Carried by the Whirlwind
It's busy days here at Chez scarlettina: hairy deadlines at work, desires for a life at home. In the midst of work craziness, I decided that now would be a good time to throw caution to the wind and head off for an overnight at Orycon, Portland's regional SF convention. I haven't been to an Orycon in, probably, at least a decade, so my curiosity was high, and the anticipation of seeing friends was delicious.
And see friends I did--many of the usual Portland suspects, some of the usual Seattle suspects--good folks all. Because I made the decision to go at the last minute (and still managed to get a hotel room for less than the convention rate), I wasn't on programming. I've only done that a couple of times over the years. On the one hand, it felt odd to be at a convention and not rushing off to sit on a panel and be Authoritative. On the other hand, it was nice not to have such obligations; I could just be at the con and enjoy the company, the programming and the time to chill--which I did. At the same time, I purchased a book (Brenda Cooper's The Creative Fire), a new ring (a delicate thing with garnet and citrine stones from AngelWear), and a tiny piece of lovely art by Patricia McCracken that will be a companion to the beautiful print that I brought home from Japan years ago.
It was also the first road trip in the new car, and the vehicle performed as expected. I tried using the Sync system with my iPod, but found that through some quirk I didn't understand, I could only get the thing to play "Don't Fear the Reaper" and an episode of "This American Life". While the first is an excellent song, I don't need that much cowbell. The second I hadn't listened to for a while, so it helped pass my last hour between Seattle and Portland on the way down. I'll need to find the guide to using Sync online so I can take advantage of this feature in the car.
The hardest thing about the whole trip was the drive back. Though I made sure I was (and stayed) caffeinated and took breaks to keep myself fresh (picked up a lovely winter skirt at the Centralia outlets), I was hopelessly sleepy the whole time. I left the con early--2ish--so I could drive home with daylight, but I fought heavy lids the whole way back. It was actually pretty hard, especially given my bad luck with vehicles the last couple of years. I arrived home safe and in one piece, but the intensely focused driving added to my fatigue. I really need to examine what I can do to be sure I don't have such difficulty on long road trips like that again. It made for an uncomfortable and challenging trip.
We're on another hard deadline at work, so now I'm going to log off and try to finish the work I should have done this weekend (wifi at the hotel was terrible and I couldn't get and keep a connection long enough to get anything done). We'll see how it goes.
And see friends I did--many of the usual Portland suspects, some of the usual Seattle suspects--good folks all. Because I made the decision to go at the last minute (and still managed to get a hotel room for less than the convention rate), I wasn't on programming. I've only done that a couple of times over the years. On the one hand, it felt odd to be at a convention and not rushing off to sit on a panel and be Authoritative. On the other hand, it was nice not to have such obligations; I could just be at the con and enjoy the company, the programming and the time to chill--which I did. At the same time, I purchased a book (Brenda Cooper's The Creative Fire), a new ring (a delicate thing with garnet and citrine stones from AngelWear), and a tiny piece of lovely art by Patricia McCracken that will be a companion to the beautiful print that I brought home from Japan years ago.
It was also the first road trip in the new car, and the vehicle performed as expected. I tried using the Sync system with my iPod, but found that through some quirk I didn't understand, I could only get the thing to play "Don't Fear the Reaper" and an episode of "This American Life". While the first is an excellent song, I don't need that much cowbell. The second I hadn't listened to for a while, so it helped pass my last hour between Seattle and Portland on the way down. I'll need to find the guide to using Sync online so I can take advantage of this feature in the car.
The hardest thing about the whole trip was the drive back. Though I made sure I was (and stayed) caffeinated and took breaks to keep myself fresh (picked up a lovely winter skirt at the Centralia outlets), I was hopelessly sleepy the whole time. I left the con early--2ish--so I could drive home with daylight, but I fought heavy lids the whole way back. It was actually pretty hard, especially given my bad luck with vehicles the last couple of years. I arrived home safe and in one piece, but the intensely focused driving added to my fatigue. I really need to examine what I can do to be sure I don't have such difficulty on long road trips like that again. It made for an uncomfortable and challenging trip.
We're on another hard deadline at work, so now I'm going to log off and try to finish the work I should have done this weekend (wifi at the hotel was terrible and I couldn't get and keep a connection long enough to get anything done). We'll see how it goes.