10.31.2005
7:44 p.m.
JournalCon 2005 - Part V
Saturday
We woke up when the alarm went off and got ready, so I could get to the first panel - Person vs. Persona. It was a good panel with interesting panelists, and I can definitely say that it made me think about how much of myself I'm putting out there for everyone to see. (I might be doing a bit of editing/taking down of past entries here in the next few weeks.) The one thing Beth said that really stuck with me was about anonymous journaling versus journaling as yourself. She said when she was anonymous, she used to think that pretty much anything was fair game, so she ended up writing about a lot of stuff that she regretted. Now that she writes as herself, certain things are off limits.
Hmm...
Chauffi was giving out mimosas to people who asked questions of the panelists, so I asked something I wanted to know about anyway. Hooray!
After the panel, I headed back up to our room to see if Mr. Science-Girl was done working, and we headed out to the mall to eat a quick lunch and to find a coat for me. I needed a coat for fall anyway and freezing my ass off because I only had sleeveless or short-sleeved shirts pretty much made it a necessity. I was lucky to find a very cute short leather coat at Casual Corner. It was on sale, even! 50% off! So I HAD to buy it! We had our only not-insanely-delicious meal for lunch from the Indian place in the mall. The chicken tikka masala was okay, but we're both used to very flavorful and/or spicy Indian, and this was Americanized (bland) Indian. Meh.
We headed back to the room to chill out and rest up before the next panel. I ended up sleeping until 2:30, which is when the afternoon panel was, so I didn't quite make it to that one. We rested a bit longer, then headed out in search of food before karaoke. We wandered around for blocks and blocks and blocks before running into Carrie, Erica, and the Meg outside of Hennessey's. Mr. SG and I enjoyed our breakfast there so much, we decided we'd try it for dinner. We waited just inside the door for a couple minutes to see if the others were going to come in, which they did. They ended up joining us for dinner.
Dinner was delicious. The conversation was lively and entertaining, even if I did have to resort to lip-reading at times due to the super loud background noise. (Note to self: get hearing checked.)
After dinner, we all walked back to the hotel together, chatting the entire way. I'm still amazed at how well we got along with the people we met. And the fact that I SPOKE! To people I (at first) didn't know! I think I'm getting better at the Con thing.
Hooray!
Mr. SG and I went back to the room so I could freshen up. We headed down to the third floor to see what the set-up for karaoke was like. There we ran into Poolagirl, who I've been reading forever and who feels by now like a wise aunt I can talk to (and interview on occasion). It was lovely to finally meet her, and to be able to put a face and a voice with a name. Now I read her entries in her voice. It's pretty cool. We also chatted with Pablo, Art and a few other people who were hanging out in the sitting area outside the conference room. After a bit, we wandered into the room where the bar was set up, got a couple beers, and moved out to the balcony to chat with the people out there.
This is getting really long. Okay, karaoke was...DA BOMB. Drinking, singing, rapping, rocking, Jesus, did I really sign up for all these songs?, bodacious ta-ta's, compliments, warm fuzzies, hugging, help from a wonderful friend on my last song, the good Doctor (who became the EVIL Doctor the next morning), fun. After karaoke a bunch of us headed out to Hennessey's (again) to hang out and listen to the live reggae band. Once they closed, we went in search of TALL bottled water and carbs at Ralph's. Then back to the hotel and into bed!
Sunday
We woke up and got ready at a reasonable hour and started getting packed. This took much longer for me than it should have, due to the fact that I had to keep going into the bathroom to closely inspect the toilet (Kohler) and contemplate the sin of drinking and the evilness of the Doctor. Bad Doctor! Bad!
Eventually I got tired of the will-I-or-won't-I? thing and told myself that if I was going to get sick, I should just do it and get it over with. So I did. I still felt crappy, but at least I felt well enough to throw the rest of my stuff in my suitcase, go downstairs and give our bags to the valet to watch for 15 minutes, make a quick run to the shops we needed to go to for souveniers and rush back to the hotel to catch a cab. I sat in the cab with the suitcases while my wonderful husband ran back upstairs to our room to locate my passport, which was under something on the desk by the TV. Oops! Thank God I remembered to look for it in my purse.
The trip home was long and tiring, and made somewhat more unpleasant by the fact that my nose would not stop running. And the hangover. And the clusterfuck that was the NW flight situation out of Detroit. UGH. We got home late.
But, at least we made it home. And, at least I got to spend some quality time with some of my favorite people, and to meet some new favorite people.
It was awesome. Amazing. And I want to do it again - soon.
Only without the vicious hangover part next time.
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