Madison Friends

Since the convention I've been kind of a slug. For instance, I finished playing Katamari Damacy at my friends' house, and have been replaying some of the levels. That's kind of a low bar for productivity.

I've been going to bed at a reasonable hour (i.e., before midnight; keep in mind that Madison is 2 hours later than the Bay Area), sleeping 'til 9, and struggling out of bed around 9:30. I have, however, been spending my mornings on e-mail, following baseball stuff, and writing all those journal entries about WisCon 29. I haven't been heading off for lunch until after 12:30, by which time my tummy has been rumbling away for 30 minutes or more.

My afternoons have involved walking around State Street here in Madison, doing some shopping, taking some photos for an entry I'm working on, and sitting in the Fair Trade Coffee House while reading or typing (mucking with my RSS feed, for instance). They have free wireless, which is nifty.

It's been pretty warm here since the con ended - high 70s and a bit humid. A little warmer than I prefer to be walking all over town, but it beats rain.

In the evenings I've gotten together with some of my Madison friends. Tuesday Kim and Kathi picked me up and I went over to their house to visit. When I lived here, they had four cats. Two of those have passed on, and they've gotten three more to replace them: A hairless sphynx and two cornish rexes. The sphynx unfortunately picked a fight with one of the rexes - I think in defense of the other rex - and got his ass kicked, to the tune of some pricy vet bills. What a dumbass. So now the sphynx has to be separated from the other cats when Kim and Kathi leave home. Sheesh.

Kim and Kathi are doing well. Their older cats seem to be okay, too. My ol' buddy in their household is Kang - short for Kangaroo - a floppy brown cat who they think is nearing 20 years old. He loves to drape himself over people, and when he was younger liked to be thrown over my shoulder to just lie and be petted for house. He's a little more picky now - maybe due to arthritis - but is still a cuddly fellow.

We had a good visit, and I brought my Powerbook to show them photos of our cats, and of Debbi, and whatever else I have on it.

Tonight Bill picked me up and we went to a small barbecue at Jae's house for the two British fans I mentioned from the con, Chris and Penny. (I verified that they don't have an on-line presence for me to link to, but they said "We've been told we need to get a LiveJournal." Okay then!) Tracy was also there. But it was pretty small. We had a good time, with lots of lively conversation. I worried at times that I was talking too much, but I think I only embarrassed myself a little when we were talking about fan fiction (something none of us are into, and I seemed to be the only one in the group who had written one as an adult).

Afterwards Bill and Tracy brought me over to their condo, which Tracy bought after I moved to California and I've never seen. I got to see her two older cats, Scout and Smokey, and their younger siamese brother and sister, Buster and China. Buster is a friendly fellow, and Smokey maybe remembered me just a little. He's a really elegant fellow, though a bit of a goofball as I recall.

So I think I've seen most of the Madison folks I wanted to see on my trip. It's good to see them all. I miss them. In a way it's hard being back because I remember what I miss and tend not to remember what I have where my life is now.

More on that in my next entry.