Yesterday evening I had the great pleasure of seeing Bonnie and some members of her family. She and Louise have stopped in Portland on their way home from Japan, and despite being completely jet-lagged they came over to spend a couple of hours sitting on our deck beneath the trees, petting Xerxes, and talking. I got to hear more details about their trip to Japan and some of their experiences at the con, but we barely scratched the surface. We also had good intentions of talking about our respective writing projects but, again, barely scratched the surface. Still, it was inspiring to see B again–like a reprise of the creative energy of Taos. Louise–whose ability to navigate in Japanese sounds pretty impressive–got Xerxes into a state of pure melted-butter affection. And I got to meet B’s sister from Los Alamos, her multitalented brother who lives here in Portland (and whom Zach and I will soon be seeing onstage in a new play that has been described as a historical mystery musical), and her brother’s friend. A very jolly gathering. All that was missing was everyone else from Taos.