+Maybe I should have tried harder to make friends, instead of mostly just exchanging pleasantries and being in photos? There was a ready-made conversation topic in the form of all the new shows! Would it have been witty and ironic to confess that I don't even like _Discovery_? I guess I was feeling shy?
+
+<a href="/images/photo_op_with_spiner_and_mcfadden.jpg"><img src="/images/photo_op_with_spiner_and_mcfadden.jpg" width="350" style="float: left; margin: 0.8pc;"></a>
+
+The photo op with Spiner and McFadden was the assembly-line affair I expected. They had a bit of COVID theater going, in the form of the photo being taken with a transparent barrier between fan and stars. Spiner said, "Sylvia, right?" and I said "yeah". Pose, click—next fan.
+
+I did get "ma'am"ed on my way out, so that's something.
+
+At this point, I was kind of tired and bored and wanted to go back to my hotel room and masturbate. But there was one last thing left to do. I went to the vendor hall, stopped by a side table and wrote "unremediatedgender.space" on a scrap of paper from my Moleskine, then went back to the _Transcat_ table.
+
+I changed my mind, I said, where does the story start? The proprietor said Issue 1 was sold out, but that the book Vol. 1 was available for $25. I'll take it, I said.