Dwarf Planet in Purple

First of all: Happy Birthday, wookiemonster!!!

The year 2020 is rapidly going away, or at least the parts of the year that spice up life. The SCA's governing board made it official today: no in-person events in North America until next February. That relieves some of the stress associated with uncertainty. Also, it heads off any possible problems with people flocking from state to state in search of that one event that didn't get canceled. And virtual events are perfectly permissible, so we in Atlantia will have an online "Pennsic in Your Backyard" weekend in August and another virtual University of Atlantia in September.

But still. This is a long, long time for an organization that relies so heavily on interpersonal social events to pause those events. How will this affect membership numbers? Obviously people like me are hardcore diehards, but what about the people who usually attend events once or twice a year and don't have time for a lot of the activities that happen between events?

So, no SCA events for the rest of 2020, and Chessiecon (which didn't happen in 2019 because the hotel's management imploded) is apparently going online only, though this hasn't been widely publicized yet. And no Christmas pageant by the Washington Revels because the group would have had to start rehearsing a couple of months ago. The huge Toastmasters international convention will be virtual, not that I could have afforded to go to Paris, even though I have a valid passport.

Right now the only thing still "on, as normal" is Philcon, and I wonder how long that's going to stay that way. I know that it's a pretty small and cozy convention these days, and the urge to memorialize the late Hugh Casey (a pillar of the Philcon community) will be great. But, despite the name, Philadelphia's SF con happens in Cherry Hill, NJ, and both Maryland (where I live) and Virginia (where R. lives) are both on New Jersey's list of travel restrictions. So we would have to self-quarantine for two weeks to attend a two-day convention. Uh, I don't see THAT happening....

... now I'm trying to get motivated.

On Saturday, the boy toy and I decided to go out for an afternoon drive. We toodled around Columbia and part of Baltimore County and ended up in downtown Ellicott City, which we've visited several times in the past. I took a few photos of the historic buildings, but then I got a "memory full" message -- and my old camera has a 16-GB SD card! So I didn't get any photos of costumes at cz_unit's and Phoenix's party, at which we ended up. It was great to see CZ and Phoenix and friends, and astounding how their kids have grown. We didn't stay too late because the boy toy never likes to stay out late. Such an "old man."

On Sunday I didn't go to church (I will next week), so the boy toy and I just went to the farmers' market and the grocery store. It rained most of the afternoon. I spent most of the day trying to finish up a cover letter for a part-time permanent job with partial benefits. I had already told the boy toy that I'd finished writing the cover letter, because in the past, when I say I'm going to finish a job application and then I don't (even if it's for a reasonable reason, like it's time for supper or I have to go to a meeting), he gets pissed off. So this time, I said I had finished the cover letter, even though I hadn't (yet).

I finally got it done, but now I'm trying to get motivated to do my next couple of freelance writing assignments. You'd think the MONEY would motivate me, but ... I just feel incredibly scatterbrained, like I want to do a bazillion things *other* than what I'm supposed to be doing. Yeah, I know all the mental tricks: give yourself a short-term goal followed by a small reward, break down the big task into smaller chunks, blah blah blah. I think these tactics seldom work on my aging brain because I've done them all before.

On top of all this is the siren song of NaNoWriMo (and spinoffs such as "NaBloPoMo"). I don't know how people manage to get a novel written in November. I mean, I'm going to an SCA Crown Tourney (which my local barony is hosting for the Kingdom), two SF conventions, and a regional Toastmasters conference. And I have actual freelance writing for PAY to accomplish, too. *sigh* I know I spend way too much time on Facebook, but that seems to be where all the interpersonal communication happens these days, especially among my SCA peeps.