mariness

So the parts of last week not focused on golf were more or less focused on ICFA when I wasn't sleeping through it. Sorry, guys, that most definitely counts under the "it's not you, it's me," umbrella; the worst thing about ICFA was that I didn't get to spend nearly enough time at it; I was there for maybe 1/3 of the con. The second worst thing was that the poolside bar a) had no amaretto on hand – cranberry juice, yes; amaretto no, and nearly drowning a later cranberry juice in vodka did not quite make up for this, and b) was under the impression that pina coladas are best made with tequila, and not the best tequila at that. Sigh.

(Not really a sidenote: I get that the ICFA organizers really, really want everyone to stay at the con and not get tempted away by the many distractions of the greater central Florida area, but, honestly? This hotel? Not just stuck in one of the least interesting areas of central Florida, but also, really not near any restaurants, which is a problem if you are either in a wheelchair or with someone in a wheelchair. I'd be less frustrated if I weren't aware of all of the available convention space in the area. Sigh.)

Not that the conference was entirely based on the pool bar or drinking. I also, and I take great pride in this, managed to get to the lobby, and to the little ICFA bookstore (where, to my surprise and pleasure, I ended up getting to sign copies of Future Lovecraft. While I'm on the subject, I should note that Future Lovecraft will be appearing in trade paperback from Prime Books later this year – more announcements when that happens) and even one of the conference lunches (where once again the noise made me feel ill and I ended up having to duck out early. Next year I am following the excellent example of the Tachyon crowd and having lunch someplace else.)

But most of the time I was by the pool, drinking things (not just alcohol) and enjoying various marvelous conversations, which is not a bad way to go to a conference. Or sometimes napping in the pool chairs. Or in one case getting a sneak preview of Charles Vess' upcoming illustrations for a Charles de Lint book before we both realized that however much drinking might be going on at the moment this was most definitely not Our Crowd and that we needed to go find other people doing a lot of drinking to find Our Crowd. (Rumor had it that they were pharmacy reps.)

This is, I suppose, the place for the traditional list of "people I hung out with at IAFA" but it is the sort of list that is too long for this post – and yet not really long enough, either. I can say that if I talked to you, I apologize for going "YAY PERSON WHO GETS ME" and babbling all over you and only wish the conversation could have lasted longer, and if I didn't get a chance to talk to you, next time!

Thanks to everyone who helped with doors and drinks, and especial thanks to rachel_swirsky and her husband Mike who went above and beyond with rides last week. I can only hope that showing them a small baby alligator (well, technically, three years old alligator, and, well, technically I had very little to do with arranging that) sorta made up for that.

So, since all the cool kids are doing it, here's my general note that starting tomorrow, I shall be flitting in and out of IAFA in a flitty sort of way.

Unlike all of the other cool kids, I shall not be doing any readings or papers (you can all sigh a deep sigh of relief now) but I suspect that some quality pool time might be coming. Note: I'll be ducking out of part of Thursday and quite possibly part of Friday (although these Hunger Games rumors are tempting, since certain other people not attending IAFA have emphatically said NO HUNGER GAMES because YOU WILL JUST MAKE FUN OF IT, which does rather seem to be the point.) It is entirely possible, however, that on at least one of my flitting moments I shall be flitting in with Settlers of Catan, to fulfill the requests of certain Brazilians.

I'll be bringing the iPad with me, but even with this, I suspect that blogging shall be light for the next few days, which...is kinda the same way it's been for the last few months, so most of you will probably not even notice the difference.

And now, back to resting up for the con, in between some last minute messing with dragons.

Jay Lake would like to assure you all that he is a member of both the male and human species...

...he will follow up this claim a few minutes later with a happy tale of books bound with (!) human skin. (To be fair, this was in response to a happy tale of a nightshade made from cured human skin, and I think I've now appalled all of you enough for one Friday morning.)

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In general not feeling too great today, so not sure how much of today's conference I'll be attending.

So for the next few days I'll be flitting in and out of this, and spending time at my parents' condo when not there. (Spare a few thoughts for the cats who will be spending AN ETERNITY without anyone rubbing their bellies or scratching their chins. It's a tragedy. Well. In cat terms.) I'm guessing my internet access at the conference will be limited, and in any case, for this conference I'll just be taking along my iTouch, not my notebook computer. I'll try to keep up with things at night, but, no guarantees.

Not that I'll be quite deserting you. In theory last week's Tor.com post will be going up tomorrow (see! time travel!), and I have a follow up post that I'll be trying to put up after that goes up, either late Thursday or Friday. And I may well be blogging bits about the conference here and there.

Also, housekeeping note: Apparently in response to the amount of spam slamming my LJ, Lj is now randomly screening some of your comments -- all comments with links, and some additional comments without links for seemingly random reasons. (In a fun touch, much of the spam - some with links - is still popping up unscreened.) If you actually WANT your comment left screened, that's fine - just tell me in the comments, and I'll leave it screened. Otherwise, I will unscreen comments when I get a chance.

I'm still trying to keep anonymous commenting on, largely because I get some interesting non-spam stuff that way, but I have to admit that the ongoing Russian porn is kinda making me rethink that. And of course, now that I've written that phrase, I'm sure I'll get slammed with still more of that.