PIS (Post Icon Syndrome)
I will probably write a longer post about Icon. Actually I have about 4 weeks of daily posts about this subject, but I will save those for later, and probably exercise a lot of self-censorship. Just some quick anecdotes regarding yesterday.
After the Comikaza signing has ended, and my part of the Icon production has ended, we (darkesta, Gaiman and myself) drove to a restaurant where I had my first piece of food in 4 days (not including the biscuits I stole from Gaiman a day earlier), and we talked about conventions, guests of honor and all kinds of things. At the end of it we started arguing about who's going to pay (only not the way that this argument usually goes). At the end he told me to shut up and fuck off (to which I replied by "Neil Gaiman told me to fuck off!") and paid for the damn dinner. I was beaten at my own game.
We then drove to the airport and discovered we came in an hour early. So we sat and talked some more. I then remembered that I myself hadn't brought any of my books to be signed. This was probably right after darkesta said that he had forgotten to bring his as well. So I gave him a blank piece of paper and asked him to write me something that I would then put in my pocket and read only when I get back home. He did that. When reading it I laughed out loud. Maybe I will just post it in a locked post sometime in the near future and maybe I will just keep it to myself...
Anyhow, after we put him safely at the gate, I dropped darkesta at his place and drove to the cinemateque to meet with Uri and other left-over Icon staff. We saw this zombies movie which was as dumb as a zombie movie ought to be, but a little more graphic than most. After that we went to have a cup of hot chocolate and I drove home.
By that point I was so tired. I guess that to the bystander I must have looked like a walking zombie. I stopped at the local AM-PM store and bought some water and went to the ATM. After I parked I realized I forgot to take the money out of the ATM but was too tired to be angry with myself. I stumbled back to my place with a 6 pack of mineral water in each hand, and when I got to the door I pointed the car alarm remote and pressed the "open" key but the door wouldn't open. I tried it again, and then again. I guess it must have been two full minutes if not more before I realized what the problem was.
It took no longer than 7 minutes between the time I closed the door behind me and the time I was fast asleep.
I woke up against my will at around 9:30. My head was spinning (much like it had at the past 4 days) and it seemed like roughly 70% of the muscles in my body went on a strike. I just couldn't move. I started watching all the stuff I had downloaded this past week and that were waiting for me, but pretty soon it became clear that this wasn't going to work. My eyes just refused to stay opened. I was again woken up at around 14:30 by Uri who insisted repeatedly that I would come and watch "Incident at Loch Ness" with him. In these situations you just want to make Uri stop talking as soon as possible, and the fastest way to do that is to tell him okay and actually get up and get dressed. The movie was a weird cross between documentary and drama. I tried to take the opportunity of a dark theater with semi-comfortable seats to grab a few more minutes of sleep, but Uri kept elbowing me, making sure I'm awake. Shortly after the film has ended and a sandwich was digested I came back home and crashed again.
So now I woke up again dead tired. Probably will go to sleep soon. Tomorrow another working week begins. Somebody shoot me please.
After the Comikaza signing has ended, and my part of the Icon production has ended, we (darkesta, Gaiman and myself) drove to a restaurant where I had my first piece of food in 4 days (not including the biscuits I stole from Gaiman a day earlier), and we talked about conventions, guests of honor and all kinds of things. At the end of it we started arguing about who's going to pay (only not the way that this argument usually goes). At the end he told me to shut up and fuck off (to which I replied by "Neil Gaiman told me to fuck off!") and paid for the damn dinner. I was beaten at my own game.
We then drove to the airport and discovered we came in an hour early. So we sat and talked some more. I then remembered that I myself hadn't brought any of my books to be signed. This was probably right after darkesta said that he had forgotten to bring his as well. So I gave him a blank piece of paper and asked him to write me something that I would then put in my pocket and read only when I get back home. He did that. When reading it I laughed out loud. Maybe I will just post it in a locked post sometime in the near future and maybe I will just keep it to myself...
Anyhow, after we put him safely at the gate, I dropped darkesta at his place and drove to the cinemateque to meet with Uri and other left-over Icon staff. We saw this zombies movie which was as dumb as a zombie movie ought to be, but a little more graphic than most. After that we went to have a cup of hot chocolate and I drove home.
By that point I was so tired. I guess that to the bystander I must have looked like a walking zombie. I stopped at the local AM-PM store and bought some water and went to the ATM. After I parked I realized I forgot to take the money out of the ATM but was too tired to be angry with myself. I stumbled back to my place with a 6 pack of mineral water in each hand, and when I got to the door I pointed the car alarm remote and pressed the "open" key but the door wouldn't open. I tried it again, and then again. I guess it must have been two full minutes if not more before I realized what the problem was.
It took no longer than 7 minutes between the time I closed the door behind me and the time I was fast asleep.
I woke up against my will at around 9:30. My head was spinning (much like it had at the past 4 days) and it seemed like roughly 70% of the muscles in my body went on a strike. I just couldn't move. I started watching all the stuff I had downloaded this past week and that were waiting for me, but pretty soon it became clear that this wasn't going to work. My eyes just refused to stay opened. I was again woken up at around 14:30 by Uri who insisted repeatedly that I would come and watch "Incident at Loch Ness" with him. In these situations you just want to make Uri stop talking as soon as possible, and the fastest way to do that is to tell him okay and actually get up and get dressed. The movie was a weird cross between documentary and drama. I tried to take the opportunity of a dark theater with semi-comfortable seats to grab a few more minutes of sleep, but Uri kept elbowing me, making sure I'm awake. Shortly after the film has ended and a sandwich was digested I came back home and crashed again.
So now I woke up again dead tired. Probably will go to sleep soon. Tomorrow another working week begins. Somebody shoot me please.