Note to self...

... I am no longer 20 years old. Nor 25, 30, or even 35.

Last night was a lot of fun. I went to an intimate NYE gathering at the home of gurudata and kanecool. aion117, aprilsnark, scapersuse, kaelsu, Monique, Susan, Susan's boyfriend Derek (yeah... I didn't know either; I hope he wasn't too freaked out when he commented that there were no more chairs and I offered to let him sit in my lap ;) ) and Dave E. were in attendance, though I didn't think Dave and kaelsu were going to make it before midnight. (Dave was picking kaelsu up at the subway; I'm not sure what the problem was, but it sounded from the side of the phone calls we were hearing as though he were slightly lost.)

We drank, nibbled (not each other, before elizard100 says anything), laughed, laughed at Regis, counted down, blew noisemakers (hush), played some Scene It (well, I kibitzed, thinking I wouldn't be of any use to a potential teammate; plus, it gave me a chance to pop outside for a few minutes. Then it turned out I knew several answers anyway), watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off (ah, Matthew Broderick... *sigh*) and we eventually crashed around 3:30 or 4, I think it was.

I don't think I slept too well; I don't know if it was because of the copious amounts of alcohol I consumed, the fact that I haven't slept on a floor in many years or the silliness both aion117 and I displayed in not rolling up the extra blankets to use as supplements to the pillows that we had. Not that I'm complaining, because the alternative was walking home from the wilds of Mississauga. ;) I woke up at something like 11 this morning to find that Dave had left, and everybody else was already downstairs drinking tea and eating bagels. We watched the Rose Bowl parade (that was quite a float by JPL, and the train was interesting; we thought it was going to take out half the crowd making the turn), then everyone was heading off to Wendy's, but I wasn't hungry (not being used to eating breakfast - or lunch, for that matter - these days) so aion117 and I caught the bus back to Square One, where we went our separate ways.

I got home around 3:30. I was in the bathroom freshening up (I hadn't thought to take a toothbrush, as I hadn't realized it was going to be an overnight trip... good thing I didn't kiss anyone goodbye :P) when the phone rang. It was my mother, calling to find out where I had been last night. I managed to get out of having a long conversation with her by saying that I was going to lay down for a bit. Which I did... and woke up at 6. Oops. Got up, made dinner, read Friday's paper (today's is still untouched), chatted with cuteteenboy for a bit, and then dragged myself over here to the computer. Still sleepy, for some reason. (There's that "no longer 20, or 25, etc." thing again, I suppose.)

All in all, it was a most enjoyable New Year's Eve. gurudata and kanecool, thank you again for inviting me! Oh, and Trip now has a place of honour on the living room bookcase. :)

R.I.P. Frank Kelly Freas

I received an email today informing me that renowned science fiction author and illustrator Frank Kelly Freas passed away this morning, at the age of 82. Kelly was to have been Artist Guest of Honour at Torcon 3, but fell and broke his hip shortly before the con and had to cancel his trip, and never fully recovered from the injury.

For those not aware of the breadth of Kelly's accomplishments, among his works were over 100 science fiction magazine covers, MAD Magazine covers from 1955 to 1962, official NASA mission posters (many of which hang in the Smithsonian), the crew patch for the Skylab I astronauts, the cover of the Queen album News Of The World, and the cover of DC Comics' 1992 STAR TREK ANNUAL.

Over the course of his career, Kelly was the recipient of two Analog Awards for Best Original Art, three Chesley Awards, eleven Hugo Awards for Best Professional Artist, five Locus Poll awards and one Skylark Award.

Some of his work can be viewed at his website: Link.

On a lighter note, I've been watching the miniseries "Lives Of The Saints", starring Sophia Loren, on CTV this evening. It just doesn't seem right to see Fabrizio Filippo kissing a woman for some reason. Go figure. Though the scene in which he threw a trayful of canneloni all over the annoying racist teacher was interesting.