Blog

Many years overdue, but I finally watched Spirited Away this weekend.  What a lovely film.  I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to it. 

I haven’t seen all of Miyazaki’s films.  Just Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo.  Some of which I enjoyed a great deal, though maybe I wasn’t in the right mood or frame of mind for Ponyo.  Then again, I was raised by wolves.

I’ve noticed that my last name seems to give people a lot of trouble.  I’m not sure why that should be the case—it seems pretty straightforward to me, after all.   And for people with whom I’ve interacted in person, it has the extra benefit of being phonetic: it’s spelled exactly like it sounds.  People who’ve only seen my name as text don’t have that extra pronunciation reminder, but oh well.

Anyway.  Yeah. 

For the record—and I’m sure this will do absolutely no good, since anybody reading this has already managed to find the proper spelling at some point—my last name is spelled

T-R-E-G-I-L-L-I-S

It is not spelled TREGELLIS, nor is it spelled TRIGELLES, TREGELLES, TERGIILLIS, TREGILIS, TEGILS, $%*@#$@%, or anything other than the above.

What a strange experience, that high school reunion.

As I’ve already said, I’m glad I made the effort to attend.  I was on the fence about it well after I went through the airport and boarded the plane.  But once there I knew almost immediately that I’d made the right decision.  I only wish I’d had (we’d had) more time, and that more of my classmates had attended.

Very busy, very tiring weekend.

Flew back to Minnesota for a high school reunion.  (The actual kind, not the Disney musical kind.  There was no singing.)  In order to make it back for the reunion, I made a 2 1/2 hour drive straight from work to the airport on Friday evening (thank you, unannounced road construction), did some flat-out sprinting through the terminal in Dallas (only to be the last person on the plane, and then to sit there for an extra 45 minutes because I-don’t-know-why), arriving in Minneapolis around midnight.  The next day I picked up my rental car and made my way to the far far north, and generally had a fantastic time.  Got back to my hotel quite late, couldn’t fall asleep (thank you insomnia) until sometime after 3:30, got up at 5:30, and traveled most of the day to get back safe and sound here on Sunday evening.

Totally worth the trip.  I really enjoyed the reunion.  I only wish I’d had more time, and that more people were there. 

That said, I’m tired of being tired.  I travel for both my day job and my writing life, and travel for some reason always entails a very taxing schedule on at least one end of the trip.  It’s getting old.  As are we all, apparently.

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re stranded on Mars. 

You do have shelter, but are faced with rapidly dwindling supplies of air, water, and food.  You’re just barely able to contact Earth, but he spacefaring nations of the world can’t help you—they’ll never get supplies to you in time.   So you appeal to less conventional means of survival.

But at this point you’re faced with a difficult choice, because all but two of the world’s superheroes are busy.  (Also, most of them have a grudge against you, which is why they don’t care when they hear about your situation.)

So: to whom do you appeal for help?  Aquaman, or The Atom?