CrossingCon, my Social World

I'm really glad to have gone with Posi to CrossingsCon. I enjoyed the road trip itself; driving to new places and seeing new things makes me happy. Apart from that though, the convention reminded me that the underlying basis of science-fiction and fantasy fandom has always been literature. I didn't talk to a lot of people, but the two or three times I did end up in a conversation, at least part of it was centered on Diane Duane and her various books. This makes sense, as that was the motivation of the convention. I realized how good it is to talk to people about books that mean something to me, and about how they connect with the real world. I haven't felt that in the Chicago area in a long time.

I don't know why that seems to be missing in Chicago. Maybe I'm not talking to the right events, or talking to the right people there. Maybe I'm being too antisocial and withdrawn. Maybe I don't really know how to be social. I came back with the idea of starting an in-person book club. We'd read a sci-fi or fantasy novel, and have a face to face meeting once a month with some snacks and talk about the book. At least some, though not all, of the conversation about be about socio-political meaning and how it relates to our society and the world, either concretely or abstractly. I think we'd start with something that won the James Tiptree Jr. award for exploration of gender in sci-fi and fantasy. I emailed a few people and got a little bit of interest, but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough to make that happen. Maybe I don't have the mental energy to put it together right now. I dunno; maybe it will come together some day. It's nice to think about.

And in general, I wish Danae and I could meet more interesting, local people. Neither of us seems to really know how to do it anymore. My world feels awfully small lately, especially in terms of real-life companionship, and I haven't been very good at making it bigger.

Keep out? Dangerous place? Sounds good!

When I saw these signs today, I knew I was in the right place.



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I'm taking a page from kishenehn's book and including my vehicle in some of my photographs.

Kitty!

I got to pet a neighbor cat, Gus, today. He's a mooch; he sits at the glass door to the back patio and looks in, in the hope of getting a slice of turkey or something. Which Danae's parents were nice enough to give him today. I sat on the steps and petted and snuggled him for a while. He seems to have a cold; I think he was trying to purr, but it just came out in a sniffly wheeze. Poor little thing. Seemed to be in fine spirits regardless.

I have some nice pictures from my trip today, and I'm debating whether I want to edit them here, or wait until I'm back in the states with my nicer monitor arrangement. (Here, I'm using a 13-year-old one I bought at a thrift store for $5. I'd thought there was an extra one here for some reason; I was wrong.) Maybe I'll wait until I have a few more days worth. I'm going to see more waterfalls tomorrow. There are so many around here!