KJ

Hello from Seattle! I left home on Wednesday morning and got as far as Salem, OR (about an hour south of Portland). Arrived in Seattle around 3pm on Thursday, checked into the hotel, got my con badge, and did a quick spin around the dealer's room (where I ran into zahraa) before heading off to Writers with Drinks, an amazing reading featuring Cecelia Tan, Andrea Hairston, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Darcie Little Badger, and Becky Chambers. All the readers were excellent, and Charlie Jane provided them all with hilarious and extravagant fictional introductions, including herself. I think it's fair to say that this was the con-related event I was most excited to attend, and it lived up to my expectations.

I had half-planned to spend this morning at Pike Place Market, but it started raining last night and hasn't really let up, so I took it easy instead, visiting the art show and dealers room and then attending a few panels:

• Martha Wells guest of honor reading, where she started with a passage from Queen Demon, the forthcoming book in her current fantasy series, and then answered some questions before rounding it out with her in-progress Murderbot story, which is scheduled for next May.
• A panel called A Genre in Conversation with Itself, which is about the phenomenon of SFF authors writing stories in response to other stories. I picked this one mostly because of the panelists: Neil Clarke (editor of Clarksworld magazine), Becky Chambers, John Scalzi, Isabel Kim (the author of a Hugo-nominated short story that was a response to "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas")... and George R. R. Martin. Therefore, it was going to be a fascinating conversation and/or a train wreck, and either way I wanted to see it for myself. GRRM was almost 15 minutes late, complained a lot about film adaptations of books (Starship Troopers was a particular focus of his ire), and mourned the impulse to rewrite "The Cold Equations" with "a happy ending". Fortunately, other members of the panel managed to pull the panel back on topic and to talk about things less than 30 years old. The two insights I most appreciated came from Becky Chambers. First, she mentioned that Omelas and "The Cold Equations" are both stories taught in high school or college now, so lots of people have read them, and that explains not just the fact of many response stories but that they tend to come in waves, as each new generation of writers comes into their careers. The other was to note that a lot of "response fic" is appearing in the form of video games -- she specifically mentioned Clair Obscur as a response to the Final Fantasy series, which immediately added it to my to-play list.
• More Martha Wells content: a live recording of the podcast Ink to Film, in which an author and a filmmaker read a book, then discuss its film adaptation. They also sometimes interview creators, and today they talked to her about Murderbot. They opened with a lovely series of videos from the show's main cast sharing their love and congratulations with Martha, then discussed the process of writing the books, optioning the story to filmmakers, and then creating the show. Although Wells wasn't directly involved with making the adaptation choices or writing the screenplays (although she did read all the screenplays and provide feedback), she got to choose between several teams who wanted to buy the option, and she was able to pick the people she felt most understood the character and the story she was telling. When we got to Q&A, she had to demur on almost every question about why specific changes were made: "You'd have to ask Phil and Chris; that was all Phil and Chris." That said, she seems extremely happy with the final product, which is great to hear (especially since I, too, loved that TV series a lot).

I then spent the rest of the evening with friends: dinner with illustratedpage and her friend (who was a surprise!Mawrter) followed by an hour at a local cat cafe with bookishdi, both lovely and relaxing times.

Tomorrow: Pike Place, several readings, and the Hugo Awards, god help us all.

Today is my 49th birthday, which I celebrated in rather low-key fashion. Our friends SE and SF came for the day, bearing snacky foods for lunch and a orange-pistachio cake for dinner. After lunch, we took a walk around Bernal Hill -- a park with some of the best views in the city -- then went for ice cream in Dogpatch before coming back to our place for chatting, TV, Italian takeout, and dessert. Very lovely.

One of the last things I did before everything shut down in March 2020 was my birthday celebration, which I scheduled for two weeks beforehand because some of my close friends were going to be out of town for the day itself. We had brunch, followed by pedicures and tiki drinks, and then I capped it off with our regular Sunday TV night. (I had originally been waffling about doing it two weeks after my birthday instead, when my friends would be back; every time I think about it, I thank the fates that I decided to do it beforehand!) I consider that day to be the last big milestone of The Before Times, the last time I gathered with friends to celebrate without thinking about the pandemic or planning to take it into account in any way. (FogCon 2020 was the following weekend, but that didn't feel normal in any way -- it was before mask-wearing was widespread here, but we didn't hug or shake hands and we washed our hands constantly and one of the honored guests attended virtually and it felt like the threat was real and looming over the entire event.... which, of course, it was, but we got extremely lucky. If the event had been even a week later, I'm sure it would have been cancelled.) As it happens, last weekend retraced the steps of that day in February 2020 almost exactly: brunch in the same restaurant with most of the same people, pedicures, TV night; the only thing missing was the drinks. But it all felt different. I wonder if gatherings will ever feel the same again.

