This isn't Inception, Jeffrey Dean Morgan really had sex with a dolphin.
So this is hella late and the people who might care were there to live it, but I don't give a shit, because I am going to write this entry if it kills me.*
It was one of the best weekends of my life, and yes, I am talking about Wincon! Below the cut lies my fangirly experience in Chicago from the con to the city and back--heavy on photographic evidence!
* = It might actually kill me.
Thursday was long day indeed. I'd stayed up pretty late the night before writing my "beautifully written, insightful, and at times simply inspired" (yes, I am still very smug thank you) Shakespeare paper and I had to run to class in the rain, get the paper printed and turned in, and then haul my cute ass to the Metro/airport because missing my flight to Wincon =/= an awesome start to Wincon weekend. My flights were most uneventful...I spent my layover in Atlanta (WHY AM I ALWAYS STUCK IN ATLANTA?!?) writing gay, incestuous threesome fic on the floor of the airport (victory).
Because of layovers and wonky time zones, I didn't get to Chicago until after 8 pm (my flight was delayed in Atlanta. Also, can someone explain to me why it made sense to fly south to Atlanta only to then fly north? Whatever you think is best, cheap airfare). Once I did reach the airport, however, there was a beautiful flame-haired goddess waiting for me with a sign that said "GOBLIN QUEEN." Although I deny all allegations of being a Goblin Queen, I knew that this had to be coyotesuspect. So we ran at each other screaming "EEEEEE!" and hugged and made the nice lady Coyote had been standing talking to who was under the impression that I was her friend's friend who she had never met before decidedly confused. One down, the rest of Chicago to go!
We tok a 45 minute bus ride to get back to University of Chicago and I got a sort of walking tour at night before dropping my crap in Coyote's room and heading down stairs to "the apartment." How much do I hate University of Chicago fangirls, guys? The apartment is basically a restaurant and haven for fangirls (and boys?). I met zempasuchil and be_themoon (who I don't think actually goes to the university, but she was there, so whatever). We spent a few hours talking fanfiction IRL. And I thought it was bizarre at the time though after Wincon, there is nothing left bizarre in the world (except trying to speak English with an Irish person, that shit is uncanny). Anyway, my point is: it was awesome and then familiardevil arrived and it became EVEN MORE AWESOME and we hung out down there talking shit and looking at soccer players who probably have sex until one of us realized that we should probably sleep.
Also? Best introduction ever:
Coyote and I: *refer to Familiar as Sam*
Coyote's friends: Is your name really Sam? Or is it a Supernatural thing? Because this is getting confusing.
Familiar: Yes my name is really Sam, and no, I do not fuck my brother.
The next morning, Coyote took Sam and I out to breakfast (because she is a very good other woman/wife). After breakfast, my own glorious wife walked over from the dorm she was staying at with a couple of our friends from high school and we ran at each other and hugged and it was wonderful because I got to see her face and OMGYAY. Anyway, we got a cab to the hotel, which was insanely expensive, but fun all the same. Once we got to the hotel, we went to check in. The first few hours of Wincon are kind of awesomely awkward, because everyone is staring at everyone's boobs trying to read nametags but attempting to do it discreetly becayse, hello, you don't want to be that person who blatantly stares at people's boobs.
Wincon opening ceremonies happened at 11. My favorite part of it was that I GOT TO MEET CASS (taintedlove) in person!! Guys, I cannot tell you in words how beautiful this girl's face was to me already, so you can imagine how blinded I was by her beauty when she turned out EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL IN PERSON. It is possible that I may have overreacted to this fact. I have been accused of screaming, running at her, jumping, and starfishing her. This is all true. It happened. WHATEVER, I STARFISHED CASS IN PERSON AND YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS. I also got to meet some other fabulous ladies in person at opening ceremonies: chewysun and lesson_in_love in particular. After opening ceremonies, we met up with missyjack, who was our hero for the weekend because none of us are 21 and we therefore could not check into a hotel room but she had a room and let us have it. LIFE SAVER \o/. Thank you, also, to cantarina1, who I met and befriended at Wincon, and who generously let our bags live in her room while we were still homeless.
Like an asshole who sometimes attempts not to be an asshole, I had volunteered to work registration during the Respect the Poon panel because that's so not my scene, only to then discover that coyotesuspect was on the panel! Bad friend is bad. Olivia and I had a good time catching up on being married while working registration for that hour, however. I then ran my cute ass straight to fan art, where I was greeted by fabulous sights like so:
Dean loves his little brother so much that he feels proud when he gets to keep Sammy fed. :)
I wish the quality on this were clearer. They ended the panel by drawing a picture of Sammy eating cake off Dean's dicks, complete with a single tear (of manly joy) and hands thrown up in the air in celebration (BECAUSE THAT SHIT MAKES THEM HAPPY, OKAY?)
Mostly, the fanart panel consisted of me, taintedlove, familiardevil, and coyotesuspect drawing each other pretty presents. For example, I now have a Lizardstiel hanging on my wall. You are all jealous.
