Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

After Mass this afternoon, my dad decided to pop into a small block of antique shops that's a few doors down from the church we've been going to. And when I mean "antique shop" I mean the sort of combination thrift store/jumble store/shop that sells things which actually are antiques which are part of the landscape of many towns in New England. You might find anything from Chippendale chairs to Maxfield Parrish prints in tastefully distressed frames to a Regency-era armoire to a shelf full of paperbacks from 1990. On said shelf full of paperbacks from 1990, I found a three-volumes-in-one collection of Storm Constantine's "Wraethu", which has been tweaking my interest for some time. I'm hoping this trilogy doesn't run out of steam in the third volume the way her Grigori trilogy unfortunately did (not to say that the writing wasn't interesting, since I like her lush way of describing things, it's just that the plot of the third Grigori novel kind of lost its way).

Still looking for an anime/sci-fi convention to attend. I almost went to Arisia this weekend, but I found out about it a bit too late to afford it, plus I need to pay myself back for some Christmas shopping. There's always next year. I still don't think I'll be attending AnimeBoston this year since it's smack dab on the weekend of Easter and I have too much to do that weekend. But I think I've hit upon a very doable costume idea and it came to me as I was putting the final edits on the fic I posted last night: I might very well costume as Tatsumi. I've got the right hair color and the fringe over my eyes is parted about the same way, plus it shouldn't be too hard to hunt up a brown suit from one of the local thrift shops. I've even located a place in Portland, Oregon which sells sleeve garters, and I've been meaning to buy a pair for work anyway. The most costly part of the costume might be getting half-rimmed eyeglasses, but I really need to buy new glasses anyway, since my current metal-rimmed pair are falling apart and the finish has come off them. I was hunting for rimless glasses, but I discovered to my annoyance that they're rather pricey even if they've only got half the amount of metal in them as my current pair. I remember joking, "You have to be as rich as a certain crooked energy vampire to afford these damn things." One thing I won't be doing is the sapphire-blue contact lenses, but that's because I have this bad problem with not being able to get my hand close enough to my eyes to put them in without my eyes all but sealing themselves shut. I think it's because I had sooo many eye doctor appointments and sooo many drops put in my eyes during the first twelve years of my life that my eyes have decided "Okay, enough of that, nothing is coming near us ever again!"

Wheee!! I think I had more fun this year than I did last year, but of course last year, I was pressuring myself to find a literary agent and then flogging myself for not finding one.

This year... I actually managed to get to and from Boston on the T without any little glitches in transit (Last year, I got off at the wrong stop and had to hop back on). Attended a nifty little panel discussion on Jane Austen and science fiction, how her millieu is practically an alien civilization compared to our own age, and how it isn't much of a stretch to write fantasy set in that sort of world. Also a very lively panel discussion on graphic novels and where they're headed, featuring among other people, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, who's edited some of Neil Gaiman's stuff. Ooh, heard *THE* best one-man filk minstrel, Steve MacDonald: He did one crazy lullaby about "The Demons Under Your Bed", and a Harry Potter filk based on "Pinball Wizard", and one really touching one he'd written for his fiancee; wish I remember the words, but it was something about wandering the earth until he'd found her and how finding her was like coming home.

Thus I just *had* to get one of his CDs in the dealers' room... And this year's Boskone tee-shirt, which features this lovely painting of an android with a dune and a cityscape behind him... and a pile of books including:

--Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", which I've been meaning to get (faire_damsel, you'd love this book: I highly, highly reccommend it!), also his audio collection of children's stories and "Tales from the Dream Trade", which includes his "American Gods" weblog and a bunch of his introductions to several different books by other people (This one is hard to come by, since only the New England Science Fiction Association published it).

--The other three "Chicks in Chain Mail" collections put together by Esther Friesner. I utterly *LOVED* the first one, so I had to get the next three. What a hoot!

--Terry Pratchett's "Lords and Ladies", which I've been wanting to read ever since Puck used an extensive quote from it in one of her DegSep fics.

And I got some info from an LARP group in the area: seems they're a wildly mixed genre -- medieval, space opera, cyberpunk, one guy even plays a caveman! I asked if there was room in there for a machine intelligence, and the guy in charge told me they had a few characters like that, but unfortunately said MIs are TEH BAD GUIZ!!!11111 Grr... well, if I ever join, I'll see if I can't turn that around a little.

