When I arrived here at my parent’s house I had a short list of things I wanted to do while in Livermore. One of the biggest items was for me to get in touch with a certain friend from my high school days. She was more of a sister than a friend. Our relationship came complete with many fun times and some huge arguements. She was the only high school friend I ever shouted at. She is also the only high school friend with whom I’ve kept in any sort of contact. We keep losing track of each other, but every few years we get together to catch up. It has been more than four years since we last caught up, the meetup was way overdue. So I tracked her down and yesterday we spent three hours together just visiting. I was able to see her new house and her husband whom I’ve never met. She regaled me with many funny and interesting stories about how her life has gone. At the end of high school I felt like our lives were headed in opposite directions, and yet despite my youthful perception we have arrived at very similar places. We’re both running online businesses. We’re both happily married. We both have kids, although some of her children have four legs rather than two. We both love fantasy style things. I have already decided that when I have more money to spend on pretty things, I’m going to go shop at her store. (http://www.justanothersunset.com/servlet/StoreFront) Who wouldn’t want Nene Thomas’s A Chance Encounter on the wall? Simply beautiful. I loved visiting with my friend so much that we’re going to reprise the visit next Tuesday, only this time I’m hauling Howard and his minis and paints along. My friend loves to paint minis too.
A second important thing for my California visit was organizing a meetup with local area Schlockers. That event took place last night. To give you an idea of how much fun this event was: at one point I was telling some story and I found myself saying “here in Utah” when suddenly I realized I was nowhere near Utah. I was so comfortable in that group of people that at a subconscious level I felt like I was at home. I think this is one of the greatest gifts that Schlock has brought to us, we find wonderful new friends everywhere we go. My only regret for the evening is that the group was so large that I couldn’t talk to everyone as much as I wanted to. There were so many people there with fascinating lives that I wanted to know more about. I want to know more about dogs for the hearing impaired and what it is like to own a laundromat, and the fledgling webcomic one person mentioned, and what massage therapy school is like, and half a dozen other things. There were so many threads of conversation that I would have liked to pursue further. There was laughter and delicious food and hours of fun conversation. Howard made sure that everyone who came, went home with a picture either in a book or on some other paper. I’m going to have to see if I can collect some of the photos that were taken. I’d like to be able to have visual reminders of how much fun this was. Events like this are why I want to be able to go with Howard to more conventions.
So yesterday was a day of old and new friends. Today will be a day of laundry and children and mucking out the car. These things are necessary in order to prepare for the holiday festivities which will begin tomorrow.