We went to lunch at Subway next--made everyone at the mall think it was some kind of lesbian parade (it was, wasn't it?) and talked loudly about gay brothers, making the business men at the next table look a little constipated :D.
The group broke up then because Olivia and I wanted to go to Pimp Your Fandom--we are so going to pimp football next year. I'm bringing diagrams. "Diagrams" is a keyword for "hot slashy pictures." After that, we were signed up to help at registration again, so we did that, and had such a good time! We ended up staying an extra hour talking with riversbend because the other person who was supposed to be working with her didn't show. Also, taintedlove randomly showed up at one point and stayed to chat, so it was just a big awesome fangirly conversation and OMG, GUYS I AM STILL NOT OVER SITTING AROUND TALKING FANDOM WITH MORE PEOPLE THAN JUST wutendeskind LIKE IT'S TOTALLY NORMAL, WHY IS WINCON NOT EVERYDAY?
*calm* Right. So I think after that we just headed to the hotel room for some down time, which was kind of crappy planning, because we then left the hotel room cutting it close for dinner and made it back after the first minute or so of Show. Watching Show in a room full of fangirls doesn't make much sense, ftr, since everyone will talk and you will end up having to dl the episode later and rewatch. WORTH IT! After show, we broke out the vodka bottle Coyote had so wisely purchased for our enjoyment. Umm. I maybe had one too many. I mean, this is the part where I introduce the fact that I left for Wincon with a slightly scratchy throat and it only continued to get worse over the weekend. I took my first shot of vodka and it nearly burnt out my throat so I was like, "FML, I can drink tonight." And then they were like, "Dumbass, mix it with the orange juice!" Which was a GREAT idea. Only, since I'm used to taking shots and know my limits like that, I thought, "Oh it'll take me like 8 of these wuss mixed drinks to get even a little drunk." I was wrong, Internet. I was so, so wrong.
I remember putting on Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. I remember taking a few drinks. I remember us all drunk dialing scorpiod1 and me gushing to her about how she's the light of my life or some shit for like 20 minutes (poor thing). I remember Cass showing up.
I woke up the next morning and said, "I feel asleep after I got off the phone with Scorp, right?" Uh, no, Internet, I did not. I apparently spent the next two hours being completely shitfaced. I even got sick, and poor wutendeskind, who is the best wife in the world, had to take care of me. She even managed to get me to brush my teeth! We could call this a fail on my part, but since I am in my third year of college and that was my first time getting sick/blacking out and I did not get pregnant/break things/have us kicked out of the hotel/die, I think I deserve some goddamn congratulations. Anyway, like I said, I don't remember shit but I have been (probably rightfully accused) of having these shining moments:
- Apparently I really hate Eli Manning when I'm drunk? Because Olivia was wearing her Giants sweatshirt and I said something along the lines of: "I am so sorry that you have to like a team that has Eli Manning as its Quarter Back. He is, like, the worst ever. Everything wrong that has ever happened was his fault." For the record? I don't mind Eli Manning (except last Monday, fuck Eli Manning on Monday). I like the Giants. Though according to drunk!me, "I don't want to like that team, but you're wearing that sweatshirt, so I am going to wake up tomorrow loving them, BUT IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE WEARING THAT SWEATSHIRT." Beautifully put, cherie_morte.
- My thoughts on Megashark vs. Giant Octopus? (This was like an hour and a half into the movie when no one had even been pretending to watch it since it came on): "I don't even know why we're watching this movie. No one is fucking dying."
- Me: Please don't think I'm stupid, because I love you, and I swear I'm usually really smart.
taintedlove: I know you're smart!
Me: I am soooo smart! I study Shakespeare.
taintedlove: See? I probably couldn't do that!
Me: No!!! Don't say that! YOU TOTALLY COULD. You are SOOO clever. You're, like, more clever than Shakespeare. AND THAT GUY IS SO FUCKING CLEVER.
- Less funny, more sad (okay, probably still funny for people who are not me, or Olivia who had to deal with me): I allegedly tried to claim I didn't need to brush my teeth, because I hadn't gotten sick. While my head was resting on the toilet seat. Yeah.
The rest of it was incoherant, hysterical rambling from what I've been told, and one time that I fell into the space between the nightstand and the bed and had to be convinced that was not where I was supposed to sleep for the night. They probably should have just left me there, it would have made for a hilarious wake up. Anyway, I also don't remember agreeing to take this picture, but I look pretty happy about it being taken nonetheless:
THAT IS ME ON THE PHONE WITH MY BABY GIRL scorpiod1!!!!!! ♥_♥ The happiness has everything to do with her voice and nothing to do with my alcohol consumption for the evening. *nod nod nod*
Sadly, there does indeed have to be a morning after. OH HAI, FIRST HANGOVER OF MY LIFE. Experiences I Could Have Skipped Out On: That Was One. Guys, I was hungover until dinner that day. I swore off alcohol for the rest of my life (true story). But it was, pounding headache aside, one of the best days of my lifeeee. We went to the Hotties in Space panel, which mostly made no sense to me, although here, here to all comments about Han Solo's ass (Luke is still better).
