Friends

I had my writerly ways nearly done, the browser crashed and for a second time the blog did NOT save a draft. I'll do that another day.

And my title isn't a lie. It is spooky. I went down to microwave something and the whole lobby/halls were empty. Just a few hours ago it had been bustling with all the steampunkers. Now it was like we were never there.

This morning went really well if you can ignore the low energy/half the people already mentally checking out. I went to a make your own tea blend thing. I've always wanted to do this with Adagio (still do) I wouldn't have called this a workshop really. It's like here's the tea, here's the mix-ins, go for it. I'll let you take 1 ounce for the 10$ you paid.... I mixed up whiskey black tea with some lapsang sou chong, added in cacao shells, ginger and cinnamon with a sprinkle of elderflower and called it Husk. I haven't tried it yet.

The next panel was by my friend Leanna on Poe and mesmerism. I very much enjoyed that. I thought I had an hour for lunch but no. The Victorians and the supernatural in literature was next. 15 minutes into it, no one showed and I thought well maybe since all the other talks were at the half hour not the top of the hour maybe the speaker was mistaken (wondering if it was Leanna since this is her forte). Someone went to find staff and next thing we know (it was a packed room) Leanna swoops in. No, this wasn't her panel. That person bugged out without telling anyone (how to get uninvited next year) and like I said it's Leanna's thing. She did well.

I said goodbye after that because the final panels had no interest for me. I headed out to Evergreen Cemetery to find Jennie Wade's grave (the one civilian death in Gettysburg) That was easy. There were other cool graves. and some fun names, can't remember them all but there was Solomon Toot, someone named Zephaniah and a mausoleum bearing the name Ball-Dickson (yes I became 12). Also found one mausoleum entirely in Italian.

From there I rolled down the street (past the hotel I usually stay in with my brother and SiL because it's in walking distance to all the interesting stuff. This con hotel is about 3 miles out) and stop at Mr. G's home made ice cream and texted my chocolate peanut butter to my brother to taunt him ( he loves it) God made the chocolate drip on my shirt in retailation.

Then I went to the battlefield to get pics of some of the monuments. After that it was dinner and I went to GarryOwen's Irish Pub. It was metered parking only (but I found plenty) and it's old fashioned meters, only takes quarters. I forgot about that. Then I remembered in some states handicapped tags can park for free. I google it. In PA I can do that for one hour so up goes my tag and in I go for the crab imperial 'poutine' (fries, cheese and the crab imperial in the place of the gravy) Tasty but SMALL for the price (ended up stopping at Sheetz for a hot dog to round out the meal, really goes together). I also had an Earl Grey Sour, gin, lemon juice and earl grey simple syrup. I think it needed a strong earl grey taste (I need to try making this syrup)

I was going to go ghost hunting but I'm exhausted and there was a writers' meet up on Discord tonight. I did that instead and got a little writing done before Discord fucked up and that was that.

Here's what I would have mentioned on the writerly ways: Always be on the watch for story fodder (Well Gettysburg is good for that) As I pulled into the Sheetz there was a man on the corner holding a nearly full sized cross and he had a microphone/transmitter with him. He started haranging people. As I was pumping gas, he was screaming at two women in a car at the redlight. JEZEBEL! You're whore like your mother. JEZEBEL JEZEBEL. You need to find God. Better hope you don't die tonight or you'll be in hell you diseased JEZEBEL.

Holy shit.




On to Hershey tomorrow.

And sometime this week I WILL catch up with comments (if there is any blog post you think I need to see, send it to me)