-G- my con '02 experience (long)
ai...@rmta.org
:)
TUESDAY: part of the RAINN package i was expecting arrived only half an
hour before i left. i scurried to get descriptions to nadyne for the
auction site and pack them, and around 5pm i was outta here. i had good
feelings about this con, especially since we always seem to have better
experiences with hotels in even years, and i was excited to get on the
road.
the 4 of us from stl (otherjason, keith, and jb) were going up in 2 cars,
and the guys got walkie talkies because...they're guys. we ran into some
pretty bad construction traffic near chicago, which is pathetic since it
was around 10pm. I-94 went down to one lane, and at one point it was
completely closed off and we had to wait. the cops weren't doing a good
job of organizing the blockage, and when i got up to the area, i did see
that a cop car was partially blocking the one lane. i slowed to a crawl
and was about to stop when the cop backed out of my way - so i went ahead
around her, slowly, and she pulled in behind me with her siren on. i
stopped in the only lane (nowhere else to go), and she proceeded to bitch
me out for nearly hitting her (i wasn't even close), and claimed that she
only backed out because she was afraid. this was utter bullshit, and i
told her so. she told us we'd have to wait until some bridgework was
done, and i could see that cars had piled up behind me. she then walked
back to talk to other cars about the delay. so we had to just sit there
for about 15 minutes twiddling our thumbs. other than than, the trip went
smoothly. we heard some funny stuff from other vehicles over the walkie
talkies, incuding a mother exhorting her son not to run out of gas. "mom,
i have 3/4 of a tank!" "well, you keep an eye on it." and much more
strangely, what sounded like a little kid saying, "i'm a girl because i
have a vagina!" in the other car, jb and keith thought that one was me.
we stopped for the night as soon as we could once we got into michigan.
i proceeded to keep everyone else awake with my helpless and
uncontrollable giggling until about 5am. i tried to be quiet, but i just
couldn't. stop. laughing.
WEDNESDAY
with checkout time at 11 and us having lost an hour to the new time zone,
we left with about 5 hours of sleep under our belts. sleep deprivation
started early this year. we got to dearborn around 3pm, and were shocked
at the immensity of the hotel. you could see it for miles around because
it was so fucking huge, and we literally walked 1/4 mile down the hallway
from the elevator to the suite. this hyatt seems to have been built in
the mid-80's, with an appropriate mix of faded dallas-style luxury and
utter cheesiness. there was actually a murphy bed in the suite, which we
found hysterical. jason and i had the bedroom of the suite, which is
something i haven't done since denver in '97. it was very convenient to
do it that way again, and the con saved money because it only had to pay
for the living room section, while it could use both rooms.
once we were unpacked, 'drew and robert joined us and we headed out to run
errands - another deposit for the banquet, and snack and alcohol shopping.
to my distress, all the grocery stores in michigan have are wine and beer,
and then not much of a selection. even when we went to a liquor store
(known in michigan as a party store, but imo a party store should sell
streamers and paper hats), they had no midori (!!!) and a very poor
selection of wines. in fact, we couldn't find midori anywhere in the
area, and we didn't wind up getting midori until saturday, when robert
brought some.
the rest of wednesday is a blur to me - we went to a restaurant where the
waiter was too good for us (read: shitty service), and later jb and i went
to get darlene at the airport. the signage at the aiport was entirely
unhelpful, and we had a hard time even parking, much less finding out
where to go to get darlene. the arrival monitors didn't list darlene's
flight, and there was literally no one there to ask for assistance, so we
wandered around until we accidentally ran into her. the detroit airport
is crap. we were all pretty beat, so things were low-key that night. no
drinking, just lounging and talking.
