WINCON -- made of WIN!!
I took my plastic Boys to Wincon and came home with a hat that says "Christo?"
I am happy to report, as a first time wincon attendee, that it was made of WIN. As you might expect!
I arrived on Friday shortly after 4 pm - I live very nearby but faced some traffic on the BW Parkway. The RPS panel was already in session. I nervously entered the hotel with my tinhat in hand (my special REDBULL tinhat that my husband had to drink two cans of noxious red bull for me to make - thanks, sweeheart!) and there found that wincon was sharing the premises with two other conventions: WWII veterans and the NAACP. Way to make us feel like even more socially irredeemable than we already feel!! But it did lead to a few amusing hallway encounters!!
It was beyond awesome to walk into the room where the RPS panel was occurring. First of all, I was laying eyes on my hometown girl, thenyxie, who I fangirl like a crazy person. Second of all, the room was PACKED WITH TINHAT WEARING FANGIRLS LIKE MYSELF!! In RL I have a very tolerant husband and NO ONE to talk spn with - it was the motherlode.
The Panel was fun and easy going, and was followed by a tinhat parade, where we all stood up and said what we’d get the boys for their Canadian Marriage. (I said a cheesecake a month.) The girl got the prize whose tinhat had a veil with spangles that she said were tears of manpain! It was fun.
I had a light supper in the restaurant, which was dreadfully understaffed - a drawback of the hotel but not something the con planners could do much about.
They were serving Purple Nurples in the roadhouse. That was an experience of course not to be missed, but they are Nasty. :) I also brought out my plastic winchesters and people began undressing them and putting into configurations, if you can guess what I mean, and I think you can! My John doll looked on from Heaven. (He also played Surprise JDM.)
Next was the raffle and karaoke and the insane fun really began. The raffle proceeds went to charity and so I bought a number of tickets. I did win a nice shirt which said “bitch” on the front and “jerk” on the back, but my 8 year old son is squeamish about the B word so I traded the shirt to sadcypress for the hat she won - thanks hon! and I am superpsyched because I ALWAYS wear a hat. It says “CHRISTO?”
Then there was much awesome karaoke. Mostly in big groups singing like Back in Black, and the Final Countdown, and Bohemian Rhapsody, and things. I sang “what is and what should never be” and I was all, I have to fully spell this out for the DJ because she will not know what WIAWSNB stands for!! Har!
I met Barb (Gekizetsu) and Deirdre C who were so very respectable looking!! Everyone was so sweet even when I was totally fangirling them.
I have to say I didn’t expect so much drinking - but people were staying at the hotel so they were safe and they were having a great time. I only drank a little because I was driving home, but I had so much fun anyway!
The next morning I went back at 9 for the sock puppet making and brought some of my scrap material and such.... it turned out they had forgotten to buy socks! So I ended up driving to a nearby Walmart and bought 60 socks for $20. I felt like Sam and Dean - I always love it when they make an underwear run in a story. I made a sock puppet Castiel with big staring eyes, a “suit and tie” and black feathery wings. YES! No one wrote scripts for sock puppet theatre, so we improv’d it. Then my plastic Boys came out and were photographed in all kinds of compromising positions. Plus surprise JDM again!! Someone bent Sammy the wrong way and he SNAPPED. Then he was all like “DEAN! I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” He has undergone some reconstructive surgery and is doing very well. :) They had a great time at the con too!
There was a badfic reading that was almost too much to bear. One can only take so much before you try to crawl through the floor to escape your own ears. Missyjack read it and she was awesome.
There was also a Misogyny panel but it was poorly attended. I came away with a resolution to let the network know that I’d like to see more fully developed female characters, more diverse casting, and fewer sexual slurs used on the show. But I still don’t agree that the show is Misogynist taken as a whole, or I would certainly not watch it. To me, there have been so many empowered female characters that I have really enjoyed, and I can’t just discount that. I also love Dean in all his flawed glory, so perhaps I view him with rosy goggles - any way, it was cool the organizers had a panel and that people were brave enough to argue their positions in front of a loud, live audience! Kudos to all.
There was also a wonderful kink panel, with my personal favorites thenyxie and poisontaster. On a personal note, poisontaster is a surprising quiet, reserved person.... and thenyxie has a fantastic wardrobe!!! The panelists were eloquent on behalf of kink and everyone appreciated them. OF COURSE!!
There was pizza, and then there was break for supper. So a group went up to a room and watched BUABS and had a great time. Then we went to a nearby Ruby Tuesday and had a civilized meal and tried not to say BLOODPLAY too loudly!!
We ended up back at the roadhouse again for Devil’s Traps (rehymenated) -- a high-alcohol drink that was actually quite tasty, with a cherry in it!! We all crammed on to beds and floorspace and fangirled folks like fleshflutter, not_refined and ladyjanelly who were not there. At one point an old guy walked into the room and was like, “Is this a room full of drunk women?” and we were like “Yes!” and he was all, “well, have a great time!” and walked back out.
It was a weekend of being overheard saying things like “prolapsed anus sockpuppet” and the door to a nearby reception would open just at that moment. Or on an elevator someone would say “fuck!” and an older women would say, “Ladies - language please!” and then someone would say “we’re not ladies” and a random old guy would be like “what room are you in?” so it was pretty fun.
It was also a weekend of great conversations - you know who you are! I couldn’t possibly list you all. Thanks for being so crazy and sweet and wonderful all at once.
We hope to form a DC area contingent for future fanfun. Especially this coming Valentines weekend! So their jerseys at the Redbull Soapbox event likely represented their movies’ release dates - tho Jared is 13 and Jensen is 14 and they had it reversed - so maybe it DOES mean forever! My tinhat is ALWAYS ALREADY ON.
I went back for hugs and byes on Sunday morning and that was the right choice, because there was no closure for me on Saturday night - I ended up having great conversation over breakfast and then in the open house and peaceful hugs all round before leaving around noon.
It was a really positive experience, even though I went in never having met anyone in person and not a big name fan whatsoever. I was really glad I went and I hope it will work out for me to go again next year!
Cheers to all! --- fannishliss