Azkatraz recap
Late in reviewing, since we had to transition into a very busy weekend right after K and I got home from Azkatraz. To sum up: OMGSOFUN!
Thursday morning, we got up at an ungodly hour to catch our flight to SFO. We met up with keytothecage andparadisetome at the BART station before heading to the Parc55. Once there, we stowed our bags in the staff room and got to work. K and I spent most of the day volunteering in registration. It was a great place to be, as we saw loads of happy, excited faces coming into the room. Later on that evening, we helped to pass out swag at the line party and got into a really heated tug-a-war over my Hufflepuff scarf. It ended with her deciding to buy her own the next day. The movie was fun, although I ended up having to walk another staff member back to the hotel (wasn't going to let her walk by herself that late at night!), so I missed all of Lavender's shenanigans. After the movie, we stumbled back to the hotel with the rest of the crowd and fell into bed about 2AM.
Fortunately, Friday morning we didn't have to be up too early - K, Sarah, and ZZ all slept in, while I was up early (about 8). We had grabbed some muffins and fruit at Bristol farms the afternoon before to eat for breakfast, so I wandered off downstairs while everyone else snoozed. After dropping off my quilt in the gallery, assembling the stand, and checking in on K, who was finally awake, we spent the rest of the day volunteering in various capacities. I ended up making an unexpected trip down to Golden Gate park to make a delivery for the Quidditch games, K worked registration and security, and I helped at the merchandise table before it was time to head down for the Wrock around the Rock cruise. We both had a fantastic time just hanging out on the 3rd deck, and I managed to take some pretty-decent looking pictures of the fog rolling in over the Bay Area. By the last hour of the cruise, K was dozing off at her seat, and since I needed to help with clearing the boat after docking, she headed back to the hotel with heidi8, Aaron, gwendolyngrace and etakyma. Thanks guys, for keeping an eye out for her!
Saturday, Az officially kicked off - the food at the Welcoming Feast was fantastic, especially the Tofu/Egglant/Brown Rice vegetarian dish. I only got to try 3 different types of cheesecakes. We only managed to make it to one programming session - "Shut up and Rewrite" this day, since we were both volunteering in various places, but we did have the Merlin's Circle reception and Dessert with Chris Rankin that evening. We failed at the mingling thing, but K successfully downed 3 butterbeers in less than an hour and was super-hyper thanks to all of the sugar. I do think our table managed to be the loudest group of cackling fans, so that was a win. Dessert was fun as well, although our table was a bit on the quiet side once Chris joined us. I think we were all just plain tired.
After the Convict Theater breakfast Sunday morning, I dragged K off to see Henry Jenkin's presentation on "Learning From and Through Fandom". I found it to be fascinating, especially given my career and my attempts at sneaking in fanfic-like assignments to my students who take creative writing, but K was not really impressed. She was tired, and ended up retreating to our room to watch POA for a good chunk of the day. Eddie Newquist's keynote luncheon was terrific, and we're hoping that the museum exhibit ends up in LA at some point - I can't really see us taking a trip to go see it all the way in Boston. We played Jail and Bail a couple times through the evening, with K being arrested for "Being a Helpful Hufflepuff" and me being arrested for "Being a Mom" and "Using t-shirts as blankets without a license" (I was watching the Merch table during some downtime and was freezing my ass off). I drabbled my way out of one of those by writing Snape/Trelawney (eww), and paid the other time. K, sadly, did not want to participate. The Fashion Show was amazing, and the ball was enjoyable. But we were tired, and went to bed before midnight. The fatigue was creeping up on us both!
Monday morning, we stumbled out of bed to go see Susan Gunelius' keynote breakfast, which was fascinating. K went back to our room after this for a while, before going to one of the writing panels (can't remember which one it was). We grabbed some lunch later on while I prepped for my roundtable on parenting in fandom. The roundtable went very well - there were only about 15 people in, all but two of them were parents, but we had a very enjoyable discussion. Because it was such a small crowd, I got over my aversion to mikes, so hopefully the recording of the discussion came out well. We'll see when it comes out on the CD-Rom. Right after my session, I headed over to "Teaching and Learning through HP". The workshop opened up with a very fun activity that can be used in the classroom - The Sorting House refuses to Sort and you as the Heads of Houses and Headmaster have to come up with an alternative. 1) What would the criteria for sorting be and 2) How would you inform the public. I talked with Cathy and Becky (the presenters) afterwards, saying that I'd be interested in talking more with them about how I use HP in alternative ed. Unfortunately, because of the timing of my roundtable and the Teaching and Learning panel, I never made it over to Zeum for the MPA, something I really regret. I stuck to my word and only bought one thing at the auction - the "Leaving Gringotts" watercolor, and watch the fun of other people bidding on stuff I really wanted. I was thrilled to discover that Gwen won my quilt, and I hope she enjoys it. :)
By Tuesday, we were all feeling tired and emotional, and thinking about cleanup. It's hard saying goodbye, even though I know we'll see everyone again next year. Once a year is simply not enough. At this point, my memory has failed me, as the last two days went in a blur. But I leave you with my pictures:
I miss everyone terribly, and I'm suffering a bit from post-con depression now. The best solution? Throw myself into working on HPEF and Infinitus.
