Besides the incredibly useful stuff I'm learning and the wonderful people I have met, my favorite thing about Clarion has to be the squirrels. They're just fascinating here. Sunday was the day that really highlighted this.

On Sunday I was hanging out in Van Hoosen waiting to have my meeting with Kelly, and I decided to run back to my room for something.

However, when I got to the door I noticed there was one of the beautiful black squirrels standing there. So I kept the door closed and stayed at the glass to watch. And it was greatly amusing as this squirrel raided the garbage can, found a brownie in a plastic bag, and spent fifteen minutes trying to get through the bag before it realized that it was already open. At that point he climbed right in and nibbled a few crums before grabbing the whole brownie, which was bigger than his head, and taking it out to eat right then and there.

I watched him for about forty five minutes, and for a few of them Kelly joined me. Big thanks to Kiel for taking a different door out so as not to chase the little guy off.

Eventually he left and I went into my conference which went very well. Kelly had a lot of very useful and helpful things to say. And she liked the Bat Boy story which would have made my day had she not been competing with squirrels.

What did make my day happpened after the round robin Kelly, Scott, and Maureen McHugh had for us. Jim Kelly was there at the very, very end too. That man has more energy than a four year old on a sugar high.

Anyway, the instructors talked about different business end things and tips for being a writer. It was good stuff. After that Jim wanted food so people were gathering.

This is when my day was made because another squirrel, a brown female (she's nursing), came around. She was extremely tame and unafraid of the people (and there were a few there) watching her. So, I grabbed some crackers and tossed oe gently to her, which she ate. I did this with a second that got her closer to me. The last one she took right out of my hand! It was really cool, and Maureen thought so too so it isn't just my tree-hugging-nature-girl self shining through.

I haven't seen Mama squirrel since but I did leave some crackers around the area. I'm hoping to get to feed her again.

Sunday night we also had another meeting with Maureen and Jim. It was at nine pm and I didn't hear about it until quarter of so I ended up attending in my pajamas. I like my pjs and they're perfectly decent so that wasn't a problem. The problem was that it was pooring so I ended up throwing my cloak over the pjs and I got soaked. Ah well.

That second metting was a prep for the two weeks to come, how they were going to do things and such. It was good to know.

I don't think it has really sunk in for me that this is almost over. It doesn't feel like it can ever end. And yet, I really miss Brian. Leaving is going to be strange. Fortunately, I will see lots of these people again at WorldCon. And there's always email.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful except that a friend fo Ryan's who went to Clarion in 1997 showed up. Her name was ML and she was very nice. What interested me is that she listed the three types of post-Clarion lives: 1) Instant Success 2) Five Year Drought and 3) Never Writes Again. This seemed to be very broad. I'd be interested in hearing how accuarate it is or if there are other categories.

We also played Thing (a variant of Mafia) with Maureen, Jim, and Scott last night. It was a lot of fun.

Today, we critiqued one of Scott's stories amongst the normal students. I won't say much about that except that I learned a lot.

Well, that's all for now! Bye, all!