Written in the afternoon on August 6th. Posted when internet was available:
On the leg from Denver to Montreal it felt like half the flight was folks traveling to Worldcon. We ended up sitting next to a fellow Hugo nominee Paolo Bacigalupi. We had fun conversations for most of the three and a half hour flight. This was wonderful. Those sorts of conversations are what I love best about convention attendance. The down side is that I didn’t do any sleeping on the plane. This led to the sort of fatigue that is so beyond tired that it manifests as an overwhelmed depressive state. Howard and I both elected to stay in the room and we were both asleep by 8 pm and we stayed asleep until 9 am.
Howard’s first panel was at 3:30, which left us at loose ends for most of the morning. Fortunately we had a lunch date and we keep seeing cool people in the hallway. Most of the conversations are brief because everyone is still orienting themselves. It is nice to realize that we do know some people in the vast sea of strangers. Self-doubt is very plaguesome at such a large convention. Because the moments when someone recognizes us are surrounded by long stretches when no one does.