THURSDAY
more people arrived, and we all walked over to the mall's food court for
lunch. it was the easiest place to go, and a cinch to herd people to, so
we used it a lot the whole weekend. afterwards, jason and i went to pick
up shrinkage amy at the airport - it was an extra adventure this time
because amy hadn't told 'drew her airline or flight number. we just
walked around feeling stupid until amy called jason's cell from hers, at
which point we saw that she was standing about 50 feet from us. :)
everyone else had gone off to pick up mike at the bus station and check
out a cool bookstore in the same area, so the afternoon was pretty quiet
until they came back. frankly, i already needed the downtime. people
hung around, and then the whole group (i think we had about 14 people at
this point) went out to a middle eastern place that 'drew recommended.
it was darlene's birthday, so a bunch of people went out clubbing with
her after - i considered it, but figured i'd save my dancing for
saturday, and i really wasn't up for it. those of us who stayed did some
laundry, and like a complete jackass i didn't ask jason whether it was ok
for us to smoke in our bedroom. 'doh! so i had some apologies to make,
but things were ok after we aired the room out. sometime during the
evening pom arrived, when we had expected him the day before. there
followed a chorus of, "you're not dead!" which i repeated nearly every
time i saw him over the course of the con. he's been firmly ordered not
to wander away from us for so long again.
this was the first night that damian passed out on the murphy bed in the
suite, and before we left for the night we arranged him so that animal
(yes, a full-sized muppet that keith brought) was 69'ing him and had his
hand over damian's mouth. "shhh! don't speak!" naturally we took
pictures, and then left him for the maid to discover at about 8 the
following morning. ;)
FRIDAY
this is *the* day, when everyone else arrives, and the con officially
starts. we made another trip to the mall for lunch, and a few hours later
we gathered people up and went for a tour of the buddhist abbey where
'drew lives. it turned out that jason didn't really believe that 'drew
lived in an abbey, and thought the invitation to tour it was a joke.
that'll learn him, eh? 'drew led some of us in a meditation, which was
very relaxing and pleasant. most of the group then went to royal oak for
shopping, but a few of us stayed at the hotel to relax.
we were supposed to get another suite across the hall from the one we had,
but the hotel fucked up the booking and someone else was in it. they
offered us one on another floor, but given how far it was just to get to
elevators, we decided just to leave it. we actually had ample room in the
one suite, and having a second would have been an inconvenience under
those circumstances. the good news is that this saved the con a good hunk
of change which will now go to RAINN.
later, jason, mike, and i had an early light dinner at the hotel's
bistro, since we felt hungry but knew everyone else wasn't ready for
dinner yet. and then by the time everyone else went out to dinner, we
weren't hungry again yet. when people came back, some of us did some
laundry, and damian attempted to follow me into the bathroom, insisting he
wanted to watch me piss. he said he'd keep his eyes closed. camille
distracted him while i ran for the other bathroom and locked myself in.
then i went off with jess to get pictures and descriptions of last-minute
auction entries emailed to nadyne. after that was done, i figured it was
time for me to relax, and i had a few drinks and went to do yet more
laundry - and that's when some bad things happened.
i can't discuss it here, but suffice it to say that 'drew and i and a few
other people who were assisting spent several hours taking care of it, and
it was extremely stressful. it seems a few people thought we were being
all cool and exclusive, and having a better party somewhere else, but that
was definitely not the case. it sucked, and i never did have a real
dinner that night. nor did i get to relax with drinks and laundry, since
as soon as the shit hit the fan i felt completely and desolately sober.
to my distress, when i finally returned to the suite bernie had bernie'd
(puked) in the bathroom. it stank like a motherfucker, and we kept that
bathroom closed until the next day. and what was worse, he was actually
returning to the bar for more drinks! i had to cut him off, and
fortunately he didn't argue with me about it.
SATURDAY
after getting up at the sick hour of 9am to finish taking care of the mess
from the night before, i felt horribly stressed and upset, and not having
had a decent meal the night before wasn't helping. when i came back,
jason had helpfully gotten me a cinnamon roll and milk from the cinnabon
at the mall, and i devoured them and hit the sack. unfortunately, this
meant 'drew had to take care of getting the group to the zoo for the
afternoon activity, which is more work than he should have had to do - i
just literally couldn't handle it and needed to get some rest. i got up
around 4 and began getting ready for the banquet. i even gave up and got
room service to tide me over (which is something i almost never do) just
because i didn't have time for anything else.
