Update: GenCon, SASS
Monday Aug 8 started out early - we met up at the shop at 6am for the road trip. There were four vehicles in our caravan on the way up: M C and his daughter K in the big truck, R, A, finari and I in the van, Kyle and Linc (two of my volunteers) in Kyle's CRV, and Darryl and B in Darryl's pick-up. For the first time in shop history, we left on time, and at 6:30am. Whee!
I was the first driver, since I was the most awake out of the four of us. It was really, really stressful following M C, though. He drove that heavy truck like it was a mid-sized sedan. At one point, just an hour out, he changed lanes so quickly that the truck tilted severely and I was terrified that it would just tip right on over onto the wall. That would have been the record quickest trip to GenCon for us, too. Ugh. Ah well. The trip itself was thankfully uneventful in spite of M C's best efforts.
We arrived at the motel around midnight and got our four rooms and promptly went to sleep. Tuesday morning we gathered at 9am and headed to the convention center for set up. Set up took awhile but went fairly smoothly, and our booth looked the best it's ever looked. Yay! Wednesday we were back up at the convention center making sure the registers were all up and running. Wednesday was pretty mellow, all told.
Each evening, finari and I watched episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbender, of which I am now officially a fan. It got pretty bad. We'd consider each evening's option (go hang out, blah blah), and unanimously decide to stay in our hotel room and watch Avatar on my laptop. Heh.
Thursday, officially day one of the convention, went well. The retail chaos that is GenCon for me began with a bang. After the exhibit hall closed, we had dinner with the demo team on the patio outside the miniatures hall. Much fun was had - I got to meet some new guys, and get re-acquainted with my favorite demo guys. I also found out that several of them are avid Guild Wars players so I'll have to get back into that. Fun, fun!
That evening I got to do a good deed, too, and abuse my power in the process. Heh. The truck parked next to the minivan had its hood opened and a guy standing beside it with a look of cheerful resignation. We asked if he needed help and he replied that someone (a stranger to him) was on his way over from across the parking lot. So we loaded up the van, and by the time all our stuff was in, the other guy had arrived with jumper cables, etc. I quickly scribbled out two little "coupons" one each for a free miniature, one because good deeds rarely go recognized and the other because the other guy was so cheerful about it all. They were both pleasantly surprised, and redeemed their coupons to me on Saturday.
I had a good crew this year in the booth, although I especially missed not having Kevin there. He has been my best sergeant so far, and he is so very efficient. Ah, well. With this new crew, of course, there were some complaints after the first day of the show from some of my booth crew, I think primarily because they didn't realize how much ACTUAL work we do at conventions, heh. But luckily, everyone seemed to cheer up as the show went on. I got several compliments about them, so over all, I was happy with the crew and if I get the same crew next year, then I would be pleased.
Friday, we had a meeting with one of our international distributors that went well, over all. Points were raised from both sides and there were some resolutions to issues, etc. I sat and took notes, offered various suggestions, and enjoyed watching Ed go. Heh. I think the distributor didn't know what hit him half the time.
Saturday was super busy. I only had a little time to chat with Ged and most of it was to make plans for the evening. After the exhibitors' hall closed, we ran back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner and the White Wolf party. Dinner was great with crew and friends, Ged and Wayne. I only ever get to see them at GenCon since they live in England, so it was a real pleasure.
At dinner, I was outvoted on the White Wolf party idea since there was no guarantee that we would actually be able to get in, as there was a 700 occupancy limit on the building and we didn't even finish dinner til after the doors for the party were opened. Ah well. I got to spend some time with Ged and Wayne at Jillian's, which was a place like Dave & Busters. It wasn't an ideal spot for chatting, as the games and music were really loud, but I am glad I got to spend time with them, even though it wasn't enough.
Wayne's gift to us was too cool for words - he drew a caricature of us all together, based on the few photos he had from the year (maybe 2004?) before. It's an awesome and amusing drawing and I love it! Heh. I'm gonna use the me he drew as one of my icons once I have a chance to edit it. Hee!
Sunday was almost as busy as Saturday, what with swag trades and all. I scored a really neat wood etched set of some monsters and a tavern scene that I grabbed for the hubby, and some dice for my friend Dave. All the rest of the swag trades I worked out went to the guys at the shop. Whee, fun! Trades are always insane and fun. Tear-down didn't take quite as long as I expected, but it took just as much time as I predicted, if that makes any sense. I predicted that we wouldn't be out of there until 10pm and we weren't, but we were pretty much done tearing down by 8pm. It's just that M C and I had to go back to the motel and get the truck, and I had to settle our rooms.
