-G- The Con: Part 1
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arrived via metrolink at the Sheritan around 6-ish. ah, it's was so
nice to take a thirty-minute train ride to a con instead of driving
for hours on end. met up with fastrada as i arrived, and a hotel
trainee checked us into our room. the other desk clerk who was
supervising her turned out to be a former chicago resident and had
lived practically in the same neighborhood as fastrada.
the hotel itself was quite impressive. the lobby takes up the ground
floor, while the 2nd and third floor is all parking garage. the third
floor is a massive area used for dining and special events (such as a
pre-reception for a wedding on saturday). our room (a nice lil suite)
was on the 7th floor while the con suite was on the 6th. keith's stuff
was already in our room when we checked in.
at the main suite we were greeted by aimee, keith, rupert, and
talamasca, and i must admit i was going thru major cognitive
dissonance seeing john and aimee in a room together for the first time
in years. i am glad the two of them were able to put aside their
differences and got along like they did in the old days. it wasn't
quite like the old days, but it was still all good. it was really nice
seeing him again, and i'm glad he was surrounded by all his old
friends when the stuff with "Seattle" went down. he went thru a lot of
hell this weekend, but at least he truly knows that he has to move on,
and i'll know he'll find the strength to do so.
okay, i really can't remember who arrived when. koren and nick
arrived, brought over by cag who could only stay a few minutes. he had
to come back briefly again on friday to bring koren's spare contacts,
but he was able to stay saturday night - which turned out very well
for him. at this point, i believe robert kane arrived as well.
so whoever was there thursday evening treked over to Union Station for
food-court dining. this, surprisingly, was our only trip to the mall
for food-court dining. afterwards keith took aimee, lisa and koren to
do the alcohol and food shopping. they found out that the nearest
"Dirt Cheep" store only sold ciggies and not alcohol as is advertised
by local tv. by the time they got to a food store, it was five minutes
til close, and they had to do a mad dash to get everything. somehow
they managed to get everything but one small item on the food and
alcohol list. the rest of us played keith's 80's lyrics game and then
watched cartoon network. hyoun had arrived by this time.
there's always some kind of major thing going on in the world during
the con. during atlanta con was clinton bombing the baby food factory.
this year it was the blackout, and though i made it a point to not
have the tv on during all hours, we did make periodic views to get
updates. fortunately no one who traveled to the con was delayed by the
power failures, though i'm sure shrinkage amy was kicking herself for
staying in NYC this weekend. ;)
a game of killer bunnies was started, but i lost my patience after the
third round and went back to the comfy chairs. koren was getting quite
agitated that nick was into the game and not in the hotel room with
her having lots of sex. ;)
i think it was around 2 or 3 a.m. when i finally went to bed.
more later...
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