Sunday
Sleeping in is a very good thing. I got into bed around 3:30 this morning… having been up since 7:30 am Saturday morning. To say that I was tired would be a gross understatement. The cats did try to get to the windowsill, but they were kind enough to wait until after 10:00 to try.

Saturday Follow-Up
What a day. As I noted earlier, I got up at 7:30 so that I could attend the Neil Gaiman book signing at the downtown library. I got there a little before 9:00… and got into line. , and their friend Wally showed up a few minutes later. We stood in line for 2½ hours to get things signed. The wait wasn’t as bad as it may sound; we talked with some of the others in line, watched people, talked about a little bit of everything. It was fun.

Around 11:30, I got to the front of the line and was standing across the table from Neil Gaiman. For a man who had gotten up at whatever time he had gotten up to get ready and had been sitting for 2½ hours talking to the strangers in front of him, he was quite personable and nice. Charming, even. I got pretty much everything signed that I wanted to:

  • Preludes and Nocturnes and The Wake
  • Smoke and Mirrors
  • A copy The Sandman (first issue) for
  • A copy of American Gods for my friend who introduced me to The Sandman (and thus, Neil Gaiman’s other works)
  • Princess Mononoke DVD, for which he wrote the English screenplay

When I told him that I had enjoyed his presentation on Friday night, he said that he liked it, but that he wasn’t aware that everyone would not would fit in the auditorium and that some would have to sit in the atrium. I told him that my friends and I were some of those “overflow” people. He stopped writing and looked at me, with a bit of concern: “Could you hear everything all right?!” I told him that with the exception of three or four questions, we heard everything quite clearly. He seemed quite relieved. We even took pictures with him (me, suzie_lightning, raguel and Wally).

After I left the library, I headed to the Belly Dancing Spring Fest to drop of m3l’s Sandman. I met her aunt, who also dances and saw our friend Beth. I stayed for a little while and watched a couple of the troupes dance.

Back home for a few to pick up Jess and then we were off to lunch with . After lunch, we went to Borders for coffee and drawing and chat; Mary met us there. When we had spent a more than adequate amount of time there, we headed across to Fashion Place Mall for dinner… it was like Mall Day, but at night. Mary and Jess wandered off at one point, so and I wandered into Gamestop. Two guys (college age, roughly) came in just after us and were talking about going to a LAN party. It started something like this:

#1: Man… this is going to be an awesome LAN party.
#2: Did you say LAN party?
#1: Yeah, a LAN party…

This continued, off and on, for a few minutes. We left the store and went in search of Jess and Mary. We found them a few stores down from where we were. When we exited, who should we run into but the LAN party guys. Lucky us. Apparently, they recognized us.

#1: Are we in a mall?
Jess (under her breath): No!
#2: A mall?
#1: Yeah… a mall…
(sarcastically): Want to go to a LAN party?
Me: Did you say a LAN party?
#1: Oh sure… they’re just making fun of us because we were talking about the LAN party earlier.
#2: We were just messin’ around…”

It was… something. Fortunately, they veered off moments later and that ended that line of pseudo-conversation.

Next, it was on to bowling. It was “Beach Night,” apparently. I will spare you the gory details of what some people were wearing. Larry and Zaq met us there. It was a good night on the lanes, overall. Then it was on to breakfast. It was… an experience… because a group who had previously stopped showing up there came back. (Translation: “More people watching.”) We ate and talked to the staff until about 3:00. By the time that we left, I was well past “tired.”

Which brings us back to….
Sleeping in until 11:30 this morning. ::: bliss :::
(See how it all comes full circle? Amazing, isn’t it?)

We went out to lunch and saw Kristen. Made a couple of stops at Pier 1 and Barnes & Noble. Came home for a bit and then went to Sara’s for her going away get-together. Sara sets out in a couple of weeks to join the Peace Corps – she’ll be going to Georgia (the former Soviet state, not its U.S. namesake). We (about 15 of us) sat around and talked for a couple of hours and then we headed to Monk’s Jazz Bar to hear a local band named “Mona.” They weren’t bad.

And now, it’s rapidly approaching that time of the night (morning) when I should be thinking about going to bed. At the moment, however, I’m thinking of getting a pre-bed snack. I’m stuck on the usual “What do I want” question. I know that I don’t want anything too heavy just before bed. A low-maintenance snack would be good. Something like… the ginger snaps that should be on the counter. With a glass of milk. That settles it, it’s snacktime and then off to bed.

Namaste.