Before I recount my day (which was full of much loveliness - thanks for not asking, voyeur), I have to tell you about an utter tragedy. A tragedy so horrific that Terry looked like she was on the verge of doing an intervention before I decided to go to bed. A tragedy that has made my ulcer flare up again. A tragedy like no tragedy that has come before...
The Romance Writers of America conference, for which I am planning the giant Oscars-style awards ceremony, conflicts with the opening weekend of the 2012 Olympics.
How I didn't realize it conflicted before I volunteered, I have no idea. I actually thought I checked; but instead, I think I checked the dates of the conference, saw that it was all in July, and thought the Olympics didn't start until August. However, the Olympics start on Friday, July 27th, and I can't leave Anaheim until Sunday morning. I can't get out of planning the ceremony, nor should I, since the whole thing is a good development/visibility opportunity and I love these conferences. Still, the thought did cross my mind...
However, after breathing for a bit, I realized that almost none of Opening Ceremonies viewing experiences have been ideal since leaving Iowa. I shall recount them briefly:
- 2010 (Vancouver), I was in transit from Delhi -> Hong Kong -> SFO
- 2008 (Beijing) was actually lovely, with a party and cakes and blackberry shots and everything in Chandlord's apartment
- 2006 (Torino) was in the upstairs room at Old Pro because I was homeless at the time (due to my debacle around leaving for Dublin)
- 2004 (Athens) was the first of the Olympic Rings Cakes in the disgusting dwelling that I shared with Walter (who was the only bright spot in that ridiculous complex)
- 2002 (Salt Lake City) was in the Mirlo lounge, where I spent two weeks watching the Olympics with Tammy and Shedletsky and had to withdraw from a class as a result
- 2000 (Sydney) was in the lounge of Sophomore College with a bunch of people I hated
All my opening ceremony experiences watching in Iowa were quite sedate by comparison, although the '94 Lillehammer Olympics were crazy because we were in Ukraine, which only showed men's 50k cross country skiing, biathlon, and Oksana Baiul beating Nancy Kerrigan (in other words, they only showed sports where Ukraine did well). But since I'll just miss the opening ceremonies on Friday and some inconsequential events on Saturday (there's a couple of swimming medal events and men's gymnastics qualifiers, but otherwise it's a lot of fencing and my hated beach volleyball), as long as I drive back as fast as possible on Sunday, I should be fine.
Okay, that was a lot of ranting -- but you're used to Olympics ranting from me, I think, so I'll assume I'm forgiven. Today was otherwise totally lovely. I went to Berkeley for my romance writers meeting, which was quite fun and super helpful. The speaker was a publicist, and while she said that self-pubbed authors don't really need a publicist because they usually can't get traditional media coverage, she still had a ton of interesting points and made me wish that I had a better angle to attract tv/radio/newspaper coverage, etc. After the meeting, I had lunch with several of the chapter members, including my friends Grace and Tina, which was a great way to catch up. I changed into my teal silk dress in the alehouse bathroom (the restaurant is an alehouse, which I think is appropriate for a bunch of romance writers), then drove to Moraga, where I slathered on a bunch of eye makeup in the parking lot of a Starbucks and got a snack to augment my lunch before going to a wedding.
The wedding was perfect; as mentioned last night, it was my friend 'other Heather' (as in, the Heather who is not dear respected madam) and her fiance (now husband) Eric. I've known Heather for years, used to manage her, and became friends with her at the same time (solidified for all eternity when we shared a room at Pete's wedding, drank about a dozen champagne and rum cocktails, and walked home down Highway 1 at midnight after stopping at Del Taco). The wedding was totally her, with a lot of 80s songs (the first dance was to the song from the end of 'Sixteen Candles'), really cute bridesmaids dresses, casual food (three stations: tacos, pizza/pasta, and sliders/fries, with ice cream sundaes and s'mores for dessert), etc. She also looked gorgeous in her gown, and I cried throughout (mostly because she and her dad are criers, which started me off on a waterworks note v. early).
The only downside was that when I got there, I didn't know *anyone* except Heather, Eric, and Heather's bridesmaid Ariel, all of whom were obviously busy. I sat by myself during the ceremony, and then wandered around and considered leaving, but knew I needed to suck it up and stay through dinner. However, thankfully, I ran into Sujatha and her husband Krishnan; Sujatha and I have known each other since I lived in India, and she moved here last year to work on the team I worked on before I worked for the big boss. Really, there are no better friends than the people you run into at a wedding when you don't know anyone else. So, we had a great time together; they were on the verge of leaving before they ran into me, but luckily we all stayed, enjoyed dinner, saw the first dance, etc. I would have known Chris and Natasha, but their baby was sick; I also would have known Heather (aka dear respected madam) and Salim, but they weren't able to come either. It all worked out, though, and I'm so glad I got to see Heather marry such a wonderful guy.
And then I left, drove home (with a stop at Starbucks to change back into my jeans), and hung out with Terry since I hadn't seen her for a week. And now I shall go to bed, dream/mourn about the Olympics, and hopefully get up in the morning ready to write and market like the wind. Goodnight!
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