For Mother’s Day, we usually go to Frisch’s because they give out coupons for free dinners. Some other local places do that as well, I think, but it’s pretty traiditional to go to Frisch’s. So anyway, this year, we went to Frisch’s. Every female over the age of 18, whether or not they were actually mothers, got Mother’s Day coupons.

But you know what? According to our waitress, Frisch’s doesn’t do a thing for Father’s Day! That bothers me on more than one level. I mean, if you’re going to honor one facet of society but not another, isn’t that discrimination? Do they presume because fathers are guys that they wouldn’t want a free meal?

I think that’s stupid. I think the fathers of America should rise up and protest this unfair treatment. I think we should have Father’s Day coupons. I think Father’s Day should be just as important as Mother’s Day, because if you come right down to it, you need both a mother and a father to have a child. You can’t have one without the other, unless you go the scientific route.

I know, Father’s Day isn’t for a couple of weeks. But if your Dad’s as hard to buy for as mine is, you’d best start looking now. And maybe, just maybe, some restaurant will wise up and start promoting Father’s Day instead of shoving it into the corner where it has been (or so it seems) for many, many years.

Sheesh. Talk about Compare and Contrast.

Can a person’s life change so much over the course of a year? Evidently so.

Interestingly enough, having this journal is a really cool thing for compare and contrast purposes. I’ve never really been able to do that before, because I never had a journal before. Blogs are good.

Also, if you note last May’s WIP, another synchronisity: HD was my WIP. I’m getting ready to submit it now. Ha!

Pray. I still have a chance to be interviewed for a job I applied for back in early December. This would be The Job. Honest. Well, other than writing full-time, this would be The Job.

But anyway. Good thoughts and prayers will be greatly appreciated. I’d love to get that interview. Heck, I’d love to get this job…

And catching up on my blog reading, from Keri, the Random Title and Name Generator I am now Princess of The Right Side of Procrastination, Jennifer L. St.Clair.

I think that fits.

Con Report: Getting There was only half the battle

Fourteen miles of construction on I-71. Fifteen minutes late getting to Paul’s house. But we got underway, and dropped his two cute kids off at their grandparents.

We were making good time, I think. The traffic wasn’t too thick for a holiday weekend, but after a little while, we started to notice the Fog. Lots of fog. Blocking the scenery of the surrounding mountains. We were detoured once, then got back onto 68 and ran into the remnants of the worst pileup in Maryland history.

We sat for three hours in dead traffic with an eighth of a tank of gas. In those three hours, we went one mile. Thanks to the am radio station we tuned in to, we heard eyewitness accounts of the horrible accidents, and realized we would be there for a while.

Well, being trapped in a minivan with a bunch of writers isn’t a bad thing. After speculating if the bread guy would ever return from his jaunt to pee in the woods (the werewolves, you know) and watching the motorcycle guys beg for food from the motorists, we realized that we weren’t going to make our panels, so we had mini ones in the car.

Paul and Toby did the Population Implosion panel quite well, and I said a little something about small presses. I think Toby had another panel, but I don’t remember if he said anything about it or not. (I’m thinking he did, but I can’t remember.)

Finally we got moving, in pea-soup Fog again. And we continued on our way, got gas without running out, and used the nastiest bathroom in the state of Maryland. No kidding! The sink looked like someone had washed their bloody hands in it after murdering an entire family or something. Or maybe that was just my imagination running into overtime.

Sometime around 8:30, I got a call from Jess, who thought I had gotten stuck in traffic on my way home from work and that I had been sitting on 125 for five hours. Which was funny in itself, since I can’t imagine a 100-car pileup on 125 without laughing.

We left Paul’s house before 10:30am. We arrived at the hotel after 9pm. Toby danced in the parking lot.

After I checked in and got my badge, I went in search of Laura, just to let her know I was there. After failing to read the con’s map, I managed to stumble into the Art Show kick-off (or whatever that was) and there she was, along with Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the GoHs, and David Coe. And Alan, I think, from Meisha Merlin. So I got introduced to these nice people, and found my roommate. Yay!

It seems like everyone was stuck in traffic and late, because they had to cancel some of the earlier panels. So I didn’t feel too bad about it, other than the fact that it would have been nice to be on the small press/pod panel. Ah well. Better luck next time, right?

So… Laura and I headed to bed rather early, but ruined it by talking for hours. In fact, we did that every single night. We never learned.

And it didn’t help that the alarm clock went off at 5:56am Saturday morning, a very rude and unwelcome wake-up call.

Saturday I had no panels, but there were some I wanted to go to. I ate both breakfast and lunch in the Green Room, which was nice, discovered a wonderful flavor of Black Currant tea that I have to find again and purchase, and ended up meeting all sorts of nice people. I also spent my book budget on books: the Tanya Huff collection I’ve been meaning to buy, the new Tanya Huff (Long Hot Summoning), one of Laura’s books, the first book in David Coe’s new series… I think that’s it. If the authors were there, I got my stuff signed, too! Yay! And I swapped business cards with a couple of people.

