Thursday
Because I am a smarty
We met up with
Yeah, so dinner in the hotel restaurant. However did you guess? Service was slow, but fine -- definitely not the waitress' fault -- though I think it was at this point that we really realized that only one elevator was working. In a 12 story tower. In a fully-booked hotel. Which was shortly going to contain at least 200 people who were spending most of their vacation *in* the hotel. Also, I realized my lip balm was missing, went back up to the room to get a second container (after peeking into the pool area and discovering that because the TV is now on a table in the weightroom instead of a remote and remoteless wall fixture, Guy/Big Stick is no longer the hotel's OTP! Wahhh.) and walked straight past the first container -- on the floor in front of the elevators. Wolf found it when we came back up.
We schlepped back to our room and watched Wonderfalls (it's cancelled? Whaa? Yes, I *am* reading
We played with my new
JH and WG headed off to the airport to pick up
Ten freaking minutes later (and about 45 minutes after TBQ placed the call), my phone beeped at me. "You have new voicemail!" Rassenfrassen. (It was worse on the way home; I got voicemails from
Seekrit msg to TBQ: Still not dead in a ditch; you'll have to keep trying!
We schmoozed for quite a while, getting to hear the sad tale of TBQ and Cin's suite (with its nonexistent, yet somehow disquietingly present, sofa), which did not go quite as smoothly as my own check-in, by a longshot. Though, since Cin checked in around the same time I did, and yet I did not see her, I strongly suspect that she actually was there about 10 minutes before me, and having their asses reamed by the lovely Cindy put the front desk staff in a much more accommodating mood for the next person to check in with a king suite. Eventually, though, Wolf and I trudged back to our room to shower and sleep and all those other things you're not technically supposed to do at a con. We did manage to hook up the VCR and watch the videotape I'd made of our collected songvids, which was so much better in quality than the SVCD version I'd sent in on disk, that we were flabbergasted.
Friday
Registration went pretty smoothly, then Wolfling and I caught
Then there was food (which we brought back to the theatre room) and eventually panels. Half the group stayed for "Bisexuality, Anyone?" TBQ and I (and eventually JustHuman, I believe) ended up in Slasher Hanky Code, hosted by Zvi-
What we ended up with was a fairly uncomplicated and unobtrusive code for con badges, LJ icons, etc. that can fit into a symbol the size and general shape of a standard gender symbol (the circle plus stick plus arrow or plus sign that stands for male or female) -- but can indicate sexuality, interest in short or long term relationships, attachments that already exist and whether it's an open relationship or you're sneaking around on them, what level of physical contact you're interested in with other fans -- hugging, kissing, naked touching, and whether you're only interested in platonic friendships. (Since the platonic part is designated in a different way than the physical contact part, it does leave open the fascinating possibility of platonic naked touching. Which I suppose is a thought for the nudist fans among us...) The overview chart ended up on the wall outside registration, and did I mention I love my new toy?
That was it for panels for me for the day; I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the Dealers and Art rooms, schmoozing with various folks we met along the way like
Then the Friday night vidshow. Which was wonderful. Quite a few of the vids shown, I'd seen either on people's websites or on last year's Vividcon DVD, but seeing them on the big screen is a whole different experience. I adored (again) Diana Williams' Holmes/Watson vid to "Your Mistake" and Laura Shapiro's "The Wonder of Birds" (Due South, and I know this is a co-produced vid, but can't remember who Laura's partner was [ETA-
Some folks ended up in TBQ's room after; I considered it deeply, considered food deeply because I hadn't had dinner, then considered sleep deeply because the next day was Saturday. Panel-I-host-day, banquet day, premiering vidshow day, Angel Season 4 DVDs courtesy of

Saturday
Saturday was "I love my dead gay shows" day, since Wolfling and TBQ hosted the Angel panel, then Wolfling and I hosted the Buffy panel. (TBQ thoughtfully walked over to the easel where she'd written "I love my dead gay show" for the Angel panel, and inserted "other" between my and dead, at the start of the Buffy panel.) Topics in both panels included "Joss has issues," "Joss has issues," and "Joss has issues." Also, "Other characters are slashy; Xander is just gay" (which not everyone agreed on) "Amy Acker is beautiful, Fred, not so much, BECAUSE YOU MADE HER THAT WAY, JOSS," aka "Joss has issues" and (poor unsuspecting
Lunch happened at some point. In TBQ's room, where
We also caught "The Politics of Friending" hosted by
"Canon Fodder: Keeping Things Fresh" was interesting, but not quite what we were expecting; we were thinking "How do I keep newbies and oldbies interested in my no-new-canon fandom" and the actuality was more "How do we avoid writing the same story over and over again?"
"Slash & GLBT Rights" was again not quite what we were expecting (or perhaps it was, but only partially, which was a bit disappointing). I was thinking along the lines of "What is a slasher's responsibility in his/her stories, in terms of presenting gayness/the gay community, and what is NOT the responsibility of a fanfic writer" with digressions into the funky phenomenon of slash readers and even writers who don't support gay rights (or certain gay rights) in RL. While the panel touched on those things, it was far too brief a touch, I think, before it moved into "What can we as slashers do to be gay rights activists" -- to which most of the answers were things that anyone at all can do to be gay rights activists. A worthy topic, but it didn't feel like it had a lot to do with writing, fanfic, or fandom.
