this is why I can't have nice things
My weekend was 1/3 great and 2/3 utterly crappy. Friday was awesome. I got going a bit later than I intended but got to the con in time for most of the stuff I wanted to see--after I dealt with locking my keys and my backpack in my car. Fortunately I had parked at a WallyPark and as I suspected, they had a tech onsite who unlocked me for free. (I meant to tip him or something but I had like no cash and he disappeared while I was looking for whatever cash I did have.) If you want to know how I did it: I put my keys away in the top pocket of my backpack, and then got out of the car, but my backpack got caught on the parking brake and when I got out of the car to try and disentangle it...the door closed. And I'd already hit the lock button. So that was an awesome way to start the con.
But I did have a good day. I went to a panel on Invisible Disabilities, which as you may have guessed has a lot of relevance to me, and I liked that the panelists had a mix of physical and mental disabilities to deal with, including but not limited to PTSD, Asperger's, HIV status, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and some other stuff. It was a good panel, really. (There seemed to be a social justice track of sorts, as I saw multiple panels on things like disability, gender expression and identity, feminism, intersectionality, etc.)
Next I went to a panel on "Fears of Fanfic" and the panelists talked about things they were afraid of re: fanfic and how it stopped them from writing or posting or whatever. It was decent, and I ran into
wickedwords at it and after she and I and one of the panelists went and grabbed a bite in the hotel bar.
We took a spin through the (surprisingly small and non-impressive) dealer's room and then they split to go do other stuff and I took a longer turn around the dealer's room. Compared to GGC, this was really boring. The only things I ended up finding that I wanted to buy were a silly hair flower with the Star Trek logo in the middle and a corset dress (although the dress is amazing and I intend to wear it somewhere once I get the right tights and heels for it.)
Highlight of the night came when I went to the Creativity & Disabilities panel, which had one of the same panelists as the earlier panel and three other panelists who were different types of artists. There was a painter, a ceramic sculptor, a woodworker and a writer, with varying kinds and levels of disability. The reason I say it's a highlight is that the discussion was really good about how they worked through or around or with their disabilities to create. I made the point that there's a level of compassion you have to give *yourself* when working with a disability, that there are times at which you need to be gentle with yourself and say that "Okay, this is not going to happen right now and that's okay." And that struck a chord with the moderator, and he thanked me for it. I think he actually teared up a little--apparently he hadn't considered that before, so I felt pretty good about it. (Now if only I could remember that lesson more often.)
Last panel was on "Finishing your fic" which is something I need to do badly, but while the discussion was humorous I didn't always think it was useful to me. I did get to plug
getyourwordsout and ushobwri though, and at least one person wrote down the Shoobies' info. (Also, one of the panelists was talking about this super long fic she'd written that was *gasp* 90,000 words and I should. not. be laughing or judging because each person has their own definition of short/long fics and it's difficult to write any length sometimes and 90k may be a huge story for someone who usually writes flashfics and really "two cakes" so...but I'm trying to finish a story before I hit half a million words and I honestly do not think I'm going to do it, so anything less than 100k seems kinda..."oh, that's cute". And I realize that's a crappy reaction and I would never tease someone about the length of their story unless it's someone I know and can joke with, but I'm still like "talk to me when your epics reach 250,000".)
*takes breath* Anyway. I really wanted to stay around after that for a panel on slash (where
wickedwords was a panelist) and the fanfic meet & greet, but the panel wasn't until 9, the meet&greet was at 10, and my head was starting to twinge. The problem with a hotel con is that there aren't really that many spaces for sitting and being quiet that aren't your hotel room, and I didn't have one. I opted to leave early, get some sleep, and return Saturday for an awesome day.
Except I never made it Saturday. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible, and although I started feeling better as the day went on and I could have made it for afternoon and evening panels (and there were panels I wanted to go to until 11pm), I made the decision not to go to Seatac. The reason for this was that although I'd pushed the migraine into submission I could tell I hadn't broken it, and I was pretty sure going to the con would bring it back in full force. I didn't want to get there, get through like a panel, have it come back and have to drive home.
I remain depressed about this, but am trying to remember the above lesson I reminded someone else of.
Sunday the migraine was pretty bad and around 1pm I gave up on going at all.
So one day out of three, and I never got to meet Tanya Huff. Of the two, I'm way more bummed about the latter. She's one of my all-time favorite authors and I was really hoping I could tell her how much her books mean to me. As Morgan puts it, there's always a chance I could see her at another con down the road, but this would have been awesome and yeah.
