16 October
Hooray! At last I am writing about Saturday! Except that I'm not, because I forgot something about Friday night. Before I woke up Jette with my giant stomping feet of stompiness and turning on lights willy and nilly and things, I went up to Melissa's room to finally get my birthday presents!
Yes, I know that my birthday was two months ago, but if we're gonna go with my idea that your birthday lasts until you get the last of your presents, then it's a blessing to get them late.
You know, or whatever.
But anyway, she gave me The Hero and the Crown, and The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley, that she was horrified that I had never read, The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder that she was horrified that I had never read, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt that she was horrified that I had never read, and Because of Winn-Dixie and Pockets, where there was no horror at all, because they are newer books. Hooray for employee discounts!
Also a bottle of Lush conditioner that she bought me in Canada, because I had gotten a tiny bottle and just fallen in love. This is the best conditioner in the wide world, and it wasn't a gift, I paid for it, and yet I had to wait! My hair had to look rough and messy for simply months and it was all Melissa's fault!
Bad Melissa!
So on Saturday (really? Saturday? Are you certain that there is a minute of Friday left undiscussed as of yet?), I heard Jette get up and shower and all, but I slept for another two hours or so. I finally woke up thinking, "Shit, Jette has been up for hours, what is it, noon?" and I looked at the clock and it was like a quarter to nine!
This was when I realize that when you go to bed at midnight, you have enough sleep by 9a. Quite a revelation, I must say!
I puttered and puttered and took a bath in the lovely tub, and then went down for breakfast, hooking up with Molly Zero and the friend of this guy named Ken that I had noticed, but not spoken to the night before. She was somewhat amused that everyone kept walking up to her and asking her what her URL was.
She and Molly decided to go out and do touristy things before Molly's and my panel at 3p, and I wandered out a little bit myself, figuring that I had missed the first panel, the design panel. I went to Barnes and Noble and spent a birthday gift certificate on My Love Affair With England by Susan Allen Toth and The Best American Travel Writing 2001.
It was raining and I had forgotten to bring an umbrella, so running across the street and back was enough for me. This was before I knew that I would get soaked and dry off about six times that day.
Wandered back to the hotel and ended up catching the end of the design panel anyway, which made me wish that I had caught it after all. The second panel was Wendy and Athena talking about journals and body image, which was very interesting and well-presented.
I've been meaning to read Wendy for absolutely ages, and I must read Athena as well. This weekend was all about my rolling my eyes and saying, "Shit, another fascinating, nice person, good writer whose journal I'm going to have to read!" I mentioned that to Ken once, and he said, "Yeah, and I've been thinking about my last ten entries, and they all suck!"
The thing that got me was how prepared they were. They had folders and notes and things, and it occurred to me that I didn't have a single clue of what I was going to talk about in my panel! When Molly showed, I asked her if she had anything prepared and neither had she. We were the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants panel.
I am, of course, nothing if not verbal, and Molly's quite the talker herself, so I wasn't very worried.
Before the panel, though, were the first group of readings.
I was really hoping that it wouldn't be everyone's 9/11 entries, that it would be funny and cheerful stuff, and the very first reading of anyone was Josh, who read his 9/11 entry. Which was beautiful and brought me to tears, but I thought, "No more, I don't want anyone else to do that," and they didn't. I was glad there was one, though.
After that, we either went to lunch or had our panel, and I have decided that that was when we had our panel. I have a 50% chance of getting it right.
The Panel of No-Preparing went pretty well, after a rough start where I joked about how we hadn't prepared, compared to Athena and Wendy and their notes and organization, so Molly made me start first, and I stuttered like a moron. O, how boring and stupid I sounded! Especially after Molly started talking and sounded all together and smart. I improved as we went on, thank goodness.
The panel topic, by the way, was Anonymous or Not, and I was the Not. I think I stated my case well, after all that, though Molly is very good at sounding like her way is the only way, with the smooth, logical tone in her voice. I think I did okay, though.
I finished up by telling the entire room the "Molly called me a bitch!" story, which, since I had told everyone individually earlier in the day and the day before, got a huge laugh.
One year ago today:
And now, without further ado, the tree on top of Paul's car!
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Last Updated Tues 23 October 15:38:09 2001