I made it back from Atlanta in one piece. I can’t believe that the road trip and everything else actually went almost entirely as planned.

We were stopped at the Canada/US border for half an hour or so. I was worried they’d want tons of information on Gala’s internship, but it turns out they were more worried about me trying to live in the US illegally. In the end, we were let through, but I found the whole thing a bit amusing.

Driving down to Atlanta went quite well. Gal and I missed a turn off in Detroit… that took us on an inadvertent tour of the city’s slums. AFter a few U-Turns and some directions, we got on the I-75. From there it was relatively smooth sailing minus a few traffic slowdowns and nasty rain in Ohio.

Friday morning we made it to Stone Mountain, Georgia and the White Wolf offices. Most of the gang went out with us over the weekend for drinks, some dancing and playing pool. It was actually more low key than normal, which was probably for the best. I don’t think my body is ready for con-season just yet.

Saturday afternoon, Brian took us around Atlanta to some cool shops and neat places. We ended up wandering the stores of the Atlanta Underground and I found a nifty Magic shop that sold magic tricks and taught people how to use them professionally. That was a real blast from the past for me… When I was in Grade 5-6, I thought I was going to grow up to be a Magician or something. After a few demonstrations by the guy running the store, I broke down and indulged in buying a few tricks. It should be fun relearning some magic and playing with that over the summer.

Sunday was our strange quest to the Renaissance Fair. Mike and Justin hatched the idea to crash the Georgia Ren Fair while wearing silly hats and getting hideously drunk.

4 of the brave morons who attacked Ren Fair Georgia.

Although we’d predicted a multitude of freaks would be out in abundance and that we’d be tossed out within an hour or two of arriving, we actually stayed the whole afternoon and had a pretty good time. We were rowdy, stupid and decently soused. Even American beer can taste okay when you need something cold to keep from overheating.

Justin and Mike demonstrate the proper White Wolf fencing technique.

The sun was blazing, and I think the alcohol mixed with the extreme heat slowed down our rampage. By the time we left, everyone was pretty exhausted. Oh yeah, the freaks were out in full force, but really no worse than any convention I’ve been to. Lots of costumes and yelling of “Huzzah” and all that stuff…

White Wolf owns their own pool hall/bar now, so that gave us a good HQ to work from for our weekend entertainment. The bar (called the Independent) serves Strongbow to boot, which instantly raises it several more points in my eyes.

Monday morning I packed up and dropped off Gal at the office. We’d both been going so fast all weekend that we’d barely had time to realize how soon I’d be gone. When she finally saw me off to the car, it hit me quick just before saying good-bye. Even though I thought I wouldn’t cry… it rushed up inside me and we both just held each other and sobbed. I don’t care how unmanly or teenage-romance novel shitty that sounds. I held her tight and had a real reminder of how deeply I feel for her and what we have together.

I made excellent time back to Toronto. The scenery flew by and I drove the entire day barely stopping or feeling tired. The Canadian border was a breeze on the way back, even with a trunk full of White Wolf books for the Udon boys and me.

I woke up this morning to the emptiness of not having her at the apartment. For all the hooplah I’ve made about personal space and having time to myself lately… now it looks like I’m going to eat crow. It’s too quiet and I don’t know if I’ll get used to it. I can’t wait to hear about her adventures down south, though… should be a blast.

Yesterday was a surreal mix of good and bad.

After busting my butt and finishing off my artwork assignments early for a change, I received files from the other artists on the project and realized there were problems. The standard “color correct and add Udon logo” would not work here. More like the “let’s spend 6-7 hours on Photoshop correcting/improving stuff”. Doing little stuff to make sure images are print ready is part of my job, but yesterday felt like I was the janitor, not the Project Manager. Not what I wanted to be doing just a day and a half before we leave for Atlanta. Not in the slightest.

