I hope everyone is having a great Independence Day. It’s just another work day for me. I’m catching up on things that got backlogged while I worked on cover designs and Souvenir Books–purchase orders and accounting stuff, mostly.
The Readercon 21 Souvenir Book looks terrific. I approved the proof on Friday and it will be delivered to the hotel on Thursday, the first day of the convention. Picking up my sister, niece and nephew after I checked the proof went smoothly, although Logan International Airport has some serious deficiencies in the communications area. I got pretty frustrated trying to find out where to meet incoming passengers who don’t have checked baggage. It turns out all incoming passengers are funneled straight down to the baggage claim area–they’re strictly separating incoming passengers from the gate area and departing passengers now. Trouble is, the baggage claim area, at least in Terminal C, looks like a grungy basement with very few places to sit–it doesn’t look like a waiting area where they expect people to be waiting to meet arrivals, and it’s not at all clear where the arriving passengers will be coming from. By comparison, Manchester (NH) is a model of clarity and cleanliness. Logan also has a whole new way of paying for the parking garage, which is similar to the new “Charlie Card” system in the T and probably was implemented at the same time (MassPort runs them both). It’s not hard to use, but it’s not explained very well (I have a Charlie Card, so I didn’t have a problem with the parking payment machine, but I tremble for people who aren’t used to the system!). It also cost me $12 to park for about 90 minutes.
But, we all fit, snugly, into my little Aveo and got out of the airport, and were going in the opposite direction to most of the impressive Friday-afternoon-of-a-holiday-weekend traffic back-ups on I-95 and Rte 3. I had dinner with folks at the lake and even got a nice refreshing swim with a borrowed swim suit. (I didn’t bring anything of my own with me because I completely emptied the car out to make sure I had room for four people, luggage and my nephew’s trumpet.)
I went to Pepperell’s fireworks show last night. I donated money toward the fireworks earlier this year, because the town funding was zeroed out at Town Meeting. Pepperell is very proud of its annual “Fourth of July Gala,” but they do a lot of fund-raising all year and people argued that they could raise a bit more money, or not do fireworks. They raised the money. The fireworks were spectacular and the viewing was prime. They were practically going off straight overhead, which was very cool. Alas, I always find the rest of Pepperell’s “Gala” to be awfully…honky-tonk. But I suppose if I want it to change, I should join the Fourth of July Committee, and not just whine! I walked down and back, which is so much simpler than trying to drive and park–there was a huge crowd, probably even bigger this year because so many towns have cancelled their fireworks due to the economy. I applauded the veterans whose names were read, stood up for the National Anthem, and read queries on Pig while we all waited for the fireworks to start (which I also did at the airport on Friday–read on Pig, I mean, not applaud veterans, although I might have had I seen some 🙂 ). Pig’s getting a lot of mileage these days! 🙂 So, it was an agreeable couple of hours, and constitutes my Independence Day observance this year.
I got a few additions to my Readercon schedule from the Programming committee (who are also spending the holiday weekend working!). These aren’t major items for me–they’re discussions for which I am a designated “participant.”
Friday 4:00 p.m. How Electrons have Changed Writing and Reading. Discussion leader, Cecilia Tan.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. Interstitial Arts Foundation Town Meeting. Discussion leader, Sarah Smith.
Sunday 11:00 a.m. How to Write for a Living When You Can’t Live Off Your Fiction. Discussion leader, Barbara Krasnoff.
I just have to say…I have totally lost all respect for Neil Gaiman at this point. Being a popular author just means you’re lucky, it doesn’t make you God. Gaiman should refrain from trashing entire fictional genres of which he is obviously, and painfully, ignorant in the extreme. I’m really sick of ignorami who jump on the vampire bandwagon and make stupid pronouncements just because they know that will get them some attention–and I don’t care how big a Celebrity they are. Of course, loudly pontificating about topics you’re completely clueless about is practically a national pasttime in America these days. To paraphrase Up the Down Staircase: “He don’t know nothin’ and he’s tryin’ to teach it.” *heavy sigh* (I wouldn’t be so harsh, but this is his second offense.)
Back to work…I’m wrestling with spreadsheets and mail merge, without the cooperation of the printer which decided to hang everything up until it got a new magenta ink cartridge. *grump*