   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
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Well, now we know what the “P” stands for.
It’s been on the cast page for a while too. 😛
You expect me to do simple research?
On the Internet?!
Inconceivable! 😉
I’ve been going to conventions for 15 years, and I’ve never been to a ‘party floor’. Does what happens there differ significantly from your average dorm room party?
Really depends on the convention. I’ve been to cons which had practically no room parties at all, and I’ve been to cons that have entire floors of hotels booked exclusively by people running elaborate parties.
Some room parties are just some beverages, food and people playing Apples to Apples. Some room parties have elaborate sets to recreate a Klingon brig while a large man in full makeup calls you a p’tak and tries to convince you to eat a meal worm.
It’s a spectrum.
Weirdly, in my area [southern California] the anime conventions have very few room parties, but some of the general SF cons have huge ones. Some are run by individuals, others by conventions or publishing companies. Most are open to everyone, but a few are aimed at a particular sub-group of fandom.
Fans still talk about one year when the convention hotel was shared with an Amway convention, but my favorite was the time when there was a gathering of mariachis in town, and two conventions shared the same overflow hotel. So, they all had to dress up where they were staying and then travel to the hotels where the events were.
Yes, cosplayers and mariachis all walking out of the same elevator got some very strange looks from the hotel staff.
What does Sarah’s dad do for a living?
Business.