From Book Fairs to British Columbia

Crossposted from On the DEWLine:

Well, It's a bit of chaos at the moment. One of my extended family's getting married this week, so I'm haring off to Vancouver Island to attend the ceremonies and whatnot. It's a rare chance to actually do this without too much fiscal chaos, so I'm taking advantage of it. There's kin out that way I haven't seen in person in literally decades and others I've had occasional phone chatter and e-mails with, all of whom I want to get it touch with. And there's the friends and friendly acquaintances I've made online over the years I've never - or rarely - met...

One question I'd like to pose for anyone able to answer: do you know of any coffee-houses, restaurants, etc. in Nanaimo that offer the same combination of food menus(particularly the fair trade angle) and wi-fi service as Bridgehead here in Ottawa?

Something I'd like to see when I get there is the KRAZY! pop culture exhibit in Vancouver.

As to the Ottawa Small Press Book Fair yesterday, it was orderly, lively, busy...and not so oddly, the most fun I had while I was working the table was drawing sketches of hockey and Canadian-rules football players for local kids. Give-away sketches all, no charge on any of them. It didn't seem fair, especially as I'd shown up without even a single age-appropriate piece of merchandise at hand to sell to them. I simply hadn't thought it through far enough to expect anyone under age ten to show up for the Book Fair. I'm not sure if anyone else had either, but that could be chalked up to first-hand experience with past editions of the Fair. It's all too easy for past experience to guide future expectations into tripping you up, after all. I'm filing that under "Notes to Self re: future book fairs"...just in case.

It doesn't take away from the fun of doing the sketches, though. Those kids asked questions, on-point questions, about the work and I got a bit of practice on my spoken French, too. Something that happens all too rarely for me, which seems ridiculous given where I live right now. When I get back home again in about two weeks, that's...likely to stay on my "to do" list.

Kids, if you or your parents are reading this entry? Thank you! Merci!

More as I think of it...or if you think of it first.