Pruning and reshaping
Feb. 15th, 2010 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersDon Fitch told me a couple of years ago that President's Day was about the right time to prune roses. I recently read a gardening page on the web that suggested that the time was right when your forsythia blooms. So I went out to prune the roses today, which is President's Day, and sure enough my forsythia has its first blossoms.
I spent a happy hour pruning the roses and the dead raspberry canes, preparing the way for new growth. As most of you will no doubt be unsurprised to hear, I am also continuing to rethink my travel plans for later in the year. Sharee's announcement of her marriage to Greg and their plans to attend Worldcon is making me even more dubious of the wisdom of my going to Australia this year. One of the things that's frustrating about this for me is that I also can't go to Corflu Cobalt in the UK this year because of travel plans with my family. That likewise cancels out the possibility of going to Eastercon instead. However, it just occurred to me yesterday that Novacon in November is another possibility.
One of the reasons I'm eager to get back to the UK in the near future is that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
reverendjim has indicated that he might be up for a trip to Belgium to drink damn fine beer in its natural habitat if I get over there again. So when I tossed my idea out to the Fishlifters to see what they thought, I was delighted to get this back from Mark. It absolutely made my day. (I hope he doesn't mind my quoting a private e-mail. Mark, if you do, just let me know and I'll take it down.) Mark wrote, "Much as we'd love to see you in Australia, there's something cosmic going on driving you down this path, I feel. I mean they don't coincide precisely, but your email was sent just before -- and seen by us just after -- we were talking in the pub about getting you to come to Novacon, in the wake of your email about coming to the UK some time and setting off on a Belgian beer odyssey with Jim. The general consensus was that if you do this you should take Tobes too -- and probably a film crew."
Which sounds like so much goddamn fun that I'm tempted to book the trip right now. However, I'm not going to make a hasty decision. I'm reluctant to give up on Aussiecon, because Australian Worldcons are a once a decade opportunity, and while going to the UK would allow me to visit British friends I had hoped to see in Melbourne, I wouldn't be able to see my Australian friends, including a few I've gotten to know through LiveJournal but haven't met yet.
Yet there's no denying that the recent developments Down Under make the emotional terrain much trickier for me. I'm not sure I'm strong enough not to be a burden on myself, on Sharee and Greg, and on all my friends. But who knows? Maybe this whole thing is making me stronger even now. All I know is that I love my friends, who are absolute rocks. I'm getting by with a little help from them.
I spent a happy hour pruning the roses and the dead raspberry canes, preparing the way for new growth. As most of you will no doubt be unsurprised to hear, I am also continuing to rethink my travel plans for later in the year. Sharee's announcement of her marriage to Greg and their plans to attend Worldcon is making me even more dubious of the wisdom of my going to Australia this year. One of the things that's frustrating about this for me is that I also can't go to Corflu Cobalt in the UK this year because of travel plans with my family. That likewise cancels out the possibility of going to Eastercon instead. However, it just occurred to me yesterday that Novacon in November is another possibility.
One of the reasons I'm eager to get back to the UK in the near future is that
reverendjim has indicated that he might be up for a trip to Belgium to drink damn fine beer in its natural habitat if I get over there again. So when I tossed my idea out to the Fishlifters to see what they thought, I was delighted to get this back from Mark. It absolutely made my day. (I hope he doesn't mind my quoting a private e-mail. Mark, if you do, just let me know and I'll take it down.) Mark wrote, "Much as we'd love to see you in Australia, there's something cosmic going on driving you down this path, I feel. I mean they don't coincide precisely, but your email was sent just before -- and seen by us just after -- we were talking in the pub about getting you to come to Novacon, in the wake of your email about coming to the UK some time and setting off on a Belgian beer odyssey with Jim. The general consensus was that if you do this you should take Tobes too -- and probably a film crew."Which sounds like so much goddamn fun that I'm tempted to book the trip right now. However, I'm not going to make a hasty decision. I'm reluctant to give up on Aussiecon, because Australian Worldcons are a once a decade opportunity, and while going to the UK would allow me to visit British friends I had hoped to see in Melbourne, I wouldn't be able to see my Australian friends, including a few I've gotten to know through LiveJournal but haven't met yet.
Yet there's no denying that the recent developments Down Under make the emotional terrain much trickier for me. I'm not sure I'm strong enough not to be a burden on myself, on Sharee and Greg, and on all my friends. But who knows? Maybe this whole thing is making me stronger even now. All I know is that I love my friends, who are absolute rocks. I'm getting by with a little help from them.