AND THEN WAS THE SUPERNATURAL PANEL, FUCK YEAH. It was fantastic. It was like being in a lecture, only the lecture was about SHOW. HOW AMAZING IS THAT? I want to go to college for fandom, ya'll. The discussion made me realize how much I love this Show, even though Season 6 and I are not on speaking terms. It doesn't even matter, because the Show still means so much to me and makes me so ridiculously happy ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Also? There were sock puppets. On the real. Best part of the whole damn thing? Sam and Dean sock puppets are kissing/doing naughty things under the table, John sock puppet looks down from Heaven and says, "I see now that I have made some mistakes." I pretty much died.
After Supernatural was the Tin Hat pageant. My favorite won! I even got pictures for you--and permission from agt_spooky to post them :) The theme was Ship Wars and her ship was (very literally) J2.
ANCHOR! (that's my favorite part, lol)
And then came Fic Idol. Dear God. I have no words for it. While I was passed out quietly and gracefully asleep the night before, wutendeskind went back to taintedlove's room where the occupants broke into two groups and wrote entries for Bad Fic Idol. lesson_in_love and chewysun wrote one particularly beautiful and touching story about Jeffrey Dean Morgan's one passionate night with a dolphin that almost won! Oh yeah, it happened. In the end, Pissy's won, it was aglorious hot mess. Though my vote was kind of on Dignity Pants (if you don't get this reference, congratulations, you may sleep a night in your life without nightmares), because I don't think listening to anything has ever made me as physically uncomfortable as that did. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I had to give it a standing ovation, it was that bad. Also worth mentioning? Mammoth!J2, I ship it.
And as wonderful as all of that stuff was, the highlight of the day was Winprom. YOU GUYS, WINPROM IS THE BEST THING EVER. It was better than my real prom, that's for sure, and even more fandom-y than the time the prom theme was Phantom of ther Opera my junior years, which was at the height of my Phantom obsession. I just...NO WORDS. I danced so much and sang along (even though I'd practically lost my voice the day before and had already been screeching for the entire day) and talked to wonderful people like lightthesparks, brynspikess (my green goddess ♥), locknkey (we did the Time Warp together and geeked out over Rocky :DDD), and essene. Also, at one point, I discovered that cantarina1 is a Les Mis fan, so I sat her down to stare at her like this *_* and squee about how very, very gay Javert is for Jean Valjean (it's the truth, bitches). The music was out-of-control--so so good, thanks to cathybites. ALSO? Nothing is more simulataneosly terrifying and beautiful than a room full of Supernatural fangirls when Carry On My Wayward Son comes on. It was like staring into the sun. Just so, so, so much fun. And hilariously, there was a high school reunion going on at the same time as Wincon, so at one point a guy walked in dressed all sharply, looking for his high school buddies, and we were sitting at the table by the door, so I got to watch his face as he scanned the room. Dude, the look of horror that dawned on his face as he saw the way we were dressed. TOO FUCKING GOOD.
wutendeskind had the idea that we (me, her, Coyote, and Familiar) should make semi-matching t-shirts for Winprom, so we all chose to go with TEAM [SOMETHING RELATED TO WINCEST].
Can we all congratulate me for choosing to go the subtle route for the first time in my life? I was so close to being "TEAM BROTHERFUCKING" but decided I wanted to be able to wear my shirt more than once in my life. Therefore, I am TEAM ANTIQUERS. wutendeskind is TEAM EROTIC CODEPENDENCE, coyotesuspect is TEAM SOULMATES, and familiardevil is TEAM TRUE LOVE.
Aside from the four of us, this one also has kathickers, raeschae (in the back), and taintedlove, chewysun, and lesson_in_love in the second row. :)
taintedlove is our queen.
After prom, Liv, Cass, and I were not yet ready to call it a night, so we headed to the after party. On the way there, we saw these two guys walking down the hall trying to figure out what the hell the noise all was, and we started giggling, so they were like, "What's going on in there? Is it a bachelorette party?" We were like, "Uh, yeah, something like that." It was so great, guys! I was worried before going to Wincon that everyone would know each other and we would be kind of inadvertantly left out, but Fangirls are so fucking nice it's ridiculous. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and this was especially true at the after party. We spent most of it talking to clex_monkie89 and a few other fangirls whose usernames I did not catch (sadface). I had one drink, even though I'd sworn off alcohol that morning, because they had iced tea vodka and, as a poor college student who cannot afford quality alcohol, it would have been a crime to leave it unloved, ya know? Don't worry, I really did only have one drink. I learned my lesson (for the time being, at least--I'm going to Rocky Horror tomorrow, let's see if I come home from that not pregnant/dead).
Clex as Dream(?) from the Sandman comics. This picture was mostly taken for waterofthemoon's benefit. :)
Unfortunately, all truly great things really do come to an end. We got up the next day for one last fangirly breakfast, checked out, and got a cab back into the city. I really wanted to go to the straggler's dinner, but it wouldn't have made much sense to pay the $60-$80 cab fare three times to get to Chicago, back to Oakbrook, and then back to Coyote's dorm, and we all really wanted to be touristy on our last full day in the city. Anyway, once we got to the University of Chicago, Olivia went to go hang with our highschool friends again and coyotesuspect and familiardevil went to see Chicago!
