List of Intentions

[pameladean]

Things I would write about for LJ if I were not wrestling with Chapter 3 (site of the largest continuity error in the history of my writing):

Minicon. I was much more enthusiastic about Minicon than I have been for several years. That was useful, because Mike's absence was very much felt, and because I had to leave on Sunday afternoon to go home and rest up before embarking on a trip to visit Eric. I missed almost all of the programmed music, and the Tor party, to my huge regret, but I did get to attend lollardfish and buttonlass's party on Friday. dd_b and I were fortunate enough to get to eat dinner with tnh, pnh, carbonel, and Jonathan, who is not on LJ. We also had a goofy and giggly dinner with Cally who is not etc. and Ctein, ditto, on Thursday night, agreeing that it felt like a Sunday-evening conversation. I very much enjoyed the panel that Teresa moderated, "Gatekeeping, SF, and the Literary Canon." marykaykare did a good job of moderating "The Musician and Artist as Protagonist," but we panelists were a little uneven, perhaps. I had fun too at my third panel, "Writing for the Young Adult," moderated by cowfan, perhaps largely because of the Jane-and-Adam show. I managed to disgrace myself at my reading by running fifteen minutes into Laurel Winter's time slot. She sat there and let me do it, but fortunately there was nothing scheduled after her, so she was able to have her full half-hour. I stayed with eileenlufkin to hear Laurel read from a lovely, quirky, funny, creepy book called "Lucy, Lucy, and Liz." I'd buy it. The LJ party, kindly hosted by cakmpls, was amply supplied with food, as always, and full of interesting people. I wasn't one of them, being extremely sleepy by then, but it was a pleasant space to be sleepy in.

The trip to California. E had a lot of work to do, so we did not wander about less lonely than clouds for most of our days together, as is our wont. We were more sociable than usual, having lunch and a trip to The Other Change of Hobbit with Shweta and Amanda and Adam, none of whom is on LJ as far as I know; and dinner with wild_irises, alanbostick, brooksmoses, wordweaverlynn, davidgoldfarb, and Aahz, who is not on LJ. I was sorry that a handful of other folks were unable to make it, but we had a pleasant time. Eric and I also went to Edgewood, a county park, and climbed up to a ridge to see the serpentine wildflowers. They were breathtakingly tiny for the most part, but altogether fine. It was very windy the whole time I was there, but the trip to Edgewood was the one most enhanced by the wind. The flowers were in fields of short grass, and the wind rippled them until they looked like waves on water, and the sunlight ran behind the wind. We made a visit to the Native Plants Botanic Garden at Tilden Park, where among many other beauties, Eric showed me the leaves of the slink pod, which are spotted like trout-lily leaves in Minnesota. We also paid a brief visit to the top of Mount San Bruno. This mountain looks treeless and green, rather as I had always thought the Barrowdowns might, aside from the incidental presence of a bunch of radio towers. But it was touted as a good place for spring wildflowers. It was bursting with shrubbery and, as advertised, with flowers. I haven't identified them yet, but they were plentiful. There were grand views, as well. On the same day as the trip to Mount San Bruno, we made an impromptu trip to the coast and ended up at Port Funston, watching hang-gliders take off and land, and watching them drift among the courting ravens. There were more good views. After that we had dinner in San Francisco, Eric having decided that I deserved a vegetarian restaurant. We parked high up and walked down to The Herbivore, and afterwards, happily nourished, walked (not without some groaning on my part) up to and past the car, right up to the top of 21st Street where it crosses Sanchez, if I recall correctly. We wandered, greatly content, around the few blocks of flatness at the top of the hill, admiring houses, gardens, and the view, and being intermittently snarky about rich people.

Spring. It hath sprung. The white-throated sparrows are singing their heads off. I only hope that this year we will all be spared the obligatory cat-killed corpse. House finches, robins, cardinals, are all singing, and house finches have their fancy plumage on. The rabbits are eating my crocuses. They do not do this in such a way that I simply think the crocuses have not come up. No. Sometimes they gnaw the leaves before there are buds, and more often they let the crocuses bloom and then chomp the entire plant down to the ground. They are partial to the dark-gold ones. They have also been at the tulips, but only the purple ones. Lots of stuff is up: peonies, bleeding heart, wild geranium, the anemone I can't recall the name of, the very first bits of lily here and there, tulips, lilies-of-the-valley, violets, hairy bellflower, dame's rocket, echinacea, cranesbill geranium, daffodils, tradescantia, scilla. The scilla is blooming abundantly. The white rose of York has leaflets. The Henry Kelsey looks dead. It often does at about this time, being a northern rose that is not fooled by April caprices. But I'm a little concerned about it. We have chives too, and hens and chicks (courtesy of Lydy), and sage that never quite died back.

I apologize for the lack of cuts. I am too tired to do them.

Blessings upon you all,
Pamela

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Amanda is oath_of_feanor, and Adam is madmanatw, unless I have gotten underscores in the wrong spots.

[pameladean]

Whee! Thank you!

P.

[madmanatw.livejournal.com]

Boo.

[pameladean]

Eeep!

Well, you won't be able to scare me like that after I've friended you. Bwahaha.

P.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I had a rather odd Minicon but I enjoyed parts of it very much. I thank you and Lydy for letting me be miserable all over you at lunch on Saturday. By Sunday night I was revoltingly cheerful so it must be the goddam chemicals of one variety or another.

MKK

[pameladean]

You are entirely welcome. Sometimes that's just what one needs.

I'm glad to hear about the revolting cheeriness. I was gone by then.

P.

[lcohen]

yay sf visit, yay minicon! envy in abundance!

those uphill climbs are why i really should never move to sf.

[pameladean]

Eeek! I forgot to say I would write about having lunch with you, and later with Pat and John and Mary Kay et al.

I could get used to the uphill climbs. I like the views so much.

P.

[redbird]

If Minnesota rabbits are like northeastern squirrels, they're going after the crocus leaves and flowers because it's fresh greenery/growth at a time when there isn't much else of it to eat. (Daffodils seem to be immune to the depredations of squirrels; we don't have as many rabbits here in Manhattan, and they seem to be doing okay on grass.)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

If Minnesota rabbits are like Seattle squirrels, on the other hand, they are evil little things who relish nothing more than crocus and tulip in all their parts, to destroy (wresting off the flower and leaving it lie) if not to consume (the whole %#$& bulb). They've no excuse; the time my grass is green is the winter.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Arrrgh--good luck with chapter three! : (

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! I'm fortunate in that the events in that chapter have been hanging fire for much of the book, so if I can just get them straightened out before they become overtly relevant, not much damage will have been done, except to my nerves and ego.

I've almost got it figured out; mostly I'm engaged in hanging on to a conversation I want to retain, that must now be arrived at by a completely different route.

P.

[pameladean]

Log in, you dummy, log in!

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Nobody but writers understand these knots. Or squids. or juggling tables/pianos/penguins/torches/peas... (comment coming from an engineering type at a party listening to two writers talking about similar things, to which he retorted something to the effect of "Jebus C.! You're not building a bridge, just throw it away and start over again with a new layout."

Ektualleh, we are building bridges. They happen to be bridges with more than one entry, into more than one space.

Wishing you luck...

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

I remember a story along those lines...