Climbing the Third Stair

I realize that in its current incarnation, Valentine's Day is designed to make me feel as inadequate as possible so that I go out out and spend money, but that does not make me feel less inadequate. If anything it makes me feel worse, because despite being bright enough to see the trick I am still taken in by it. I'm inadequate AND stupid!

Meanwhile, I have a life to live. Over the weekend I realized that this whole week was going to be warm (where warm is defined as "Over 30 degrees F"), which meant that I could take my coat in to get dry cleaned. Normally I don't worry about that until spring, but I have the Chicago trip coming up (memo to self: find apartment sitter) and I want my things to look a little nice. Using the vast power of the internet I discovered that there was a dry cleaner within a mile of my place so after work I took it in. In the interest of speed I took the bus part of the way there, but walked all the way back. It was a very pleasant walk, and when I go to pick my coat up I think I might walk both ways.

My dad called this evening while I was fixing dinner. He had gotten the card I sent and wanted to chat. That was pleasant; I generally only see him at Christmas so any time we talk is a gain. Sooner or later I need to steel myself and talk to him about wills and burial arrangements and all of the other things grown-up children need to talk to their 70-ish parents about, but it is so hard to start that conversation. Maybe it would help if I set myself a timetable, like "Do this by the end of Kotei season." I know Mom has a burial plot, because we talked about it once, but I should make her write everything down because in the event I doubt that I will be thinking clearly.

All of the snow is melting out of my garden. At this rate I will be able to go out Thursday and pull the last of the dead plants out and haul them back to my compost bin. Then I can start planning on where I want to plant things this spring. My sources insist that I can start planting hardy cool-season plants in March, and I want to be prepared. I need to inventory my seeds as well; I know I have a lot left over from last year but there are some things (like peas) that I need to get more of. Also, I need to find my garden notebook and figure out what broccoli I planted last year: whatever it was I was happy with it so I need more. In other exciting news I have learned that kohlrabi will work as a summer crop in Nebraska, so I need to make sure I have enough seed. (I am still having trouble crediting this, but if worse comes to worse I can pull it and eat the leaves, so I have decided it is worth a try.)

I was talking to my dad last night and mentioned that I'd be up in Sioux City in April for an L5R tournament (namely, Bob Yager's South Sioux City Kotei at Magecon) and he says, "Really? When?" So I told I would be there the 24th, the 25th and the 26th and he says, "Up there at the convention center? I'm going to be there that weekend." "No," I said, "Really? What for?" "Cosmo convention," he says. ('Cosmo' is short for Cosmopolitan International, a civic charitable club that my dad has belonged to for many, many years.) "Really?" I said.

He wasn't 100% sure, because he couldn't find the convention flyer just then, but he was 95% sure. I was a bit surprised that the Marina Inn would be hosting two conventions at the same time, but then I remembered that the bulk of Magecon is usually in the annex, leaving lots of room in the hotel proper for the Cosmo convention. So. My dad is (pretty probably) going to be at convention center when I'm there at a gaming convention.

My first reaction, I'll admit, was a surge of adolescent horror. "OMG MY DAD IS GOING TO BE AT THE SAME HOTEL ME AND MY FRIENDS ARE HANGING OUT AT!!!!11!1". That was pretty short lived, because on the one hand, when you are 44 your parents tend to be fairly accepting of the idea that you might be staying up late and partying on the weekends; and on the other hand, my dad isn't exactly a stranger to the concept of staying up late and partying himself. I'm ok with him meeting the people I hang out with, too. He really doesn't understand rpgs, ccgs or L5R, but he knows that I'm enjoying what I'm doing and he's proud of my writing accomplishments. (Two Christmases ago I took my laptop over to his place, got on the internet and showed him the AEG site. I think I was grinning like an idiot when I brought up my most recent story and showed him my name on the byline.)

--It's weird to think of it, but really my first gaming group was my family. I have fond memories of my childhood, when me and my sister and our parents would play games on Friday night, there on the floor of our living room. We played Life, and Payday, and Trouble, and--I don't even remember them all. One was a game involving words that wasn't Scrabble. Those were fun times!

I'm going to try and see my dad that weekend. We'll both be busy with our respective conventions, but I only get to see him once or twice a year and I'm not going to let this go by without making the effort. Maybe I'll get a chance to introduce him to Bob--that would be amazing. Bob's always reminded me strongly of my dad; I think that's one of the reasons we hit it off so well when we first met. They both love to cook, they both like fine spirits, and they both like to shoot the breeze.

In a week or so I'll call my dad again and see if he's really going to be there that weekend. If he is, I'll have to make plans.