The artwork I finished up looks good. Probably the most solid stuff I’ve done for Exalted yet, in some ways. I hope that feeling lasts. A couple times, I’ve felt good about art pieces I’ve handed in and then by the time they’re in print, I look at them and go “Meh.”. Scott’s Kurtz’s Star Wars 8 page story came out last week with my colors and it looked really nice. I think my colors compliment his line art well and it was really cool seeing it print as well as it looked on screen.

Lunch was good yesterday, the Owner and the Art Director for Guardians of Order came down from Guelph and took me out for a sushi lunch meeting. It was great chatting about how the company started and what projects Udon might be a part of in their near future. Considering how small their company is, it sounds like they’ve made some really smart decisions and have some nice properties to work with. They came back to the apartment afterwards and we played “show and tell”, trading products and talking about which artists could work well with their products. Very cool.

Proving again how strange my job can be, Brian and I ended up having a frantic series of phone calls to discuss Mayan Numerology and the symbolism of wheat stalks. This is important stuff! We both started laughing at the stupidity of these details that are getting worked into some of the art pieces, and Brian’s promised me that the Savant & Sorcerer book will have a Special Thanks to wheat or something like that.

Throwing a little more on my schedule, it looks like I’m going to be attending the Great Canadian Baycon when I get back from Atlanta. It’s a little convention in Hamilton and wouldn’t normally go, but Pauline from White Wolf’s going and she asked if I wanted to show up as well. It’s a hop, skip and a jump away and figured “what the heck”. I hope it’s fun.

Stayed up until 2am putting final touches on the exam my students will be writing today. Madness. Then my body zapped me awake just after 7am. I currently don’t feel tired at all, but I’m assuming that later today my energy will be drained. Guess we’ll wait and see.

The road trip starts tomorrow… it’ll be tough seeing Gala off. Trying not to let it get to me.

The fog is so thick outside, I can’t even see the elementary school across the road from our apartment building. All I need now is the sound of seagulls and I’d swear we were back in Halifax.

Two nights with minimal productivity in a row, but at least it was for good reasons. Frank and Meg stopped in on Friday as a stop over of their trek from Georgia to Ottawa. Meg’s moving to Canada and we offered them a place to crash part way. We played cards, hung out and had a few drinks.

Last night, Joel and Veronica threw a party for Gala to celebrate her internship and heading away for the summer. A bunch of people stopped by and we ate and chatted until after midnight before heading out to look for a place to dance at. The clubs were hopping, but had really expensive cover fees and the wrong kind of music. In the end, that mixed with my ultra-sleepiness cut the night a bit short. Even before we left their apartment I was nodding off, but by the time we hit Queen Street, I was exhausted. I think it’s a combination of work stress and “Gala’s leaving” stress. It’s all happening in less than a week and neither of us can believe it.

Separation anxiety mixed with communication gaffs making us both tense, prickly and vulnerable. Socializing with other people helped a bunch I think, and heading to Atlanta with a road trip instead of just flying down will help too. We leave Thursday and should be in Atlanta after a 16 hour drive some time Friday afternoon/early evening. That gives us the weekend to party and I’ll probably leave Monday at lunch. Driving back through the US by myself is going to be weird, but I actually don’t think I’ll mind. Good time to think and put everything happening around me in perspective.

May might actually be sort of relaxing. I won’t be teaching at that point, the work schedule is looking like it’ll be a little more sane and the conventions aren’t crazy yet. I might get a chance to finally organize all my papers and books here at the apartment. I might get a chance to do some artwork for myself again. Not sure if I’ll be more social or go all “hermit-like”. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.

I got Dave laughing really hard last night at the party… I told him that when we get hideously drunk at the conventions this summer, we need a catch phrase to let the other person know that you’ve gone past the point of no return, drinking-wise. Off the top of my head, I threw out that line from 2001 A Space Odyssey:

“My God, it’s full of stars.”

He cackled like crazy, so we decided that would work well.

Okay, gonna stand on the balcony, enjoy a cool breeze and look out into the emptiness of the fog.

Foggy morning

Spontaneously decided that the term “groceries” will henceforth be known as “foodle”.

Tell all your friends. The revolution starts today.