Un-Boxing Day

I was a little later getting away from Sacramento this morning because I realized that if I worked a few hours from the hotel room this morning — and there were some good work-related reasons for doing so anyway — I could save a half-day of vacation time. My manager was agreeable to this, and my co-workers happy to have me working during the busy part of the morning, so I hung around getting stuff done from 5 AM to 8 AM before getting breakfast and then leaving for San Jose.

Shortly after I moved to the San Jose area to take a job running a small non-profit association (not SF/F/fandom related) in 1994, I opened at PO Box at the Sunnnyvale post office. Now that I'm a full time Nevadan coming to the Bay Area only a handful of times a year, and now that I've had years to transition all of my "real" mail to the address in Fernley, it was time to shut it down. Conveniently, I had to be here in the area on a weekday during the month that the mailbox rent would have otherwise automatically renewed.

( One Last Look )

I turned in my key and got my deposit back, signed some papers forwarding what little real mail I still get here on to Fernley, and that was the end of an era.

That PO Box was also the mailing address for Worldcon Intellectual Property, the small non-profit corporation set up by the WSFS Mark Protection Committee to hold legal title to the WSFS service marks. (This was necessary before registering the marks in the EU, because the EU Intellectual Property Office doesn't understand the concept of an unincorporated association.) I've never been completely comfortable with this setup because it was a single point of failure. Fortunately, SFSFC (which shares two directors with WIP) has its address just a few boxes down from here, and agreed to be WIP's new mailing address. Therefore, there are multiple people who can get at the mail (not that WIP gets much real mail) and no more single points of failure. Along that same line, I took the opportunity while driving down from Sacramento to stop at the bank where WIP's bank account is located and officially change the mailing address. While we do all of our banking online, we should keep the address updated. And a few weeks ago, while renewing routine paperwork with the California Secretary of State's office, I changed WIP's mailing address as well. All the necessary organizational stuff is done, and I am relieved that it's resolved.

Being Sociable

While doing my errands in Fremont and Sunnyvale this afternoon, I realized that my schedule put me in a position to offer Linda D. a ride from SJC Airport, so I left her a text message, and when she arrived, she let me know that would be welcome. I was a little slow through traffic, but not too bad, and I collected her and drove us down to the Marriott. After checking in to our respective rooms, we went to the lobby and hung around with the other Worldcon 76 staff who had been arriving this afternoon. Around 5 PM, several of us went to dinner. It was very busy, what with lots of SJ Sharks fans getting ready to watch tonight's game and with Cinco de Mayo in the air. (Tomorrow is forecast to be very difficult to get dinner, as downtown will be packed, but we'll do the best we can.)

( Off to the Theatre )

After the social, I went back to the Marriott and finally got unpacked and got my computer online. I wish I'd made a list of videos I wanted to download, because the hotel's wired internet connection is about ten times the speed of my home connection. I'm on the same floor as the "StaffCon" hospitality suite, but I only stayed for a few minutes, because registration for StaffCon (as it's being styled) opens at 9 AM and Linda and I want to go get breakfast, and not at the overpriced hotel restaurant. Besides, as I've been up since 4:45 AM, I need the sleep, no matter how much I enjoy talking with people.