Thursday morning, we got up at an ungodly hour to catch our flight to SFO. We met up with keytothecage andparadisetome at the BART station before heading to the Parc55. Once there, we stowed our bags in the staff room and got to work. K and I spent most of the day volunteering in registration. It was a great place to be, as we saw loads of happy, excited faces coming into the room. Later on that evening, we helped to pass out swag at the line party and got into a really heated tug-a-war over my Hufflepuff scarf. It ended with her deciding to buy her own the next day. The movie was fun, although I ended up having to walk another staff member back to the hotel (wasn't going to let her walk by herself that late at night!), so I missed all of Lavender's shenanigans. After the movie, we stumbled back to the hotel with the rest of the crowd and fell into bed about 2AM.
Fortunately, Friday morning we didn't have to be up too early - K, Sarah, and ZZ all slept in, while I was up early (about 8). We had grabbed some muffins and fruit at Bristol farms the afternoon before to eat for breakfast, so I wandered off downstairs while everyone else snoozed. After dropping off my quilt in the gallery, assembling the stand, and checking in on K, who was finally awake, we spent the rest of the day volunteering in various capacities. I ended up making an unexpected trip down to Golden Gate park to make a delivery for the Quidditch games, K worked registration and security, and I helped at the merchandise table before it was time to head down for the Wrock around the Rock cruise. We both had a fantastic time just hanging out on the 3rd deck, and I managed to take some pretty-decent looking pictures of the fog rolling in over the Bay Area. By the last hour of the cruise, K was dozing off at her seat, and since I needed to help with clearing the boat after docking, she headed back to the hotel with heidi8, Aaron, gwendolyngrace and etakyma. Thanks guys, for keeping an eye out for her!
Saturday, Az officially kicked off - the food at the Welcoming Feast was fantastic, especially the Tofu/Egglant/Brown Rice vegetarian dish. I only got to try 3 different types of cheesecakes. We only managed to make it to one programming session - "Shut up and Rewrite" this day, since we were both volunteering in various places, but we did have the Merlin's Circle reception and Dessert with Chris Rankin that evening. We failed at the mingling thing, but K successfully downed 3 butterbeers in less than an hour and was super-hyper thanks to all of the sugar. I do think our table managed to be the loudest group of cackling fans, so that was a win. Dessert was fun as well, although our table was a bit on the quiet side once Chris joined us. I think we were all just plain tired.
After the Convict Theater breakfast Sunday morning, I dragged K off to see Henry Jenkin's presentation on "Learning From and Through Fandom". I found it to be fascinating, especially given my career and my attempts at sneaking in fanfic-like assignments to my students who take creative writing, but K was not really impressed. She was tired, and ended up retreating to our room to watch POA for a good chunk of the day. Eddie Newquist's keynote luncheon was terrific, and we're hoping that the museum exhibit ends up in LA at some point - I can't really see us taking a trip to go see it all the way in Boston. We played Jail and Bail a couple times through the evening, with K being arrested for "Being a Helpful Hufflepuff" and me being arrested for "Being a Mom" and "Using t-shirts as blankets without a license" (I was watching the Merch table during some downtime and was freezing my ass off). I drabbled my way out of one of those by writing Snape/Trelawney (eww), and paid the other time. K, sadly, did not want to participate. The Fashion Show was amazing, and the ball was enjoyable. But we were tired, and went to bed before midnight. The fatigue was creeping up on us both!
Monday morning, we stumbled out of bed to go see Susan Gunelius' keynote breakfast, which was fascinating. K went back to our room after this for a while, before going to one of the writing panels (can't remember which one it was). We grabbed some lunch later on while I prepped for my roundtable on parenting in fandom. The roundtable went very well - there were only about 15 people in, all but two of them were parents, but we had a very enjoyable discussion. Because it was such a small crowd, I got over my aversion to mikes, so hopefully the recording of the discussion came out well. We'll see when it comes out on the CD-Rom. Right after my session, I headed over to "Teaching and Learning through HP". The workshop opened up with a very fun activity that can be used in the classroom - The Sorting House refuses to Sort and you as the Heads of Houses and Headmaster have to come up with an alternative. 1) What would the criteria for sorting be and 2) How would you inform the public. I talked with Cathy and Becky (the presenters) afterwards, saying that I'd be interested in talking more with them about how I use HP in alternative ed. Unfortunately, because of the timing of my roundtable and the Teaching and Learning panel, I never made it over to Zeum for the MPA, something I really regret. I stuck to my word and only bought one thing at the auction - the "Leaving Gringotts" watercolor, and watch the fun of other people bidding on stuff I really wanted. I was thrilled to discover that Gwen won my quilt, and I hope she enjoys it. :)
By Tuesday, we were all feeling tired and emotional, and thinking about cleanup. It's hard saying goodbye, even though I know we'll see everyone again next year. Once a year is simply not enough. At this point, my memory has failed me, as the last two days went in a blur. But I leave you with my pictures:
I miss everyone terribly, and I'm suffering a bit from post-con depression now. The best solution? Throw myself into working on HPEF and Infinitus.