So I have finished another year’s Readercon, and the adjacent small writing retreat I did with it, and both were good and now I am doing all the things that have to be done when you get back from a trip. And also all the things that have to be done before you leave on a trip, because it’s just over two weeks before I leave for Copenhagen.
It’s weird, because I am feeling less and less like posting an “I’ll be away for these days” message than I used to, on my blog or on social media of various kinds. Partly it’s that some of the social media will be coming with me in ways that didn’t used to be true. When I went to London in 2005 for my grandparents’ anniversary, I Got On The Internet I think exactly once. In Finland and Sweden two years ago, I did it every day, because Getting On The Internet is…not really a thing. You just are, you’re on the internet in the same way that you’re on the power grid, it’s as notable to be off the one as the other. It’s been several years now that I’ve noticed some surveys have old-fashioned usage questions: how many hours a day do you spend logged on to the internet, that sort of thing, and my answer is: huh? what does that even mean?
But there are things that I don’t do when I’m traveling, and one of them is blogging. There will be single book posts for both July and August, because the midmonth book post for each would have fallen when I was traveling, and nope. Another thing I don’t do is Facebook–I haven’t deleted my Facebook because a small number of people I care about use it for things I care about, but I use it minimally even when I’m at home, and if I’m going to choose between getting a lovely pastry somewhere in Nyhavn or using Facebook, you can bet which one I’ll pick.
And it’s interesting to me that in the two years since I went to Finland and Sweden, my feeling about Twitter has completely shifted. I now feel like I can tweet a photo of a beautiful pastry as a “hey, friend, thinking of you” to some specific people–that the rest of the world is allowed to see if they care–and have it be part of my day, not interrupting my day. That’s…insidious, but also awesome. I’m willing to live with the balance. But I do notice it’s there.
Anyway! Two weeks and two days! With a lot of revision and a lot of new stuff to write between now and then, and also house chores, and also a major birthday, and….
Juggling scarves and clubs and a flaming chainsaw, is what. But in a mostly good way.