Let’s see. Saturday night, Laura and I headed over to the mall to eat, and we ended up getting wonderful Chinese food. Laura rescued the baby ptedrodactyl (sp?) in the Discover store (fast reflexes!), and I took a few pictures. Later, we went to the various parties, which were okay (I’m not a party person.) But the food was good. And I got a lizard. I got to talk to David Coe a bit more (he’s a cool guy) and I saw someone drink a purple margarita. There was also spiked punch, but I didn’t drink any.

I think my line will be that I’m allergic to alcohol.

I attended David Coe’s reading (which made me happy I’d already bought book 1), Lawrence Shoen’s reading (funny!!), and Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s reading (which was good, even though I don’t care for SF.) It was nice to be able to put faces to some people I’ve “met” on sff.net.

Sunday, I attended David Barr-Kirtley’s reading, and received a signed manuscript of his very good story, “Seeds for Brains.” I also sat and talked with a bunch of other writers/participants in the Green Room after breakfast (Sunday was the day I decided to sleep in a bit.) I also attended Paul’s reading and Laura’s reading, where she played the harp. And I did not win the dragon puzzle.

I also got stuck on an elevator with three or four preteens who shouted “Will you marry me?” every time the door opened. I left them with the lacrosse players. (Who were also at the hotel. And did not know what a LARP was.)

There were only three elevators per tower in the hotel, so waiting for elevators was one of the low points of the weekend! I also participated in my first panel on Sunday, “Why did it take so long for Urban Fantasy to catch on?” which was not very well attended. But we managed to have a panel anyway.

Okay, and on to Monday…

Monday, I had a panel at 10am, so I had to get up and ready and out the door. Laura and I managed to check out before the panel, which worked out well, and the panel itself was interesting and fairly well attended. After that, I gave away one of the free books I got over the course of the weekend to someone who would appreciate it more, said my goodbyes to everyone I could find, and we were out the door!

We ran into no fog, or traffic, on the way home. I managed to prove that it’s possible to eat a Taco Supremo salad in a car without making a mess, and read one and a half books (the Tanya Huff ones.) I got home around 9:30 last night, wide awake and raring to go. And I do declare, that was a nice vacation.

Of course I don’t want to go back to work now…

Other notes: I’m seriously thinking about dealer tables, since my crafts would fit in quite nicely at a con. I’m also going to sub The Twa Sisters to RoF, because… I think it would fit in well there. So we’ll see.

It was fun. I’m glad I went. I met some new friends, and I don’t think I embarrassed myself too badly. And I would go again next year.

And I’m back, finally. I’ll do a con report tomorrow, I hope; it involves Fog. And lots of other stuff, but especially FOG.

In just about five minutes, I will be off to Baltimore! I’ll post my report when I return, hopefully with pictures. See you!

Laundry is done, suitcase is packed. I just took a break from potting to eat the rest of the cress that wouldn’t fit into the pots (32 pots of cress is enough, I think.) I gave myself until 5pm to finish the plants, and then all I have to do is apply for a job (long story) and write! So this is good.

I could go to the writers group meeting tonight, but I don’t think I will. I’d rather stay home and get some work done, I think.

Well, my car’s getting an oil change at the moment, and Bekah’s will be next. I’ve printed out the pertinent emails (like the ones with the confirmation numbers, etc.) and I’ve decided to take the second set of edits for TNG with me to work on while I’m there. (Provided I get any writing at all done at this, of course!) I have some stuff to print out and a load of laundry in the washer, but otherwise, I’m nearly ready to go. Yay!

Let’s see. I’m also potting the rest of my plants this afternoon, so I’d like to get all the travel stuff done by noon. Is that possible? Perhaps. We’ll see.

Whew! Busy day at work this morning. I’m going to take my break to write a bit here…

Last night was Jessica’s confirmation. It was at the St. Peter in Chains cathedral downtown. It was interesting trying to get everyone’s schedules situated so we could all attend, but we made it! And it was lovely. Afterwards, we went to Pomodori’s for pizza, and didn’t get home until 11pm. So I didn’t get much sleep last night.

Then, of course, this morning was absolutely hairy at work. The phone was ringing off the hook, the waiting room was full, and I was all by myself! But then, help came, so things are back to “normal” now. And I handled things well, as far as I can tell.

Let’s see. Tomorrow I pack and do a few things, and then Friday I leave for Columbus, and then we go to Baltimore! I’m really looking forward to this now. I was a bit scared, but I think I’m over it. We’ll see, though, once I actually get there.

Of course, there was the little problem of the hotel cancelling our room reservations, but that seems to have been fixed now. Whew!

I just have to get everything done I want to get done today… which means I’ll be working hard for the rest of the day.

Yesterday I forgot to pick up the TripTiks. I’m doing that as soon as I get off for lunch. And I have to take my car to get an oil change tomorrow as well, and then… vacation. Yay!