Mari Ness's Blog, page 22

Worldcon Brief Overview

I just got back from Worldcon which means that I am, to put it mildly, in a bit of a brain fog.

So for my own clarity, as much as anything else, I'm going to be separating out my con posts into various categories: Panels, Lingering Questions from Panels, Other Stuff, and More Other Stuff. As always, the chances that I will manage to remember the names of everyone I met and hung out with are pretty much nil, so if I do leave you out, HI! HUGS! and I'm sorry. Also most of these posts were halfway written either at the con (brain fog) or the San Antonio airport (serious brain fog) so even separated, I do not promise coherency.

Next up, the panels!

Journeying home

With lots to blog about, but it will all have to wait until I have access to a keyboard and am more capable of forming coherent sentences.

But I did want to thank the vast number of people who helped me out at the con, from friends to complete strangers. It was much appreciated.

Observation

Ramps are not a recent invention.

The bathroom saga

A few points of background. One: alas, these days when I use the bathroom I almost invariably get dizzy. Thus the need for handrails - it's not just a question of the wheelchair. Two: the Southwest gate areas at the Orlando International airport have two sets of women's restrooms: one by the food court area and one further down, in the actual gate area. That second set has exactly one - count them, one - disabled stall. Three: on each and every trip I have made through the Orlando airport I have seen multiple people in wheelchairs, mostly but not all elderly. This includes spinal users who cannot walk at all.

So, as you do, I decided to go to the bathroom before my flight. The stall was closed, which, no biggie. I could see a bag and feet moving around so figured, sigh, another parent with problematic toddler. (This happens a lot.) I wasn't in a rush, so waited, resigned, and sighed when I heard a voice say That's my baby. Minutes passed. I checked twitter. I started to get worried about timing (Southwest requires that I board early). Two more minutes and I will say something.

And then I saw it, or rather them: dog paws.

Ok, I thought, still holding to my "this involves a toddler" thought, they must be traveling WITH the dog...

And then I heard it.

I had been under the naive impression that I had become accustomed to the worst that can happen in disabled and women's bathrooms. Apparently I was wrong.

"Hello," I shouted. "Actual wheelchair user here."

"Oh," she said. "I'll be out in a minute."

"I have a flight."

"Oh."

She came out with a non apology. I peered in, swore, called the airport and sputtered the story in two languages. They got someone to push me to the other set of bathrooms and told Southwest I wouldbe late. Luckily the plane was slightly late so that worked.

I got on the plane still fuming. Passengers boarded after me and then I realized that she was sitting in the aisle seat with the dog, only one seat between us. Which was soon filled by another woman.

Dog lady didn't recognize me. But she was willing to complain, at length, about Southwest and dogs and how it cost $75 to bring the dog which is so unfair because she's taking the dog as a carryon anyway which means she has to put her real bag up so she can't even get at it during the flight and worse with the seats in the front her little dog was squished (this part was true. Poor dog who did not deserve any of this and it's awful because Orlando doesn't let you take the dog out of the bag in the terminal so she had to use the disabled restroom but what could she do? She certainly couldn't leave the dog with strangers but it was such a long way to San Diego and she had to do something.

"Or you could use a regular stall and clean it up."


"But that doesn't give her enough room!"

Also, she didn't turn off her cellphone when the captain said turn all cellphones off.

She must have gotten some hint of my fury, since she both rushed to another row once we landed in San Zntonio and asked why it was taking Southwest so long to get my wheelchair up. Then she took out her dog.

I reported her to the pilot who was coming aboard just then. She will be reported to the Orlando Airport.

In other news I am at Worldcon and can report that there's quite a few people here already, and the bar is right across from the Starbucks.

On my way to Worldcon....

But instead of a post about that, a friendly reminder: the single disabled woman's bathroom stall near the Southwest gates is not, repeat not, the best place to WALK YOUR DOG.

More later when I am less pissed.

Seaweed and Time Cat

1. I missed this yesterday what with various Other Things, but my little flash story Seaweed is up on the web.

2. Over at Tor.com, the Lloyd Alexander reread finally gets going with Time Cat Warning: a certain black and white cat had Issues With the Book, which I faithfully added to the post.

3. I love rain. Love it. I do not love it when a heavy, dark cloud bursting with rain continues to hover just north, shutting off light and making it all dark and gloomy, raining up there, but not here. Which it's been doing for the past couple of hours or so, leaving it dark and humid without a drop. I'm waiting, heavy rains. I'm waiting.

Iron Search

A new issue of inkscrawl is up. It includes, among other marvels, my little poem Iron Search, which was loosely inspired by an Italian fairy tale, adapted for children, where the lovely and justly furious fairy Colina tells Lionbruno that he will not see her again until he has worn out seven pairs of iron shoes in his search. I thought that was terribly unfair, and it eventually seeped out into this poem.

Enjoy! And take a look at the other poems while you're there.

The Borrowers Avenged

And finally, we reach the end of the beautiful yet frustrating Borrowers series with The Borrowers Avenged.

And with that, after a two year delay thanks to various factors, we are about to start up the Lloyd Alexander reread. It's been a VERY long time since I've looked at any of those books; given the way these rereads have been going I'm both anticipating and dreading this. (The Kestrel series is still good, right? Right? Or am I just going to have to keep my fingers crossed on this one?)

An Open Letter to Gmail's New Compose, Part Two

Dear New Compose,

You still suck,

Me.

(Gmail, apart from other issues, some of us occasionally need to write in another language and do not want to spend hours looking for the &ntilde key.)

More tidbits

1. My flash fiction piece, "Seaweed," the next in the series of fairy tale vignettes, was sent out to Daily Science Fiction subscribers today. I'll have more on this next week when it goes up on the web.

2. Meanwhile, over at Tor.com, the Heyer reread continues with April Lady. Not a favorite...but Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle, is coming up next.

3. And over at McSweeney's: What to Expect When You're Expecting Cthulhu. This could not be more unlike the "Seaweed" piece: you've been warned.