I started out writing "in my absence," but that's just too trite. I need to focus on my travelogue so I won't write much here, but i did want to get back into journal routine. Just before I left, we actually shipped our sensor! This is a big deal and got our little group the "team of the quarter" award. That's just another glass doohicky for the trophy shelf at work, but performance review time is approaching and those things never hurt. What I didn't find out before going on vacation was the outcome of our reorganization. I should probably check my voicemail and find out who I work for, but I'll probably wait until the morning and do it on company time.
As for where I've been, I was fulfilling my minimum annual requirement for sitting in sidewalk cafes. (Urban planning rant to follow some day, the gist of which is that the trouble with American cities is the lack of great public spaces.) The real point was going to the Olympics but what with frequent flyer miles and all, I started out flying into Venice. Italy and Greece are way too normal, so I had to go to Bulgaria in order to make it a real Miriam vacation. The trans-Balkan railroad provided the requisite night without modern conveniences. The whole story will follow fairly soon. I've even downloaded the photos from the digital camera already.
I also should mention a few "names in the news" items. No more Nomar, sob. That even came up at the Olympics as I read something about Mia Hamm which mentioned that she is not only retiring, but will be moving to Chicago. There were several celebrity deaths, the most significant one being Julia Child. I remember our whole family watching her show when I was growing up, not that my mother ever actually tried any of her recipes. The current crop of celebrity chefs don't have the same common sense and sheer class that Julia did.
Anyway, I got back late Friday afternoon. I dropped off my bags at home, then headed into the city to go to Journalcon. I was a little apprehensive, but I ended up having a good time. The advantage of going to something like this right after vacation is that I can blame all my incoherent rambling and sporadic bitchiness on jet lag. I'm not going to attempt a blow by blow account and am hesitant to put in tons of links because I will inevitably offend somebody by leaving them out inadvertently. I will note that I was pleased that there were a sufficient number of other cranky old people there. I was glad to see Shmuel and Mo again and to meet (among others) Amanda, Jeff, KarenD, Lisa, Frank, and Jim. The person I most wished I'd had more of a chance to chat with is Columbine, who I barely exchanged a dozen words with. Of course, now I want to read even more journals, which will be challenging given my goal of keeping my on-line time to under an hour a day.
I didn't really say anything about the actual Journalcon activities. That's because the panels and such weren't the point of it for me. Things were too disorganized for my tastes, but I admit to being compulsive. The real annoyance was Saturday night. I hung around only because a pub quiz was promised, along with the karaoke. I realize that the problems with the bar were not within the control of the committee. But, if an event is advertised at starting at nine, the organizers of that event should show up before nine, rather than drifting in around ten. I'd also do things like leaving set-up time between panels, cutting things off if they're running twenty minutes over, and so on. But it's easy to kvetch about stuff I wasn't willing to get involved in and I did have a good time except for the hour of way too loud music. The bottom line is that, schedule permitting, I'll go to future Journalcons.
Copyright 2004 Miriam H. Nadel