Hey, friend. I wouldn't be gone so long, but I can't seem to stop sleeping.

I had a Hank and Bobby dream about an hour ago. I don't really remember it clearly-- just that Bobby had a past as one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, as well as Warren. And Hank and Bobby went out on a date, and Bobby got shot. And there was a little girl.

God bless dreams, I say.

Happy November, everybody. Yesterday, I recieved my second parking ticket this week. Also-- I'm now a Yonkyu in Shingitai Jujtisu, which means that I wear a green belt. Jujitsu, in case you didn't know, is translated as "the art of going with." So, now I'm going with.

To quote Lise, from her online journal :

But that's really not very interesting. Nothing really is. :)

And the fact that I've quoted that to you means that I've opened my quote book. Which means I'm looking at River's quote right beneath it. It's from her and Lise's Angelo/Pete story.

That's right. Angelo Espinosa and Pete Wisdom. Don't believe it? I couldn't either, at first. But they're laying in the dark, in the den at the Massachusettes Academy, on separate couches. Pete's telling Ange a story.

"So-- we were stuck there for two hours until the damned plane could get to us, and Braddock kept asking for everyone's underwear the whole time. The second hour he finally realized he could get his own panties, and then we sat there for fifty minutes with Captain Britain wearing his red-and-blue briefs on his head and telling the world, "Guess who I am! Guess who I am! I'm Batman!"

*

Oh, ai. I guess I have to tell you guys how the Convention went.

Not that there's nothing to tell, because there is, or that it's not a fun story, which it might not be-- it's just that since I began visiting my assignment moose, I have a lessening tolerance for telling stories.

Okay.

I drove up Friday and found the hotel with no problem at all. Just, a right turn-- and there it was. I just sat in my car in the parking lot a few minutes after that. Collecting my thoughts, y'know. Nervous of what, I don't know. I told the assignment moose I didn't know-- I told you guys I didn't know. Still.

Went in, looked around the lobby. Had a faint idea of what Pebs and Lise would look like-- didn't see anyone black or Inuit, so I went to the front desk, and asked them to telephone room #110. Let the phone ring. I swallow, someone picks up.

"Hello?"

Male voice, and I say, "Um, yeah. Is. Uh. Pebblin there?" Thinking, oh, christ, I said her name.

Amazingly, the guy says, "No."

Which is bad, because, where is Pebblin??, she was supposed to be here when I got here. But good, because, hey, the guy didn't say, "Who? Oh, you mean Robyn. You crazy fuck."

So I get braver and ask, "But this is her room, right?"

He says no, this is where . . and he says some names that I kind of recognize, but don't remember. That's where they're staying. So I say oh, and hang up. I tell the front desk lady, and she apologizes and hooks me up with the right room.

This time, a female voice answers. I say, "Is Pebblin there?" She still says no.

"But this *is* where she's staying, right?"

She says yes. I say, okay. So I hang up and make my way around the corner to room #108.

The doors open. There's a group of people in the main room-- two women in the middle, holding hands, they look up and say, "we're coming out of the closet." I just kind of stand there, holding my bags.

Then I walk in and say, "Well, that's good. If I'm coming into this room, it's nice to know that everyone is free and unencumbered." They laugh, and I grin, and this handsome guy sitting on the couch says, "It's all in the timing."

So I think, yeah, entering on a joke, this is very good.

--I'm completely discrediting myself with you guys, aren't I?

Oh, well.

So I walk past them, into the bedroom section, and set my stuff down. A woman follows me. She says, "I don't know you," and I think, what are you-- Chucky Pancamo?

But I look at her. And then I say, "I'm Alestar."

And then I think I kind of black out, because I don't really remember what happens next. I know that I end up hugging a bunch of people. I joke some.

JB-- the author of the afore-mentioned quote-- came into the bedroom, baring her mid-driff and a do-rag, and she said, "I'm JB," and I hugged her. Then I went back out into the party area. I found a corner and sat down behind a desk, right across from the handsome guy.

He said-- well, actually, it seems like he said, "I don't know you," but he probably didn't. I don't know. But, again, I said, "I'm Alestar."

Then he said, "I'm Dex," or somebody said, "He's Dex,"-- and I went, "Ohhhh." 'Cause I'd heard of Dex. He's, like, the Gambit of the comic book fan-fiction world. Except Irish-y-- and other stuff-- but that's his rep.

And then we all laugh about that. Which is good.

They talk. I listen. Heatherly offers me a brownie and I take one. I haven't had anything to eat all day, and I want something to occupy my hands and mouth-- but I'm not hungry.

I think I eventually break into the conversation with some trivia about Iceland. How a bucket of chicken costs eighty dollars there, or something. I don't know. It's all a blur.

