Spent the day with Miz Mouse, talking Art and Story and whatnot. Spent the evening with Mouse and
theferrett, talking about everything. Mousie's already Family... I'd met Ferrett once befoe, briefly, and had grown close to him online, but it was Thursday night that he really became Family. Easy grins and quiet geeking out and snuggling... Thursday was a very good day. :)Friday
Oh, shit, gotta pack for the con! *laugh* I darted around getting that done, and ran out to CVS with Ferrett to pick up my Lyrica ($150 my ass). That turned into a bit of a wander around Watertown Square, getting Starbucks and baklava and generally calming me.
...and then our ride was quite a bit late, and I got agitated again, a state that unfortunately lasted for a while. I have a bit of difficulty adjusting when nothing goes according to plan. It's not as bad as it was when I was on Trileptal, but I am still on brain-altering drugs. So. I do best when I can be in charge of things, and Friday afternoon was a bit of an exercise in putting things in the hands of other people, who did not do things as I would have liked.
And then there was the hotel.
Others have mentioned the obvious problems, such as the elevators that broke if you looked at them the wrong way, the very poor location of the art show, dealer's room, et cetera. I had yet another problem with it - the NOISE. The acoustics in that atrium... *frustrated sigh* It sent me to the then-nearly-empty ConSuite, trembling like a chihuahua. Too much stimulus. Way, way too much stimulus. It took me a sizable chunk of the weekend just to deal with that. This hotel was not made for large conventions. I understand how difficult it is to find a hotel that can fit Arisia in at all, so this is not an Official Complaint or anything, but - the noise, the bottlenecks, the confusing layout and inaccuracy of the maps all led me to have a less-than-wonderful start to the con.
Time in the ConSuite with the lovely
oneagain helped, though, and I headed off to my first panel fairly refreshed. Reshaping Grimm and Goose featured me, catvalente, jesshartley, et al, and just talking about fairy tales and folk tales was a hell of a lot of fun, even if it was over the heads of some of the attendees.And the reason I was pretty much floating on air during that panel?
slipjig had just given me Shadesong: The Card Game! I'll leave it to him to explain it, but - he designed and created a card game based on my life. That is so incredibly cool - I have no frame of reference for how incredibly cool that is. Whee! *laugh*After the panel, I changed into my "prom dress" - a 1950s-style off-the-shoulder white dress with red flowers and a poofy crinolined skirt. Accessorized with stripey stockings. And red lipstick. And my hair Shoggoth. I had every intention of going to the Prom at the End of the Universe, you see... but I ended up losing track of time at the drum circle ands missing the prom entirely! I brought two bodhrans and an ashiko, and ended up sharing with not just Elayna, but
ian_gunn's daughters and eustaciavye's 6'6" Danish Guy. My favorite moments of the circle - said Danish Guy getting into the groove of drumming, when he hadn't touched a drum in ages; Elayna actually getting out and dancing; Elayna kneeling patiently in front of Ian's younger daughter and instructing her to close her eyes, feel the music, and then begin to play along with it.I finally hauled a reluctant Elayna up to bed, changed out of the prom dress, and roamed the halls a bit before going to bed myself.
Saturday and Sunday later...