After which we had a hour to change for the banquet (You could follow my trail through the hotel by the glitter that showered from my blouse all evening.), and luckily by that time, more than one elevator was working.
The food was surprisingly good for banquety food, as usual. We also spent a lot of time playing with the centerpiece, which was a birdhouse "Love Shack" containing little bendy-people whose faces could be replaced with various character pictures. There was a lively trade going on for those pics -- "I'll give you Bodie and Doyle for your Jack -- I've already got a Daniel..."
After the food, there was the annual 'play' which was actually a fannish version of Match Game this year. The panel consisted of Paula, TBQ, Alan (our resident male femslasher and token straight guy), Natlyn, Minotaur, and Serpentsgarden - and the contestants were
Then, vidshow! Wheee! My mind is mostly a blur of "Please don't let them show Wolf's and my vids back to back because they use some of the same clips at different speeds and eek they're going to show my vid and eeek!" on this subject (and thus I can't wait for the con tape/DVD to come out so I can refresh my memory) but I do remember an amazing instrumental Due South vid,
After the show, we changed into comfy stuff and headed down to TBQ's room to watch Angel DVDs -- we saw the commentary on Spin the Bottle, (Joss/Alexis/Aly 4-eva! for Joss and Alexis in their co-commentary? Carson Kressley only wishes he were this gay.) then the outtakes, then the outtakes again, then the Season 4 overview, then... er. I KNOW we watched another ep, and I did not sleep through it, though I was blinking really hard at the end. But I cannot for the life of me think what it was. At which point, thank god, there was bed.
Sunday
Since
Then Wolfling and I hit the art auction, where she got two pieces and I got (and bid on) nothing, but enjoyed the fannish stand-up routine by our auctioneer, very much. After the auction, there were two late-premiering vids by Remy Martin, including an Angel(us)/Xander that did a great job of showcasing one of the few ways I can find the pairing convincing. (S2 and 3 Xander torn between hatred and addiction, essentially.)
Then there was the antagonistic pairings panel (during which Byrne was taking off for home, I think -- we lost a few of our core group at a time, over the course of Sunday) which kept trying to focus but not quite getting there, I think. Too often it devolved into "N-factor is why I find such pairings interesting so if you don't do N, then why do a pairing like that?" (Where N=first times vs. established relationship, rape vs. non-con, etc. etc. etc.)
Then wandering and last-minute shopping (I probably bought most of my fannish purchases on Sunday, and aside from some magnets and a set of Buffy and Angel playing cards, these consisted of a metric buttload of new CDs; see previous post for Talis Kimberly love) followed by the "When fandom was new" panel chaired by Martha and Nancy. It was fascinating and at least 3 hours too short, but eventually it had to give way to the Dead Dog panel and the end of the con proper. It was announced at Dead Dog that the hotel is changing ownership but (at least for next year) our rates are staying the same, while the quality of the hotel itself is likely to go up exponentially due to the money the new owners are intending to sink into renovations, among other things. To which I say hurrah, though the only problem that directly affected me this time was the elevator malfunctions and the ice machines being out again. (Or possibly still.) Too many other people have had problems with the hotel being understaffed and physically decrepit, which may lead to entertaining stories but still lends a general atmosphere of tetchiness to the con.
After Dead Dog, there was schmoozing, particularly with

So instead, we went up to TBQ and Cin's room and watched a Due South ep (Mounty on the Bounty), which, once I got over the dialogue of the sailors and put myself into magical-realism-comedy-done-for-effect-m
Eventually, though, we had to admit defeat and go to bed.
Monday
Everyone had taken off by the time Wolf and I packed up (surprisingly easily; as she said, we're getting the hang of it) and checked out, so we tried (and failed, and btw, wolf, I never *did* get more cash, just survived on what I had) to find an ATM that wasn't out of money/order, hit McDonalds for food (success, although godalmighty are they slow and not especially courteous) and cash (failure, see above), then headed for the airport to drop Wolfling off. After one false start (wrong turn, and the one time I got remotely lost all weekend, go me), we got Wolf dropped off at the Air Canada departing doors, and me on the road home.
10-ish hours and at least 4 vid bunnies later (admittedly one of them happened on the drive to Baltimore), I was home. And online. And all y'all were asleep except for
So I had to wait until today to catch up with
The Almost End
P.S. : Skip=950 ain't happening, and even that's not far enough back to pick up where I left off with my friendslist. If anybody has posted anything fun, fascinating, useful, poignant, or directly addressed to me, since Wednesday night, and you want me to see it, please be a wonderful human being and link me up?
P.P.S: Yes, I'm going to be posting my new vid in a bit. Probably today; I'm just tweaking some of the source. Meanwhile, though, here's the re-cut version of the Amanda/Dawn vid that was
The Really End