Dragon*Con adventures

[Priscilla]

Wed., Aug. 31 - Day one

Got up at 4 am. Stayed at a hotel near Bradley Airport outside Hartford so I wouldn't have to drive through rush hour traffic. Had an easy 5 minute ride over to the "valet" parking place and left the car for the week. (Having AAA makes it reasonable). I was all checked in and ready to go at about 5:30 - and there was a flight I "could" have gotten on if I'd known I'd be there so early. There was a monster boy, about 3 years old, who announced his arrival in the huge waiting area by shrieking and continuing to shriek for the next 1 1/2 hours while we waited for our plane. At times he was so upset he almost threw up into the bag his parents shoved in front of him. By the time we got on the plane he'd totally worn himself out, thank goodness! The flight was very smooth and actually arrived a couple minutes early. Kat and JJ called me as I was going along on one of those "moving walkways" headed for the baggage claim. Met up with them a couple minutes after I got my suitcase. We got on the Marta train and trundled over to the hotel by about 10:30, where we were able to check in, and get settled. I found I had all the cell phone cases I'd made except the one for Aranel. Drat. We met up with Aranel, Koolness and John Gaskill and went up to their room where we hung out of a while. I bought a cloak from Aranel that she'd made for someone who couldn't make the convention. All of us except John Gaskill had supper in the Sports Bar and then we all went to the airport to get terri, at about 9:30 I think it was. Terri stayed up a bit later than the rest of us, we three were asleep by about 11.

[Keio]

Going to: Got up at 7:34AM. (Couldn't stand the wait) Went with Faren,Scavy, and The Eldest to the airport around 12:00PM. Got there at about 1:00PM. Flew to Atlanta. Got there at about 2:15PM. Met Damoodymom there. Got on a train to the Peachtree Center Mall. (Wouldn't have known where it was unless someone had told us. Got there. Checked into the Marriot. Ate. Crashed. Registered in. Explored. And waited til the next day to look for actual people. :breathinginsmilie:

1st day: Ummm...Let's think. Went down and tried to find the gaming room for the boys to spend the rest of D*C in. Found it in Hanover hall. (You actually get used to the place after a while) Found the strangely small Pern room. Met everyone. Walked around to look at the booths. Looked at first day costumes. Because there is a difference between first, second, third, and fourth day costumes.It's like this guy:disguise: Except the next day he's wearing a storm trooper costume.:roll: Hundreds of them I tell you! Finally found the D*C store. Purchased. Then did som other stuff that I can't remeber.

Handfasting...Or handfastening what ever: Wonder ful little ceremony. Very touching. (Didn't know Skyhook was that big):eek: I didn't know they were going to make it so big though! Food and Everything! But only three words can describe the ceremony. Touching, Fun, And....CHOCOLATE!!! Yes! They had a chocolate fountain!! You know. Like one of those fountains you find out in front of a really pretty house. Or a hotel. Except smaller. But good fondue!:heartbeat

2nd day: Did basically the same thing as the first day except no finding or purchasing. Went to the bar. Front three tables always reserved for the Pernese people. :devil:. Got to see random things. Met people more people.
About 11:00Pm though we found something very intreging. We were asked to join a game. You know normal stuff. Just some idiots with cards. But no. It was so fun!!! It's called "Are You A Werewolf?" There are 15 people. 12 villagers, 1 seer, and 2 werewolves. Best game ever. Not going into details though. Too much.

[Keio]

There's more but I must go now. Bye!:wave:

[jjmouse]

Tsk.

The very first day, Cilla was UNBRUSHED!!!!

[Priscilla]

I know! Shocking, isn't it!? :eek: But, that's covered in the "other" thread! ;)

[Priscilla]

Thurs. Sept. 1 - Day Two

Got up at 8, had a bowl of cereal in the room and some coffee. I think I forgot to mention that when Kat, JJ and I arrived one of our first activities was to take a taxi about a mile or so from the hotel and get some "essential" groceries and a cheap styrofoam cooler.

Ian, LL, BM and H wanted to go to a mall, shopping. We all decided to go together. Got on the Marta again and rode a few stops. Had to do some back tracking but finally found the entrance to the mall. H got some shoes, I'm not sure what anyone else bought. I "almost" bought a cute evening wear type top but I talked myself out of it at the last second. I'm too old for that sort of thing. ;) Back to the hotel at around 4 p.m.

Stood in line for our convention badges. After getting the badges we wandered by the downstairs bar in the Hyatt and saw Skyhook, Shirley and quite a few others already well settled in.

