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Decompression Blues
Aug. 17th, 2005 09:16 amFandom is just a goddamned hobby -- or it better be, because otherwise what am I doing here at work? Oh right, I'm posting an LJ message aimed at fans. (People warned me this would happen!)
Certainly fandom was a way of life on this recent UK trip, and I was on such a high by the end of it that it carried me through the weekend and only yesterday (Monday, Monday) began to wear off. The news back in the real world has been tough to take, with Anita's recurrence of cancer, Sharee's friend Dave (whom I met on my first visit to Oz) basically on his deathbed from the same, and now the news last night that Sharee has apparently lost her job because the skipper's wife, who has been filling in for her while she was away in Europe, has decided that the fishing is too good this season to give up. This is a fluid situation that could quickly change (and Sharee already has a lead on an open position on another, less profitable, boat), but it's beginning to seem that the price for this trip (in which she already missed out on the most profitable weeks of the prawn season) is just going to keep stacking up.
Which isn't at all what I was feeling down about yesterday, which was more the usual post-convention letdown of "where did all those friends and all that surging energy go?" One thing that struck me yesterday was that despite being something of an introvert, I never did hit social overload on this trip. I'm not sure if it's just that I kept my circle relatively small, or if maybe it was the comfort of having Sharee around. I noticed once again that when I'm with her, I feel more secure in general, more capable of facing uncertain situations, social or otherwise. (Notice that I say "more" and not "totally" secure!) I also fed off her excitement at meeting old friends and new and at traveling in Europe for the first time. It made me really happy to see her having such a great time.
In any event, I met a lot of new people myself and had a zillion conversations with a variety of folks and generally absorbed great gobs of new information, gossip, and perspective, and it's no surprise that I need to decompress a bit now. Or maybe it's more digestion than decompression. Was thinking a lot on the walk to work this morning about the brouhaha over Eastercon, and starting to connect it to my experience of Norwescon and to what happened to Minicon a couple of years ago. Suddenly it was less about personalities and more about philosophies of fandom and community. Then I started to think about how fannish this big-tent Worldcon had been ...
This really was an amazing trip, and an amazing Worldcon. The connections I made and the connections I strengthened will continue to make a difference in at least my fannish life -- even if it is just a goddamned hobby. Then there's that mad Australian woman, who continues to make a fine traveling companion and partner. Fingers crossed that the work situation turns out for the best ...
Certainly fandom was a way of life on this recent UK trip, and I was on such a high by the end of it that it carried me through the weekend and only yesterday (Monday, Monday) began to wear off. The news back in the real world has been tough to take, with Anita's recurrence of cancer, Sharee's friend Dave (whom I met on my first visit to Oz) basically on his deathbed from the same, and now the news last night that Sharee has apparently lost her job because the skipper's wife, who has been filling in for her while she was away in Europe, has decided that the fishing is too good this season to give up. This is a fluid situation that could quickly change (and Sharee already has a lead on an open position on another, less profitable, boat), but it's beginning to seem that the price for this trip (in which she already missed out on the most profitable weeks of the prawn season) is just going to keep stacking up.
Which isn't at all what I was feeling down about yesterday, which was more the usual post-convention letdown of "where did all those friends and all that surging energy go?" One thing that struck me yesterday was that despite being something of an introvert, I never did hit social overload on this trip. I'm not sure if it's just that I kept my circle relatively small, or if maybe it was the comfort of having Sharee around. I noticed once again that when I'm with her, I feel more secure in general, more capable of facing uncertain situations, social or otherwise. (Notice that I say "more" and not "totally" secure!) I also fed off her excitement at meeting old friends and new and at traveling in Europe for the first time. It made me really happy to see her having such a great time.
In any event, I met a lot of new people myself and had a zillion conversations with a variety of folks and generally absorbed great gobs of new information, gossip, and perspective, and it's no surprise that I need to decompress a bit now. Or maybe it's more digestion than decompression. Was thinking a lot on the walk to work this morning about the brouhaha over Eastercon, and starting to connect it to my experience of Norwescon and to what happened to Minicon a couple of years ago. Suddenly it was less about personalities and more about philosophies of fandom and community. Then I started to think about how fannish this big-tent Worldcon had been ...
This really was an amazing trip, and an amazing Worldcon. The connections I made and the connections I strengthened will continue to make a difference in at least my fannish life -- even if it is just a goddamned hobby. Then there's that mad Australian woman, who continues to make a fine traveling companion and partner. Fingers crossed that the work situation turns out for the best ...
