Sick and getting sicker
Started off the week with a slight cold—mildly sore throat, occasional cough. Sadly, it's been getting worse rather than better. Coughed on and off most of the last couple nights, though NyQuil helped.
Yesterday hung out here and there around the con. Spent a while hiding in my room. Went to the Gathering and said hi to people. Went to dinner with M and Ben R and Jessie S-S and Tempest and Pam M and her family. At nearby tables, saw Cliff W, Naomi K, Rowan & Jenizie, et alia. Watching Ben and Jessie bounce ideas and words and wit and history off each other at high speed was pretty much worth the price of attending the con all by itself; it's rare that I see someone who can hold their own in a conversation with Ben.
Went to Opening Ceremonies; went to a nearby grocery store/mini-supermarket to pick up various cold medications; eventually went to the "Do Women Write Alternate History?" panel (felt it was sort of my duty, given that my name was listed in the blurb for it, referring to last summer's discussion of women and alternate history). Not a bad panel; I typed up a bunch of notes, which I may post at some point or may not. I took an opportunity to point to "Rapture" and "Planet of the Amazon Women" as being relevant to a question about AH in which women influence the course of history.
Hung out in a hallway outside some parties for a while; chatted with various folks; met Meghan M, author "Close to You"; faded fairly quickly and went to bed.
And now I'm going to try to make it to the second half of the "Why Men Hate Sex" panel that Ben's on, or possibly "Science Fiction and the Oversimplification of Difference," featuring Rob Gates and BC Holmes.
I've noticed that a bunch of people have hit on a useful strategy for starting interactions with me, at least useful for this weekend: they've been asking me about my car decision, which makes clear that they're reading my journal without having to bring up anything difficult/painful. I suspect that's an entirely unintentional side effect (as far as I can tell, they're asking because they honestly want to know), but it works well; one of the things that's making social interaction awkward for me these days is not being sure who knows what. So when a friend I haven't seen in a while calls across the room to me, cheerfully, "Hey! What's new with you?" a certain awkwardness tends to result, but at least I can be pretty sure they haven't heard. Whereas if someone just says hi or how are you, then I'm not sure, and I get a little tense, not knowing whether they know. So the car thing has turned out to be a good way to signal "I know what's been going on in your life."
Okay, off to shower and try to appear presentable. Panelward ho! Cough drops are my friend.
Oh, but here's my Technorati wiscon tag. See Bill's blog for more info; also note that if your journal/blog system isn't set up to automatically ping Technorati, you'll have to manually ping by entering the URL of your entry in a form. At least, I think that's how it works; I haven't had much luck getting Technorati to index my journal in the past.