Day: September 2, 2013

Last year in September all I wanted was to be at home with my family. I knew it was the last year with all the kids living at home and I was weary. So since last September and now the only time I went away was for four days of the Writing Excuses retreat. The break from events was good, but now I’m ready to go back out again. I want to see my friends who live far away. So this is my convention wish list for this next year. I’m going to have to pick and choose because child care is a limited resource.

January 17-19 ConFusion in Michigan. I have a lot of friends in Michigan. I really want to go visit them. So I plan to shift all sorts of things to make this happen.

February 13-15 LTUE in Provo, UT. This is local. My attendance is almost guaranteed.

May 25-26 LDS Storymakers. I would love to be involved, but they haven’t yet sent out their speaker invitations, so no idea if I will be yet.

July 3-6 Westercon SLC, Utah. This is local. Howard is one of the guests of honor. We’ll be involved.

July 17-20 NASFIC in Detroit, Michigan. This would be another lovely excuse to visit friends. But of the events on my wishlist, this is the one most likely to be dropped.

August 14-18 WorldCon in London. I would love to go to Europe. I’ve never been. I’d like to be with Howard at a WorldCon again. Childcare is tricky because of the length and distance of the trip. Timing is tricky because the turn around to the start of school is really tight. I’m not sure what is possible.

End of September: The Writing Excuses Retreat. I had to miss half of it this year. I really want to be present next year. It is my first choice of where to spend my childcare resources.

So that’s a lot of events to wish for. I feel a bit greedy. I know I am unlikely to get them all, but there is no harm in seeing the wishes.

I must also remember that my wish to have my family always safe and cared for is far more important.

You can see that he was a bit excited by this. I only have bits and pieces of information about the event because it all took place in San Antonio and I was in Utah. I was tracking the progress of the Hugo Award ceremonies via Twitter while I distracted myself from being anxious by doing other things. There was supposed to be a live Ustream of the event, but twitter told me that there were technical difficulties, so I’m glad I didn’t attempt to watch that way. I’d just seen the news that someone other than Schlock Mercenary was picked for the Best Graphic Story category. I was still trying to settle that news in my mind and wondering how Howard was doing when a friend called to let me know that Writing Excuses won. Brandon, Mary, and Howard all got to go onstage. (Dan is in Germany and Jordan in Utah.)

Howard called me later for just a few minutes. He was happy and wanted me to know that he was happy, but couldn’t talk long because he had a job to do. For him the Hugo doesn’t represent a reward for something he completed, it is a responsibility to continue the work that he has only begun. His job for the evening was to carry the Hugo, to talk to people, to give out as much kindness and happiness as words could dispense. I’m pretty sure he stayed out past 3 am doing that.

I spoke with him again today for a little bit longer, but he still has a job to do. Most of the attendees have dispersed, but our booth crew is still there. His time and attention belong to them for this evening, because they are friends and because they took time out of their lives to come and help us. I hope we’ll have time to talk when he gets home, that I’ll get to hear all the stories and happy things that have happened for Howard in the past few days. I was here doing my job, which doesn’t have any particularly fun/exciting stories attached.

I look at that picture up above and I am so very glad. I am so glad that Howard is the good man that he is, that he has such amazing friends who collaborate with him, that his hard work has been recognized, that we get to continue doing all the things we are doing. The Hugo is being shipped to us, I look forward to seeing it in person. Even more, I look forward to picking up Howard from the airport and bringing him home where he can be mine again for a while.