First stop was the Chicago Art Institute.
This was my favorite. I wasn't feeling it that much until we got to the Impressionists--they have a great collection. I took a picture of all the Renoirs and basically had to be dragged out of the room by Coyote and Sam. I kind of like Renoir, okay?
We took a stroll through Grant park then, saw some of the artsy shit (oh, I am classy. Am I classy or what?) around there. Afterward, we walked to Navy Pier, which let us see a lot of the city on foot (best way to see any city, IMO). And then we went crazy trying to find somewhere to have dinner (fuck yeah, TGIFriday's) and headed back to the dorm. And some crazy lady on the bus back told me I had amazing comedic timing and would be an awful person if I didn't become a comedian because I made a joke about Sauron as we passed this. LOLRANDOMWUT?
Ok, so I am not a photographer, but I was trying to demonstrate what's so weird about the city of Chicago to me. There are parts of it that are just like New York, but then wide open spaces. The city clutter just starts and stops at random. I want to talk to whoever planned this city, try to decide if I approve or not. It's just so weird to see buildings that tall popping up every now and then when there are no building around for a bit.
The Bean! Starring the City of Chicago.
Me and the Bean...starring My Hair is Longer Than My Body?
Sam and I are awesome like dinosaurs. Don't you forget it.
Obligatory river shot!
I R VRY BRAVE.
We call this "A Fountain That Wasn't Important Enough to Be in Coyote's Guidebook." We had a damn fine rest on it, however, and I chased pigeons because I am five years old :DDDD
We stole that tiara from the decorations at Winprom (it's okay, ya'll, they told us to jack the decorations) and she wore it all day. The guy at the Ferris Wheel asked if it was her birthday and we were like, "No, dumbass, she's just a princess. Duh."
Fuck yeah, we rode the motherfucking Ferris Wheel.
DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE FUCKING BUILDINGS IN THIS CITY?
My first Great Lake! (Alas, I did not jump into it while drunk. Some day!)
LOL. This was my subtle way to tell her to write the sequel to her Wincest Odyssey story. CAN YOU SEE MY SUBTLETY?
Me: Oh! I have a tall WIN ship! *needs picture*
Why can I never visit a new city without getting surprise!pirates? Is it me, universe? Are you trying to tell me something about my future?
Random giant spider crawling up building. Picture had to happen, even though my camera EPIC FAILED me at night.
River at night shot--again
I went over to visit David and Bela and see my beloved Olivia one last time, and then I came home and fell asleeeeeep. Except that poor Sam was really sick that night and it was kind of really sucky :(. The next morning, Coyote took us on a tour of her truly disgustingly beautiful campus. It's basically Hogwarts, only with internet access. My favorite part was the autumn, so get ready for a lot of bad nature photography :DDD MY CAMPUS DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS:
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CREEPY SHIT?
Speaking of creepy gargoyles and old cathedrals--they had this little underground bookstore on campus called the Seminary Coop that Coyote took us to...and IT HAD VICTOR HUGO THINGS THAT I DID NOT HAVE. You have no idea how hard it is to find some of the stuff that is in the book that I totally could not resist buying, and OMG FANGIRL MOMENT.
Alright, and that's that! Afterward, I caught a bus back to the airport and spent the plane reading Victor Hugo and a book about the Atomic Bomb for a paper I had to write. That second part sounds like torture, right? But I am the biggest history geek on the planet, and I discovered that two of my all-time favorite American History figures, Henry L. Stimson and George C. Marshall were TOTALLY GAY LOVERS. No, really, I have photographic evidence of their married old man love. I may one day not be able to resist making a picspam about it even though no one cares.
Coming home from Wincon is sad. I walked in to my room and said "hi" to my roommates and got laughed at relentlessly because I was croaking and then I had to wake up super early to write a history paper. LESS FUN THAN FANGIRLING IRL, TO BE SURE. FTR, I am making a voice post in the near future just so everyone who was at Wincon can hear just how much I DON'T usually sound like an 80 year-old man who's been smoking since he was 12. And also possibly another one because I am going to sing Les Mis for cantarina1 and she is going to sing Les Mis for me ^_^.
I mostly got to meet everyone I wanted to (I missed one or two people and there were some people I would have liked to talk to more!) and I had such an amazing time and it was worth all the rearranging of my school work and saving up for birthday money it took. I wouldn't trade that experience for THE WORLD and am going to do my damnedest to go EVERY YEAR FOR FOREVER (maybe get a job then, you lazy bitch? [SHUT UP, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO]).
Wow this entry is really long. No wonder I put it off so long. WHEN WILL I LEARN TO STOP TALKING SO MUCH? On that note, I am going to go attempt to finish my 30K polybigbang story now...
In Conclusion: Is it Wincon 2011 yet?
