Time for a breather...

Wow, has it really been a week since my last update? Let's see... how to boil down a week's worth of stuff into a few paragraphs so that you don't all kill me for taking up an entire page...

Last Thursday: called around, found a realtor who does free market value assessments on property with no obligations, from a legitimate realtor - Century 21. (Question: in 95 years are they going to change their name to Century 22? Or should they do that early in this century, since they've been Century 21 for as long as I can remember?) Since my mother has the keys to the condo, she's making the arrangements for him to do the assessment - probably Monday or Tuesday, when she can take a couple of hours off work.

Last weekend: Went to Anime North, sat behind the Gaylaxicon table all weekend. Ad Astra on the right of me, Toronto Trek on the left of me... you'd think we'd sell some memberships, right? Well, we didn't sell anything (still over a year out, after all, and no guests signed yet) but there was lots of traffic, and we gave out tons of flyers. I still had the Ad Astra version of the G'con '05 flyer, though... so dracut, if you get a few memberships over the next week or two, they were probably actually picked up at Anime North.

Lots of people picked up the other freebies. I still have a ton of Planet Out keychains, but I'm almost out of pens. Funny but true story - this teenage girl picks up one of the condoms from the Buffy lollipop tin, looks at the picture of the hot guy on the package and the safer sex message, and says, "What's this?" Me: "It's a condom." Words cannot adequately describe the speed at which she flung it back into the tin, as though touching it was going to burn her hand...

Saturday, I believe it was, a group of young (teenage) guys stopped by. They picked up flyers and some other stuff, and one of them stayed behind while his friends wandered away. The following conversation ensued:

Him: What's Gaylaxicon?
Me: It's the annual lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered SF convention.
Him: Why do you have to have your own convention?
Me: It's focused on gay authors, characters, stories and themes of interest to LGBT readers, and a place for LGBT fans to gather.
Him: Can't you do that at normal conventions? (I don't think he was being judgemental, that's just the way it came out.)
Me: Yes, but this is a specific focus, just like this is an anime con.
Him: Can we come to it too?
Me: Yes, everyone is welcome, so long as you're friendly to the gay community.
Him: Okay, cool. (picks up flyer, notices his friends have wandered off, starts to walk off, then turns back.) I'm sorry.
Me: That's okay, go catch up with your friends.
Him: I'm sorry. (Turns away, comes back.) I'm sorry. (Turns away, comes back.) I'm not gay. (Puts flyer in his pocket, leaves.)

Uh-huh... sure you're not, honey.

Sunday: overslept and didn't get there until about 2 because the Sunday bus service to the airport sucks. Arrived, was immediately set upon by some Toronto Trek panelists who hadn't heard anything about their panel assignments. We got that straightened out, I think...

So far, this week has been mostly spent getting Toronto Trek programming in shape. The scheduling meeting is this Saturday, so we want to make sure that all of the panelists have gotten onto as many of their requested panels as they can. Some statistics: since getting home Sunday night, I've received 899 emails and sent 608 more, for a total of 1507 emails over four days. And that doesn't include the spam that I just delete automatically. No wonder my fingers are sore and I'm exhausted.

Tonight, we had the First Thursday pubnight. thespian and I spent some time working on the Gaylactic Network website design, I chatted with theenginneer about how Anime North went, and cuteteenboy dropped in for dessert. It was a pretty small turnout tonight, and I wasn't as besieged by TT-related questions as I had expected. (That happened after I got home and plowed through the approximately 100 emails that had accumulated between 6:30 pm and midnight.)

Tomorrow is a TT pubnight: 7:30pm at Rails & Ales, at 752 Danforth (just east of Pape), for any locals wanting to come out. Last chance to pre-register! (It's tempting to bring my pool cue... after all, my ex-husband lives a couple of blocks from there. :evil:)

Things seem to have calmed down now - I haven't gotten an email in about 30 minutes. I haven't made it over to TrekBBS yet tonight, and actually, I don't think I will. I want to sleep.

Oh, and for you cell-phone users who have a pressing need to have a Queer As Folk character's voice for a ringtone, check this out.