A MICE Saturday

Yesterday started with a comic show - MICE, the Massachusetts Indy Comic Expo. It was in the middle of Boston, an awkward location if you're traveling, but great if you live in the vicinity. We do not live in the vicinity.

It was a nice little show, but there was hardly any elbow room. Not ideal conditions for an active toddler. AwesomeCloud is no longer that tiny boy who could sit quietly in his stroller and watch. Nor is he that little kid who was content not to touch much of anything, as long as someone was paying attention to him. No, now he's a whirlwind of activity and curiosity. He likes to run, not walk, and grab, not look.

So I took him outside, where we wandered around until we found a park with a good view of the Green Line. I can't say much else about the park. It was a typical Boston University park, with a sculpture that was no fun to touch, and an installation-in-progress with a sign explaining what the artist was doing, and not much art to show for her efforts. I probably should not have let AwesomeCloud walk on the art. But the art was on concrete blocks, and I almost would have missed it entirely if I hadn't read the sign. Besides, the sign said the art was supposed to be 'weathered', and a toddler walking on it is a form of weathering.

At about noonish, Cloud and I left Daddy behind and headed to Norwood for our great-aunt's surprise 80th birthday party. We got stuck in traffic and it took us an hour to get there. AwesomeCloud was staaaaarving. Fortunately, Henrichetta had brought a big plate of delicious soft Italian cookies, and Cloud chowed down on those. Aunty was even later than we were, so we got to say hi to people before taking our places to yell, "SURPRISE!"

The party was lovely. Cloud had a grand old time with his nonna and poppa and a dozen aunts, uncles, and honorary aunts. Everybody loved him. Everybody wanted to talk about him. Which was good, because by that time, I was already exhausted and didn't feel like talking about much else. But I can always talk about my son.

After that, we went back to MICE to get Daddy. Amazingly, it was already 5:30 when we got there and nobody was packing up to leave! I couldn't find a parking space at first, so I panicked about finding a way to tell my husband to pack up and come downstairs while I was idling out front with my kid in the car. But then my friend Everett, another comic creator, passed by, and I told him to send Rick down. Then suddenly I got a parking space. So it was all right.

We sold $78 worth of books. Wow. We might have sold more, but we ran out of "Unpopular Species" Issues #1 and #2. The comic store owners from Maine were there, and they told us they'd sold out of "Unpopular Species" in their store and wanted more. So we just sold them 18 copies on the spot.

So that was pretty cool. Rick says $78 is a record for us. You know what? Having a lot of different books to sell really makes a difference. It's fun to see which books sell best, but the truth is that we only have a few duds, and most of our books contribute to our success.

There are some weird setup quirks, too. For instance, "I Believe... one cat's spiritual statement" sells better if we arrange it in two piles.

Today I'm supposed to be working on my To-Do list around the house, but I'm moving very slowly. I'm too tired to do much.

Today is also the start of Banned Books Week. Find out if your local library is having a Banned Books Week event, or find a book that somebody has banned and read it. (Unless you're one of the people who goes around supporting the banning of books. Then you're excused. AwesomeCloud's mom is not like that, though.)