Apologies to People on the Train to Oceanside

No, the train I traveled on was not nearly so quaint, but I would have preferred this one. Plus it probably would have been faster and less irritating than how I eventually got to Oceanside.

Obviously it's been a few weeks since I came to see my dad, but the following events have been bugging me since I first arrived, and as my next great traveling adventure nears, I feel I should get them off my chest. They are two totally unrelated stories.

The first is when I was waiting (an inordinately long time I might add) for the train to open its doors. It was sitting there long before the doors deemed to open. In this time a girl sat next to me and I saw she was holding the new Harry Potter book along with another book I didn't recognize. I felt compelled to say something though I can't recall what. But it got us talking about Harry Potter and some other things. She was quite friendly and I would have liked to have sat next to her and talked a bit more. Indeed, I think that's what she expected me to do. But we were sadly separated when I was reluctant to go to the second floor because of all my luggage.

I ended up having to struggle up those stairs anyway later in the trip because the first floor is reserved for the elderly and handicapped--not those merely crippled by luggage. Unfortunately my fellow Harry Potter fan was nowhere in sight.

Then there was another bus trip before I was finally on my way to Oceanside and as I was struggling to the back of the train where worthless dregs like me are kept, some boy asked if I was on my way to ComicCon. At least, I thought he asked me. Could have been someone else but I did have a Harry Potter backpack and they thought they were having a podcast there (except there was a miscommunication, I think)

Now, ComicCon is an enormous combination of all things awesome. I'm not much of a comic fan, but ComicCon has grown to encompass fantasy and scifi in general and is now just a huge convention for people with good taste. Plus, as I found out later, Neil Gaiman was a guest speaker, and they talked about Stardust and all manner of great things. Yes, I would have liked to have been going to ComicCon. But I was not.

Harassed, weary, and pushed by a flood of people, I gave this boy only one answer. "Me?"

I meant it as a sort of "If I were only so lucky" "Me?" but tired and in pain from pulling my bags it ended up sounding more like a "Ha! I am too cool for ComicCon you mere nerdy mortal."

So on the infinitesimal chance that boy is reading this, I'm sorry if that's what you thought I meant.

And ComicCon rocks.

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Yes! If you search Domain of the Jade Empress on google, my Stardust review is the FIRST thing to turn up. GOOoooo, incessant linking! I guess if you link to something enough, it'll pop up #1 on google and it doesn't matter if it's just another post in your own blog. This presents some very interesting possibilities...

Of course, I doubt anyone would search Domain of the Jade Empress if they didn't know about my blog, but considering I didn't used to be #1 even when I did do that, this is quite an achievement.