NHC day 1 (brief)
My flight to Boston was uneventful (which is just what I want in a flight). Right before boarding I heard someone say "Monica? you're going to Boston?" -- it was someone returning home from Pennsic. I said something like "sorry, I didn't recognize you in regular clothes", and then someone sitting across from us (whose name I didn't learn) waved. Heh.
magid kindly picked me up at the airport (yikes, Logan makes the Pittsburgh airport look like Hicksville -- glad I didn't have to navigate out of there), and after lunch at Ta'am China and a missed connection with someone else, we headed up to the NHC summer institute. Programming relevant to me started at 4 with a newcomers' orientation, which was more of a meet-and-greet than what I expected. This was followed by an opening session for everyone during which it became very, very clear that most of these people know each other (or at least know the movers and shakers). I felt very much the outsider; I'm glad I had magid, tigerbright, and family to lean on a little. There are 370 people here, their biggest in a while.
There were two options for the evening program, offered by the institute's two artist guests of honor. (Ok, they call it "artist in residence", I think, but SF-con terminology has taken root.) They're different enough that scheduling them opposite each other didn't seem wrong to me. magid and I were both feeling undecided when we were recruited to set up chairs for one of them and decided to stay. It was a one-man play, about which I might write more later.
magid kindly picked me up at the airport (yikes, Logan makes the Pittsburgh airport look like Hicksville -- glad I didn't have to navigate out of there), and after lunch at Ta'am China and a missed connection with someone else, we headed up to the NHC summer institute. Programming relevant to me started at 4 with a newcomers' orientation, which was more of a meet-and-greet than what I expected. This was followed by an opening session for everyone during which it became very, very clear that most of these people know each other (or at least know the movers and shakers). I felt very much the outsider; I'm glad I had magid, tigerbright, and family to lean on a little. There are 370 people here, their biggest in a while.
There were two options for the evening program, offered by the institute's two artist guests of honor. (Ok, they call it "artist in residence", I think, but SF-con terminology has taken root.) They're different enough that scheduling them opposite each other didn't seem wrong to me. magid and I were both feeling undecided when we were recruited to set up chairs for one of them and decided to stay. It was a one-man play, about which I might write more later.