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Nov. 28th, 2018 08:46 pmI am back from LA!
Going down:
This was a fun trip. Tempest was already coming down to visit Rina, and found out about the King Tut exhibit in the California Science Center. Rina decided to go down and spend Thanksgiving with her family in Anaheim and offered to drive down. Fran also decided to visit family in LA. I was faffing on going, and was waiting on LosCon. In the end I decided to just go, whether or not I was attending LosCon, because even if I wasn't attending LosCon, I could still treat it as a writing retreat.
We drove down on Wednesday, and it felt like it went by so quickly because Rina and Fran kept up a steady stream of chatter. We dropped Fran off at her cousin's, and went to the hotel. Rina stayed the night before heading off to Anaheim the next morning.
While there:
Thursday, Tempest, her friend Emma, and I went to Redondo Beach to hang out and play Pokemon Go. When we got back, we made a trip to Target so Emma could get a swimsuit, and at the last minute I decided to also look for a swimsuit too. My two-piece, which I bought for a China trip back in like 2008 or something, looks great, and after losing the grad school weight, I fit back into it fine, but the waistline elastic is loose, and I can't dive the way I like to do for my laps without the bottom piece sliding off. I very much prefer one-piece swimsuits anyway!
We went to the hotel pool, which was heated, and it was marvelous. I did a few laps, then went to the hot tub. I really really miss swimming!
Friday I had an afternoon panel, but otherwise took it easy until the evening for a POC dinner, which was fun as usual.
Saturday I had a rather stressful panel. It was supposed to be about women in fandom, and how we've always been involved in fandom despite our involvement being rather invisiblized. Brianna Wu and Leigh-Ann Hildebrand were on the panel, as was an older woman who was clearly of the "awkward geeks are awkward and they are unused to having women in their midst" variety. So things spiraled into a shouting match with that concoction of clueless and outspoken. The other woman, Gerry, was very forceful about insisting that Leigh-Ann name her WorldCon rapist.
But I got out and went to the King Tut exhibit and it was really great!
Ended up having dinner in the lobby with Laurie Tom, Fran, DeAna Jones (a TOC mate from HIDDEN YOUTH; I never knew she was in LA!), and Isabel, who gave us the rundown of what happened at the New Masters of SF panel she attended, where she watched Greg Benford be a complete jerk moving goalposts on what constituted a master of SF and be dismissive towards NK Jemisin's work.
Sunday I tried to keep my two panels chill. They were both craft panels, which I liked a lot. I also had lunch with SB Divya and some of her Codex friends
Tempest, Fran and I took a Lyft over to Fran's cousin's place, where we were treated to a great dinner out. Then we hung out in the hot tub at the back of the house. Just, whew, relatives with money...
Monday, I accompanied Fran out to the fabric district because she was looking for more velvet to make her dresses. We also wandered down Santee Alley, and I bought a new dress. It needs pockets but I think I have the right kind of fabric for that. Then Fran went to have dinner at another cousin's place, while Tempest and I hit up Santa Monica for Pokemon Go and dinner (Cheesecake Factory! I really like the crab bites.)
Coming back:
Tuesday, yesterday! Rina came to get us around 9am, and we drove back up, without Fran who caught a flight in the early afternoon. I tried to buy more honeymead from Pea Soup Anderson's, but they had completely sold out over the holiday weekend!! Aaaaaaaargh. Oh well! The server gave me a phone number that I could call.
We got back in around 7pm, and Fran had arrived home by that time, so since Rina had offered to drive her fabric back up, we swung around to drop it all off before Rina dropped me home.
Today I went into work and drafted some newsletter-y stuff. It was.... a slow brain day, not just for myself but for the whole office. (I was treated to Jacob having completely forgotten to fold his collar over his tie because when I got into the office he had been up barely five minutes.)
Going down:
This was a fun trip. Tempest was already coming down to visit Rina, and found out about the King Tut exhibit in the California Science Center. Rina decided to go down and spend Thanksgiving with her family in Anaheim and offered to drive down. Fran also decided to visit family in LA. I was faffing on going, and was waiting on LosCon. In the end I decided to just go, whether or not I was attending LosCon, because even if I wasn't attending LosCon, I could still treat it as a writing retreat.
We drove down on Wednesday, and it felt like it went by so quickly because Rina and Fran kept up a steady stream of chatter. We dropped Fran off at her cousin's, and went to the hotel. Rina stayed the night before heading off to Anaheim the next morning.
While there:
Thursday, Tempest, her friend Emma, and I went to Redondo Beach to hang out and play Pokemon Go. When we got back, we made a trip to Target so Emma could get a swimsuit, and at the last minute I decided to also look for a swimsuit too. My two-piece, which I bought for a China trip back in like 2008 or something, looks great, and after losing the grad school weight, I fit back into it fine, but the waistline elastic is loose, and I can't dive the way I like to do for my laps without the bottom piece sliding off. I very much prefer one-piece swimsuits anyway!
We went to the hotel pool, which was heated, and it was marvelous. I did a few laps, then went to the hot tub. I really really miss swimming!
Friday I had an afternoon panel, but otherwise took it easy until the evening for a POC dinner, which was fun as usual.
Saturday I had a rather stressful panel. It was supposed to be about women in fandom, and how we've always been involved in fandom despite our involvement being rather invisiblized. Brianna Wu and Leigh-Ann Hildebrand were on the panel, as was an older woman who was clearly of the "awkward geeks are awkward and they are unused to having women in their midst" variety. So things spiraled into a shouting match with that concoction of clueless and outspoken. The other woman, Gerry, was very forceful about insisting that Leigh-Ann name her WorldCon rapist.
But I got out and went to the King Tut exhibit and it was really great!
Ended up having dinner in the lobby with Laurie Tom, Fran, DeAna Jones (a TOC mate from HIDDEN YOUTH; I never knew she was in LA!), and Isabel, who gave us the rundown of what happened at the New Masters of SF panel she attended, where she watched Greg Benford be a complete jerk moving goalposts on what constituted a master of SF and be dismissive towards NK Jemisin's work.
Sunday I tried to keep my two panels chill. They were both craft panels, which I liked a lot. I also had lunch with SB Divya and some of her Codex friends
Tempest, Fran and I took a Lyft over to Fran's cousin's place, where we were treated to a great dinner out. Then we hung out in the hot tub at the back of the house. Just, whew, relatives with money...
Monday, I accompanied Fran out to the fabric district because she was looking for more velvet to make her dresses. We also wandered down Santee Alley, and I bought a new dress. It needs pockets but I think I have the right kind of fabric for that. Then Fran went to have dinner at another cousin's place, while Tempest and I hit up Santa Monica for Pokemon Go and dinner (Cheesecake Factory! I really like the crab bites.)
Coming back:
Tuesday, yesterday! Rina came to get us around 9am, and we drove back up, without Fran who caught a flight in the early afternoon. I tried to buy more honeymead from Pea Soup Anderson's, but they had completely sold out over the holiday weekend!! Aaaaaaaargh. Oh well! The server gave me a phone number that I could call.
We got back in around 7pm, and Fran had arrived home by that time, so since Rina had offered to drive her fabric back up, we swung around to drop it all off before Rina dropped me home.
Today I went into work and drafted some newsletter-y stuff. It was.... a slow brain day, not just for myself but for the whole office. (I was treated to Jacob having completely forgotten to fold his collar over his tie because when I got into the office he had been up barely five minutes.)