Friday night I met up with Melody over at ElderMOO and taught her the basics of using object oriented virtual reality in about 10 minutes. She took to it immediately, particularly the anti-social verbs which contribute a cartoon violence to any conversation. I should have known! We consoled ourselves for Not Being At Amanda's Wedding by idly deciding which of the male diarists would make good love slaves. Mel voted for someone I've never heard of and therefore cannot remember. I voted for two: Nigel for the sex half of love slavery (he's my ex-boyfriend, I know what I'm talking about here), and Scott for the slave half of love slavery. Scott isn't in the least subservient, of course, but he admits he is rather keen on keeping a house tidy, plus he could lounge around in a toga looking handsome and tell me amusing stories on demand. The idea of keeping toy boys appeals to me now that I'm an antique, eh what? Of course, that doesn't explain Melody's enthusiasm...
Saturday was kind of lazy. I didn't do anything but enjoy the sunshine, read celebrity magazines, potter around the house, and go to Julie Humphries' birthday party to eat yummy birthday cake. I had suggested we give her a Beanie Baby for a present (she got Tuffy the dog) and John was unable to buy just one so we now have two more ourselves (Chocolate the moose, whom I have long coveted, and Puffer the puffin). It was a warm evening and I was the only one who dressed up. Fan parties are just too, too boring in this respect. Nobody believes in making an effort, it's too politically incorrect to have hairstyles, and wearing heels of any height gets me lectures on the evils of being fashionable and ruining my hamstrings.
On Sunday I dolled up again and drove into the city for Lynn Peril's Waffles and Women party. It was the best. Everyone had fabulous hair and wore either vintage clothing or modern versions of 50's teen clothing. On top of that, everyone was witty, outgoing, interesting, and easy to talk to. We laughed our heads off, ate waffles, and drank coffee and mimosas. Most of the women there did zines. Quite a few of them were avid collectors. Everyone was either a designer, a graphic artist, a writer, or some combination of the three as far as I could tell.
Lynn was given some great books by her fellow collectors: Lynn, Cover Model ("It's all about working hard to achieve your goals, and dating guys named Cubby and Lanky," reported Karen), and Hot-Dog Partners which had an extremely dubious cover with a young man in wool pants and argyle socks trying to sell hot dogs at the beach, and featuring the line, "I'm licked!" We enthused about our love of the Little House on the Prairie books, Nancy Drew mysteries, many other teen-oriented books of the 50's and 60's, Iron Chef, swing bands and their followers, and the importance of recognizing your inner nerd.
Jane told us about accidentally washing her childhood stuffed toy at a laundromat. "I opened the lid to put in the bleach and saw this tuft of pink fur float by," she said. "I knew what it was immediately. I screamed, the attendent came running, I babbled incoherently about my rabbit, and the attendent fished around for him frantically. He pulled out Mr. Bunny to cheers all around. I was in tears from the experience. This being San Francisco, two people bought me a drink to help me get over the trauma, and the attendent gave me a free dryer cycle. We stood around and watched Mr. Bunny fly past the glass door of the dryer." I was in tears myself from laughing.
We're going to get together at Tomiko's house for a children's book evening soon. It was amazing how much the books we read as kids continue to affect us, and how much of them we remember; we could all quote, albeit with slight horror, Laura's recounting of how Pa could span Ma's waist with his hands when they were young. I'm planning on finding my old Trixie Belden books to bring. Women, books, enthusiasm, creativity, and alcohol -- how can you go wrong? I'm looking forward to it.
