Consistent blogging has never been a problem for me, until now apparently. This past month has been…festive to say the least. MrMr1 and I went to Vegas, and while I’d like to say it was full of anniversary celebratory canoodling, it was, sadly, just an excuse to not be apart from each other while he was attending IBM Edge 2015.2 It was a nice enough stay for what it was, I suppose, what with me being trapped in the hotel room the vast majority of the time working remote…remotely. At least I can say I had some great convos with the cleaning crew.3
Then I spent a bit of time freezing because I got the bright idea that “Hey, a medieval camping event is something I always love and it just so happens that my dear friend Landinn4 will be nearby and attending and since I haven’t seen her in forever and have been trying to for 10 years maybe now is my only chance. In fact, just to make it extra special, I’ll wear the second lightest medieval clothes I have. In the mountains. In an area of the country WHERE IT RAINS ALL THE DAMNED TIME.” Now, that said, it really was quite temperate the entire time until the sun went down and I froze my ass off. Never in my life have I been so ill-prepared for a camping event. I’m the planner extraordinaire when it comes to these things and this time, this one damned time, I brought nothing with me but the wrong clothes and the right jewelry.
Oh, but wait there’s more!
After narrowly escaping hypothermia (twice), I wisely moved on to more comfortable climes in lovely downtown Portland, promptly did the tourist thing by walking the craft fair, visiting the Keep Portland Weird sign5, avoiding Voodoo Donuts6, and falling face-first into Book Nerd Mecca(TM)7.
Still more you say? Why yes there is!
The overarching point of all of this travel during the course of two weeks, believe it or not, was not just to gad about and work in weird spots around the globe.8 It was really so that I could finally give my talk on martial arts philosopy and writing at Write the Docs NA 2015. I also met some awesome people (EDIT: shout out to Matt, Mike, and Becky especially). And, of course, I checked off some tech writing nerd bucket list items like meeting Marcia Riefer Johnston, Karen Ronning-Hall, and Ward Cunningham (insert fan girl squee here).
First day of #writethedocs starts with swag and breakfast. #awesome pic.twitter.com/5usW9qxzKC
— Gaylin Walli (@gwalli) May 18, 2015I could talk about all the cool things I learned and the ideas that it all generated but they sunk in so fast that it would take a metric crapton of writing to get it all out again and articulate in more than just cave grunts and gestures. Let’s just say that the whole trip was completely worthwhile because it basically all culminated in me finding my tribe. And I don’t say that lightly. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been doing this for quite a while, this writing gig thing, but even when I was going to school and sharing in that camaraderie of misfortune thing during the snowstorms, I never really thought like I was part of the crowd.9
Now I do. Me. Crazy lone writer me. I’m not alone. There are other writers like me. We have the same problems and joys, the same trials and questions day-to-day. We worry about many of the same things. And that makes the fact that my hair is still on fire at work totally worthwhile.
#ilovemyjob
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Who now has his own twitter account (which he’s trying to change the name of, btw, so if you’re from Twitter and wanna get rid of a squatter’s account hit me up). ↩
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I’ve since dubbed this the “conference for older white guys” due to the paucity of people who identify as female (as best I can tell) and people of any color whatsoever. It was so largely populated by mid-40s guys in logo’d polos and khakis that ai nearly forbade MrMr from wearing the same because he would, quite firmly blend into the pack of other 40s-something white guys. HE’S SPECIAL, DAMMIT AND I WANTED EVERYONE TO KNOW. And now that I think on it, the people of color of any kind at the casino at this time were clearly there for the celebratory canoodloing of their own devising so maybe that’s not so bad. But I digress…. ↩
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Hola, Maria! You were a joy to have in the room as company for all 20 minutes of it each day. Hope the baby is doing well! ↩
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Of course it’s a pseudonym, silly. ↩
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With my monkey. As one does. ↩
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Tripled up around the block and side walk? Screw that long-assed line. In fact, screw donuts. Chips are my kyrptonite anyway. ↩
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aka Powell’s, from whence I escaped narrowly with a single purchase, largely because I didn’t want to carry more on the plane than I already had in hand and I’m too damned cheap to ship things home even when people offer to do all the leg work. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. ↩
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Though that would be awesome. I should plan that. ↩
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I saved that for my sisters-by-choice, in my sorority. Yes, dammit, I was a sorority girl. Don’t judge me! ↩