I'm in that phase of jet lag where I'm no longer miserably exhausted (that was yesterday), but everything seems to moving very slowly, and a little distantly from me--as if I were viewing the world through a slight haze. Still, the trip home was wonderful, and it's also wonderful to be back with Patrick and Nika (who has been incredibly sweet and loving, and who now refuses to be in a different room from me--I'm not sure if she's protecting me from other people or just making sure that I Do Not Leave Her Again!). This afternoon, I'll be heading into town to do another search for an interview top to wear tomorrow (this time with Patrick's help). Until then I'm just (finally) returning emails, reading manymany Wiscon reports, and trying to wake up! Luckily, Patrick bought an apple strudel yesterday to welcome me home. Strudel & latte are a lovely wake-up combination, and so far I've listened to the soundtrack of Pieces of April about four times in a row, liking it better every time. (The soundtrack is only 26 minutes long, so it's easy to listen to it a lot! It was a birthday present from Patrick that I hadn't had time to listen to much before going to America.)

The trip home was just fantastic. I got to hang out with my very beloved family for the first time in far too long, see my two oldest friends, and attend my brother David's convocation and graduation, which was awesome. Veryveryvery proud. And happy for him that he never has to go back to high school ever again! Man, I hated high school. No matter how stressful life in college ever became, I was always grateful to be there instead.

And WisCon was amazing. A revelation of how much fun cons can really be! I'm now determined to go back and bring Patrick, too. It was fun to do a reading, and panel-ing was an interesting first experience, but far and away what made WisCon great was just hanging out with fun, interesting people and actually meeting people whose stories or blogs I'd been reading for years! And it was a bizarre-but-wonderful feeling to meet people who'd been reading my stories and blog entries. I'm afraid to mention names for fear of leaving people out, but I had a wonderful time talking to lots and lots of people including Karen Meisner (in person at last!), Jenn Reese, Sarah Prineas, David Schwartz, Hannah Bowen, Ben Rosenbaum (for the first time since Clarion!), Jenn Reese, Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, Christopher Rowe, Craig Gidney...oh, the list goes on and on, but the main thing is, it was Great. All of it. I was just really, really happy to be there, and the fact that Madison turned out (surprising only me) to be a fabulous town full of independent bookstores, coffeeshops and lakes was just the perfect icing on the cake. Dave and I skipped back and forth between the con and the town and I had a fantastic time. Yay WisCon!

And ooooh, I came home with soooooo many cool books to read! I'm in the middle of Delia Sherman's The Porcelain Dove right now, which is a marvelous 18th-century-historical fantasy and is making me very happy and inspired for my next round of Masks & Shadows revisions. Speaking of which, does anyone have any suggestions for Austrian nobility names? I have two alchemists named Von Born and Von Thun. One of them has to find a new name, now, according to Shawna, and I think she's right. I'm thinking it should be a longer name, too, to help with the distinction between them! (So, Von Born and Von.....?) Any good, long, noble-sounding German names, anybody?

Time to go try on the rest of my interview outfit and see if it needs super-fast cleaning before tomorrow...Wish me luck in the job interview!