Swancon 2019! Sort of!
I did make it in the end, but only for the Saturday. Which was lots of fun and SO MUCH LESS EXHAUSTING than going for the whole con, so I think I'll make it my default from now on.
There's no panel notes or anything, just me rambling about my day.
The con is in Fremantle/Freo this year, more than an hour from my house by train, so I wasn't sure I'd have the energy for the trip and the con. But as it happens I've been meaning to go to Fremantle anyway for nostalgia reasons, I grew up around that area but haven't been in years and keep dreaming about it. So I gave myself permission to not go at all, or to get to Freo, buy lunch, then turn around and go home.
I woke up feeling just barely energetic enough to go. I dragged myself to the train station and promised myself I'd just get an early lunch then find somewhere in the hotel to flop for a while...then my "check you've taken your meds" alarm went off on my phone and I went OH GOD DID I TAKE MY MEDS.
I messaged Cam and he said the Saturday slot was full of pills /o\ I was already on the train and did NOT feel like going home again, nor did I feel like getting out along the way and waiting 20 minutes for the next train. I had spares of one umissable med on me, and a script for another. I decided to wait til I got to Freo and follow my planned route, on the assumption I'd bump into a chemist where I could buy a box of my SNRI to avoid withdrawal (I get emotionally unstable and my energy spikes and then falls).
I travelled about a km through the city without seeing a single chemist. I bought myself a sorbet and asked for directions but there was a street art festival going on, so it was hard to hear over the music. The combination of fatigue, anxiety, and what felt like the start of withdrawal made me rather woozy, but it did mean wandering my childhood city surrounded by street musicians and church goers dressed as romans was interestingly surreal.
After travelling in a large circle and seeing rather more of the sights of Freo than I'd intended, grumbling at my phone's map app being slow all the while, I found a chemist and took my meds. Hooray!
I got lunch (at the original Takas, which I used to go to with my friends in highschool) and finally made it to the hotel.
I bought my ticket, found a couch in the family room, and flopped for a while (and continued my romance with Jaehee from Mystic Messenger) I was too tired for complex words, sorry to anyone I came across as distant to, but did manage to entertain some children by explaining what I was doing in Merge Dragons (a very brightly coloured dragon themed game). I also pointed out all the ways they try to nickel and dime you with microtransactions, not wanting to encourage these kids to be suckered by addictive online games, but being modern children they all went "Oh yes, that's a thing games do, I know how to handle that".
The activity going on was each kid being given a page of a picture book to illustrate, I was too tired to follow the story but it involved a lot of porgs.
I was prepared for that to be all I managed, but eventually perked up enough to explore the rest of the con, and had some nice conversations I do not remember. *waves to anyone I talked to*
The Esplanade hotel seemed nice enough, from what I saw, though the lifts were a bit confusing and the door to the (non-disabled) toilets was annoying (the disabled loos were either occupied or too hard to find)
There was a constantly re-supplied box of free fruit on the main desk which was fantastic, and helped me perk up.
I went to the annual trans and gender diverse afternoon tea, which was very nice, with a view off the balcony to the setup for a wedding in the garden, which was a fruitful source of queer snark.
(and then I took a moment to keep up with Mystic Messenger some more, but my excuse is that my brain needed a moment away from socialising >.>)
There was some scheduling issues with the AO3 panel, so about six of us just sat in some comfy chairs in the lobby and had an interesting conversation.
At this point I needed another nap so went back to the family room to recharge my chair and my brain. I'm an extrovert and love kids, so a room full of playing kids is fairly relaxing to rest in, especially since I'm friends with a lot of the parents. I generally end up helping with the kids enough that I don't feel like I'm unfairly taking advantage of the space. When we have our own hotel room I spend a lot of time resting there, which is more restful, but also more disconnected from the con.