Kat, JJ, terri and I went out to the Steak and Ale for dinner. Went back to our room and hung around until about 9:15, when Kat discovered looking through her Con program that Aranel's costume show had been moved to Sunday (the day Kat was going home, and Kat was to have been one of Ara's costume "models"). So Kat had to get in touch with Ara and she ended up wearing the costume Ara had made for her to Sky and Shirley's handfasting in the evening.

There were a LOT of people in the bar for the handfasting! The program itself was very sweet, not too long, and people had some very lovely things to say. There was a delicious chocolate fountain with various types of fruit and pretzels to dip in it ( I think, that was a gift from Calla?!) Initially there were some party crashers getting into the treats but Shirley gave them a stern "this is a private party" and they slunk away. ;) I left I think around midnight.

[Priscilla]

Friday, Sept. 2 - Day 3

Got up and took a shower at about 8:00. Had another bowl of cereal and more coffee. All of us met downstairs in the little coffee shop/snack bar in the Marriott for a HellKats meeting and lots of Christmas presents were handed around! :heartbeat (Thanks, all!) We all went over to the Weyrfest room at 1 for it's opening by Anne. The 4 of us wore our cat ears & devil horns and sat up front. I had a book with me to be signed and when Anne was done with the opening she signed a lot of books and the horse Kat had brought for Robin Bradbury. Kat also gave Anne the tiny dragon in it's treasure box that Robin had sent for her. We made Anne a HellKat (DragonKat) and gave her a pair of our Kat's ears, which she wore through the whole opening! I was taking pictures with my little Olympus (non-digital) which has a zoom lense. Aranel was on my right and terri was next to her. I pushed the zoom button and the lense went way out from the camera and terri looked across Ara and said something like "dang, that thing grows big" - which of course immediately had all of us in hysterics. Right after that was when we made Anne a HellKat. We had a bunch of pictures taken with Anne, all of us HellKats, and I had Kat print one out on her "oh-so-handy" instant printer that came with her digital camera, and later in the weekend, Anne signed it for me!

Our next stop was to listen to Emerald Rose. I bought their new CD and had them sign it for me. Went downstairs to the Dealer room and got the "Weasley" twins autographs for a friend of my daughter. (Also bought myself a tee-shirt). We had supper at the buffet in the Hyatt. Spent a short while at the bar and then at 12:30 Emerald Rose sang for an hour and a half. So, got back to the room and to sleep at about 2.

[Priscilla]

Sat., Sept. 3 - Day 4

Up at 8, breakfast buffet downstairs in the Marriott, then outside to watch the parade. Went downstairs to the Dealer's rooms and bought some stuff. Sat/stood in line for a long time and got Anne's autograph on my second book and one of JJ's. That signing is SO poorly organized! There seems to be only one room for all the authors who do free signings, so because Anne is popular, people start lining up early for her autograph and there is absolutely no room and the lines get all muddled and tempers definitely were getting VERY short. Add to that, that someone came up with the very logical idea of handing out scraps of paper with numbers from 1 to 75 on them, since Anne only signs up to 75. Made lots of sense to everyone there, until the "official" people in charge of the signing came out of the room just before it was time to start lining up for Anne's signing and said it couldn't be that way, and everyone made a mad scramble to get somewhere in line so they could hopefully still get an autograph. At least, the people in line were still intelligent enough to count off so that after the 75th person those behind didn't stand in line for another half hour or more. It was, irritating. Anyway, after that I went into the Art Room and looked around at some of the beautiful drawings, sculpture, jewelry and other items. Went back up to the room and discovered that there was a website crisis, so Ian came in to check on it. Shortly before we left for dinner I made the stupid mistake of announcing that I thought the line from a previous journeyman players play "make it so I like Dick" wasn't particularly funny. You've heard of DEAD Silence? A pin would have sounded like a bowling ball dropping. Well, my lack of sense of humor is I guess legendary. :sad: We did go out to dinner but I don't think anyone had a good time, it was too noisy at the Hard Rock Cafe, for one thing. Went back to the hotel and to the costume contest. Didn't recognize either of the winners, male or female. I headed out by myself and followed the direction I thought went back upstairs. Found a door marked exit, with stairs. I went in, the door closed, and I went up the stairs. The door at the top was locked. I went back down and both doors at the bottom were locked. I thought I was in there for the night! :blush: Then I realized I had no one's cell phone numbers on me at the time. I COULD have called home to Connecticut, but that would have only spread the panic and confusion around a bit. Pounded on the door for what seemed like a while but was probably only a couple minutes, and someone came and let me out. They had a look on their face that said "what an idiot you are, what are you doing in there?" but they didn't say anything to me. Was going to go back to the room but went to the bar instead and found terri. Later when Kat and JJ came to the bar a bunch of us went to Diamond Dave's suite. Back to the room at around 3 am. Not my most favorite day. :disguise:

[Shazza's Back]

Hang on. I heard that Meece and Klams got a bit pickled one night. Where is THAT bit hmmmmmm?