this year's banquet and dance was different than usual, because we rented
out a B&B in a big victorian. the only other time we've had it outside
the hotel was when we had a private floor at a restaurant in portland,
and this was much more private, as the only other people around were the
owners, who mostly stayed out of our way. dinner was pretty decent, and
things were more low-key because we only brought wine (we decided not to
bring anything else because there had been so much drunkenness the night
before). a lot of people hung around in the garden outside, and things
were in general more relaxed than they normally are on saturday night,
which was a welcome relief for me. the only real problem was that the
place didn't have a powerful enough air conditioner, and it was quite warm
on the main floor. i was wearing a nun outfit, and halfway through the
night i gave up and cut off the sleeves and the skirt for my own comfort.
back at the hotel later, things were elevating to their usual pitch.
damian was drunk off his ass, and as usual we got a lot of amusing
pictures of him. among other things, he made out with my knee (he has
facial hair, so he's not allowed to kiss my face). also, jess showed us
how ridiculously easy it is to open a locked hotel bathroom. i mean, i
never thought it would be difficult, but it shouldn't be *that* easy. we
inserted 1/2 inch of car keys, knives, and credit cards into the lock, and
the door would just pop open! damian kept running in there with people to
make out privately, and every time we'd open it and take pictures. and
damian managed to look surprised *every time*!
SUNDAY
i was really hoping to sleep until it was time for the auction to finish
up at noon, but housekeeping called me at 9 or so to say they couldn't
clean the suite because someone was sleeping in it. filled with the
helpless wrath of sleep deprivation, i entered the room to find damian,
pom, and camille passed out on the murphy bed. i started shaking them to
wake them up, and camille stumbled out almost right away. pom and damian
wouldn't wake up, though, so i grabbed the riding crop and gave them light
beatings. pom got up and left after a few minutes, but damian wouldn't
budge. he kept saying, "i'm up," and then pulling the covers over
himself. i started yelling at him and hitting him harder, but when he
finally got up he tried to lay down on the couch instead! i literally had
to chase him out of the room screaming. so much for my beauty rest.
it took me a while to get back to sleep after that, and then i dragged my
ass out of bed again at noon to help jess with the auction finish. the
numbers we had from the online part of the auction were pretty
disappointing, partly because a lot of things didn't actually make it onto
the site and partly because it hadn't been properly advertised. we did
alright once we bullied attendees into bidding things up, but i can't
escape the feeling that we could have done a lot better if we'd been
better organized. :( but the good thing was that most of the items went
to attendees, which meant less post-con work for jess. that was
something, considering that he spent yet another year glued to his laptop
in his room alone. by next year we plan to have something more automated
set up, and you guys will be hearing about that pretty soon. also, extra
thanks to angela for taking on a fistfuckload of the administrative work
of the auction; without her the auction wouldn't have happened at all
this year, we simply couldn't have done it.
after that it was off to the mall for lunch yet again, and then as much
lounging as possible. later we went to benihana and had a pretty good
meal. i'm sure this all sounds boring, but we also got to watch nymsa
doing yoga while colin named the poses for us. i was really just
exhausted at this point, and realized i hadn't been taking my vitamins (or
birth control, IPU help me) because of the odd hours and meals. i caught
up on those and went to bed at the insanely early hour of midnight.
MONDAY
so the con was over, and it wasn't the great even-year con that i was
hoping for. for the first few dyas after coming home, i actually felt
likei'd been physically beaten - i was just sore all over. there was so
much stress this year, and i felt bad that 'drew wound up with more work
than he should have because i just couldn't handle it. he did a great job
of organizing, and although he didn't deserve to have the extra shit
dumped on him, i'm glad he was my partner because he was really solid
in the crisis. and a lot of other people helped out as well with the
problems we had - extra thanks to nymblin, jess, and robert. and jason
for taking care of me just when i really needed it. and fortunately, it
seems like those attendees not directly involved with this year's problems
were relatively unaffected, so that was a great success. :)
i'm looking forward to having next year's con at home, so if anything does
go horribly wrong (and it is an odd year) at least i won't have to drive
hundreds of miles home after being put through the wringer!