The activity going on was a song writing workshop, the song also seemed to involve a lot of porgs (selling cookies on twitter?) I also had an interesting conversation about changing attitudes to queerness with a 15 year old and and a 38 year old (and her 5ish year old daughter, but she was more interested in the stars she was sticking to her picture) It's been amazing watching these Swancon kids grow up, they'll be there towering over me saying something insightful and I'm just "I could have sworn you were a toddler five minutes ago".
And then I went to the launch for Swancon 2020, which started...less than ten minutes late??? And was done in less than half an hour? A STRANGE AND DARK VISION INDEED.
Here's the details. It's over the three day(!) ANZAC weekend, at the Duxton hotel in Perth (very easy for me to get to via train, hooray)
Guests are John Robertson (a local comedian and writer who started out as one of the Swancon teenagers and is now doing well for himself overseas) and Nalini Singh (a paranormal romance author I've always meant to check out)
As people filed out of the room I pretended not to be playing a dating sim, and then dragged myself back into my chair. I decided it was time to go home.
Just as I approached the train station I noticed my wheelchair battery was starting to go flat which was a FUN SOURCE OF ANXIETY to accompany on the journey home. But I made it back without having to push it up the hill.
And then...I could just rest?? With no more con to go to??? The thought made me so intensely happy I knew only going for one day was the right decision.
And then this morning I woke up and reached for the Sunday pills...and realised I had taken them on Saturday. So it turns out I took two doses of my SNRI on Saturday, and could expect some heavy withdrawal on Sunday evening. Which is to say, RIGHT NOW, hence why I am awake at 2am. But that's ok, I have no plans except resting a bunch more.
I feel pretty wiped out, even asides from the withdrawal that was a very tiring day, but ONE tiring day is much easier to recover from than four.
...and then I fell asleep. It's now Monday afternoon and I'm still very happy with the decision to go to one day, but one day only. I'm trying to decide if there'd be much benefit getting a hotel room, since I tend to flop in the hotel room after dinner anyway. And I'm not sure having a hotel room the night before would make all that much difference. There's something very freeing about not being committed to a room or membership and just noodling along if I feel up to it.
Anyway, now to read something by Nalini Singh, the one about Angel Blood looks fun :)
This entry was originally posted at https://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/723929.html. There are
comments.
There's no panel notes or anything, just me rambling about my day.
The con is in Fremantle/Freo this year, more than an hour from my house by train, so I wasn't sure I'd have the energy for the trip and the con. But as it happens I've been meaning to go to Fremantle anyway for nostalgia reasons, I grew up around that area but haven't been in years and keep dreaming about it. So I gave myself permission to not go at all, or to get to Freo, buy lunch, then turn around and go home.
I woke up feeling just barely energetic enough to go. I dragged myself to the train station and promised myself I'd just get an early lunch then find somewhere in the hotel to flop for a while...then my "check you've taken your meds" alarm went off on my phone and I went OH GOD DID I TAKE MY MEDS.
I messaged Cam and he said the Saturday slot was full of pills /o\ I was already on the train and did NOT feel like going home again, nor did I feel like getting out along the way and waiting 20 minutes for the next train. I had spares of one umissable med on me, and a script for another. I decided to wait til I got to Freo and follow my planned route, on the assumption I'd bump into a chemist where I could buy a box of my SNRI to avoid withdrawal (I get emotionally unstable and my energy spikes and then falls).
I travelled about a km through the city without seeing a single chemist. I bought myself a sorbet and asked for directions but there was a street art festival going on, so it was hard to hear over the music. The combination of fatigue, anxiety, and what felt like the start of withdrawal made me rather woozy, but it did mean wandering my childhood city surrounded by street musicians and church goers dressed as romans was interestingly surreal.
After travelling in a large circle and seeing rather more of the sights of Freo than I'd intended, grumbling at my phone's map app being slow all the while, I found a chemist and took my meds. Hooray!
I got lunch (at the original Takas, which I used to go to with my friends in highschool) and finally made it to the hotel.