[Ian]

I think that was at Diamond Dave's (aka Master Trader Dave)

[Priscilla]

That would have been that night. I did say it wasn't one of my favorite days, didn't I!? Not too much, wouldn't want to ruin my stodgy old lady reputation, now?! :disguise:

[Shazza's Back]

Stodgy? *snorts* Old? Pfffffffft. Lady? I'll get back to you on that one.

[Lily]

well, I expect she couldnt remember some time at Diamond Dave's :D
And Cilla, I think you had to have been there to find the line Make it so .... etc. funny. I dont either

[Faren]

well, I expect she couldnt remember some time at Diamond Dave's :D
And Cilla, I think you had to have been there to find the line Make it so .... etc. funny. I dont either
Everyone has a different sense of humor. I was there, and it was the delivery that made it hilarious. I don't know if it was planned or not, but the line seemed so spontaneous.:D

'Cilla, I think by Saturday, everyone was getting exhausted, and that may be why it wasn't the best day. Besides they all can't be the best.:shrug: I think Sunday was my least favorite day...too stressful.

[jjmouse]

Klams had to much to drink on Saturday.

Mice made friends with the wall that night. ;)

[Lily]

Everyone has a different sense of humor. I was there, and it was the delivery that made it hilarious. I don't know if it was planned or not, but the line seemed so spontaneous.:D

Just what i meant!

And how did mice and the wall get on?
One climbed up the other?
One nibbled a hole in t'other?

[Shazza's Back]

I wonder if it was a cute wall.

[Bardmaiden]

That party was fun, the HellKats making comments about the Dawn contest :D , me not getting to bed until 8 in the morning, making friends with new bottles of alchol (then regretting the *next* day....)

:D

[Priscilla]

Sunday, Sept. 4 - Day 5

Up at 8 a.m. to get Kat over to the airport. :sad: Over on the Marta and back. Listened to Emerald Rose's last concert of the convention. They were tossing guitar picks and I got 2. I got their bass player to autograph one to Jenn's boyfriend Mike, who plays bass. Had lunch at the buffet in the Hyatt and we just happened to be seated at the table next to Anne and her entourage. (thanks, Aranel and Kool for saying hi to us! ;) ) When Anne was getting ready to leave the arm of her scooter knocked over the table and all the dishes and stuff hit the floor with a satisfying crash! Went down to the dealer room and bought a few more things. Saw Jody Lynne Nye down there and bought one of her books that she co-authored with Robert Asprin, which she signed for me, and gave me a bookplate that he had signed as well! Truly a lovely, gracious lady! Bought a lanyard at the Lord of the Rings table that I'm using for my work keys. Went in to the room where Kat's 3-D art lecture and raffle were being held. I was early and ended up listening to a guy who used to do album covers for rock groups and now does architecture. Later learned his name is Roger Dean. He was fascinating. I could have sat and listened to him for hours! Anyway, listened to the 3-D art thing but didn't win the raffle for Kat. Went back with jj and sat through the next session at which they were giving away free demo CD's, so got Kat one of those. HellKats do "stuff" for each other! :heartbeat That got done at 11 pm. Went back to the bar for a few minutes. Said goodbye to Sky and Shirley, Goofy and her husband. Decided to skip Rocky Horror. Called it a night.

[Kat]

Roger Dean is the artist I had the album cover that he signed.

[jjmouse]

Mice and the wall got on well.

Mice had a bit to much to drink.

Wall felt the need to be held up.

Mice were happy to help.

[Priscilla]

Monday, Sept. 5 - Day 6

Up at about 8, hung around the room while terri packed. Took her over to the airport. Came back to the hotel and went to the Dead Dragon thing in the Weyrfest room, which really WAS dead! ;) Masses of women are showing up in the hotel, all in startling white dresses, gloves, hats and huge corsages, marching around looking at the D*C convention members still in costume with horrified expressions. The National Baptist Convention has arrived! What a contrast! Went down and hung around at the bar because JJ was trying to get the rest of Emerald Rose to sign a CD, but I don't think she was successful. Met up with Aranel, Kool, H., BM, Maedhbh and Auburn. Todd showed up at the bar but was busy with several people he was with. When the bar closed at 11 they moved upstairs for more drinking and JJ and I left to go back to our room. Bed at about 1.

