Wednesday, August 14, 2002. Entry #183

How tired do you have to be before you start hallucinating?

I've got to be pretty close. My eyes are blurry, my brain is fuzzy, and I keep nearly nodding off in the bathroom.

I didn't sleep anywhere near enough last week, for starters. And with lack of sleep dulling my body's immune system, another nice little summer cold waltzed in to take up residence.

I didn't let this deter me though, and spent a raucous weekend at Con-Version anyway. Three full days of old friends, new acquaintances, books, games, drinks, dancing, and merriment. I don't think I've ever worked off a cold before. At the least, I stunned it into submission.

Con-Version XIX was the best one ever, with more new people than I remember seeing before. The convention has been in a gradual decline for years, and it's nice to see new faces. A whole platoon of gamers came down from Edmonton, and I sat and played Chez Geek with a guy from Steve Jackson Games.

In the annual Slave Auction (of which I have been the auctioneer for nearly the last decade) we made a grand total of $2002 for the Food Bank, which is three times our previous record. The economy must be in a rebound.

Despite my better judgment, I let Lisa drag us into the AGM after the con was over, and ended up being railroaded into the Vice-President position (again). So now I have a full year of bureaucracy and meetings to look forward to.

We're finally finished moving everything, but all of our crap wasn't out of the old apartment until yesterday, and we still have to finish organizing the new place so we can go off on holiday this coming weekend.

Lisa's in the midst of two weeks vacation, and I have next week off, so we're heading out to British Columbia for a couple days on Vancouver Island with my grandmother, and then a few days on my folks' property south of Revelstoke. Connie is coming over to look after the Herd, which is so excellent I can't thank her enough. Joel had offered to take the rodents, and we could have moved the Tiny Parrot to Lisa's folks, but I didn't know who'd look after the fish or the cats.

We're driving straight from here to the island, and, since Lisa's never been through B.C. before, we thought we should leave lots of time for sightseeing and random encounters. As we don't have the cash for a motel, I had the bright idea of going to bed immediately after I get home from work Friday, and then hitting the road around 1 or 2 in the morning.

Sometimes I amaze myself with how completely daft I am.

Sure, it SOUNDS logical. If I sleep straight from when I get home till we leave, I should be wide awake for the next five or so hours of driving, which will take us through the dead of night into morning, when the light will then help keep me awake and alert. We should have plenty of time to drive across B.C. and catch the ferry to the island, with some time for scenic stops and other general messing around.

As anyone who knows me knows, I do not sleep well when it is light out. I'm not sure how exactly I expect to be able to sleep when I get home from work at 5 p.m. And I won't get much sleep en route - even if I could convince Lisa to drive in the mountains, I can't sleep in a moving vehicle.

Whee.

We'll muddle through somehow I guess. Lots of Coke will help, and Connie hinted at bringing me a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans when she moves in Friday night.

In preparation for this odyssey, we've been so busy cleaning, organizing, and doing laundry to get much sleep this week either. I've been averaging about 6 hours a night for the last week and a half, and I'm getting really buggy. Lisa and I had a big money fight yesterday, which was more a result of frayed emotions and foggy brains than any solid issue.

Hopefully the sleep-deprivation treatment means I should be able to conk right out Friday evening, but the seven hours maximum I could get may still not be enough recovery to make me a functional human being.

Well, we'll see. Don't expect much posting from me until after the 25th. Longer if I drive off a cliff or something.

One Year Ago Today: I was still on hiatus, but in 1248, construction of Cologne Cathedral began. Oh, and it finished on this same day in 1880.

Two Years Ago Today: Vacation's Over, Fanboy, where I came home from Con-Version neeing a vacation. Isn't it funny how things never change.

Mom Rating: 2 out of 5. Mom's leery about the whole 'drive off a cliff' business.

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