ETA:
I ALMOST FORGOT TO LET YOU KNOW, INTERNET. FAMILIARDEVIL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO OPEN DOORS.
It was one of the best weekends of my life, and yes, I am talking about Wincon! Below the cut lies my fangirly experience in Chicago from the con to the city and back--heavy on photographic evidence!
* = It might actually kill me.
Thursday was long day indeed. I'd stayed up pretty late the night before writing my "beautifully written, insightful, and at times simply inspired" (yes, I am still very smug thank you) Shakespeare paper and I had to run to class in the rain, get the paper printed and turned in, and then haul my cute ass to the Metro/airport because missing my flight to Wincon =/= an awesome start to Wincon weekend. My flights were most uneventful...I spent my layover in Atlanta (WHY AM I ALWAYS STUCK IN ATLANTA?!?) writing gay, incestuous threesome fic on the floor of the airport (victory).
Because of layovers and wonky time zones, I didn't get to Chicago until after 8 pm (my flight was delayed in Atlanta. Also, can someone explain to me why it made sense to fly south to Atlanta only to then fly north? Whatever you think is best, cheap airfare). Once I did reach the airport, however, there was a beautiful flame-haired goddess waiting for me with a sign that said "GOBLIN QUEEN." Although I deny all allegations of being a Goblin Queen, I knew that this had to be coyotesuspect. So we ran at each other screaming "EEEEEE!" and hugged and made the nice lady Coyote had been standing talking to who was under the impression that I was her friend's friend who she had never met before decidedly confused. One down, the rest of Chicago to go!
We tok a 45 minute bus ride to get back to University of Chicago and I got a sort of walking tour at night before dropping my crap in Coyote's room and heading down stairs to "the apartment." How much do I hate University of Chicago fangirls, guys? The apartment is basically a restaurant and haven for fangirls (and boys?). I met zempasuchil and be_themoon (who I don't think actually goes to the university, but she was there, so whatever). We spent a few hours talking fanfiction IRL. And I thought it was bizarre at the time though after Wincon, there is nothing left bizarre in the world (except trying to speak English with an Irish person, that shit is uncanny). Anyway, my point is: it was awesome and then familiardevil arrived and it became EVEN MORE AWESOME and we hung out down there talking shit and looking at soccer players who probably have sex until one of us realized that we should probably sleep.
Also? Best introduction ever:
Coyote and I: *refer to Familiar as Sam*
Coyote's friends: Is your name really Sam? Or is it a Supernatural thing? Because this is getting confusing.
Familiar: Yes my name is really Sam, and no, I do not fuck my brother.
The next morning, Coyote took Sam and I out to breakfast (because she is a very good other woman/wife). After breakfast, my own glorious wife walked over from the dorm she was staying at with a couple of our friends from high school and we ran at each other and hugged and it was wonderful because I got to see her face and OMGYAY. Anyway, we got a cab to the hotel, which was insanely expensive, but fun all the same. Once we got to the hotel, we went to check in. The first few hours of Wincon are kind of awesomely awkward, because everyone is staring at everyone's boobs trying to read nametags but attempting to do it discreetly becayse, hello, you don't want to be that person who blatantly stares at people's boobs.
Wincon opening ceremonies happened at 11. My favorite part of it was that I GOT TO MEET CASS (taintedlove) in person!! Guys, I cannot tell you in words how beautiful this girl's face was to me already, so you can imagine how blinded I was by her beauty when she turned out EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL IN PERSON. It is possible that I may have overreacted to this fact. I have been accused of screaming, running at her, jumping, and starfishing her. This is all true. It happened. WHATEVER, I STARFISHED CASS IN PERSON AND YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS. I also got to meet some other fabulous ladies in person at opening ceremonies: chewysun and lesson_in_love in particular. After opening ceremonies, we met up with missyjack, who was our hero for the weekend because none of us are 21 and we therefore could not check into a hotel room but she had a room and let us have it. LIFE SAVER \o/. Thank you, also, to cantarina1, who I met and befriended at Wincon, and who generously let our bags live in her room while we were still homeless.
Like an asshole who sometimes attempts not to be an asshole, I had volunteered to work registration during the Respect the Poon panel because that's so not my scene, only to then discover that coyotesuspect was on the panel! Bad friend is bad. Olivia and I had a good time catching up on being married while working registration for that hour, however. I then ran my cute ass straight to fan art, where I was greeted by fabulous sights like so:
Dean loves his little brother so much that he feels proud when he gets to keep Sammy fed. :)
I wish the quality on this were clearer. They ended the panel by drawing a picture of Sammy eating cake off Dean's dicks, complete with a single tear (of manly joy) and hands thrown up in the air in celebration (BECAUSE THAT SHIT MAKES THEM HAPPY, OKAY?)
Mostly, the fanart panel consisted of me, taintedlove, familiardevil, and coyotesuspect drawing each other pretty presents. For example, I now have a Lizardstiel hanging on my wall. You are all jealous.
We went to lunch at Subway next--made everyone at the mall think it was some kind of lesbian parade (it was, wasn't it?) and talked loudly about gay brothers, making the business men at the next table look a little constipated :D.