About half an hour later, somebody comes into the room and says, "Pebblin is here!" And other people, as well, but I only hear Pebblin.

JB runs out of the room to tackle Pebblin. I hear screaming and laughing and stuff. I look down and think, I don't have enough brownie for this.

Pebblin comes in. She jokes around and stuff, there is hugging, I don't know, eventually she notices me in the corner. She turns around. I give her a look. She gives me a look. I hide the pan of brownies under the desk. Then, there is hugging.

Also: Lise. God bless her. She peeks around the door-- I'm behind the desk *behind* the door-- at me, and I look at her. I think, she really *does* look Inuit, that's fabulous. There's another memory gap here.

Joking; teasing; laughing. I play around with Pebblin. Make little talk with Lise. Then Heatherly comes in and asks if anyone can sew and Pebblin looks at me.

I go into the bedroom and sew something on Heatherly's RenFaire costume for her. It's a relief, because I finally have something to do with my hands, and I'm not in the party room anymore, but I can still hear everything going on.

Heatherly and I begin a discussion of pagan things, which is Something To Talk About. Pebblin comes in and teases me about sewing. Matt Nute makes an appearance and says something like, "I don't know you." QueenBee comes to visit me.

Eventually, we're in the parking lot. I'm taking me, Pebblin, Lise, Heatherly, and QB in Blue-- as part of a caravan of five cars.

I'm just gonna skim through this part.

I'm driving on a Friday night in downtown Nashville. My car overheats. There is much Ale-cursing and honking of horns. So not only am I the Center Of Attention, but I'm the Center Of Attention Making Everyone Late For Our Pub Reservations. And I've been reading all the SouthernCon write-ups people have been posting since last Tuesday, and everybody mentions, "And on Friday night Alestar almost had a wreck, boy, was that a scare." Like, well.

Nevermind. We leave my car at a gas station.

Ai.

We walk to an Irish pub called . . Sean-something. Seannach's. I don't know. Everytime I run into something Celtic, I feel a little less Irish.

Hee. I'm such a *poser*.

Anyway, we went-- Pebblin ordered a drink called Cowboy Cocksucker, and with a name like that, how could I not try it? It was damned good. I did alot of drinking this night. Not enough to get inebriated, or even buzzed-- but more than I'd planned on doing.

I got cauliflower soup. It was fine, but I ended up pushing it off to Lise to finish. After we created a foreign land out of sweet-n-low packets, of course. After awhile, I start to get nervous about my car. We're in downtown Nashville, and, man, my poor Blue . .

I get directions from Epona on how to get to her house, which is where everyone's going after the pub-- she mentions off-hand that they'll be stopping at Kroger's to get drinks sometime in the evening. I slip out and walk the five or so blocks back to the gas station where I left Blue. This drunk guy follows me.

When I get to the gas station, this gas station security guy questions me about leaving my car there-- I explain the situation, and he helps me put antifreeze in her. I leave.

*laughs*

I get so lost.

The directions that Epona gave me were so incomplete. Like, there were two of the same exits, and she didn't tell me West or East, or left or right.

But I preservere! Like Devon's Master Navigator that I am, I find the right road. Find the right subdivision.

Can't find the right apartment.

But I preservere! I remembered Epona's mentioning that they were going to get drinks at Kroger's, so I thought-- I'll just meet up with them there. So I *find* Kroger's. I'm all, whoooo. Stranger in a strange land. This is so what I was meant to do with my life. Feelin' good.

I settle in outside Kroger's-- use the opportunity to call my ma, 'cause who wants to do that with their fellow conventioners around? Eventually, my pals show up.

QB is *so* impressed. She's like, you're MacGyver. And I'm all, yes, I am MacGyver.

We get drinks. QB and I buy gatorade, god bless us. We take these drinks to Epona's, where we drink them. I have lots of hard lemonade. Under the influence of these drinks, we play Whose Line Is It Anyway games. Or, well-- they play, I watch. Anytime I think they might call on me to do something, I go to the restroom.

Dex sings an Irish song. This one chick, Celendra, gets really drunk and keeps whispering in my ear how good-looking Dex is. Matt does his impression of Apocalypse modelling swimwear.

"Yes. This is of the Thong."

Pebblin does her Australian accent, and everybody keeps saying, "You've got a purty mouth."

The party breaks up close to midnight, because we've all got to get up early. I have Heatherly drive Blue home-- only as a precautionary measure, because I'm not tipsy at all. Although, I think I tackled Pebblin in the parking lot.

But I would've done that anyway.

We go back to the hotel and settle in. We talk a little while-- I don't remember what about-- and we finally sleep at two.

A that was my Friday.

And it's noon now. I'll be back.

I love you.

Alestar