Sunday afternoon came and oddly enough, I found myself volunteering to dog-sit the cutest Pug you'd ever want to meet. Champ is Steve Libbey and his girlfriend's dog who needed a wee bit of attention right before Mr. Libbey was to speak on a panel. I walked in on the situation and offered to help. What was I just saying over on Kami's journal about me missing dogs a couple of weeks ago?

Champ was a champ, a professional all the way. We went outside for a smidgen of business-doings then over to our hotel room for a cool drink of water and a little down time to give his poor tired legs a rest, then it was back for a walk through the convention garnering lots of ooh-ing, ahh-ing and petting along the way (I had been warned he was a real ladies man) and back up to Mr. Libbey's panel to wait until his mom arrived to take over. He crawled into my lap and there we sat, on the floor, talking to Jim Fiscus for almost a half an hour.

Gosh, he was sweet. Champ was every bit as much so too.

An hour later, Kami and I ran into Dragon Dronet whom we had met at a pre-RadCon dinner Thursday evening and we talked briefly about something that had happened Saturday evening. Mr. Dronet remembered something I'd mentioned at the dinner and pulled something from his luggage bag.

I had practically drooled over one of the props he passed around at the Thursday night dinner. No, it wasn't one of the many cool movie masks or helmets he brought with him. It was a simple pink, plastic bar of soap that just happened to have the words "Fight Club" carved into it. And then he autographed it and gave it to me.

As if I hadn't already been walking on air all weekend from my Writers of the Future Honorable Mention placement, I heard a fascinating man speak, watched him fight, talked to him and received something for my ever-growing Chuck Palahniuk collection! Could things get any better? Oh yeah, Kami got a picture of him and I and the bar of soap but we'll have to wait to see how that came out. I hope hers with him turned out too!

It's now Monday evening and I'm home. Steve slaved all weekend cleaning the house and doing personal projects he set out to accomplish. He says he understands a little better now what it takes to run the house by himself (this was the longest we'd been apart since...ever) and I'm learning that maybe leaving him and the house very well-stocked but without a car for four and a half days might not be so smart in the future. He found himself looking for healthy meal home deliveries online -- something that Does.Not.Exist in Vancouver -- because he didn't have a car to drive and wanted something different, something he didn't have to prepare. I'm guessing he didn't remember those talks we had over the winter about calling for a taxi should anything come up while I'd be out of town.

Well, laundry is calling me again and regretfully, the glow of RadCon is fading. It was a great convention, one that will always hold a special place in my heart because it was where I heard that I had received an Honorable Mention from the 2008 first quarter Writers of the Future contest and where I met so many cool people I hope to spend years running into again and again. Thanks RadCon Bob and thanks to everyone who made RadCon great for this first timer.