The group broke up then because Olivia and I wanted to go to Pimp Your Fandom--we are so going to pimp football next year. I'm bringing diagrams. "Diagrams" is a keyword for "hot slashy pictures." After that, we were signed up to help at registration again, so we did that, and had such a good time! We ended up staying an extra hour talking with riversbend because the other person who was supposed to be working with her didn't show. Also, taintedlove randomly showed up at one point and stayed to chat, so it was just a big awesome fangirly conversation and OMG, GUYS I AM STILL NOT OVER SITTING AROUND TALKING FANDOM WITH MORE PEOPLE THAN JUST wutendeskind LIKE IT'S TOTALLY NORMAL, WHY IS WINCON NOT EVERYDAY?
*calm* Right. So I think after that we just headed to the hotel room for some down time, which was kind of crappy planning, because we then left the hotel room cutting it close for dinner and made it back after the first minute or so of Show. Watching Show in a room full of fangirls doesn't make much sense, ftr, since everyone will talk and you will end up having to dl the episode later and rewatch. WORTH IT! After show, we broke out the vodka bottle Coyote had so wisely purchased for our enjoyment. Umm. I maybe had one too many. I mean, this is the part where I introduce the fact that I left for Wincon with a slightly scratchy throat and it only continued to get worse over the weekend. I took my first shot of vodka and it nearly burnt out my throat so I was like, "FML, I can drink tonight." And then they were like, "Dumbass, mix it with the orange juice!" Which was a GREAT idea. Only, since I'm used to taking shots and know my limits like that, I thought, "Oh it'll take me like 8 of these wuss mixed drinks to get even a little drunk." I was wrong, Internet. I was so, so wrong.
I remember putting on Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. I remember taking a few drinks. I remember us all drunk dialing scorpiod1 and me gushing to her about how she's the light of my life or some shit for like 20 minutes (poor thing). I remember Cass showing up.
I woke up the next morning and said, "I feel asleep after I got off the phone with Scorp, right?" Uh, no, Internet, I did not. I apparently spent the next two hours being completely shitfaced. I even got sick, and poor wutendeskind, who is the best wife in the world, had to take care of me. She even managed to get me to brush my teeth! We could call this a fail on my part, but since I am in my third year of college and that was my first time getting sick/blacking out and I did not get pregnant/break things/have us kicked out of the hotel/die, I think I deserve some goddamn congratulations. Anyway, like I said, I don't remember shit but I have been (probably rightfully accused) of having these shining moments:
- Apparently I really hate Eli Manning when I'm drunk? Because Olivia was wearing her Giants sweatshirt and I said something along the lines of: "I am so sorry that you have to like a team that has Eli Manning as its Quarter Back. He is, like, the worst ever. Everything wrong that has ever happened was his fault." For the record? I don't mind Eli Manning (except last Monday, fuck Eli Manning on Monday). I like the Giants. Though according to drunk!me, "I don't want to like that team, but you're wearing that sweatshirt, so I am going to wake up tomorrow loving them, BUT IT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE WEARING THAT SWEATSHIRT." Beautifully put, cherie_morte.
- My thoughts on Megashark vs. Giant Octopus? (This was like an hour and a half into the movie when no one had even been pretending to watch it since it came on): "I don't even know why we're watching this movie. No one is fucking dying."
- Me: Please don't think I'm stupid, because I love you, and I swear I'm usually really smart.
taintedlove: I know you're smart!
Me: I am soooo smart! I study Shakespeare.
taintedlove: See? I probably couldn't do that!
Me: No!!! Don't say that! YOU TOTALLY COULD. You are SOOO clever. You're, like, more clever than Shakespeare. AND THAT GUY IS SO FUCKING CLEVER.
- Less funny, more sad (okay, probably still funny for people who are not me, or Olivia who had to deal with me): I allegedly tried to claim I didn't need to brush my teeth, because I hadn't gotten sick. While my head was resting on the toilet seat. Yeah.
The rest of it was incoherant, hysterical rambling from what I've been told, and one time that I fell into the space between the nightstand and the bed and had to be convinced that was not where I was supposed to sleep for the night. They probably should have just left me there, it would have made for a hilarious wake up. Anyway, I also don't remember agreeing to take this picture, but I look pretty happy about it being taken nonetheless:
THAT IS ME ON THE PHONE WITH MY BABY GIRL scorpiod1!!!!!! ♥_♥ The happiness has everything to do with her voice and nothing to do with my alcohol consumption for the evening. *nod nod nod*
Sadly, there does indeed have to be a morning after. OH HAI, FIRST HANGOVER OF MY LIFE. Experiences I Could Have Skipped Out On: That Was One. Guys, I was hungover until dinner that day. I swore off alcohol for the rest of my life (true story). But it was, pounding headache aside, one of the best days of my lifeeee. We went to the Hotties in Space panel, which mostly made no sense to me, although here, here to all comments about Han Solo's ass (Luke is still better).
