the first day of finncon
Well, the first day has officially ended for me. The others, mostly, are still drinking over there at Sohvi–but I realized I don’t want to get drunk if I don’t have my husband to curl up to when I get back, so I passed most of the fun. I have met horrible amounts of impossibly nice people here, and I’m probably simply overwhelmed with the experience.
Notably:
- lil Alma who reminds me of my daughter Lia, so I’m volunteering to babysit her when I get a chance. I’m talking in Latvian to her, because Latvian and English are similarly gibberish, and I miss my language a lot. And her writer parents, Sara and Marku, being The Perfect Family,
- Johanna, who is an amazing person having a lot of common with me (hence I like to talk to her, because I can pretend I’m amazing as well) and Jonas The Swedish Guy From The Basement,
- Pat Cadigan, who is The Guest Of Honor and yay, I went ahead boldly to have a two-minute talk to her, and had a whole writing-course advice stuffed into a short conversation from her (whoa!),
- Irma, who is Generally Sweet and, being my first impression of Finnish folks, has given me the best impression possible (and her husband Jussi who’s creating poetry of fridge magnets…gotta do this at home!),
- Johan, the Blond Swedish Linguist Guy, and his fried whose name I missed (darn! but I’ll meet them at finncon, so I’ll try to pry his name),
- Hanna who’s probably coming to Riga, so I’ll take her to the Real Non-Touristy places,
- Toni The Tattooed Editor who seems to be on his way on being hungover tomorrow, which is a real pity…but probably Tattooed Finns (most of the Finns are tattooed, by the way, and in really striking ways) don’t have hangover
- and Jarek and Saija (sp.?) of Fantasy Novel Names
- and, of course, Ellen and Delia, and Cheryl The Intimidating Cool People whom I have been gapingly observed (well, STALKED) for so long that it would be actually embarrassing to talk to them.
Well, there have been great panels and stuff, but the information is always available online. What’s unavailable online is the flavor of personalities, and challenge of actually talking to them, and, well, this acute homesickness I’m having. And mother-language-sickness.
But I’ll be home soon, and until then, I’ll savor every minute of this.
