sunburned and Social

28 June 2001

(This part was written yesterday morning, while our connectivity was down.)

Well. The interview went well, I think. Garth Nix is a very nice guy. His accent is very, very Australian; there were a few times we had to spell proper nouns for each other. I've got his e-mail address for follow-ups, so that's what we're going to do. My shorthand may be a bit rusty.

We had a lovely Zachary's lunch with Tim -- not the pizza, the Santa Cruz restaurant. I had a pesto scramble with many mushrooms in it -- recommended, but not in large doses. Then Tim went back to work, Timprov went to Pergolesi to work, and Scott, Michelle, and I went to the beach. I don't think it was the beach Tim sent us to. There was no roller coaster. This seems like a fairly major landmark, hard to miss. But the weather was nicer than it was supposed to be. It was sunnier than it was supposed to be. I peeled off my sweater and my dress and waded wearing my bikini.

I eventually put my dress back on. It was not until then that I got sunburned.

Yes, I should know better. Yes, I do know better. But I've been out in the sunshine for long periods of time, fully covered up. It wasn't a problem earlier this year. It was a problem yesterday. Oops.

I am not, however, Sunburned. I got Sunburned at Mark's graduation. There were seven Dutch adults, a Dutch teenager, and a Norwegian adult, and do you think a single one of us remembered sunblock? We did not. So we sat on the football field and I fried. I still have the freckles on my leg from it. I peeled five times and blistered three. Not a fun experience. This one is not like that. Which is good, because I think if I did that again, my mom would come get me and make me come home and not let me take care of myself any more, ever again. She used to threaten to ground me until I'm 37. If I got Sunburned again, I think she just might.

Lack of connectivity is really annoying, especially since I don't know if anybody we're supposed to see today has had any last-minute communications for me. We're having sushi with Susan, definitely seeing David at Au Coquelet, and I don't know what else. We're going to supper at Long Life (the noodle one, not the vegi house, for those of you who warned me against the vegi house: I'm not ignoring you) and then going to try to squeeze our way into the Neil Gaiman reading. It's going to be a full, good day.

With lots of aloe lotion and water.

Okay, it's now Thursday morning, and Michelle is still asleep. We had a social whirl of a day yesterday. Got to have good sushi with Susan and Au Coquelet time with (in order of appearance) Susan, Mary Anne, David, and Heather. Achieved my goal of letting Michelle at least put names with faces. Having me and Michelle each break a glass was not in my original plan, however. They're not going to ask us back. Anyway, we had noodles at Long Life with a couple of Scott's geology friends and then walked up to Cody's on Telegraph for the Neil Gaiman reading, which was cool. I already wanted to read American Gods quite a bit, so it didn't really change that. But it was amusing and interesting, and we saw Heather again. Did I remember to give her Sabriel either time I saw her? I did not. What a doof I am. Anyway, we also saw Wendy and Daniel, whom we had met ages ago at the Nalo Hopkinson reading, but whom we had not seen since. Scott waited in line to get Good Omens signed, and Michelle and I sat on a bench and talked. Mark joined us and talked and (mostly) read; Timprov had already taken the train home to Backacheville.

I tried to tell Michelle about the Not The Moose Book. She says it sounds much more interesting than the title implies, but I never know how to tell people about books. At one point I was mumbling, "Oh, and there's this little wooden fish on a chain and I find that really cool because it's not a ring or a sword or something stereotypically fantasy like that," and she was nodding and agreeing that small wooden fishes were indeed not stereotypical. Also, I used the words, "No Magic Cell Phones of Death!" at one point. So it sounded like a complete muddle. Which it sort of is. But it won't always be. I got excited about the wacky road trip through Finland part of it. It's not going to be a Finnish travelogue, don't worry. But much wacky road trip through Finland stuff shall ensue. It'll be good.

We're going shopping today. I don't want anything in particular. We just haven't done this in awhile. Timprov wants shoes, so he'll be wandering off to take care of that. But Michelle and I are just shopping. Then Amber and Evan will be joining us for dinner at the ever-popular La Maison.

I'm going to be so tired when this week is over, but it's definitely been worth it.

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