ZA

I did make it to ZA (though practically as everyone was leaving), and got to meet many lovely people (and the white pizza is delicious). Thanks, everyone! That said, because of my job I'll probably make it again when hell freezes over. :/

Then I came back to work to find lovely requests from law firms for metric fucktons of Lexis stuff. Uh, NO.

One of these days I'll just be a walking glob of glitter

While out in San Francisco, atomicnumber51 was doing my makeup before we went out one night -- smoky eyeliner, red lipstick, the works -- when suddenly she stopped and pulled out one last eyeshadow. She dabbed it on and said "You wouldn't be you without a little bit of glitter."

Actually, I think that's a pretty apt description of my personality.

But I outdid myself today (since boss is not here, no worries about looking "unprofessional", whatever that is). Two types of blue glitter eyeshadow, shimmer lipgloss, shimmer lotion...

But the crowning glory: My fingers and toes. I've got so much glitter nail polish on that if the sun catches it just right, I could probably temporarily blind someone.

Shiny San Francisco Stories: Byron!

One of the nicest treats of being in San Francisco was getting to meet rainstorm13, who is every bit as adorable as you'd expect. We ventured into that adorable little truffle shop in North Beach (I'd wanted to go there ever since we passed it on the way to City Lights a couple days before) and bravely tried the Earl Grey truffles, which are weird, but not in a bad way.

Byron, you rock!! **hugs**

I just wish I'd had enough time to get to meet everyone out there!

Shiny San Francisco Stories: Skywalker Ranch

One of the more unique parts of my trip was the trip out to Skywalker Ranch, at the invitation of the fabulous tikimama!!

After gamgee and I wended our way through security, tikimama (and melintur, though sadly he had to go) warmly welcomed us. Heather is just as awesome as I figured she would be! She whisked us over to the main ranch for lunch and a tour.

The main building is gorgeous and has some cool props -- Darth Maul's lightsaber, Indiana Jones' fedora and whip, which we all had a fit over. (Too bad they didn't have Mace Windu's lightsaber so I could check to see if it really said BMF on the handle.) There were also lots of cool old movie posters, some nifty conceptual art from Episodes I and II (mostly Amidala's costumes), and a lot of art -- some Norman Rockwell originals, The Garden of Allah.

You really get an idea for what George Lucas must be like -- my guess would be the ultimate eccentric creative genius. Apparently when he's traveling, if he sees something he likes, he has it copied at the farm, like this wall built without mortar that's kinda falling apart because the builders didn't really know what they were doing. In the library (Heather almost wouldn't take me in because she said I'd never leave), there's this gorgeous stained-glass skylight and another stained-glass window. It turns out that the pieces of the dome were too large to fit through the door so they had to cut a hole in the wall, and that's why there's the window. Also, he's friends with Francis Ford Coppola, so they have olives and grapes, just like Coppola. The wine label is Italian for Skywalker, but they don't sell it. I think it would be a huge hit at cons.

I got the World's Coolest T-Shirt, which should establish my geek cred. It says "Javva the Hutt: Industrial Strength Caffeine" and has Jabba drinking coffee.

By the end we were all cracking up because the lake at Skywalker Ranch is called Lake Ewok, and the new lake at Big Rock (the new part) is just going to end up Lake Jar Jar no matter how much everyone says they don't want to call it that. Or perhaps because of it. ;)

Of course, the coolest part was getting to hang out with tikimama. Thanks so much, Heather!! From the bottom of my geeky little heart.