Ahhh, the breakfast of champions does not compare to the breakfast of pre-Christmas membership goodies. My day was begun with two slices of very pleasant fruitcake baked by Debbie, followed by melt-in-your-mouth shortbreak cookies baked by Merle, one of the volunteers, and now I'm sucking on a candy cane. There's a chesecake made by Stacey in the fridge, but I won't get any of that since I'm not going to Calvin's Membership/Foundation party tonight. I have plans with Becca for a long overdue coffee followed by a visit to Sandra's to look at swatches and to have a reading with John. Oh my gosh, I'm so full of not-good-for-me food... I think I'm going to settle for soup at lunch. Hobbits would be proud of my eating habits today.

Carrie and Al have okayed the front of the invitation. Tonight I'm going to start on the inside. I realised that I simply don't have the time to work with the Letraset no matter how much I like it, so it came down to digging through the internet to see what I could find. Well, God bless the 'net, for lo ! the Angel of the Fonts came upon me and all about me shone a heavenly light for I had been guided to a vast repository of free downloadable types ! I snagged about twelve different fonts, not all for use with the invitations, loaded them into my computer and the proceded to play. And it was good fun. The best of fun.

Actually, I had more fun bowling with Membership yesterday, which I thought was going to be today, but I was wrong. I defected to Team Tres (3), the pseudo Spanish team (Richard, team captain, just came back from Chile) and thus was awarded the prize for most back-stabbing-est player. It's okay, though, for the team I defected to did not do so well because I seriously brought them down. It's been a long time since I bowled and it seems that I now suck. Everyone on our team had pseudo Spanish names and mine was Los Fingers, which amused me to no end. *laugh* Anyway, my feeling was that Membership would do well to get together as a group more often than it does because events like this do so much for the morale.

I miss my cat a lot. I find myself looking in all her usual places only to find no cat there. It's a bit unsettling, but I know she's fine and enjoying life at Mom's. I wish she enjoyed life as much at my place, but what can you do. I don't have three floors to explore and a pair of cats to play with/annoy. I walked into the living room today and expected to find her on her pillow, but she was not there. I really miss her snuggly self in bed, too. On the other hand, there's something nice about sleeping straight through until my alarm, rather than waking up at 5am to feed her. Still, the house seems sort of empty. I guess I'm just used to having the air around my ankles filled with her furriness.

I have returned to Toronto and now am of mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, Philadelphia afforded me a wonderful break from the norm, putting me down in a city which never ceases to enthrall me, and on the other hand, I did something I don't normally do - long for home. Of course, returning home didn't have the full effect as Willi is living happily at Mom's for the most part this month. The bus ride was uneventful, though I opted to take the night bus rather than sleep the night in Philly and return on the day bus.

I spent the afternoon not taking Ben to the Art Museum as I'd intended, but just chilling in the house. He and I went for a nice walk to Rittenhaus(sp?) Park and along Walnut Street. I did some enjoyable window shopping and Ben had the experience of going into an expensive designer boutique for the first time. There were two pairs of boots that made me long for wealth, but ultimately, my money was better spent on snacks for the bus. Megs picked me up from his house sometime near five o'clock that evening and we went to South Street. I'd promised myself that I'd eat another cheesesteak while I was there and she took me to a place that did not disappoint. I think Nick recommended it at one point too: Ishkabibble's. This was an old school divey little place with a couple of counters and maybe seven painted barstools, no tables or chairs at all. I had the best cheesesteak of my entire life and Megs and I split cheese fries, which is the Philly answer to poutine and delicious in its own right. We wandered around South Street, popping into stores to look at the novelties and gifts. I picked up a couple of inexpensive doo-dads and then we went for coffee at the Philadelphia Java Company, or whatever it's called. Nice coffee, clean bathroom (something a little bit in short supply), pleasant staff, and good music made for an enjoyable couple of hours.

I do enjoy the city. I would move there for work. I love Megs and Ben and Ali and it's so damn close to New York. Now that I'm home, though, I'm enjoying a quiet day with a headache, in my night gown, with no intention of unpacking until tomorrow. It's back to the grind, the regular and the every-day. I'm going home on the 23rd when Mom and I will put up the tree and village. I'm really looking forward to that, but in the mean time, I've got things to do here in Toronto. I must do the lettering on A&C's invites (if they'd get the text to me, that would help - hint, hint), and actually start a rough drawing of the commission. I've got roughs worked out and a general layout, but I haven't actually started to commit myself to the job. Hopefully tomorrow I will learn that I shall be returning to work at site sales, preferably without having to do a formal interview. ILM emailed me and sent me a release form so that they can legally look at my portfolio, which is cool, and suggests at the very least, that they might actually look. There's more wrapping to be done and some shopping yet to do, but mostly that's all done now and I'm pleased to have it out of the way. Other than that, what I'm looking forward to are enjoying lunch with Rick tomorrow, the membership bowling party later this week, finally seeing The Two Towers on Friday (Nick's going tonight at midnight), and seeing Handel's Messiah with Rick on Saturday night. It's going to be a busy week.