AND THEN WAS THE SUPERNATURAL PANEL, FUCK YEAH. It was fantastic. It was like being in a lecture, only the lecture was about SHOW. HOW AMAZING IS THAT? I want to go to college for fandom, ya'll. The discussion made me realize how much I love this Show, even though Season 6 and I are not on speaking terms. It doesn't even matter, because the Show still means so much to me and makes me so ridiculously happy ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Also? There were sock puppets. On the real. Best part of the whole damn thing? Sam and Dean sock puppets are kissing/doing naughty things under the table, John sock puppet looks down from Heaven and says, "I see now that I have made some mistakes." I pretty much died.
After Supernatural was the Tin Hat pageant. My favorite won! I even got pictures for you--and permission from agt_spooky to post them :) The theme was Ship Wars and her ship was (very literally) J2.
ANCHOR! (that's my favorite part, lol)
And then came Fic Idol. Dear God. I have no words for it. While I was passed out quietly and gracefully asleep the night before, wutendeskind went back to taintedlove's room where the occupants broke into two groups and wrote entries for Bad Fic Idol. lesson_in_love and chewysun wrote one particularly beautiful and touching story about Jeffrey Dean Morgan's one passionate night with a dolphin that almost won! Oh yeah, it happened. In the end, Pissy's won, it was aglorious hot mess. Though my vote was kind of on Dignity Pants (if you don't get this reference, congratulations, you may sleep a night in your life without nightmares), because I don't think listening to anything has ever made me as physically uncomfortable as that did. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I had to give it a standing ovation, it was that bad. Also worth mentioning? Mammoth!J2, I ship it.
And as wonderful as all of that stuff was, the highlight of the day was Winprom. YOU GUYS, WINPROM IS THE BEST THING EVER. It was better than my real prom, that's for sure, and even more fandom-y than the time the prom theme was Phantom of ther Opera my junior years, which was at the height of my Phantom obsession. I just...NO WORDS. I danced so much and sang along (even though I'd practically lost my voice the day before and had already been screeching for the entire day) and talked to wonderful people like lightthesparks, brynspikess (my green goddess ♥), locknkey (we did the Time Warp together and geeked out over Rocky :DDD), and essene. Also, at one point, I discovered that cantarina1 is a Les Mis fan, so I sat her down to stare at her like this *_* and squee about how very, very gay Javert is for Jean Valjean (it's the truth, bitches). The music was out-of-control--so so good, thanks to cathybites. ALSO? Nothing is more simulataneosly terrifying and beautiful than a room full of Supernatural fangirls when Carry On My Wayward Son comes on. It was like staring into the sun. Just so, so, so much fun. And hilariously, there was a high school reunion going on at the same time as Wincon, so at one point a guy walked in dressed all sharply, looking for his high school buddies, and we were sitting at the table by the door, so I got to watch his face as he scanned the room. Dude, the look of horror that dawned on his face as he saw the way we were dressed. TOO FUCKING GOOD.
wutendeskind had the idea that we (me, her, Coyote, and Familiar) should make semi-matching t-shirts for Winprom, so we all chose to go with TEAM [SOMETHING RELATED TO WINCEST].
Can we all congratulate me for choosing to go the subtle route for the first time in my life? I was so close to being "TEAM BROTHERFUCKING" but decided I wanted to be able to wear my shirt more than once in my life. Therefore, I am TEAM ANTIQUERS. wutendeskind is TEAM EROTIC CODEPENDENCE, coyotesuspect is TEAM SOULMATES, and familiardevil is TEAM TRUE LOVE.
Aside from the four of us, this one also has kathickers, raeschae (in the back), and taintedlove, chewysun, and lesson_in_love in the second row. :)
taintedlove is our queen.
After prom, Liv, Cass, and I were not yet ready to call it a night, so we headed to the after party. On the way there, we saw these two guys walking down the hall trying to figure out what the hell the noise all was, and we started giggling, so they were like, "What's going on in there? Is it a bachelorette party?" We were like, "Uh, yeah, something like that." It was so great, guys! I was worried before going to Wincon that everyone would know each other and we would be kind of inadvertantly left out, but Fangirls are so fucking nice it's ridiculous. Everyone went out of their way to make us feel welcome, and this was especially true at the after party. We spent most of it talking to clex_monkie89 and a few other fangirls whose usernames I did not catch (sadface). I had one drink, even though I'd sworn off alcohol that morning, because they had iced tea vodka and, as a poor college student who cannot afford quality alcohol, it would have been a crime to leave it unloved, ya know? Don't worry, I really did only have one drink. I learned my lesson (for the time being, at least--I'm going to Rocky Horror tomorrow, let's see if I come home from that not pregnant/dead).
Clex as Dream(?) from the Sandman comics. This picture was mostly taken for waterofthemoon's benefit. :)
Unfortunately, all truly great things really do come to an end. We got up the next day for one last fangirly breakfast, checked out, and got a cab back into the city. I really wanted to go to the straggler's dinner, but it wouldn't have made much sense to pay the $60-$80 cab fare three times to get to Chicago, back to Oakbrook, and then back to Coyote's dorm, and we all really wanted to be touristy on our last full day in the city. Anyway, once we got to the University of Chicago, Olivia went to go hang with our highschool friends again and coyotesuspect and familiardevil went to see Chicago!
