cornerofmadness

I've been having a lot of asthma-like symptoms and walking 2 blocks was much harder than it should be even with my issues. I did not realize Albuquerque is over 5000 feet up. Holy cow, no wonder I'm on the struggle bus. A local pointed it out to someone else who was struggling. And I plan to go up to the mountains on a tram. Raise your hand if you think I'll get altitude sickness.

I'm also wondering if I have a mild inner ear infection that contributed to that air sickness because the elevator moving also made my stomach drop out. Hmmm

It was a great first day. The breakfast was a bit weird. They had scrambled eggs pressed into domed flower molds but they had been frozen and were a tad watery. The sauce wasn't spicy. And all the tea was herbal. ugh. Good thing I like coffee too.

The two morning speakers were fascinating. One was on the evolution of antibiotic resistance (as in what is happening on a biochemical level) and are we entering the post-antibiotic era? I loved that they hit both the failings of big pharma and the FDA AND patient lack of understanding in this. The other was on transcranial brain stimulation and memory. The whole teeth clench/ending neurological symptoms was amazing but the transcranial memory thing has so much potential.

But what made the morning is I heard my name being called and the coworker I really liked before we had to lay off half our faculty was there. It's her first time. I need to find her again tomorrow. It was so good to see her.

I planned to take off the first half of the afternoon but accidentally took off the WHOLE afternoon. oops. Well I didn't have an interest in the speaker after lunch so I took a longer lunch back at Naruto Ramen. I do not like pork still. At least there was only one fatty piece in there that I could fish out and toss. I guess I should have just gotten the vegan one again and add a seasoned egg which is what I wanted.

Miso raman

I came back and worked on the novel edits because again my deadline IS before I get home. I thought I'd only be a few minutes late to the second afternoon talk but when I got there they a) started a little early b) PACKED. I wasn't going to try and find a spot especially when a couple dozen were standing so I went to the vendors on my own. There's 500 of us here so it's sometimes hard to get attention. I had them mostly to myself.

I got to play with the plastizicized human parts. I desperately want one but it's way beyond what I can afford. Still it's nice to dream. I think I made some progress (especially realizing that I haven't been to one of these in SIX years, yikes) and there were things I didn't know. There might be a much cheaper solution to the book I use if I can get my coworker to go for it (doubtful)

Then the last talk...didn't happen. I waited. Nothing. I guess it was canceled but since I missed the one before it I didn't hear it. I decided to pass on cocktail night because I needed to walk for dinner

then it was SO HOT that i threw up my hands and ordered a pizza. ..and it didn't come. I called and here she arrived early (I went down 10 minutes before the due time) and left it at the reception desk) I was annoyed because it was now 30 minutes cold because she was 15 minutes early and they had reversed a number somehow (they texted me so this happened after that) and didn't call me.

BUT it was a blessing in disguised because they had me booked into this hotel twice and not all the way til Tuesday (in spite of what they said yesterday) I was a bit annoyed by that and she knew it. I'm like HOW did you not see this yesterday (damn well better not be billed for this). It's fixed now AND I don't owe amenity fees so my butt was in that pool. Also when they say it gets cold fast in the desert at night that is true. by 7 it was almost too cold to be in the pool. (I keep saying this. I NEED to use my school's pool even if I'm in ancient shorts and a t-shirt because I get so much easy exercise in)

The VooDoo Girls Pizza and Pints pizza (proscuitto, artichoke hearts and garlic) was very good. I devoured the whole damn thing. I should feel guilty.

Tomorrow I want to hit the Lindy diner, one of the oldest remaining diners on Route 66 (actually that IS what Central avenue here is)

There should be a few fun talks tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing the other vendors (and who might have door prize drawings. I didn't get to enter too many). I got outbid on some of the Amigurumi body parts on the silent auction. ah well (i.e. it's now more than I want to pay but they are cute)

Thursday's community rec is this END OTW RACISM: A CALL TO ACTION Honestly I knew there was racism out there but didn't know that it was THIS bad. I've never been bothered, even when writing characters of color. I hope to put up a story for this tomorrow