in which i fly east to Balticon...

Malena dropped me off at LAX after some delicious and garlicky thai food. I boarded the plane, stopping to do my pre-flight magic ritual (which all i can say, is if you fly with me, you are safe). This would be a working vacation! I was scheduled to arrive in DC at midnight and my brother Bill would come to get me---knowing family was at the end of it made the flight easy.

We talked the whole drive to his house in the woods of Virginia. In the morning, after a dreamless sleep with White Kitty on my feet, i had breakfast with my brother and his wife. We got up early to go to see our parents. I never have enough time with them! They make even the dullest errand fun and sparkly. We spent the day readying the Neverwear booth for Balticon, where I would be spending my four-day weekend. i dined upon salads and the excellent company of my parents.



I picked up my rental car with their help and headed for Baltimore. Set up my table in a good spot and began to rearrange my wares...years of festival selling and carny lifestyle have paid off as i can easily work a booth alone now for days.

My comic book magnets were a surprisingly big draw. Several years ago, there was a flood in my rented beach house in Rehoboth. A box of my best comics was water-damaged. Instead of tossing them, i decided to make art out of them, drying the curling pages in the sun. I cut the panels that appealed most to me or told the best story. I cut recycled glass to fit the panels and framed them in copper. more recently i started adding a dash of glitter....(Boss has many of my magnets in his bathroom, i enrolled him in my "magnet of the month" club) Now people donate their damaged comics to me, to recycle into art...



Balticon seemd a bit underattended this year, maybe because of gas prices or where it fell in the month--but I had such a good time seeing old familiar faces and meeting entirely new ones...Danth! and Glen! and Nora! and Donna and Steven from Ego Likeness (i am now proud owner of some gorgeous original artwork by Steven, photos soon)



Urban Tapestry, the Canadian musical guest stopped by....(Quiche, you would have approved!)



Here is DanGuy in his Neverwear, with GoH's Connie Willis, John Jude Palancar and a helpful elfstress!



Blogger is discouraging photos so I will truncated this post and continue tomorrow...after the Book Expo! See why a girl's stories are often untold...