How Real Life ™ can keep on tripping you up…

It’s been a rather hectic two weeks before and after World Fantasy Convention, and the hecticity (it’s a word now, as annef would say!) just keeps on coming.

World Fantasy was incredible. Amazing. Just…amazing. I’m definitely going to more conventions and I’m seriously thinking about next year’s World Fantasy in Calgary, Alberta. But more on that in another post.

On Monday, October 29th, I had all my usual Monday chores and errands, which included things I needed to get ready for the convention. I hadn’t been traveling, in the sense of staying overnight somewhere, or camping, for years. I needed to plan things out and buy supplies. That evening was Pepperell’s Fall Town Meeting. I went to Town Meeting, and another regular attendee smiled and nodded at me when I came in and sat down. That’s the first time he’s done that! I signed a petition before I went inside. As always, no matter how faithfully I read the local newspapers, there turned out to be a huge warrant item that I was completely oblivious to. It was a big purchase of land for conservation purposes, which I am always in favor of. In this case, the entire membership of Town Meeting was there to vote on that article. The Financial Committee (FinCom) did not recommend it. When we took a standing vote, it was unanimous except for the FinCom. When the “nays” were called–they were the only ones standing up! They’re very brave, *heh*. Monday was the day I got the e-mail from Dr. A and Mortal Touch got the review that was syndicated and appeared on Blogcritics.org, Boston.com and Slippery Book Blog.

On Tuesday, October 30th, I went down to Fallon clinic for a routine mammogram. I’ve been remiss, and hadn’t had one since 2004, but I had no reason to suspect a problem. Of course, that’s the whole point of a mammogram–you get them to find the things that you never suspected would be there. On previous occasions, there has been a radiologist checking the films while you waited, to see if they needed any additional pictures. On this occasion, that was not the case. The technician took the standard set of four, and then said “you may get a call, if they want more films, otherwise you’ll get a letter with your results.” I went home and spent the evening doing my hair color for the convention. Tuesday was also the day I got the issue of Mensa Bulletin with the review of Mortal Touch in it.

Wednesday the 31st was Halloween. I carved a pumpkin and had candy, but I never get a trick-or-treater. I always prepare for one, just in case. I was also packing for World Fantasy. I did a lot of fussing with the older Dell laptop so I could take it with me to the convention. It has a wireless card, and both my hotel and the convention hotel had free wireless. I had been having some problems with that laptop’s power, and I went searching through the Dell help forums and found an entry suggesting that I “remove and re-seat the memory cards and hard drive.” Removing the hard drive was a bit of a chore, but the memory card was easy, and I’d actually replaced that memory card myself. Could that really be the source of the power problems I’d been having? I tried removing and reseating the memory card, and bingo. The laptop was working perfectly. I copied all my user files onto it and even installed some software for the new camera.

Computers are weird. I build them, and they still baffle me! Thank goodness for geek forums, that’s for sure–I’ve gotten the damnedest solutions from both Dell’s and Hewlett-Packard’s.

Because I was so busy all that week, I decided to do my Samhain observance on the day of the Solar Samhain Cross-quarter (when the Sun is at precisely 15 degrees of Scorpio). That was Wednesday, November 7th at 2:24pm local time.

Everything about the convention trip went smoothly–even the laptop behaved itself. I stayed through to the very last event, a panel with the judges after the awards ceremony, and headed for home on Sunday night, November 4th, feeling elated. I got home and found two messages on my answering machine. One was my sister, calling to chat; and the other was Fallon, saying they needed to talk to me about my mammogram and “schedule me for another appointment.”

Wow. Guess how happy I was to come home to that little bombshell. Oh, yeah. I called my sister back and wailed, and she, not a medical minimizer by any means (she’s a pharmacist) patted my shoulder and said “it’s nothing.”

That may well be the case. I tried to settle down on Sunday night by unpacking, cleaning up after the animals (who hid from me for several hours because they’d forgotten who I was), hand-washing some laundry and so on. But it was definite jolt and broke the continuity between the convention and all the follow-up I’d wanted to do. On Monday the 5th, the next day, I called Fallon. They said they wanted to take another film or two, because there was a “dense area” and “they want to make sure it’s nothing.” *heavy sigh*

I looked up journal entries about my last two mammograms, and this exact same thing happened in 2003. I’d made a note of it. I had to go in for some additional films, and it turned out to be nothing. I took the next available appointment, which is this coming Tuesday, the 13th, at seven-fucking-thirty a.m., so we’ll see. I’m going to ask them to be sure and compare the films to the ones in 2003.

But that wasn’t the only call I made on Monday. While I was at the convention, I got an e-mail from this website, Boldfacers, wanted to interview a “vampire romance writer.” After several phone calls and e-mails, they wanted to interview me–and not just about writing, but about the realvamp stuff, as well. *gulp* Well, I decided several months ago that I was going to “come out” about that. No one twisted my arm! But…this was going to be the first time on actual video. And I needed to be in Boston by 9:30am this Wednesday for that, which meant driving into Boston in commuter traffic. Besides all this, I did my usual Monday errands and chores.

On Tuesday, it poured rain. I had my usual Tuesday chores to do, several long phone calls, and I was getting ready for the interview–thinking about what to talk about, and collecting “props,” and going over directions on Mapquest, and figuring out what to wear.

On Wednesday, I got up four hours earlier than my usual time (which is still not as early as I’ll have to get up for the mammogram!) and drove into Boston. What a comedy of errors! First of all, I got completely, hopelessly lost in South Boston and was late getting to the studio–thank goodness I now have a cell phone, they had to “talk me in!” Then, the interview was…eh. I just don’t know. The atmosphere in the studio seemed really weird, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on, and I wasn’t confident enough, my first time out, to grab the bit between my teeth and take over. Then, I left the studio still wearing their microphone, which we had gone to such lengths to tuck away out of sight, both they and I totally forgot about it. They had to have it by the next morning, and I was darned if I was driving all the way back into Boston–so I sent it overnight mail! It seemed like Lisa, the producer, and I did nothing but apologize to each other the entire day! I know I’ve heard endless “horror stories” about media interviews so I probably better grow a thick skin if I’m going to forge ahead and keep on doing them, but…oh, well.

Despite all the time that took, I was home just in time to get my Samhain ritual done, and then I did the Tarot reading for the octave, which wasn’t as ambiguous as Mabon’s, but still wasn’t as clear and satisfactory as I’d like. So I had that to brood over along with the interview.

I had really been wondering when I was going to hear from Bathfitters, to whom I’d given that humungous deposit. They called on Thursday, and next week, I’ll be getting a new bathtub. But that means I have to tear down the bathroom before then, and that will take some time. I’ll also need to go to Home Depot and possibly a flooring store and get some stuff.

Friday was the New Moon, conveniently timed, so I had another ritual to do. I was starting to catch up on e-mail and follow up on some more marketing and promotional stuff from the convention and otherwise. I was also trying to recover from a week’s worth of sleep deprivation, and trying not to worry about the mammogram. Oh, and freezing, because now it’s below freezing at night and in the 40’s by day, so the house is at its winter ambience of 55 degrees. I’m already burning that cord of wood I bought!

So, if anyone is wondering why I’ve been quiet, that’s what’s been going on, aside from publishing things.