I am glad tomorrow's Friday. Not because it's the last day of a very long and stressful week, but because the agent who's been out of the office for two weeks will be back in. I've been too busy to breathe. Allyn Cadogan came in to see me about a ticket, and I made her wait almost half an hour to talk to me while I wrestled with the arrogant stupidity of a client who asked me to change his flight and reissue his ticket, then stood by for an earlier flight, thus completely effing-up the transaction. It was great to chat to Allyn, though, in between holding for Continental, and going through the elaborate process of working out just what Ham-Brain had done to create an unticketable reservation situation.
I've known Allyn for ages. We worked together on the Emperor Norton Science Fiction Hour, a half hour program on the local public access television station. I was talent, meaning I was willing to stand in front of the camera (I wore a lot of rubber monster masks -- it was a show about science fiction and fandom, after all), and she was the director or co-producer or something like that. Shay Barsabe was the executive producer, I'm pretty sure of that. Our job titles weren't always clear. It was a creative bunch, though. The three of us reinvented the wheel by creating and running a fanzine fan's convention the next year. The Emperor Norton show is long gone, but Corflu's going on 16.
Not too long after she left, Peter Larsen turned up in vast amounts of black leather and sporting more hair than I've seen on him in a while (and I've known him for ages, too). There was at least half an inch on his head, practically shaggy for him. He kept me company, bless him, while I rattled through a dozen phone calls (speaking slowly and loudly for the hard of thinking), and put together tickets. It was hard to have a good conversation while I was so busy, but I took a few minutes to get a cup of coffee and stood outside in the cold with him so we could babble at each other agreeably. I'm hoping to have brunch with him on Sunday before he goes back to Minneapolis. He was looking into graduate programs in library science so maybe he'll move out here. I'd be pretty happy if he did. I've never spent a boring or mediocre hour around him. He has an amazing mind. I suspect he's a polymath.
I'd have enjoyed seeing my friends a lot more if I hadn't been trying to put out seventeen fires at once, of course. As it was, I enjoyed the unusual situation of having people I know come into the office. It helped keep my stress level down. I really like it when my boss brings her dogs to the office. Then, whenever I need a breather, I just run over and pet their soft, furry bodies. I could have run my hands through Peter's hair for the same effect, I suppose, but he wouldn't have enjoyed it the way the dogs do.