So, lesson learned. Do not go to cons without either someone else to drive or a hotel room. Morgan and I were talking about Anglicon this year (which is in the same hotel) and are now thinking if we go we'll get a hotel room, just for this situation (although that triples our costs because we'd have to board Buddy). And this reinforces my decision that ECCC and I do not mix. (I don't actually think the noise of the con triggered the migraine; we had wonky weather all day Sunday and I think my head felt it moving in. However I don't think the con helped. Also worth noting is that I'm due for Botox in about two weeks, so this is always when the migraines increase in frequency and severity.)
I could use a hug. I tried to write last night to cheer myself up or at least distract myself but mostly failed.
Some Buddy stuff, since I'm cheering myself up: He was kind of my shadow this weekend, and spent most of Sunday sleeping on me while I curled up in bed. Snuggled up to me last night, too--I ended up sleeping in my office because Morgan stil hasn't seen a doctor about the snoring--and he came and slept with me at some point--I think I was already asleep, maybe.
Also, he loves the Northwest Naturals food. With the HK, he would sometimes pass on breakfast, or only eat some of it. With the NWN, he waits very anxiously until it's done defrosting (and we end up giving it to him mostly-frozen sometimes because of it) and gobbles it all down. The nuggets, which are what we feed, say to leave out for either 10-20 min at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. Since we don't usually have 20 min to wait in the morning, I portion it out and stick a bag in the fridge at night to thaw out. We should probably start doing that for dinner, too--put a bag in the fridge at night, put a new one in the fridge after feeding the dog in the morning. That way he doesn't have to wait :)
But he loves it, like it's an amazing treat instead of boring food, so we're gratified. We'll keep the HK as a backup in case of things like power outage or him needing soft foods or whatever, but mostly this is what we're feeding him.
I just wish there was a park nearby I trusted to take him to. I won't go near Willis-Tucker since the poisonings there, and I've heard of poison found at a few other local parks, including a new one last week (not entirely sure of the details on that though). A suggested she take Nellie and we take Buddy to Magnussen to let them meet each other and have fun, and I think that's a great idea if we can figure out when. At some point I want to take Buddy to Marymoor because it's supposed to be amazing for dogs (they call it Doggy Disneyland around here), and something I'd like to do this spring once it gets a little nicer is learn how to hike with him and take him on hikes. I think he'd love that, and it's not like Morgan or I can't use the exercise, and he likes walking. Me not so much but I think if I go for an extended walk or hike with him and Buddy I'll like it.
If you have tips on hiking with dogs, please let me know what they are.
This entry was originally posted at http://blueraccoon.dreamwidth.org/1367404.html. Please comment there. |
comments
But I did have a good day. I went to a panel on Invisible Disabilities, which as you may have guessed has a lot of relevance to me, and I liked that the panelists had a mix of physical and mental disabilities to deal with, including but not limited to PTSD, Asperger's, HIV status, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and some other stuff. It was a good panel, really. (There seemed to be a social justice track of sorts, as I saw multiple panels on things like disability, gender expression and identity, feminism, intersectionality, etc.)
Next I went to a panel on "Fears of Fanfic" and the panelists talked about things they were afraid of re: fanfic and how it stopped them from writing or posting or whatever. It was decent, and I ran into
wickedwords at it and after she and I and one of the panelists went and grabbed a bite in the hotel bar.
We took a spin through the (surprisingly small and non-impressive) dealer's room and then they split to go do other stuff and I took a longer turn around the dealer's room. Compared to GGC, this was really boring. The only things I ended up finding that I wanted to buy were a silly hair flower with the Star Trek logo in the middle and a corset dress (although the dress is amazing and I intend to wear it somewhere once I get the right tights and heels for it.)
Highlight of the night came when I went to the Creativity & Disabilities panel, which had one of the same panelists as the earlier panel and three other panelists who were different types of artists. There was a painter, a ceramic sculptor, a woodworker and a writer, with varying kinds and levels of disability. The reason I say it's a highlight is that the discussion was really good about how they worked through or around or with their disabilities to create. I made the point that there's a level of compassion you have to give *yourself* when working with a disability, that there are times at which you need to be gentle with yourself and say that "Okay, this is not going to happen right now and that's okay." And that struck a chord with the moderator, and he thanked me for it. I think he actually teared up a little--apparently he hadn't considered that before, so I felt pretty good about it. (Now if only I could remember that lesson more often.)