Last year I got a group together to play Among Us, and while that was also very fun, there's just something nice about spending a birthday with friends in person. I'm already thinking about what I might want to do for next year's big birthday that ends in a zero. Part of me wants to pull something big together; part of me feels like making big plans a year out is pure folly right now. I'll think about it. No specific ideas yet, but of course I want to mark it. Something will come to me, I'm sure.

( My view for the next week )

I have rented a house in Palm Springs with a few friends (all fully vaccinated). (Dinosaurs, pizza slice pool floaty, and glowing time travel cave not pictured.) The inside of the house is fine; the outdoor space is glorious. I'm typing this from the backyard living room, where I expect to spend most of my time this week. I rated this house as my top choice based on this back patio alone and feel entirely confident that I made the right choice. There are so many birds here -- I see them flitting by, hear them chirping all around. Right now there's a mourning dove down in the bushes and another hanging out on the power lines overhead. Also butterflies and dragonflies and flowers and cacti. It's beautiful and restful, and exactly what I needed.

We have no specific plans except for lounging and cooking some dinners, and that is entirely fine by me. I hope to get you some more dispatches from poolside, but if not (it certainly didn't work out last time), I'll see you all next week.

I moved the laptop all the way from my desk to the Poang chair in my bedroom area. (Since I live in a loft, my home doesn't really have rooms as such except for the two bathrooms; downstairs is a living room area and eat-in kitchen, while the upstairs has our bed and dressers in one area and our desks in another. So it's roughly like a bedroom and an office). I read in this spot pretty often, but I've rarely tried to type here, so we'll see how it works out. I think it would be better if I had one of those lap desk things. Maybe I should invest in one.

So, Week 3. Which was originally supposed to be the final week, but I don't think anyone truly believed it would be over so quickly. One interesting thing about moving to shelter in place is that I feel like time is moving faster. I no longer have the sense that every day is an hour and every week is a month. I suspect a part of me spent the first two weeks of March waiting for the other shoe to drop; now that it's fallen, and I have a better idea of what life is going to be like under these circumstances, I can settle in a bit and get on with the new routine.

We had our first virtual Thursday Night Dinner this week, which was fun. I appreciated the chance to talk to people that I'm used to seeing almost every week, and a few who aren't able to come regularly when we meet in person. I'm hoping we can get back into doing it on a regular basis, even if it's not weekly. I also briefly joined in a Zoom call with my dad and his sister, which might be the first time I'd seen my aunt face-to-face, even virtually, since my wedding over 15 years ago. So it's nice to be making connections with people, even though the circumstances are not what anyone would prefer. I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert, but I'm still missing real-life socialization, and I'm sure I'll be really eager for more of it once all this is over.

I just took a whirlwind weekend trip to Boston for my friend A's baby shower. I was on the ground in Boston for less than 48 hours, and the total trip was around 60 hours including travel time, but it was totally worth it to a) attend the shower (especially since I'm unlikely to be able to visit for at least a few months after the baby is born) and b) not have to take any time off work (since I haven't got much PTO saved up yet and have two major trips planned for later in the year). Fortunately I got pretty nice weather, not too cold, just a little rain yesterday, and got to see a bunch of college friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in many years.

Because it was such a short trip, I didn't bother bringing my laptop -- although maybe I should have, because JetBlue now offers free wifi -- and I haven't get gotten in the habit of reading DW on my iPad -- although maybe I should; DW posting on iPad is not the greatest experience, but reading is just fine -- so I've been out of the loop for a few days. It's kind of exciting that I had to skip back 60 posts to see everything! But that still means a lot of skimming so if I missed anything huge, let me know!

I was basically off DW for the past week and a bit -- took a trip to Massachusetts, Maine, and Pennsylvania, and four more states if you include the ones I only drove through (Boston to Portland and back, and later Boston to the Philadelphia area). The central reason for this trip was a meeting at Bryn Mawr on Friday night and Saturday, but T and I decided to make a real vacation out of it, and he'd never been to Boston (or any other part of New England, for that matter) so we flew out a week early. We started at A's house in Boston for a couple of days (highlights included the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum -- anyone named Isabella gets in free! -- and an architecture-focused boat tour of Boston Harbor and the Charles River). Then M, who lives in Portland, Maine, but came down to Boston on Sunday, took us on a scenic drive up there. We stayed the night, spent the morning wandering around Portland, and then took the bus back to Boston. T decided to skip the Philadelphia portion of the trip and flew home on Thursday; A and I drove down to Bryn Mawr on Friday. We somehow got ourselves elected class co-presidents, and the time has come to start planning our 25th reunion -- someone please tell me how it has been a quarter century since I started my senior year of college?? Anyway, it was a great get together with our classmates and other Mawrters, energizing as a trip to the Mothership always is, and I can't wait for the reunion, which is the last week of May.