As I said, I was costuming as Flood: at least three people commented on my costume, but -- perhaps thankfully! -- no one recognized who I was supposed to be (Last thing I need is to have some Zion wackies or "rusty Toasters" chase me down a hallway). But one gal did say, "The gloves really help make the costume". Just as well that I didn't dress as Death: I spotted two gals dressed up as her.

Finally registered for Boskone. I had to put some money into the account before I went any further. I'm starting to get keyed up for that.

And oh yeah, it looks like the weather isn't going to cooperate with my decision to dress as Death from "The Sandman Comics": It's supposed to be cold Saturday, so even though I'll be indoors much of the day, I'll have to nix Death's typical sleeveless top. Ah well... Now I'm trying to settle on which of the other two ideas I'll actually execute. It looks like the Merv might win out, though I'll have to rig the back of my jacket to make it look more frock-coat like. Wish I'd been able to get some decent hair bleach sooner, though my mother would be scratching her head if I went from brunette to platinum... I've been feeling more Flood-ish lately.

Though it was cool enough this evening for me to test out The Jacket. I'll have to hem the cuffs of the sleeves, since they're a tad long, yet the fact that the rest of it is big on me works: the demon hunter's jacket is loose enough to blur his body lines, and when I'm walking quickly it helps create the effect of it "following a step behind [me]" to quote the screenplay.

And, oh yes, the rude awakening this morning: about seven this morning, this awful screeching, squeaking, grinding noise, accompanied by the house shaking jarred me out of a sound sleep. I thought it was an earthquake (we get those once in a while: nothing major, just the kind that rattle the dishes and scare my bird and wake me up from a sound sleep...), but then I realized that the road crew still working on widening our street was moving a big earthmover down the street.

::Uses one of her "Powerpuff"-style Harry Potter icons, just because it's teh KYOOT!!111::

... always, always, always have a back-up plan for whatever you do.

Okay... I didn't make it to Patterson's today: My dad had a bunch of errands to take care of, so I didn't get the vital parts of my Trinity costume. But... There's a clothing store that carries all kinds of stuff (including sports-type stuff) in downtown Lowell, so I'm gonna try there on Monday... Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the only night during the week that Pattersons is open is Thursday night. Guess what night I have to work next week.

Right. [Kidding] I swear that one of the front end managers is an Agent in disguise. [/Kidding]

So... if the Lowell plan doesn't work, my mom said she'd go to Patterson's Thursday night for me. God, I'm lucky to have a mom like her...

Still need to get my hair cut... and get the toy guns.

I was able to knock another entry off the Sci-Fi convention "to-do" list... only to add two more items...

1. Withdraw money from bank account for:
2. The necessary parts for my Trinity costume, in which case I have to:
3. Call a local shop that retails dance equipment for the local ballet schools, etc, and get price on sleeveless black leotard/hours
4. Find a pair of black leggings at K-Mart or WalMart (Do they even sell those any more?)
5. Also black/green gym bag for toting my necessary gear around; it has to be black/green in order for it to be in character. I've been going with the "first movie" look, and the gym bag ties in with the government lobby shootout scene.
6. Buy toy gun, eg. a water pistol or something like it, and paint it black. (I haven't been too successful finding anything that looks remotely like Trinity's Glock 9.)
7. See if I can't keep the cost down so that will leave me $150~ to spend at the convention itself.
8. Get haircut! (My bangs are so long they're bugging me.)

I hope I can get this all assembled by next Friday...

I finally typed/posted the next chapter of "Under the Gun": hopefully I'll have enough ambition to type the next/last chapter by the beginning of next week.

I finally, finally heard from Mark about the sci-fi convention! We're going on Saturday, September 4th. So... Now I just have to:

1. Register online tomorrow
2. Request next Saturday off
3. Withdraw money from bank account for
4. The necessary parts for my Trinity costume, in which case I have to:
5. Call a local shop that retails dance equipment for the local ballet schools, etc, and get price/hours
6. Find a pair of black leggings at K-Mart or WalMart (Do they even sell those any more?)
7. See if I can't keep the cost down so that will leave me $150~ to spend at the convention itself.

Whew, I think that's all!