Frusterated

Because of budget problems, I can't make Armadillocon this weekend. This is the fourth con I have missed out of the past seven I have agreed to participate in, and for the time being I am not making any more commitments to attend cons. There is too much instability and unreliability in my life, and I have found that if I make a commitment to attend a con something will go wrong by the time it comes around. I missed a con in December because of car trouble, another one in February because of a scheduling error on my part (I hadn't noticed the con had changed its date from the previous year and had moved to within a week of another con), and two more - including Armadillocon - because by the time the con comes I don't have the money to attend. I had made a commitment to attend FenCon in September, but I've cancelled. No reason to wait until whatever last-minute calamity will strike.

One problem is that I normally work Saturdays, and to get Saturday off I have to get someone to take my place at the paper. With staff cutbacks, there is almost nobody left to do that. When I went to SoonerCon in June, I left work at noon on Saturday and drove to Oklahoma City in five hours.

Also, my wife won't come with me to cons. She is not a genre fan, so for me to go to cons is like a hobby, not a family commitment. It's not easy to budget.

We'll see how things go in 2013, but for now I'm all played out.