Grrrrrrrrr. Yay. Grr. Yay. Etc.

Bookfair NOT open to the public this year, despite it being the one part of the conference open to the public like every other year since 2 BCE. So yeah there's some kind of tax law that means a public bookfair would require payments of sales tax to the city of Austin. Mmm hmm, OK. But dudes, could you official organizers have let the rest of us know that there was a change in policy this year in advance of us reserving tables for two-fiddy a pop and inviting our entire email lists to author events they are now being turned away from? Yes, you could have. That would have maybe changed some of our minds, or at least changed our plans. These ID-checking goons suck--they're maroon-jacketed powertrippers--and we've brought WAY too many books to just sell to each other. Could you have at least made an exception for the authors, created some kind of pass for them to come in to sign their books for an hour without asking for a wad of moolah? Yep, something like that would have worked. Oh, that's right. I'm full of much better ideas than the dumb ones you got. Dumb!

Grumpy and it shows. I know. But being in Austin is all right so far, and not as distressing a dance with the past as it could have been after a decade away. It's mostly the same around here, and I've had chile rellenos and migas and maragritas and Shiner and Celis White. Tho I haven't yet been up to the campus yet.

Still, very much looking forward to Jen & Ada reading tonight. Then the unassociated party (which title I don't read as a partisan statement but rather a factual description of the nonmember presses celebrated by it. Membership ain't free either, ya know, and people have to purchase staples.) And hey, it's a five-dollar kegger.