I bought my ticket, found a couch in the family room, and flopped for a while (and continued my romance with Jaehee from Mystic Messenger) I was too tired for complex words, sorry to anyone I came across as distant to, but did manage to entertain some children by explaining what I was doing in Merge Dragons (a very brightly coloured dragon themed game). I also pointed out all the ways they try to nickel and dime you with microtransactions, not wanting to encourage these kids to be suckered by addictive online games, but being modern children they all went "Oh yes, that's a thing games do, I know how to handle that".
The activity going on was each kid being given a page of a picture book to illustrate, I was too tired to follow the story but it involved a lot of porgs.
I was prepared for that to be all I managed, but eventually perked up enough to explore the rest of the con, and had some nice conversations I do not remember. *waves to anyone I talked to*
The Esplanade hotel seemed nice enough, from what I saw, though the lifts were a bit confusing and the door to the (non-disabled) toilets was annoying (the disabled loos were either occupied or too hard to find)
There was a constantly re-supplied box of free fruit on the main desk which was fantastic, and helped me perk up.
I went to the annual trans and gender diverse afternoon tea, which was very nice, with a view off the balcony to the setup for a wedding in the garden, which was a fruitful source of queer snark.
(and then I took a moment to keep up with Mystic Messenger some more, but my excuse is that my brain needed a moment away from socialising >.>)
There was some scheduling issues with the AO3 panel, so about six of us just sat in some comfy chairs in the lobby and had an interesting conversation.
At this point I needed another nap so went back to the family room to recharge my chair and my brain. I'm an extrovert and love kids, so a room full of playing kids is fairly relaxing to rest in, especially since I'm friends with a lot of the parents. I generally end up helping with the kids enough that I don't feel like I'm unfairly taking advantage of the space. When we have our own hotel room I spend a lot of time resting there, which is more restful, but also more disconnected from the con.
The activity going on was a song writing workshop, the song also seemed to involve a lot of porgs (selling cookies on twitter?) I also had an interesting conversation about changing attitudes to queerness with a 15 year old and and a 38 year old (and her 5ish year old daughter, but she was more interested in the stars she was sticking to her picture) It's been amazing watching these Swancon kids grow up, they'll be there towering over me saying something insightful and I'm just "I could have sworn you were a toddler five minutes ago".
And then I went to the launch for Swancon 2020, which started...less than ten minutes late??? And was done in less than half an hour? A STRANGE AND DARK VISION INDEED.
Here's the details. It's over the three day(!) ANZAC weekend, at the Duxton hotel in Perth (very easy for me to get to via train, hooray)
Guests are John Robertson (a local comedian and writer who started out as one of the Swancon teenagers and is now doing well for himself overseas) and Nalini Singh (a paranormal romance author I've always meant to check out)
As people filed out of the room I pretended not to be playing a dating sim, and then dragged myself back into my chair. I decided it was time to go home.
Just as I approached the train station I noticed my wheelchair battery was starting to go flat which was a FUN SOURCE OF ANXIETY to accompany on the journey home. But I made it back without having to push it up the hill.
And then...I could just rest?? With no more con to go to??? The thought made me so intensely happy I knew only going for one day was the right decision.
And then this morning I woke up and reached for the Sunday pills...and realised I had taken them on Saturday. So it turns out I took two doses of my SNRI on Saturday, and could expect some heavy withdrawal on Sunday evening. Which is to say, RIGHT NOW, hence why I am awake at 2am. But that's ok, I have no plans except resting a bunch more.
I feel pretty wiped out, even asides from the withdrawal that was a very tiring day, but ONE tiring day is much easier to recover from than four.
...and then I fell asleep. It's now Monday afternoon and I'm still very happy with the decision to go to one day, but one day only. I'm trying to decide if there'd be much benefit getting a hotel room, since I tend to flop in the hotel room after dinner anyway. And I'm not sure having a hotel room the night before would make all that much difference. There's something very freeing about not being committed to a room or membership and just noodling along if I feel up to it.
Anyway, now to read something by Nalini Singh, the one about Angel Blood looks fun :)
This entry was originally posted at https://alias-sqbr.dreamwidth.org/723929.html. There are
comments.