I'm still in Philadelphia and still having a good time. The weather hasn't been wonderful, though it's warmer than in Toronto. There's been a good deal of rain, and nasty Atlantic winds that are chilling and damp, but today it's lovely and sunny. I have been walking all around Centre City and on bits and pieces of South Street. Ben took Ali, her friend Tom, and myself out for all you can eat Japanese/Chinese buffet. Oh, sushi. How tasty you are. Anyway, digression aside, it's been a very busy, fun-filled trip so far. This is the longest I've ever spent in this city, too, which adds to the pleasure.

I hung my art on Friday afternoon, which was fun, if confusing. The art show was not as smoothly run as others I've attended, but it was also by far the largest art show. It had a huge number of varied and interesting artists, and to be quite honest, I was probably in the middle range of the talent pool. Donato Giancola, was the artist guest of honour and he was not only one of the MOST talented and skilled and artistically educated artists working in the field today, but also very gentlemanly, humourous, and a very good speaker. He took the time to sign everything people handed at him and never came across arrogant or impatient. Happy to answer questions and to talk to everyone, he was possibly the best guest I've seen at any convention ever. Other well known fantasy artists were present, either in person or represented by their work, such as Ruth Thompson and Ian Miller (quite a fine ink artist).

I got asked yesterday if I were dressed as Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Pigtails, glasses... they're not the first to see it. Heck, I see the resemblence myself, and I do a fair impersonation, or so Ali says. That said, I was just being me. I told one woman, "Actually, I had the schtick before Myrtle did. You can call me Moaning Maya." She didn't get it, but nevermind. Maybe I have a hallowe'en costume for next year. It should be easy enough to do. We had a lot of fun at the convention yesterday. Ali and I spent most of the day there, going to dinner with Ben and his mother as a break. Ben came for a couple hours in the afternoon, but Ali upgraded her day pass to a weekend pass in order to come back today. The masquerade was pretty weak, but everything else was great, especially Donato's talk and slide show. This morning, we met Tom, her friend, and went back nice and early for a panel on the original Grimm fairy tales and how they've changed over the years. Following that, I made sure to attend a panel of artists discussing the influence of classical art on the science fiction and fantasy genres. That was a high point for me.

Unfortunately, for those who want to know, I took a bath at the art show. I sold no originals, no matted prints, and indeed, not even a print. It is incredibly disappointing and very disheartening to come with high hopes and what you want to think are good works that people would want to buy. I take some consolation in the fact that very few people did well, though that fucking feather-painter did very well. I gues I'd better start painting on bird parts, rock slabs, and velvet. Seriously, though, even Donato, who I would have thought would do decently, did not manage to get even a single bid on any of his original art. Granted, his prints moved well, but still, it has to be depressing for him. It was certainly disappointing for me. I'm going to do Pandemonium in Toronto, and that's going to be it. I simply cannot afford to do this anymore. Part of me also feels that I just can't hold a candle to the people already in the industry. It's not a nice feeling, and mostly, it makes me want to strive harder, but it's hard to strive harder with so little time to work and no money to attend classes or buy supplies with which to experiment. Oh well, I learned things, and I did enjoy it, and it was nice to exhibit in the same room as Donato, too, so in other ways, this was good. I had just so hoped not to have to drag my work back across the border.

I did a bad thing today, too. I used money that I hardly have in order to buy Brom's latest book, "Offerings". It was cheap, it came with signature, and frankly, I've been looking for it for ages. Hopefully, no one actually bought it for me for Christmas. I also bought a couple of prints at VERY low cost and they'll make excellent gifts this season. I know who will get them, too. I talked for a long time with the guy from whom I ordered the Dark Elve print (I gave that to Rick for our anniversary last year) and the pair of Froud faerie prints (Tracy's birthday this year). He actually remembered me and that I'd ordered from Canada. "You don't come across a name like Maya too often. Lots of Sarahs and Jennifers, but not a lot of Maya's." He remembered that I'd emailed him about how timely his shipping had been, too. *laugh* Good company, that Chimera Publishing. The prints I bought, he even went so far as to scratch out the price and write 'sample' on them so that customs couldn't charge me duty or anything. Hurray.

Anyway, I think it's time to go now. I can't take the cigarette smoke in Ben's room. We're just going to chill out for a bit tonight, maybe have a game of D&D, draw, whatever. Tomorrow I'm going to go to the museum in the morning and then I'm going to do something with Megs again. It's my last day, so I'm going to make sure to enjoy it, broke or not. The next time I log will probably be from Toronto.