Arisia recap, part the first
It's always tough to decide how to write these things. I shall try going by topic instead of chronology.
Hotel: The Hyatt had a few downsides. The elevators could only hold 7 people at a time and kept breaking down. It was a bit on the small side in terms of function space. The dealers' room and art show were all the way up on floors 14 and 16, and because it was so difficult to catch the elevator up to the top floors, they didn't get as much foot traffic as they normally might have, which probably hurt sales. This resulted in a lot of stair use (not such a bad thing in itself -- desert_born posited a plot to make fen exercise -- but difficult in high heels or with any kind of mobility impairment). Also, it was very dry in there (I don't think it was as dry as the Park Plaza usually is, but others think it was worse), as it often is in hotels. I tried to drink a lot of liquid and I still woke up this morning with my tongue plastered to the roof of my mouth from dehydration.
That said, there were a lot of things I liked about the hotel. The beds were very, very comfortable, and we had a great view of the river and Boston. Service was always friendly, attentive, timely, and professional; frankly, it kinda made the service at Park Plaza look like the Durgin Park of hotels in comparison. They have a pool and hot tub, and a 24-hr fitness room. They had lots of in-hotel options for food, and the food was quite good. We ate at the hotel buffet for breakfast and dinner on Saturday, and got snacks from the service in the lobby at other times, and were pleased with what we got. Perhaps my favorite thing about the hotel was the center atrium, which provided excellent opportunities for people-watching and made it easier to find folks on other floors. And since Arisia congoers were the only guests for the weekend, we were free to be our freaky, geeky selves without fear of scaring the normals. All this, and just 10 minutes from my home, too!
All in all, I will be happy to return to the Hyatt next year.
Activities: Historically, I have a pretty poor track record of panel attendance. This year I made it to a couple of them, though I missed others that I would have liked to attend. We got to most of the panel on Japan for the Worldcon-goer and got some useful information out of it. Helpful hint #1: When outside of the con environment, do not walk around the streets of Japan in anything that makes it look like you are appropriating their culture. They don't appreciate it. Helpful hint #2: Japanese cannot talk to each other without figuring out where they rank. There is always a higher and a lower rank. Unless you are a high-powered business person making some kind of financial deal, you, as a gaijin, always rank lower than the lowest-ranking Japanese person. Don't be an asshole about it. Helpful hint #3: Based on what we heard, trying to summit Mt. Fuji is a mistake. We should probably just take transport to the Fifth Station, maybe hike to Sixth Station, enjoy the fact that we have set foot on Fuji-yama, and call it a day.
We also got to the slide show by the Artist GoH, Hilary Scott. We were already fans of his work, and it was fun to hear him talk about his various inspirations and methods. This was his first con ever and he sounded a little overwhelmed and dazed, but I hope he had a good time for all that. I also hope he was able to sell some art. If I had space and a spare few thousand dollars, I would love to own some of his art or furniture.
I hadn't originally planned to do so, but I ended up being convinced to give blood at the con's blood drive. It's been probably 6 years since I've donated, not because I can't or don't want to, but because I haven't had any convenient opportunities. Since getting all the proper nutrition is somewhat difficult for me since WLS, I wasn't sure they'd take me; even before surgery and before becoming vegetarian I had occasional issues with hemoglobin too low to make me a suitable donor. However, this time my hemoglobin was 14.6, so I was allowed to donate. Yay.
Afterward, though, I had a bit of an issue. I wasn't clotting right away after needle removal, unusually for me. They put several bandages on my arm and told me to leave them there for 4 hours, but I went to the hot tub not long afterward and the bandages got wet, so I removed them. After retiring to my room for a much-needed nap, I awoke to find that I had bled all over the nice, white comforter cover. Meep! No more problems since then, fortunately. I will say that one way to ensure that you nap like the dead is to be underslept and kind of dehydrated, donate blood, soak in a hot tub, and then curl up on a comfy bed surrounded by squishy pillows. I'm amazed that I didn't nap for 3 hours!
Art show and dealers: When I finally got to board an elevator for the top floor on Saturday, I made sure that my first stop was the art show. Hilary Scott's work was whimsical and wonderful, as usual. sunspiral had some lovely prints for sale, as well as his beautiful one-legged corner table. I drooled over many pretty, shiny things, most of them well out of my price range, but I did end up with a few pieces: 1) A pair of tie-on Shrek ears, 2) a cute little feep, 3) an utterly gorgeous matching scarf and cloche hat, knitted with purple and copper yarns, that look like they were made with me in mind. Trowa sweetly bought me the scarf, while I bought the hat. :)
Disappointingly, there were two thefts and a vandalism of artwork while Trowa and I were in the art show. wren13 was extremely angry, as one might expect. She went into "Dr. Bitch mode," as she put it, and yelled to the room about what had happened, then cleared the room for re-inventory and had everyone searched on the way out. Quite understandable, but a real shame it had to go that way. I have to say, her Dr. Bitch mode was so effective that I felt guilty just for having been in the room at the time of the thefts, and momentarily wondered if I should check my bag just in case I might have stolen something without realizing it! And then, not long afterward, they had to close and re-inventory a second time because a security breach was discovered. *sigh*
As for the dealers, I didn't really get a chance to check out either dealers' row or the dealers' room until Sunday afternoon. I was tempted by books and DVDs and t-shirts and plush giant microbes (more about those later!), but managed to escape without buying more. (Oh...except I did buy two utterly adorable tie-dyed, infant-sized t-shirt/diaper-cover sets from flyingwolf. I hope my cousin likes them!) Still gotta save for the wedding, after all!