It was good to get away, and to see more of Maine -- I'd been to Portland once many years ago, for a Barenaked Ladies concert, but we basically drove up from Boston and back in a day, and it was essentially dark the entire time we were in the city. And of course I always enjoy time with M and A, a commodity much rarer than it used to be. It's amazing to have friends that I've known continuously for almost 30 years, and with luck I'll know them for 30 more.

Friday: Friends cooked spaghetti and meatballs and invited us over, followed by a sampling of Girl Scout cookies. Thin Mints continue to rule the pack. Much yummy food and fun conversation.

Saturday: Slept in. Made chicken marsala for lunch (that was supposed to be Friday's dinner before we got the invite out) and watched Moonlight, which was a beautiful movie with brilliant acting, if a bit short on plot. Dinner was all-you-can-eat crab at a charity dinner in Alameda. I won two bottles of wine and two bottles of vodka in the raffle! Even more yummy food and fun conversation.

Today: Slept in again. Bacon and eggs for breakfast. Soon I'm heading out to another friend's house for Indian takeout and season 2 of The Marvelous Ms. Maisel.

Pretty good for a rainy weekend, I think. :) I hope all is well with all of you!

Since my family Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I spent most of today kicking back and making pie.

Pumpkin

Apple crumb

Both were new recipes for me, so I'm curious how they will come out. I'll keep you all posted.

Then we joined friends at a churrascaria, a.k.a. Brazilian steakhouse, for an endless parade of meat on skewers. Maybe not traditional American Thanksgiving fare, but the tradition of being completely stuffed with food continues. And good company too.

I hope everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Welcome to FogCon 8! I am back in my room after a busy but fun opening day, which featured the following:

- Learning how to play a board game, Terraforming Mars, which is pretty much what it says on the tin. We didn't finish the whole thing because it takes like three hours, we only had one and a half, and we spent a good twenty minutes going over the rules, but I still enjoyed it, and might get myself into a full-length game at some point, depending on what else is going on.

- A panel on aliens, which was nominally about how actors get into the mindset to play an alien role, but ended up being a more general conversation about alien characters. Andrea Hairston, one of the Guests of Honor, was on this panel, and she is a terrific panelist and storyteller. I'm excited for her solo panel tomorrow evening. Probably my favorite bit was a talk about the pitfalls of authenticity; "authenticity is frozen", in Hairston's words, whereas real cultures and people are always growing and changing. Although I didn't say it there, it reminded me of David Chang's complaints about he sees as a misguided search for authenticity in his recent Netflix series, Ugly Delicious.

- Tasty Japanese food for dinner with forestofglory, Jed, Mary Ann, and others.

- The opening ceremony, at which I helped lead the group in a song. So, yeah. I got up and sang in front of other people, not quite solo but almost, and it went mostly okay I think? (Photographic proof.) The song itself is a round based on an Ursula Le Guin poem, "The Creation of Ea", which I know from doing roundsinging at Jed's house, and Jed asked if I would help him and Mary Ann teach the song at opening ceremonies in honor of Le Guin's recent passing. It was fun, if a bit scary. (Even scarier is that I seem to have agreed to do the same thing at WisCon.)

- Another panel, also featuring Andrea Hairston, about science and religion in SFF. The discussion had a few limitations, because all five people on the panel had been raised in a Christian tradition of some variety (though their current beliefs varied quite a bit), but it was still a fascinating discussion that could easily have gone on for another hour.

- ConTention, our annual gathering for debate and silliness and silly debates. forestofglory and I successfully roped the group into arguing about whether cheesecake is cake or pie (kerrykhat must be so proud). Other topics: Dumbledore vs Gandalf, Doctor Who vs Star Trek, who will be the first SFF author to win a Nobel Prize for Literature, is originality overrated?

- An hour of staffing the consuite -- I ran into a concom member who is also a friend right before ConTention and she roped me into asked if I could keep an eye on the place for an hour, and I decided why not? While there, I managed to resurrect the cheesecake debate briefly, which then ranged a little more widely ("is a building a sandwich or a burrito?"); I also got a little Dragon Age chat in with a guy in a Grey Warden t-shirt. Once my relief came along, I dropped by zahraa and Eric's room party, and then it was time for quiet time, winding down, and writing up this post.

Overall I'm very glad to know more people in the FogCon community now, and to feel more comfortable getting into conversations, because it's way more fun. The downside is less downtime, to recharge from being around people non-stop. But if that's the trade-off, I'll take it.

We saw Thor: Ragnarok today. I enjoyed it quite well, but will hold my full thoughts until tomorrow because now it is late. We had a full day: Thor followed by lunch, and then drinks, dinner, and dessert after to celebrate my friend S's birthday. A long evening, but a fun and delicious one. I hope everyone had a similarly lovely Saturday!