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cimoreneSafely Arrived!
Visiting America's heartland with Wax enables me to look at Americana through European eyes in a new way. We're staying with my favorite aunt and uncle in Olathe, a suburb of Kansas City, and their home is way more typically American (or suburban, you might say) than my parents'... because my parents are so fully immersed in science fiction fandom and my mother is an artist, their whole place is rainbow-colored and covered with books, folk art, book dust jackets, and quirky shit. But Aunt Cherrie and Uncle Joe's house is a sprawling ranch-style with an attached garage, wall-to-wall oatmeal carpet, multiple living areas, a circular drive and a portico. Pictures will be forthcoming from our trip later - I didn't forget to pack my camera!
How the Trip Went
The trip itself... well, we travelled for just over 24 hours, napping fitfully about 4 of them on the transatlantic (Stockholm Arlanda > Chicago O'Hare) leg, and over the course of 8 hours in Chicago consuming alcohol, nachos, deep-fried tortellini, and guacamole (and omg, I didn't get carded!). Then we crashed and slept 11 (me) or 12 (Wax) hours; now Uncle Joe is mowing the lawn on his riding lawnmower, Wax is in the shower, and I'm adding my passwords and preferences to Locutus the Laptop, so I can use Kubuntu and his Finnish keyboard instead of making do with borrowed computers.
Being in Kansas
A lot of people have expressed their sympathy when told that our destination was Kansas City, and rather than getting in the habit of becoming defensively angry, I'll just say I'm fond enough of it but have only been to it a couple of times in my entire life, despite spending half the summers and Christmases of my childhood in its suburbs. In my family, a family vacation is about spending time together, and most of them were spent in the houses, cars, and backyards of my mom's sisters. This is not an exciting place, but it's full of my mom's clan, and in the clan department I lucked out. It is not in the least a punishment to visit with them, not even for any of their in-laws. Even Wax, who was nervous of the possibility of over-effusive hospitality, is at her ease due to the chillness of Ch&J.
Chicago Fangirls!!!
Finally, the Fangirl Gathering. Chicago is some kind of fucking fangirl MECCA. Whenthehoyden offered to get some people together and mentioned that she knew celli, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
svmadelyn and shrift, I was like, wow, a handful of awesome multi-fannish people I'd love to meet! She understated the case significantly. Yesterday we met celli, svmadelyn, norabombay, shoemaster, strobelighted, frostfire, and taraljc (whom we ran into on our way into the restaurant); and were introduced to thehoyden, kalpurna, shrift and the slightly-lately-arrived everysecondtuesday+1, but didn't even get to talk to them because the table was so big! devon, who road-tripped it all the fucking way from Ann Arbor to pick us up in her car, spend the whole afternoon with us and generally be awesome, was already with us. It was... overwhelming, to say the least! I was incredibly delighted to meet all of them and had a fantastic time and only wish I could've spent a lot longer and talked more to everybody. Chicago comes highly rated for fangirl activities.
Visiting America's heartland with Wax enables me to look at Americana through European eyes in a new way. We're staying with my favorite aunt and uncle in Olathe, a suburb of Kansas City, and their home is way more typically American (or suburban, you might say) than my parents'... because my parents are so fully immersed in science fiction fandom and my mother is an artist, their whole place is rainbow-colored and covered with books, folk art, book dust jackets, and quirky shit. But Aunt Cherrie and Uncle Joe's house is a sprawling ranch-style with an attached garage, wall-to-wall oatmeal carpet, multiple living areas, a circular drive and a portico. Pictures will be forthcoming from our trip later - I didn't forget to pack my camera!
How the Trip Went
The trip itself... well, we travelled for just over 24 hours, napping fitfully about 4 of them on the transatlantic (Stockholm Arlanda > Chicago O'Hare) leg, and over the course of 8 hours in Chicago consuming alcohol, nachos, deep-fried tortellini, and guacamole (and omg, I didn't get carded!). Then we crashed and slept 11 (me) or 12 (Wax) hours; now Uncle Joe is mowing the lawn on his riding lawnmower, Wax is in the shower, and I'm adding my passwords and preferences to Locutus the Laptop, so I can use Kubuntu and his Finnish keyboard instead of making do with borrowed computers.
Being in Kansas
A lot of people have expressed their sympathy when told that our destination was Kansas City, and rather than getting in the habit of becoming defensively angry, I'll just say I'm fond enough of it but have only been to it a couple of times in my entire life, despite spending half the summers and Christmases of my childhood in its suburbs. In my family, a family vacation is about spending time together, and most of them were spent in the houses, cars, and backyards of my mom's sisters. This is not an exciting place, but it's full of my mom's clan, and in the clan department I lucked out. It is not in the least a punishment to visit with them, not even for any of their in-laws. Even Wax, who was nervous of the possibility of over-effusive hospitality, is at her ease due to the chillness of Ch&J.
Chicago Fangirls!!!
Finally, the Fangirl Gathering. Chicago is some kind of fucking fangirl MECCA. When
thehoyden offered to get some people together and mentioned that she knew celli, svmadelyn and shrift, I was like, wow, a handful of awesome multi-fannish people I'd love to meet! She understated the case significantly. Yesterday we met celli, svmadelyn, norabombay, shoemaster, strobelighted, frostfire, and taraljc (whom we ran into on our way into the restaurant); and were introduced to thehoyden, kalpurna, shrift and the slightly-lately-arrived everysecondtuesday+1, but didn't even get to talk to them because the table was so big! devon, who road-tripped it all the fucking way from Ann Arbor to pick us up in her car, spend the whole afternoon with us and generally be awesome, was already with us. It was... overwhelming, to say the least! I was incredibly delighted to meet all of them and had a fantastic time and only wish I could've spent a lot longer and talked more to everybody. Chicago comes highly rated for fangirl activities.
(no subject)
Date: 29 Sep 2009 07:16 pm (UTC)And hey, I was happy to just to say hi! I'm glad you safely made it Kansas City, and hope the rest of your trip is awesome!
(no subject)
Date: 29 Sep 2009 07:45 pm (UTC)I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU. *repeats self for Cim's benefit*
(no subject)
Date: 30 Sep 2009 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30 Sep 2009 02:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30 Sep 2009 07:39 am (UTC)I'm glad you had the opportunity to meet lots of really awesome people. I hope your visit with your family goes swimmingly!
(no subject)
Date: 30 Sep 2009 02:56 pm (UTC)