I took Friday off and went home to Dallas for a long weekend.
I realized I am spending way too much time in Illinois. You know you have been gone too much when you start noticing people's Texas accent.
Also, I went to McDonalds for breakfast. You can't order food or get your car fixed or any of a thousands other things in Texas if you can't speak the native tongue. If I ever knew I could not remember how to order "biscuits and gravy" in Spanish and that item is on the dollar menu so no meal to order (i.e.. Numero ocho) or a picture to point to. So I just walked out in frustration.
On a happier note, while I was home I went to a science fiction literary convention.
I love conventions, you get to hang out with authors, editors and TV executives not to mention all the great fans!
It's great to be among fandom- no matter how big a geek you are you are welcome and loved. In fact, you get bonus points for being geeky! (I get lots of points too!) You walk into a building with 500 strangers who are already your best friends. You can throw off the shackles of mundane society and have a blast!
It's the one place you can go, and bring up the script discrepancy you noticed in episode 27 of Star Gate (or Battlestar Gallactica or Firefly or Babylon 5 or any of the myriad incarnations of Star Trek) and NO ONE will roll their eyes! Heck, it's even the kind of place you can use "myriad incarnations" in a sentence and no one will think twice about it! :)
Then on Saturday night they have a Cabaret with singing and costume contests and amateur comedians and audience participation. Oh it's a blast!
Then after the cabaret the drinking begins! Yeah! The hotel blocked off the whole second floor just for convention goers so you can just roam around and if the room door is open go on in have a beer, discuss the subtext in your favorite novel while tossing back a few Jell-O shooters.
Rinse and repeat!
Going there is like charging a battery or draining a sump, you just feel clean and refreshed after a weekend with sci-fi geeks.
Ahhhhhh- I feel very sane today!
