide whether or not to take an apple with me when I do the actual presentation."(No, I didn't have my Kirk badge on at the time. Dammit!) They were like, ??? I said, "Y'know, how Kirk's munching an apple during the Kobayashi Maru, cos it's the...unbeatable...test?" They were like "Um, no." Then my friend Tina walked up and I was like, "Hey, I was just explaining about going up for tenure and whether or not to munch on an apple at my talk." And Tina is like, "Oh yeah, like Kirk at the Kobayashi Maru!"

SOME PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ME!!! <33333

Okay, so tomorrow night I'm flying to CA for a week of vacation with Scott. *grins like a happy goof* The Familia Samuelson will be kindly taking care of the furchildren for me once again. So I'll be on friends-only mode for the week while I'm traveling.

I have also promised

*Lyndsey
*Jenni
*Todd
*Evi

that I will not

*check work email
*send work email
*take work with me
*do work
*etc.

Lyndsey and Jenni have also said that if they see any emails from me that aren't going on about the great time I'm having they will email Scott and tell him to take my computer way. And also, apparently, if they decide they REALLY need me they are going to get Todd to pretend to be. He promises he will wave his arms over his head at appropriate intervals and make snide comments. So I suppose that everyone will have to SURVIVE WITHOUT ME.

SOMEHOW.






(...Um, if you can't, you'll totally let me know, right? Cos you need me? And all?)

So today at work we had a special event commemorating the Muniz Gift--an endowment to the library to purchase historic material relating to the history of south Texas. What we bought and subsequently put together a mini-exhibit for is a set of post-Civil War letters written by a member/surgeon of a black US Army troop that was sent to the area in the 1860s to help the Mexican Army fight the French.

...I kind of want to read them and write a story about them now.

Anyhow, Lionel Garcia, a professor, novelist, and PEN award winner, did a reading of his poem "My Horse." To celebrate we bought letterpress chapbooks published by Arion Press in San Francisco. (For my ST peeps, this is the sort of stuff that Printer!Jim and crew would work with.)

Afterwards I asked him to sign my copy, which he very kindly did (and he even spelled my name right!!!!!!!!). And then because I am me I held it tightly throughout with my writing notebook for good luck.



Me: Sympathetic magic works, right?
Todd: Sure. But it would be nice if you wrote something that wasn't fanfic.
Me: DUDE. This has my original fic project in it.
Todd: Really? Awesome!
Mary: She writes in it all the time. She had it at the meeting this morning.
Cassie: Well will you do a reading now?
Tina: Do it! Do it! Do it!
Me: Um, okay. (flips through book looking for something readable)
Cassie: Is that poetry?
Mary: It's definitely columns.
Me: Well I went through an Anglo Saxon dictionary and wrote down all the words I liked the sounds of.
Mary: ...
Cassie: ...
Tina: ...
Me: ... THIS IS HOW I WORK, OKAY??

So I read them a couple paragraphs from my WIP. And felt foolish. But they seemed entertained.

~

In other news, Starbucks has brought back their salted caramel hot chocolate which I LOOOOOOVE.

And IT still has my laptop, even though they said they'd bring it back in half an hour. SIGH.

I should have my grad school packet out in the mail next week. Then I can stop obsessing about it. I hope. Steve and David were asking about it and seemed positive, so fingers crossed!

Or fiendish glee. Y'know. Whatever.

Hal's cleaning his office by giving me stuff. He gave me two ongoing projects, three books, and three fat binders just now. He reassures me that it could be worse, as witnessed by all the stuff he's not giving me. Like the 3' 5" or so pile of paper right there.

Um. Yay?

**ETA: The amount of paper Hal is throwing away = one hobbit. This confuddles me even more.

**ETA2: And then it occurred to me the stuff I STILL ended up with is ALSO the size of a hobbit. So I ended up with one paper hobbit instead of two? So I'll be okay so long as they don't drink from the Ents' spring?