VeriCon (the summary)

written last week

I drove down on Friday night. Aerith and I stopped for Wendy's. Ewwy food. and we got a knife instead of a spoon for my frosty. Had to wait until it was melty to drink it. But the drive there was good. Hurray for hooking up Sharon the iPod to the stereo. And Rt 2 wasn't so awful. I only got us almost killed once. Stupid round-abouts. But we found parking in a nice looking (if expensive) lot near Harvard and walked there. We showed up at the end of the Firefly larp. Aerith and I really wanted to walk in shouting, "Alliance, everybody freeze!" or find some blue gloves or something. But we were good and hung back.

After the LARP we went out for bad chinese food with daobear and friends. Ah, gamers. the same everywhere.

Then Aerith, daobear, and I walked back to daobear's place where we chatted for a bit and then went to bed.

Saturday morning we walked back over to Harvard and got there just in time for me to join the capture-the-flag-with-stuff game. I was on the yellow team. I had the long arm of the law wand so I could defend the sneeky back way to our jail. My team won the first round and then it was time for the 1st pannel.


The first pannel was on "The Taboo of Sex in SF/F." There was this editor from TOR who dominated a lot of it. But some intellegent things were said. Some were obvious: don't put in a sex scene if it's not really important to the plot.

written today...let's see if I can remember what I was talking about

I asked Jacqueline Carey if she's found that because of her writing people are able to talk about such things as BDSM. She said that she's often been thanked for giving people vocabluary who didn't have words for what they felt. However, I did notice that even though the pannelist were talking about writing about a taboo subject, they often used metaphors or skirted around saying explicit things.

After the pannel, aerith and I went up to Jacqueline Carey to talk to her. I had so many questions that I wanted to ask her, but I totally forgot most of them... I did thank her for writing something that really meant so much to me.

Then we went to lunch. However, aerith's favorite sandwich place in the Garage has closed :(. Then aerith and I got our books, jagienka's book, and a marque that Elsha drew for Cimmy signed by Jacqueline Carey. She was very grasious and signed all of it.

After that aerith and I hung out for a while at the Con. We watched a bit of Munchkin Fu and i fell asleep watching a video game about rolling a ball around and picking up buildings and squids. very weird.

Then it was time for the pannel on "Fantasy and Convention." It was a good pannel also, and more organized that the first one. The pannelist talked about when conventions are good to use (so you don't have to use tons of time explaining something again) and when it's bad b/c they are a cheep shortcut. Jacqueline mentioned how she perpously went out and researched a lot of fantasy conventions when she was writing "Banewreaker." I think that's what a lot of people who critized it on amazon.com missed. She perpously wrote her story with those conventions, from the prolouge, to the innocent farmboy, to the "evil" with some sort of grevous wound, so that she could retell the story as a tragedy. And she does it beautifully.

After the pannel, aerith, daobear, and I went out for dinner. Then aerith and I payed way too much for parking near Harvard Square and he drove us home (b/c he had to work the next morning).

*yawn*

OMG! So tired!!!

My temp job at UMass Death Services ended last week!! Hurray!!! I have leads on two part-time jobs through the temp agency. We'll see what pans out.

Saturday was msfrizz's birthday. woke her up nice and early with a silly birthday song. Then aerith and I drove down to CT and he spent time with doctorjekyll while I spent time with kiten and her other bridesmaids at David's Bridal finding a bridesmaid dress for her wedding. The 4 of us who were there found a dress that we really like. I'd post a picture of it, but I think that would be rude to her, since she hasn't posted one yet.

After that Aerith and I went to a party where we met a lot of cool new people and didn't get home until 4 in the morning.

Sunday was doctorjekyll's game. We really need to put a leash on liszard's halfling. So far she has wandered ALONE into the sewers and unleashed a flesh golum...which almost killed us all. At least I got some of my rapid fire to work. One step closer to becoming Legolas! Due to game and people hanging out afterwards, I didn't get to sleep until midnight.

Monday aerith and i were SUPPOSED to get to bed early. 11something isn't early. Of course that was completely jagienka's fault. How dare she visit from California :)

Tuesday was Mardi Gras! Mom had sent me a box of beads and things, so I brought some to work. At first I was just going to give them out...but then I realized that that was not in the spirit of things. So I put them all around my neck and started giving them out for kisses on the cheek. hehehe. I had sooo much fun doing that that I decided to go to Haven. I burned some cds for Addam, while listening to Mardi Gras music and took a nap. Then I put on a really cute outfit consiting of my black pesant top, tight purple pants, a cat tail, and the red cat mask that my dad got me from TragiComica (they did the masks for Eyes Wide Shut, which I haven't seen). Then I put on almost all of the rest of the beads my mother sent me. They were so heavy, but it made me really feel like it was Mardi Gras. I got to Haven and and started giving out beads for kisses. I tried to give them mostly to friends and to people who looked a little shy or uncomfortable about showing tits, or to guys. I had a TON of fun, and ened up with a lot of lipstick on my cheek. too bad zale is working right now and so can't send me my photos. edit: Zale sent me the photos. They are now uploaded in my lj photogallery. I really enjoyed giving the beads away. At one point someone started to show me her tits for beads, but I stopped her and told her all I wanted was a kiss. She said that she was relieved and we spent some time talking about classy vs. trashy moods when it comes to Mardi Gras. I also brought the djs some mardi gras dabloons and frizbees and a cd of mardi gras music. :) The only bad point in the evening was when I was trying to give away my last set of beads (except for my good set that I was keeping for myself) and some guy came up to me and asked if his girlfriend could see my boobs for beads. Now, let me explain something here: I have never ever flashed for beads at Mardi Gras. If the guys on the floats tried to get me to do it, I would give them the finger. So, I say to this guy, "FUCK NO" in a really harsh voice, turn on my heal and walk away. I think he was a bit shocked. At least that was all I did. I really wanted to say to him, "what do you think I am? A fucking tourist?? I'm a local, buddy. Now fuck off!" I calmed down quickly however, and gave my last pair of beads to a cute boy in an army looking black jacket. After I ran out of beads, I hung out a little longer, but I was actually home before midnight (I had to explain why mardi gras is in the winter to someone as I was leaving Haven. Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows what it's about).

Yesterday I was so tired from all the staying up late of the past few days that I was in bed reading by 7:30 and asleep by 8:30. Of course I still wasn't feeling 100% this morning, but I was feeling somewhat better.

Tonight is Trek. This will be the last trek on Thursday nights. It's moving to Tuesday nights from now on. You have been warned :)

p.s. I have created curve_and_dent for people w/scoliosis to bitch about finding clothing and stuff.