Friends have invited me to be their guest at Westercon in Seattle. ConClusion, Westercon #65 started yesterday and goes through Sunday. I get to spend all Saturday with another single mom and her son who is close to my daughter's age. They have programming for kids, mostly on Saturday.

Years ago when I stumbled upon my first con for a couple of hours, I could not have imagined the intervening decades and what they would mean for geeks as pop culture, for science, for scifi/fantasy loving communities or me personally.

Rewind: I got a bad case of the summer flu in August of 1995 while living in Atlanta. Friday by Heinlein, bought for a quarter at a garage sale from religious folks who were embarrassed to sell their science fiction collection because they felt it was 'evil' became my first Heinlein book read as an adult. Stranger in a Strange Land was lost on me earlier as a 12 year old.

Fast Forward: Years after reading it, I remember thinking that like Friday, I might find the road to my own happily-ever-after even if by quite a circuitous route which for me included becoming a mom.

Now I'll be attending a panel on the Future of Medicine with my medical miracle kid and I'm one of less than 400 people certified in Z-Health, a neuroscience based rehab that may well change the entire face of medicine, at least if I have anything to say about it. My daughter will also be hanging out with other kids under ten who are interested in particle physics.

Kinda surreal realizing that I have become the heroine I've always enjoyed reading minus the habit of murdering anyone who gets in her way. And. A mom. Both because of both science and scifi.

Science and Science Fiction in the Pacific Northwest:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2018578665_jdl02.html#.T_HO8nIP3hw

Westercon's website: http://drupal.westercon65.org/