Aimee the Magdalene
| the view that the metaphysician is to be reckoned among the poets |
| appears to rest on the assumption that both talk nonsense. but |
| this assumption is false. in the vast majority of cases the |
| sentences produced by poets do have literal meaning. |
| - A.J. Ayer |
andrea
re: amusing pictures...
i'd love to see them if possible. :)
(given my ... appearance in some of them)
andrea
ai...@rmta.org
heh. i do have the pics in my machine now, and they're organized and
named. i think they need to be cropped and made a reasonable size for the
web before they go up, though. oh, cabana boy... :)
Aimee the Magdalene
&&&&&&&&& the cognitive dissonance .sig &&&&&&&&&
& i won't let you fall apart NIN &
& i have to learn to let you crash down Tori Amos &
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
andrea
> andrea <sil...@nospam.northwestern.edu> wrote:
> > In article <ajp69d$g8$1...@concertina.rmta.org>, ai...@rmta.org wrote:
> > re: amusing pictures...
> > i'd love to see them if possible. :)
> > (given my ... appearance in some of them)
>
> heh. i do have the pics in my machine now, and they're organized and
> named. i think they need to be cropped and made a reasonable size for the
> web before they go up, though. oh, cabana boy... :)
*laugh* well, whenever he gets to it then. :)
andrea
Richard Hicks
tori...@earswithfeet.computer wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2002 05:57:03 +0000 (UTC), ai...@rmta.org wrote:
>
> >andrea <sil...@nospam.northwestern.edu> wrote:
> >> In article <ajp69d$g8$1...@concertina.rmta.org>, ai...@rmta.org wrote:
> >> re: amusing pictures...
> >> i'd love to see them if possible. :)
> >> (given my ... appearance in some of them)
> >
> >heh. i do have the pics in my machine now, and they're organized and
> >named. i think they need to be cropped and made a reasonable size for the
> >web before they go up, though. oh, cabana boy... :)
> >
> >Aimee the Magdalene
>
> Good think you were shooting the pictures.
> Now, no one has to look at you ???
Ahahahahaha! (again)
- Richard
My Head's Not Right
wrote:
:In article <qbsjnuonmu6kts0oh...@4ax.com>,
Is this an expression of your purely moral curiosity or your purely
intellectual curiosity?
Lydia (just curious)
ai...@rmta.org
> On Wed, 21 Aug 2002 05:57:03 +0000 (UTC), ai...@rmta.org wrote:
>>named. i think they need to be cropped and made a reasonable size for the
>>web before they go up, though. oh, cabana boy... :)
> Now, no one has to look at you ???
you're not sure if no one has to look at me? and this requires 3 question
marks? you're a smartie. the answer is, yes, people still have to look
at me. other people took pics of me with my own camera. plus, tori has
arranged that people have to look at my con photos (along with about 400
other photos illustrating my oh-so-interesting life) and write a 3 page
essay about them before they can access the scarlet's walk b-sides. and
you have to get a B- or better on it or do it over. and over and over,
considering your writing skills in this post. suffer. :D
ai...@rmta.org
look, everybody, it's shaman! i thought i recognized that somewhat less
than witty repartee, but didn't think to look in the headers until after
my snarky response. still mad about being too dumb to figure out how to
register for the con all those years ago, are you, boy? <snicker>
Aimee the Magdalene
*********************************************************************
\ finding jesus in the faces of the dying gutter people of calcutta /
/ is a wonderful way to dissipate one's sex drive - Tony Campolo \
\ you can't stumble if you're on your knees - a church sign /
/ time for cake and sodomy - Marilyn Manson \
*********************************************************************
Richard Hicks
My Head's Not Right <myheads...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Is this an expression of your purely moral curiosity or your purely
> intellectual curiosity?
>
>
> Lydia (just curious)
It's neither, just a little fun.
Anyway, I'm honored that you looked up from your dictionary and/or
etiquette manual long enough to contribute something.
How are you?
(oops, there goes that curiosity again)
- Richard