What am I doing next month? BACK-TO-BACK ART FAIRS!

Four weekends from now, I am going to have the most crazy and creative weekend ever! SpringCon and the Linden Hills Festival are happening the same weekend. I will have Abby and Norma comics at the former on May 18th, and jewelry at the latter on May 19th. Here are some pictures to prove I'm not making all this stuff up!

This is the suitcase that my jewelry table and all accessories fold up to fit in (shown with a baby pterodactyl for size comparison). It also fits in my bike trailer, which I plan to use as a mode of transport (the baby pterodactyl is still too young to be used as transport).

This is my jewelry table, set up in my kitchen. The kitchen is for demonstration purposes only; it will not be in my kitchen during the festival. The Linden Hills Festival will take place in Linden Hills Park at 3100 W 43rd St, Minneapolis, MN, because that is a larger and more convenient venue than my kitchen. More details at http://www.lindenhills.org/whatwedo/festival.php

This is the postcard I was sent by the organizers of SpringCon, the comic fair where I will have a table for stuff related to my nerdy webcomic "Abby and Norma." As you can see, the card emphasizes promoting the event, so I am doing so. It takes place on the State Fairgrounds from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 18th and 19th. (I will only be there on the 18th, but I will be sharing a table with Aaron Poliwoda, who also does cool comics about autism, and he will be there both days, so check him out too!) Admission is $12.00, which will get you in all day both days. More info at http://midwestcomicbook.com/?page_id=2

These are some of the items I will have at my table at SpringCon. They include the Abby and Norma comic collection "Everything Happens for a Reason (but Nothing Happens for a Good Reason)," and shirts proclaiming that vowels are odd, and that humans, hermit crabs and caddisfly larvae are three deviant species of clothes-wearers on a planetwide nudist colony.

So yeah! Be there if you can!

Thoughts on feeling proud

To those who ask "Why isn't it okay to have white pride, or straight pride?"

My own answer:

I am not proud of being white, or straight. But I'm also not proud of being a woman, or having Asperger's Syndrome, per se, because I did not choose those things. What I do feel pride in is the accomplishments I have made despite those traits and the way society reacts to them.

I feel that pride is for things you accomplish, not things you have no control over. So, to me, gay pride or black pride or women's pride is real and laudable, but it's not about feeling proud of a characteristic you can't control. It's about feeling proud of the things you've accomplished in the face of prejudice. And that's why there is no sense in being proud of an uncontrollable trait for which you have never experienced discrimination.

Good times-- and a new speech coming up

2012 was an unusually good year for us. We made many new friends. I started working in the Target pharmacy, which I enjoy quite a bit more than the backroom.

And we bought a condo!

Because of the economy, plus some circumstances surrounding this particular property, it was amazingly affordable. There were some complications, though, and even though we qualified for a loan, we somehow couldn't get a bank loan for this condo (something about the building not having enough occupants). So my wonderful parents helped out-- they bought it and we're buying it from them through a contract for deed.

All in all, it ended up costing us about the same per month as our old apartment, which was not nearly as nice. This place is amazing. It has a kitchen where we actually have room to cook, it has its own washer and dryer, and it has nice windows and balconies where I'm going to start growing lots of plants.

In other news: we're giving a speech for Laura Baker Services in Northfield, MN, this March 26th! (Which coincidentally happens to be the anniversary of when we got engaged, which also coincidentally happened to be Leonard Nimoy's birthday. I have good feelings about this day.)

http://www.laurabaker.org/