Cold gray Tuesday, Minicon

[pegkerr]

Determined, I pulled the heavy winter coat out of the closet and biked all the way into work today. I may regret doing so this afternoon: we are supposed to get two to five inches of rain/snow. Urgh. I feel that I am dwindling into a pale, pasty potato sprout, languishing in a dark kitchen cupboard. When are we going to get some sunlight again, for heavens sake?

I will be at Minicon (minicon42_2007) this weekend. I am looking forward to it--it'll be great to see Charles DeLint, among other things--but for the first time in I don't know how many years, I will not be on any panels or doing a reading. My apologies to the nice and polite people who sent me the programming e-mail. They certainly contacted me in plenty of time for me to volunteer, but when I received it, I was sort of being hammered with a number of life-things (the layoff being the chief one) and so I never responded. (Forgive me my discourtesy, people.) Oh, well. I am sure that you will all manage to limp along for one year without my scathingly brilliant comments on one panel or another [/sarcasm]. This just leaves more time for me to sit in the corner and have quiet, pleasant conversations. And I do look forward to seeing many of you there.

The girls are very eager to go to Minicon and particularly, they are pining to stay at the hotel. Rob wants to stay, too, whereas I am saying, "And why are we even thinking of spending the money on that if Rob doesn't have a job in three weeks?" We do have the money, and yes, I'd love to stay at the hotel; I just am balking at spending the money on that with this layoff looming over our heads. (You know, it gets mighty tiresome always being the practical one. So much of the time I feel like I'm just spoiling everyone else's fun.) The girls are even begging to be allowed to pony up some of their allowance to make it possible, which makes me feel like even more of a skinflint/spoilsport.

Anyway, we'll be there, although I don't know if we'll be staying at the hotel. I won't be on programming, but I hope to see a lot of you there.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't know if your girls would find this at all relevant or interesting, and I certainly don't mean to imply any obligation on your or their part. I just wanted to say that the thing I'm reading from is a YA novel (not children's, though, definitely YA), so if they might be interested, you could pass that along and let them decide.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

What time is your reading?

[laurel]

Stay in the hotel on the condition that Rob work extra hard on getting a job (well, you'd probably want to be more specific on that). Well, that's one idea. Or on the condition of other cutbacks or work or something. Maybe. (Just throwing out ideas).

Will be good to see you guys there, no matter if you stay at the hotel or commute.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Right after opening ceremonies, 8:30-9:00.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Lots of Kids' Pro(gramming) by Marion. Yes, that's how she spells it. I'm holding a seminar on Youth Writers at 1pm Sat, primarily to teach kids how to write journalism articles for The Daily Howler, of which we hope to get an issue out. Adults welcome too!

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Or maybe you could all work on planning a big family trip for after he gets a job - though of course, depending how long it takes there might need to be some replenishing of the coffers first. Still, it's something to look forward to.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

There's a Raising Kids in Fandom panel that I'm on; you could contribute from the audience!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I am so disappointed that I won't be going to Minicon, because I really wanted to meet you.

Have a great time!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Great. What time is that?

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, you are the CEO of your household, and that means you get to make the tough and unpopular decisions for the good of the "company." Of course they want to stay at the Con hotel - who doesn't? But it's not like they're missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's prudent and sensible to hold onto that money now, because you may very well want it later. And if you need it and don't have it, you will feel so much worse then than you do now.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Crash in the con suite!

K. [OK, just kidding]

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll take a shift or two in the Green Room.

K.

A Couple of Observations

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

1) It probably wouldn't hurt to check with the head of programming to see if they could use you for any programming items. Things happen, and panel/readoing slots often appear where none were visible before...

2) If you still end up on no programming, I've heard that the head of the Green Room is looking for a few good volunteers. I think you'd be well qualified - and you might even aleady be acquainted with the head of the Green Room :-)

3) I've spent way too many years being the practical one. I've finally (almost) learned that every once in a while, I should just assume that things are going to turn out well, and go ahead and enjoy myself. So far, nothing has turned out as bad as I feared.

Anyway, have fun at Minicon.

Perhaps I should read all the comments before posting my own comment

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Naah, what would be the fun of that?

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

You need to stay at the hotel because doing so turns Minicon from just a series of events that you have to get to somehow into an immersive vacation where you forget your daily life and just hang out. All the better that you don't have any panels you have to be on. You can just drift around as the mood takes you, popping in and out of panels, searching for Minicon Medallions, writing party reports for the BBT, joining all-night fandom.

Don't tell me you don't need an interlude like that in your over-structured life! You know you do.

[naomikritzer]

About Minicon, I will be around all day Saturday and look forward to seeing you. :-)

About the biking, Ed suggests that while it would be longer, it might be more pleasant to bike over to the light rail line, and follow the bike trail up to the Metrodome. Ed does a lot of biking, including some bike commuting, and strongly prefers bike trails to bike lanes. He'll go a fair distance out of his way for a trail rather than a lane. I don't know where your office is, but if you walk the Stone Arch Bridge on your lunch hour I figure it can't be all that far from the Metrodome.

Though in any case it's supposed to continue snowing tomorrow; if I were you I would take the train, not the bike. (But, I am a wuss. I would've taken the train today, too.)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Today, I biked to the light rail station and took the light rail downtown and then biked to work from there. Even that much shortened, the trip just about froze my ass off.

I will have to investigate the bike trail along Hiawatha--I'm not sure exactly where it goes/how it gets me to my office.

[naomikritzer]

I walked Kiera to preschool today, three blocks away. That was plenty. The temperature isn't terrible but it's accompanied by the sort of brisk March wind that's bracing when it's 45 degrees out but bone-chilling at 23 degrees. ("Feels like 7," weather.com has helpfully supplied.)

Regarding your bike route, if you would be willing to e-mail me the address of your office, Ed could probably give you a suggested route that would be trails and parkways instead of busy streets like Park and Portland. The Light Rail trail simply follows the rail line -- you can see it out the window in places when you're riding the train -- as far as the Metrodome, where it quits. The scenic route would probably be longer than your current one, which sounds pretty direct, but would be more pleasant because you wouldn't be interacting with nearly as much motorized traffic.

And you could consider it for when the weather warms up, which surely it will do soon. It's April.