It’s been a lovely…

It's been a lovely WisCon, despite my long post yesterday re: Saturday's weepiness. Kevin was right to tell me to remember that I was pregnant; every night I reluctantly forced myself to go to bed between eleven and midnight, and found myself still utterly exhausted when I woke up the next day. If I'd gone with my normal practice of staying up talking 'til three or four in the morning, I think I'd be really ill by now. Even with trying to get enough sleep, and with not participating in the Dealer's Room or Art Show or Gathering this year, I still found myself so tired I was literally shaking by the time I was sitting at the dessert salon last night.

And then, of course, I started shaking for a different reason. Last April, I got a call from Debbie Notkin asking me if I would be willing to be a WisCon Guest of Honor. I was so startled -- I think I asked her, bewildered, "Are you sure?" She started laughing, and assured me that yes, in fact, they were sure. So of course I said yes, and then I had to keep it a secret until they announced it last night. (I did tell Jed and Ben, but they keep secrets wonderfully well.) Debbie had warned me that they were going to ask me to come up on stage at the end of the evening, and when they reached the last announcements my heart starting racing. And then baby (who is mostly still not perceptible, except when I do things like run up the stairs to get to class on time, at which point he/she gets quite bouncy) started doing cartwheels and jumping jacks under my rib cage.

So I'm sitting there mentally hissing at baby to calm down, and then they announce it, and I happen to be sitting at a table with Sumana (who has never been to WisCon before) and three of my Clarion students (ditto), all four of whom completely freaked out -- that was perhaps the best part. :-) But I managed to walk up to stage without tripping over my sari (my mother would have been so embarrassed if I had), and stood there for a moment in the blinding glare of the lights with fellow future GOH Nnedi Okorafor and her beautiful daughter, to a rather overwhelming storm of applause. And then back down to my table again, to lean against Jed and start fretting seriously about my speech for next year. :-)