I’d thought I was done with the 2008 Nebula Awards weekend, and that it was done with me, so I started out the morning packing, figuring that once I was done I’d spend the few hours until my airport shuttle working in the room. Then the phone rang and I heard the mellifluous voice of Connie Willis. She was about to have breakfast with Cynthia Felice and Joe and Gay Haldeman over at the Driskoll Hotel, and wanted to know if I’d recovered enough from our feast of the night before to be able to join them.

Never one to pass up such an invitation, I changed into less scruffy garb to be worthy of both the company and the locale. The food was excellent, and was also, in one instance, art. Gay’s waffle was cooked in the shape of the great state of Texas! I don’t know why she was the one so blessed, because the rest of our food was just shaped like, well, food.

As usual, the topics of conversation varied widely, and included House, The Office, Steinbeck, Mencken, Herodotus, Hemingway, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Father Coughlin, Clay Shirky’s recent essay about the true reason for the rise of the sitcom, and more. Then we toured the hotel, where Connie and Cynthia made a new friend, as you can see below.

And that, now that I’m back home, is definitely the end of the 2008 Nebula Awards weekend!