Hotel: The Hyatt had a few downsides. The elevators could only hold 7 people at a time and kept breaking down. It was a bit on the small side in terms of function space. The dealers' room and art show were all the way up on floors 14 and 16, and because it was so difficult to catch the elevator up to the top floors, they didn't get as much foot traffic as they normally might have, which probably hurt sales. This resulted in a lot of stair use (not such a bad thing in itself -- desert_born posited a plot to make fen exercise -- but difficult in high heels or with any kind of mobility impairment). Also, it was very dry in there (I don't think it was as dry as the Park Plaza usually is, but others think it was worse), as it often is in hotels. I tried to drink a lot of liquid and I still woke up this morning with my tongue plastered to the roof of my mouth from dehydration.
That said, there were a lot of things I liked about the hotel. The beds were very, very comfortable, and we had a great view of the river and Boston. Service was always friendly, attentive, timely, and professional; frankly, it kinda made the service at Park Plaza look like the Durgin Park of hotels in comparison. They have a pool and hot tub, and a 24-hr fitness room. They had lots of in-hotel options for food, and the food was quite good. We ate at the hotel buffet for breakfast and dinner on Saturday, and got snacks from the service in the lobby at other times, and were pleased with what we got. Perhaps my favorite thing about the hotel was the center atrium, which provided excellent opportunities for people-watching and made it easier to find folks on other floors. And since Arisia congoers were the only guests for the weekend, we were free to be our freaky, geeky selves without fear of scaring the normals. All this, and just 10 minutes from my home, too!
All in all, I will be happy to return to the Hyatt next year.
Activities: Historically, I have a pretty poor track record of panel attendance. This year I made it to a couple of them, though I missed others that I would have liked to attend. We got to most of the panel on Japan for the Worldcon-goer and got some useful information out of it. Helpful hint #1: When outside of the con environment, do not walk around the streets of Japan in anything that makes it look like you are appropriating their culture. They don't appreciate it. Helpful hint #2: Japanese cannot talk to each other without figuring out where they rank. There is always a higher and a lower rank. Unless you are a high-powered business person making some kind of financial deal, you, as a gaijin, always rank lower than the lowest-ranking Japanese person. Don't be an asshole about it. Helpful hint #3: Based on what we heard, trying to summit Mt. Fuji is a mistake. We should probably just take transport to the Fifth Station, maybe hike to Sixth Station, enjoy the fact that we have set foot on Fuji-yama, and call it a day.
We also got to the slide show by the Artist GoH, Hilary Scott. We were already fans of his work, and it was fun to hear him talk about his various inspirations and methods. This was his first con ever and he sounded a little overwhelmed and dazed, but I hope he had a good time for all that. I also hope he was able to sell some art. If I had space and a spare few thousand dollars, I would love to own some of his art or furniture.
I hadn't originally planned to do so, but I ended up being convinced to give blood at the con's blood drive. It's been probably 6 years since I've donated, not because I can't or don't want to, but because I haven't had any convenient opportunities. Since getting all the proper nutrition is somewhat difficult for me since WLS, I wasn't sure they'd take me; even before surgery and before becoming vegetarian I had occasional issues with hemoglobin too low to make me a suitable donor. However, this time my hemoglobin was 14.6, so I was allowed to donate. Yay.
Afterward, though, I had a bit of an issue. I wasn't clotting right away after needle removal, unusually for me. They put several bandages on my arm and told me to leave them there for 4 hours, but I went to the hot tub not long afterward and the bandages got wet, so I removed them. After retiring to my room for a much-needed nap, I awoke to find that I had bled all over the nice, white comforter cover. Meep! No more problems since then, fortunately. I will say that one way to ensure that you nap like the dead is to be underslept and kind of dehydrated, donate blood, soak in a hot tub, and then curl up on a comfy bed surrounded by squishy pillows. I'm amazed that I didn't nap for 3 hours!
Art show and dealers: When I finally got to board an elevator for the top floor on Saturday, I made sure that my first stop was the art show. Hilary Scott's work was whimsical and wonderful, as usual. sunspiral had some lovely prints for sale, as well as his beautiful one-legged corner table. I drooled over many pretty, shiny things, most of them well out of my price range, but I did end up with a few pieces: 1) A pair of tie-on Shrek ears, 2) a cute little feep, 3) an utterly gorgeous matching scarf and cloche hat, knitted with purple and copper yarns, that look like they were made with me in mind. Trowa sweetly bought me the scarf, while I bought the hat. :)
Disappointingly, there were two thefts and a vandalism of artwork while Trowa and I were in the art show. wren13 was extremely angry, as one might expect. She went into "Dr. Bitch mode," as she put it, and yelled to the room about what had happened, then cleared the room for re-inventory and had everyone searched on the way out. Quite understandable, but a real shame it had to go that way. I have to say, her Dr. Bitch mode was so effective that I felt guilty just for having been in the room at the time of the thefts, and momentarily wondered if I should check my bag just in case I might have stolen something without realizing it! And then, not long afterward, they had to close and re-inventory a second time because a security breach was discovered. *sigh*
As for the dealers, I didn't really get a chance to check out either dealers' row or the dealers' room until Sunday afternoon. I was tempted by books and DVDs and t-shirts and plush giant microbes (more about those later!), but managed to escape without buying more. (Oh...except I did buy two utterly adorable tie-dyed, infant-sized t-shirt/diaper-cover sets from flyingwolf. I hope my cousin likes them!) Still gotta save for the wedding, after all!