Last panel was on "Finishing your fic" which is something I need to do badly, but while the discussion was humorous I didn't always think it was useful to me. I did get to plug
getyourwordsout and ushobwri though, and at least one person wrote down the Shoobies' info. (Also, one of the panelists was talking about this super long fic she'd written that was *gasp* 90,000 words and I should. not. be laughing or judging because each person has their own definition of short/long fics and it's difficult to write any length sometimes and 90k may be a huge story for someone who usually writes flashfics and really "two cakes" so...but I'm trying to finish a story before I hit half a million words and I honestly do not think I'm going to do it, so anything less than 100k seems kinda..."oh, that's cute". And I realize that's a crappy reaction and I would never tease someone about the length of their story unless it's someone I know and can joke with, but I'm still like "talk to me when your epics reach 250,000".)
*takes breath* Anyway. I really wanted to stay around after that for a panel on slash (where
wickedwords was a panelist) and the fanfic meet & greet, but the panel wasn't until 9, the meet&greet was at 10, and my head was starting to twinge. The problem with a hotel con is that there aren't really that many spaces for sitting and being quiet that aren't your hotel room, and I didn't have one. I opted to leave early, get some sleep, and return Saturday for an awesome day.
Except I never made it Saturday. I woke up feeling absolutely terrible, and although I started feeling better as the day went on and I could have made it for afternoon and evening panels (and there were panels I wanted to go to until 11pm), I made the decision not to go to Seatac. The reason for this was that although I'd pushed the migraine into submission I could tell I hadn't broken it, and I was pretty sure going to the con would bring it back in full force. I didn't want to get there, get through like a panel, have it come back and have to drive home.
I remain depressed about this, but am trying to remember the above lesson I reminded someone else of.
Sunday the migraine was pretty bad and around 1pm I gave up on going at all.
So one day out of three, and I never got to meet Tanya Huff. Of the two, I'm way more bummed about the latter. She's one of my all-time favorite authors and I was really hoping I could tell her how much her books mean to me. As Morgan puts it, there's always a chance I could see her at another con down the road, but this would have been awesome and yeah.
So, lesson learned. Do not go to cons without either someone else to drive or a hotel room. Morgan and I were talking about Anglicon this year (which is in the same hotel) and are now thinking if we go we'll get a hotel room, just for this situation (although that triples our costs because we'd have to board Buddy). And this reinforces my decision that ECCC and I do not mix. (I don't actually think the noise of the con triggered the migraine; we had wonky weather all day Sunday and I think my head felt it moving in. However I don't think the con helped. Also worth noting is that I'm due for Botox in about two weeks, so this is always when the migraines increase in frequency and severity.)
I could use a hug. I tried to write last night to cheer myself up or at least distract myself but mostly failed.
Some Buddy stuff, since I'm cheering myself up: He was kind of my shadow this weekend, and spent most of Sunday sleeping on me while I curled up in bed. Snuggled up to me last night, too--I ended up sleeping in my office because Morgan stil hasn't seen a doctor about the snoring--and he came and slept with me at some point--I think I was already asleep, maybe.
Also, he loves the Northwest Naturals food. With the HK, he would sometimes pass on breakfast, or only eat some of it. With the NWN, he waits very anxiously until it's done defrosting (and we end up giving it to him mostly-frozen sometimes because of it) and gobbles it all down. The nuggets, which are what we feed, say to leave out for either 10-20 min at room temperature or overnight in the fridge. Since we don't usually have 20 min to wait in the morning, I portion it out and stick a bag in the fridge at night to thaw out. We should probably start doing that for dinner, too--put a bag in the fridge at night, put a new one in the fridge after feeding the dog in the morning. That way he doesn't have to wait :)
But he loves it, like it's an amazing treat instead of boring food, so we're gratified. We'll keep the HK as a backup in case of things like power outage or him needing soft foods or whatever, but mostly this is what we're feeding him.
I just wish there was a park nearby I trusted to take him to. I won't go near Willis-Tucker since the poisonings there, and I've heard of poison found at a few other local parks, including a new one last week (not entirely sure of the details on that though). A suggested she take Nellie and we take Buddy to Magnussen to let them meet each other and have fun, and I think that's a great idea if we can figure out when. At some point I want to take Buddy to Marymoor because it's supposed to be amazing for dogs (they call it Doggy Disneyland around here), and something I'd like to do this spring once it gets a little nicer is learn how to hike with him and take him on hikes. I think he'd love that, and it's not like Morgan or I can't use the exercise, and he likes walking. Me not so much but I think if I go for an extended walk or hike with him and Buddy I'll like it.
If you have tips on hiking with dogs, please let me know what they are.
This entry was originally posted at http://blueraccoon.dreamwidth.org/1367404.html. Please comment there. |
comments