Good deed for the day

[pseydtonne]

This morning I hung out with mkhobson, whom I've been reading for years and found out would be in town for ReaderCon. Since I work near the hotel hosting that convention, I met her for breakfast and she let me tell some of the background stories in my life. I think I was speaking faster than I have in a while, or perhaps I always speak that fast.

We attended a panel at the con, "The Year in Short Stories". The four people on the panel, average age 55, seemed to be saying "you kids these days an'... ummm... yuh zombies...".

I kept leaning over to Ms Hobson with snarky comments because I couldn't believe what bores these people were. At one point an author said "I read the three magazines, of course..." and there was no follow-up about which three of the thousands that get published each year. "Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler?" I guessed aloud.

About twenty minutes into the panel, we both had the understanding that these people were exiles from better panels. This was the panel on How to Kill Time Ineffectively. We left.

mkhobson had a 3 p.m. ticket for the Chinatown bus back to New York City. She was thinking of forfeiting the ticket to leave around 7 instead since she was stuck out in the suburbs. I took up the challenge and got her to South Station with 45 minutes to spare and a gas-up en route. She had wanted to see Faneuil Hall, so we drove passed it. She also got the chance to see the giant swarm of tourists that plague downtown Boston in summer. Why don't crowds understand that a green light in the perpendicular direction still means stop walking if you value your life? Why must I wield my horn like a scimitar?

As I peeled out, it dawned on me that this specific crowd that wasn't even looking where traffic was coming from was Japanese. This means they're used to traffic on the left. This may explain the pack's failure to observe the cars up their asses. It took several tries when I was in Nottingham (where they don't expect tourists so they don't paint "look right" on the ground at crosswalks as I later learned they do in London) to relearn all the crosswalk mnemonics I have used since I was a child. Still, honk.

I really had a good time with her. I felt like "wow, people read this... maybe it's time to make it worth reading again." I barely got through my stories and she barely got started. Perhaps I should visit her turf (Portland, Oregon) and have a proper catch-up. Oh, and ride their streetcars.

-time to go to work, Ps/d

Comments

[mkhobson.livejournal.com]

It was so awesome to meet you after all these years! And thank you for taking me past Faneuil Hall, despite how horribly touristy it was ;-) I actually made it onto the 2:45 bus, so your transportation was even more efficient than we knew! Of course, that 2:45 bus spent an extra hour-and-a-half stuck in traffic getting into NYC, but whatever ...

If you come to Portland, you'll probably find the streetcar/Max a bit of a disappointment ... very efficient, but nowhere near as extensive as Boston's T or the NYC subway ... but Powell's Books makes the trip worth it!

M

[pseydtonne.livejournal.com]

Powell's.... [drool, head kicks back]

Yeah, and then I could finally tell you the story of my childhood home and... how overwhelming it is.