First stop was the Chicago Art Institute.
This was my favorite. I wasn't feeling it that much until we got to the Impressionists--they have a great collection. I took a picture of all the Renoirs and basically had to be dragged out of the room by Coyote and Sam. I kind of like Renoir, okay?
We took a stroll through Grant park then, saw some of the artsy shit (oh, I am classy. Am I classy or what?) around there. Afterward, we walked to Navy Pier, which let us see a lot of the city on foot (best way to see any city, IMO). And then we went crazy trying to find somewhere to have dinner (fuck yeah, TGIFriday's) and headed back to the dorm. And some crazy lady on the bus back told me I had amazing comedic timing and would be an awful person if I didn't become a comedian because I made a joke about Sauron as we passed this. LOLRANDOMWUT?
Ok, so I am not a photographer, but I was trying to demonstrate what's so weird about the city of Chicago to me. There are parts of it that are just like New York, but then wide open spaces. The city clutter just starts and stops at random. I want to talk to whoever planned this city, try to decide if I approve or not. It's just so weird to see buildings that tall popping up every now and then when there are no building around for a bit.
The Bean! Starring the City of Chicago.
Me and the Bean...starring My Hair is Longer Than My Body?
Sam and I are awesome like dinosaurs. Don't you forget it.
Obligatory river shot!
I R VRY BRAVE.
We call this "A Fountain That Wasn't Important Enough to Be in Coyote's Guidebook." We had a damn fine rest on it, however, and I chased pigeons because I am five years old :DDDD
We stole that tiara from the decorations at Winprom (it's okay, ya'll, they told us to jack the decorations) and she wore it all day. The guy at the Ferris Wheel asked if it was her birthday and we were like, "No, dumbass, she's just a princess. Duh."
Fuck yeah, we rode the motherfucking Ferris Wheel.
DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE FUCKING BUILDINGS IN THIS CITY?
My first Great Lake! (Alas, I did not jump into it while drunk. Some day!)
LOL. This was my subtle way to tell her to write the sequel to her Wincest Odyssey story. CAN YOU SEE MY SUBTLETY?
Me: Oh! I have a tall WIN ship! *needs picture*
Why can I never visit a new city without getting surprise!pirates? Is it me, universe? Are you trying to tell me something about my future?
Random giant spider crawling up building. Picture had to happen, even though my camera EPIC FAILED me at night.
River at night shot--again
I went over to visit David and Bela and see my beloved Olivia one last time, and then I came home and fell asleeeeeep. Except that poor Sam was really sick that night and it was kind of really sucky :(. The next morning, Coyote took us on a tour of her truly disgustingly beautiful campus. It's basically Hogwarts, only with internet access. My favorite part was the autumn, so get ready for a lot of bad nature photography :DDD MY CAMPUS DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS:
WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CREEPY SHIT?
Speaking of creepy gargoyles and old cathedrals--they had this little underground bookstore on campus called the Seminary Coop that Coyote took us to...and IT HAD VICTOR HUGO THINGS THAT I DID NOT HAVE. You have no idea how hard it is to find some of the stuff that is in the book that I totally could not resist buying, and OMG FANGIRL MOMENT.
Alright, and that's that! Afterward, I caught a bus back to the airport and spent the plane reading Victor Hugo and a book about the Atomic Bomb for a paper I had to write. That second part sounds like torture, right? But I am the biggest history geek on the planet, and I discovered that two of my all-time favorite American History figures, Henry L. Stimson and George C. Marshall were TOTALLY GAY LOVERS. No, really, I have photographic evidence of their married old man love. I may one day not be able to resist making a picspam about it even though no one cares.
Coming home from Wincon is sad. I walked in to my room and said "hi" to my roommates and got laughed at relentlessly because I was croaking and then I had to wake up super early to write a history paper. LESS FUN THAN FANGIRLING IRL, TO BE SURE. FTR, I am making a voice post in the near future just so everyone who was at Wincon can hear just how much I DON'T usually sound like an 80 year-old man who's been smoking since he was 12. And also possibly another one because I am going to sing Les Mis for cantarina1 and she is going to sing Les Mis for me ^_^.
I mostly got to meet everyone I wanted to (I missed one or two people and there were some people I would have liked to talk to more!) and I had such an amazing time and it was worth all the rearranging of my school work and saving up for birthday money it took. I wouldn't trade that experience for THE WORLD and am going to do my damnedest to go EVERY YEAR FOR FOREVER (maybe get a job then, you lazy bitch? [SHUT UP, DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO]).
Wow this entry is really long. No wonder I put it off so long. WHEN WILL I LEARN TO STOP TALKING SO MUCH? On that note, I am going to go attempt to finish my 30K polybigbang story now...
In Conclusion: Is it Wincon 2011 yet?
ETA:
I ALMOST FORGOT TO LET YOU KNOW, INTERNET. FAMILIARDEVIL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO OPEN DOORS.