Kitanzi's Colloquium

Fair has never, ever had anything to do with life, has it? And still sometimes something happens, and the only thing you can think to do is rail at the sky and shriek, "It's not FAIR!"

Greg McMullen died in a housefire Saturday night. He was the only fatality, but the house is a ruin, and his family is devestated. It's taken me this long to get past numbness and really believe it. He and Maya were always quiet people at the con, but I always enjoyed any con they were at more for their company and conversation. They were at Gafilk earlier this month, and breakfast with them at the local barbeque joint will be a lasting memory.

smcmullan, Greg's brother, has created an LJ to spread information as it is available, and to let people share memories of Greg and to donate if they wish to a fund to help his family. Not only the house is gone, but apparently every damn thing in it.

I wish like hell I lived close enough to offer something that felt less impersonal.

(graphic: Debbie Ohi)

aiela came down last Friday to visit for the weekend, so our home has been full of cuteness with her and ACat snuggling and making eyes at eachother and... stuff. *G* We did all manage to get out of the house to see the Bucket of Baby Panda at the Atlanta zoo (even cuter, believe it or not, and ACat has photos somewhere), and we also got her to come along to the Gafia housefilk at the Suttons Saturday night. This was the first housefilk she's been to, I believe, and she swears she had fun, so it's all good. I enjoy the housefilks for the socializing as much as for the music, but both were very good this month - I just wish we had the space to offer to host one ourselves.

For that matter, I wish we had more space period. It's a small apartment with no guest room, so poor Aiela and ACat wound up on a mattress in the middle of the living room. I feel like a bad hostess, but we can only offer what we have - at least there was a best quality bedwarmer on offer. *EG* (I go to bed much earlier than either of them, by natural inclination, or the practical solution would have been the bed for the couple, and I could have had the couch for a night or two. It might still be worth figuring out a way to make that practical in the future, but more and more I am fixed on the idea of I want a house, dammit, with at least one more room than we have. *sigh* Some day, damn right.)

So, there was time for us to all hang out together and plenty of time for the two of them, and it was a very good weekend. I really like her, and I was nearly as sorry as ACat when it was time for her to go home today, but whatcha gonna do - as I pointed out to ACat, getting to borrow her from (the mythical) davehogg includes an implicit promise to return her in a reasonable timeframe and in at least as good a condition as we got her in, no matter how much it sucks and whether I believe he really exists or not. No amount of tinkering seems to get that teleporter to work, alas.... I do so love poly when it's working. :)

peteralway has very recently posted that his brother David, tnatj, died of a heartattack this morning. He was not a close daily friend of mine, but he was a wonderful, sweet man with a great sense of humor who seemed to make a point of telling people what he found good in them, and he was a fixture at Gafilk and I enjoyed his company very much. That's part of what gives this a particular kick, having seen and talked to him just this weekend - hell, just yesterday. I'm glad I got a chance to, but I still wish I could give him another hug. Just this moment, I don't have words.