The convention I attended was fun, although Walnut Creek wasn't exactly the most convenient location to get to. I can't complain, though, since I got a ride up and back nearly every day. Eating out was a bit of a problem, since there were not many choices that close to a freeway. I managed to find a burrito bigger than my head (one of the things I miss about the Bay Area is the good food at taquerias), so that was more than satisfactory.

I spent some time away from the con, too, because I wanted see something besides the inside of a hotel. Vicki Rosenzweig and I went for a walk and had "wraps" at a small restaurant for lunch. I guess wraps are the new thing here, although they look like standard burritos to me with non-Mexican ingredients. Cindy Lee Berryhill and I went to a nearby mall to shop for makeup, and have a long talk over coffee. We found a Nordstrom's, and walked through it rejecting all the clothes as boring and retro. We agreed it looked as though someone had gotten into our junior high school clothes closet and stolen our stuff. It's a bit shocking to see it touted as fashionable. Last time Cindy and I got together, we went to see the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, where we had a marvelous time. If the Nordstrom buyers had wanted real retro, they ought to have done the same.

Back at the hotel, I was cajoled into writing a contribution for Victor Gonzalez' fanzine which he meant to publish the next day. I decided to test my writing abilities, and banged out a coherent, fairly amusing 500 words in the con suite, despite noise and distraction from the con attendees. Having escaped being named Guest of Honor (Victor was GoH), I snuck out to dinner with Janice Murray and Alan Rosenthal. We never see each other from one end of the year to the next, so I was babbling like a maniac all through the clam chowder and the prime rib. We got in a year's worth of gossip, I think. I went away satisfied.

Mostly satisfied, anyway. Though I've learned to be better at living without friends nearby it's not really ideal to see them only at science fiction conventions. It's a fine thing to see so many at once but it's hard to spend quality time with any one person when there are thirty others you want to see in three days. And yet I think if I can do that at least once a year, I think I can take living outside the pale the rest of the time.