Okay, first of all, that skipped entry from the 16th is up now. Second of all, I'm going to finish writing about JournalCon in this entry if it's the last thing I do.

I forgot about meeting Doug on the Saturday! It was great meeting him after lo these many years. It was also great, for a few hours, not being the oldest person at JournalCon!

Not that that was the only reason that I was glad to meet you, honestly Doug!

So, after the tapas, we followed the rest of the crowd to a karaoke bar about a million miles away.

Now, I have never been to a karaoke bar before, and I rather supposed that it wouldn't be my glass of tea, and I was right, but it was fun, in a smokey kind of way. There were all these horrible people singing badly, and I don't mean my friends, I mean a bunch of horrible strangers. I think that karaoke would be fun if it was only us, not all these tone-deaf frat kids as well.

I sat with Molly Zero and Doogie, which was fun. Molly and I both thoroughly agreed on the fact that we weren't doing any singing, because we are both singers and take it too seriously to possibly sound silly. I know this makes us sound No Fun, but I don't think that anyone who saw Molly Zero that night would think for a minute that she isn't fun.

We hung out and talked, and I really enjoyed myself, but I was getting tired, and went Melissa wandered by, choking and coughing and declaring that she had to leave right now, and I decided to boogie out with her.

Turned out to be good that I did, because it took us half an hour of standing in the rain before we got a taxi, and Melissa said that without me waiting with her, she would have been very bitter.

Sunday was the last of the panels and readings, which was great fun, if somewhat early in the morning, particularly from the late karaoke crowd, some of whom hadn't gotten around to be hungover yet, they were still loaded!

The panel was Storytelling vs. Truthtelling with Melissa (who had almost no voice, but proved that an actress can project no matter what) and Omar (not my little Omar, a different, slightly larger but almost as cute Omar). My particular favourite moment was when Melissa's cell phone rang in the panel, and she took the call, and it was Greg so she talked to him for a bit. With an audience watching her. It was completely hilarious.

Afterwards, we had the remainder of the readings, and I read this one, which went rather well, Erin read this one, which made me ask afterwards, "What company do you work for?" because if they ship dangerous goods, they must be one of our vendors (and they were, natch), and Jessamyn read an entry that I cannot find just now about her brother, which made everyone in the audience but one person weep like a leaky old faucet. It doesn't seem that sad when you read it to yourself, but hearing and seeing her tear up as she talks about how much she loves her brother just laid us all out.

And then it was over! And all were sad. Except for me, because now that it was over, Amy and Andy finally came!

I kept saying to Amy, "You went to JournalCon last year, in Pittsburgh--you live in Chicago, why didn't you come?" and she kept saying, "Because I'm so fat!!" People, she's nine months pregnant, she's not fat, she's filled with another person! But you cannot argue with a person filled with another person, and I suppose when I'm pregnant I'll know what she means.

They had come to have lunch and take me to the airport, but first we had to go to my room so that I could pack, and while we were there, Jane came, who was taking my place as Jette's roommate. We really hadn't talked during the weekend, so it was lovely to make this last minute friend.

We decided to do a little shopping before we went for lunch, against Andy's will, to find a place where Kate had gone on Friday and gotten this great shirt with a devil-girl on it. We walked and walked and finally found it, after Jane spotted a store that she was sure was it and I was sure was not. I was completely wrong.

If I cannot recognize a devil-girl shirt kind of store from a block or two away and across the street, I need to hand in my cool girl credentials. They were forged anyway.

I ended up getting some barrettes and a new winter hat that is even stupider-looking than my other three winter hats. I'm working towards getting one that will get me thrown into a madhouse immediately upon setting foot on the street in it.

It started pouring and Andy ran out to get the car, we dropped Jane back off at the Days Inn, then drove for many many many miles to lunch, during which I ate a whole package of mints to stave off starvation, and demonstrated my rapidly deteriorating hearing.

AMY
Are you high maintenance?

ME
(pause)
Hymie-mints?

Take a deaf person in a noisy car and speak to her from the from seat without turning around, it's hours of fun for the whole family!

Amy and Andy are hilarious, they have couple-speak and couple-jokes refined to a high art. I think you could wall them in their house together and they would be perfectly happy, imitating their dog and doing this funny routine where Andy is a mute-ish giant baby and Amy interprets for him. It's terribly amusing. The best one was at the restaurant where he lip-synched along with Wilson Phillips, shaking his head and smiling just exactly like Chynna Phillips.

When we left, Andy and I got the car and went to pick up Amy. He said, "Quick, take my hand!" and he pretended that we had fallen in love in the 45 seconds that it took to get the car and were driving off without her. He relented and let her in the car.

AMY
So you decided that you want to run off with Kymm?

ME
It's because I liked his Wilson Phillips impression better than you do.

Then we went to the airport and dropped me off, me leaving the Silliest Hat in the World in the backseat to be mailed back to me hopefully sometime before the kid turns five. It was the perfect end to a great weekend.

And did it take me only 22 minutes to get through security and to my gate including a stop in the bathroom like at LaGuardia? No, of course not! It took 24 minutes.

Curbside check-in is your friend, children, there was absolutely nobody waiting there and a huuuge queue inside. A queue of dolts, one can only assume, or possibly they are working on their inner peace by being in an annoying place for hours on end for no good reason.

I was home sometime after 1a, and I had to get to work the next day. Ah well, that's the life of a jet-setter, ain't?

Today's horoscope:
Parental roles and issues come up in conversation. You may mull over the past or suggest options to a friend struggling with child- care questions.

One year ago today:
"I do think it's funny that, after knowing each other for 20 years (more or less), we seem to be becoming friends now! Was it that we didn't want to rush into anything?"

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