My geeky day

( I saw a lot of these today... )

...at Wonder-Con, the local annual comic book convention, which SE and I attended today. I've been to Alternative Press Expo a few times, but I've never been to one of the mainstream cons before, and it was a very different experience -- tons of people in costume, lots and lots of vendors, a handful of publishers, and only a few artists. Probably the most interesting connection I made was with a bookseller, who had a volume I wanted for the library and had been unable to find easily online. Mostly, though, I wandered, browing the selection of bookstores, toy sellers, music and DVD stores... I'm lucky I walked away spending as little money as I did! A couple of science fiction books, an issue of Geek Monthly (a new magazine I'm quite curious to get a close look at), The Dream Hunters by Gaiman and Amano, and some soundtracks: Advent Children, FFVII Piano, and the score to the Death Note live action film, which I picked up totally on a whim. Listening as I type this, and it's a quite nice instrumental set, moody, very Death Note. I kind of want to see the movie now.

Afterwards, ( we decided a little refreshment was in order: )

Samovar is a local tea place with tasty sweets and savories and an excellent tea selection. So we sat outside and ate our cookies and drank our tea and read our comics and it was perfectly lovely. Later, a pack of friends joined us for dinner, then followed me home for creampuffs and Okami. Altogether a more than pleasant way to celebrate my impending birthday, and I feel fortified for the stressful week of work and rehersal that is likely to follow.

Another year, another dollar; fic exchange excitement!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and gifts (most especially ovo_lexa for the artwork!!). You guys are the best.

My official celebration was yesterday's dinner, since I have chorus tonight and it's the start of a concert week. But my boss did take me to lunch today. She asked me how I felt about birthdays, and I told her that I like them, now. When I was younger, late-teens early-twenties, it felt weird, each year that passed taking me another step down the scary scary path to adulthood. Now that I'm an adult any way you slice it (past thirty, "real" job, married, homeowner, etc.), the additional year doesn't mean nearly as much. It's just an excuse to celebrate, and we can always use more of those.

In other news, I got my ff_exchange assignment and I'm really pleased by it. Some fascinating ideas to play with, and I have some options, which is great. Lots of directions I can go. I look forward to having some time to really sit down and play with them. I hope this project goes well; it has such potential to bring the fandom together, give new people a way to get to know each other.

(And if you're here trying to get to know me... ;) By gen, I mean that I'm hoping for the focus of the story to be on friendship or on plot. It doesn't mean there can't be even a hint of romance or subtext. In fact, if you can work believable subtext into true gen, I may fall down and worship you. Otherwise, I think my requests are pretty straightforward, but of course I'm happy to answer questions via the mods. Whoever you are, whatever you pick, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!)