Further Confusion, and California (original) (raw)
footpad wistful
January 26 2011, 21:44
It's hard to write much about Further Confusion. What happened? Nothing of vast consequence. How was it? Bewildering. What did I get up to? Only a few special things—except for finding, and meeting, and hugging, and snuggling up to, endless people whom I've met and liked in my travels, or talked to online, or loved for years and frequently missed. How can I count them all? How can I begin to recount the time of gifts that comes with rebuilding my ties with so many wonderful people? It truly did my heart good.
I shared a hotel room with elfasi, who was a lovely room-mate, a nice person to wander around with on occasion, and a rock of stability after certain deeply bewildering occurrences (see blog entries passim). Thank you for everything, leopard, including all the wonderful people you got me out to meet even when I was feeling torpid.
Sadly, I was laid up in my room for a good day and a half of the con, feeling listless and enervated with a mild belly-ick that I suspect I picked up in a nearby Indian restaurant. So I didn't get to various room-parties and dances that I would probably have vastly enjoyed. So it goes.
Before and after the con, I stayed rather quietly with a few close friends, not getting out very much except to go and eat, or to take a slightly-crazed German shepherd for rambles in the country. But for the last few nights, I went and stayed with raikawolf, kiyote and (most importantly, of course) the magnificent malamute Kuma at their home way down in the redwoods. For some reason I spent an extraordinary amount of the time falling asleep, but in between I got fed, and taken for restrained walks in the woods and on the beach, and one morning we went on a zipline tour of the redwood canopy. Amazing stuff.
Here's a poor phone-camera video of Kuma being utterly magnificent on the shores of the Pacific:
The three of us walked for hours along the shore, padding in the sand, picking our way over wave-worn rocks, poking at sea anemones, philosophising idly, encountering mussel-pickers with sociable dogs, recharging our spirits in the crystal-clear weather. I wanted to go swimming in the ocean, but then we noticed that there was a monstrous rip-tide running, and self-preservation prevailed. Instead we went home, and Kuma and I fell asleep some more.
It was a very, very therapeutic holiday.