It takes me awhile to come back from the con and write, well...anything. I don't think I even got around to writing anything up other than my scribbled handwritten notes from the lectures last year.

Anyway: it was great fun. It poured buckets of rain all weekend, but we were inside except for going out to look for dinner, so we didn't care too much. We managed to find a minimall of cheap places to eat a few blocks away, which was darned convenient.

I ran around in tie-dye and purple. They have these ribbons that people make up and hand out to stick on your badge. Last year I only got one (the freebie one vendor booth left out), but this year I ended up with about 16 or so. Awesome. I so felt like I was finally in/somewhat winning at "the popularity contest." Well, I don't know if it is one or not, but some people have those things going to the floor and you are all, "How'd they DO THAT?" Magical manifestation?

The ribbon thing is funny: some of them you get for being a presenter (or a "punctual pagan" for going to the Green Room on the first day for OK'ing the list of stuff needed to do yours) or going to someone's talk. Some hand theirs out to everyone. Other people will hand them to you if you are wearing purple, or are caught knitting in public/going to the Fiber Arts panel, or if you can quote anyone with the last name of Lennon, or identify who said what quote in Harry Potter. Great fun. I so want to order up some ribbons for next year and hand them out to those who somehow don't end up with too many ribbons.

Some people go to the con for the lectures. I would be one of those people. I skipped out on a few one afternoon to go shopping (I mostly bought books and a LOT of silly buttons), and then felt weird about it like I was cutting class. I went to lectures on stuff like tarot, divination, cartomancy (fortune telling with playing cards), the aforementioned fiber arts, and a show where people dressed up as tarot cards and then spoke like the card was speaking to you directly. I think that was my favorite thing ever, it was amazing. The humor talk was great as well.

Some people, on the other hand, pretty much spend the weekend partying. I am too much of a nerd to do that, plus we were staying in the next town over at someone's house rather than crashing in the overbooked hotel, but I'd like to try it sometime :P I did end up hanging out in someone else's hotel room until like 3 a.m. the night before my presentation though.

I did run into my ex-best-friend from the 90's at the con. She cut me dead when I waved. I...do not understand this, since last year she gave me a big ol' hug upon seeing me (then I didn't really run into her the rest of the weekend). We didn't break up on bad terms- it was "It's not you, it's me" because I reminded her of our mutual ex- but still, I would not have expected her to be that rude. (Freaking Geminis. Somehow this is the one astrological sign that will suddenly cut me dead and I have no idea why.) I guess I'll have to ignore her every year now. Joy. Not to mention that while ignoring me, she was going around the room bragging about her new husband and that was kinda hard to ignore. Sigh.

As for actually DOING stuff at the con, the group presentation eventually went very well, we had happy people attending it and a few came up later to give their complements the next day.

My talk was Monday at 9 a.m., one of the worst times- if not the worst, really- to do anything. I had been warned that newbie presenters tend to draw bad times (last day or first afternoon), which seems entirely fair to me, and I assume when I do it again next year I'll get a better one. My other friend presenting solo did it last year in the last slot of the last day, and this year she drew Saturday morning, so I trust in that. She pointed out that "if they go to your talk on a morning, they REALLY wanted to go, so that's very flattering." True! I was preparing myself to have low expectations, like 2 people showing up. (Note: the thing I went to at 9 a.m. Monday last year had five attendees.) I got about 12 friendly folks who were very interested in my subject, so that was awesome. I also got requests as to what to talk about next year! Woot!

We were all very sorry to go home and back to the "real world."

I was not as zonked coming home this time as I was last year, so that was good. On the other hand, coming back to work this week, I keep being stuck in meetings where everyone is bemoaning the budget (even though they are all technically, "Nobody knows what's going on. Nobody's said the L-word yet. But we can never rule it out.") and I literally cannot walk out and get away from it. Way to bring down my buzz, folks. Also, can we NOT have these conversations early in the day? How's about 4 p.m. so we can go home and drink after?

So, I am definitely looking forward to the weekend. My class got canceled, so I shall enjoy some free time to do as I like.

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