[Shazza's Back]

Monday, Sept. 5 - Day 6

Snip

Masses of women are showing up in the hotel, all in startling white dresses, gloves, hats and huge corsages, marching around looking at the D*C convention members still in costume with horrified expressions. The National Baptist Convention has arrived!

Snip



*Falls off chair onto floor in an hysterical heap of laughter*

OMG I would have LOVED to have seen that.

My jealousy levels are rising again.

[jjmouse]

Mice were afraid of the Baptist Women in White.

:blush: **Whispers** They were EVERYWHERE. Mice did not see a single smile from ANY of them. Oh it was just horrid, I tell you, HORRID!!

[Ian]

The Baptists were far more scary than anything we saw at D*C! They weren't all wearing white, but most were (the women anyway) & I don't think any of them were under 60, many were probably well into their 80s.

[spellwight]

I thought the baptist convention ladies were extremely funny. Those poor little old black women! I just wanted to go up and hug 'em, tell 'em it was all right and it was all just make believe.

[Priscilla]

Tuesday, Sept. 6 - Day 7

Up at 6:30 as Aranel called to ask if we wanted to go to the Marta with them at about 7:30. There was no way we'd be ready by then, so just said goodbye and safe trip to her. We left the hotel about 8 as jj was a little worried about getting to her plane on time. After I got her headed off in the right direction at the airport I decided there was no sense in waiting almost 6 hours until my late afternoon flight so I trudged over to the Delta counter to see if I could get an earlier flight. Yes, indeed! :D There was a flight at 11:50 and I could take it for an extra $25. I got into Hartford at about 2:10, and home around 4:00. Unfortunately, I'd taken my house key off the key ring and we don't have one hidden in the yard. No one was home, either. I went next door, said hi to the neighbor (used their bathroom :roll: ) and drove out to the grocery store for a few items. Came back and parked the car beside the house, pushed the seat back into a reclining position and fell asleep. When my husband got home around 7, he saw the car but didn't see me. He went in the house, waited for a bit and decided I must be up the road at a neighbors so he called my cell phone. THAT woke me up and it was a very groggy voice that said "Hello?!" to him. He said "where are you?" and I said, "I'm out in the car". So, I stumbled inside and unpacked and handed around presents. It was a wonderful experience and next year we're both coming and bringing my daughter and her boyfriend! See you there!

[Faren]

I thought the baptist convention ladies were extremely funny. Those poor little old black women! I just wanted to go up and hug 'em, tell 'em it was all right and it was all just make believe.
Oh lordy. I was in the elevator on Sunday with two of them. One was in a red ensemble...and I mean fire-engine red, from her hat to her dress to her shoes to her purse. RED! The other one was in green...about this color:fiend: . Also from head to toe. OK, I was fiendish. I asked if they were there for the convention.:devil: They informed me which one they were attending.:D

[Anneli]

A belated comment ;)

I was there in 2003 - indeed, I confess I was the one who thus christened the hero in the NYRFJ Players act :) So I can also assure you that Cat's immortal response was wholely spontaneous - and very nearly finished the skit on the spot as I was laughing so hard I corpsed on the stage and only just managed to carry on with the improvised story :D

Everyone has a different sense of humor. I was there, and it was the delivery that made it hilarious. I don't know if it was planned or not, but the line seemed so spontaneous.:D

[Keio]

3rd day:
Got up. Went down to the little shopping area on the 2nd floor because no one else could get their lazy buts up. Got some food. Oh and for a cont. of the 1st day: We went doen to the conference room near the bar and saw The Weasley brothers up close. I was within 20 feet of them. Sorry that's kind of a big thing for me. But they were really cute.
Anyway. I left and went to see one of my grandmas. Haven't seen her in 2 years. I was so happy.
Back to real D*C. About 12 o'clock went to play are you a werewolf? Passed out about 2.

4th day:
Woke up. Repeated breakfast. Went swimming in the pool. Wandered. Don't really remember what I did at this point honestly. But it was fun. I would recomend coming. Then we flew home. And listened to Harry Potter tapes all the way.
*breathe*

[maiken]

So...did everyone have fun then?

[Priscilla]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I had fun! :wizard:

[Kaoru]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I had fun! :wizard:

I had so much fun, I actually went $200 over my limit--and $50 of that went to the cab to get home. :blush: Can't wait for '06! :D

[Sran]

For anyone interested, the camcorder footage that filmed is now available on DVD go here (http://www.annemccaffreyfans.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6775) for more info