After tear-down, we crashed and then got up early on Monday for the drive back. Darryl left Sunday morning by himself and arrived home with no trouble from what I've heard, so we had three vehicles in the caravan going home: M C and K in the truck again, R, A, Finari, B and I in the van, and Kyle and Linc in Kyle's car. On the trip back, the van (with Kyle following us) split off from the truck, primarily because the van had all us girls in it and we needed a pee-break and M C didn't want to stop. So he continued on without us and we took our bathroom breaks as we needed them. Oddly enough, we arrived back in Denton a good two hours ahead of them (9pm CST) since at some point M C missed an exit. Heh.
Tuesday Aug 15th, I got up and ran to the shop to pick up my luggage and other stuff and met Finari there. She followed me back to the rental place and I turned in the minivan. Then she came over to my place to hang out for a bit and go over all our free stuff. After she left, I took a very long nap. Sheesh, I needed it.
Wednesday Aug 16 had me back at work and running around getting everything caught up.
Same with Thursday and Friday.
This most recent Saturday was a blast. thewolfhound and I got up before dawn and drove out to Comanche Valley for the shooting match. thewolfhound wore standard western fare from the 1880s and I threw together a generic frontier woman outfit cobbled together from one of my faire skirts that was generic enough to do the trick, a petticoat, a long-sleeved blouse, some little button-up ankle boots, and a straw hat. The brim wasn't quite wide enough so my nose is a little pink, though.
I wore a corset, too, and even though the weather got quite hot (I think it hit 105 F/40.5 C) I managed quite well since we stayed very hydrated. Heck. I know it doesn't get quite that hot during Scarborough Faire, but I'm usually tighter laced for faire. The one thing that I will change for sure about my hot weather generic outfit will be the blouse. The one I was wearing was denim, so no breeze got through. I'm probably going to whip a cotton lawn or other very light weight blouse together. And maybe add an apron. I still plan on doing an 1880s riding habit, although I think I will reserve the wear of that for slightly cooler days. Heck, even 90 F/32 C is nice compared to 105!
Anyway, of course I would prattle about clothes and such before I get to the actual event. ^_~ thewolfhound did a great job of describing what went on in his journal, so I'll just sum up and give my own observations.
We showed up around 8am and started out by signing up and such, and then we sat in the table area near our orientation teacher, Hopalong Casey. I was surprised when they started the Pledge of Allegiance, though. I had to hop over the bench, and of course forgot that I was wearing a hat since I never wear them until I realized that everyone else had theirs off so I quickly just knocked it off my head and let it fall on my back and hang by its strings. After the pledge we and the other newbies sat for the newbie orientation, then we went down to shoot at the "fort."
I missed about everything in the first window, but did ok in the second window. I've never shot a single action gun in my life - everything I've shot has been semi-automatic and of course the pump action shotgun we own. So not only was I flustered and self-conscious, but I was firing weapons of a type I'd never used before. Well, at least normal gun safety, like where to point the weapons and such, transfers no matter what kind of weapon you hold.
However, one of the cool things that Hopalong did was after a person shot their turn, he had the person move to the "unloading table" and supervise the next shooter's unload. Then after that, I rotated to the "loading table" to assist/observe the loading. So not only did someone show me how to load and unload the weapons, I got to show the person after me the same. By the end of the day, I felt pretty confident about the loading/unloading process, as well as shooting. So much so that when it was my turn to go again, I didn't miss at all. Yay! 'Course, I wasn't fast, but first I'm going to concentrate on being accurate.
In all, I think SASS will be a really fun hobby. I'm glad this is what we've settled on for our LARP replacement, heh.
Monday (today) it's business as usual!
I was the first driver, since I was the most awake out of the four of us. It was really, really stressful following M C, though. He drove that heavy truck like it was a mid-sized sedan. At one point, just an hour out, he changed lanes so quickly that the truck tilted severely and I was terrified that it would just tip right on over onto the wall. That would have been the record quickest trip to GenCon for us, too. Ugh. Ah well. The trip itself was thankfully uneventful in spite of M C's best efforts.
We arrived at the motel around midnight and got our four rooms and promptly went to sleep. Tuesday morning we gathered at 9am and headed to the convention center for set up. Set up took awhile but went fairly smoothly, and our booth looked the best it's ever looked. Yay! Wednesday we were back up at the convention center making sure the registers were all up and running. Wednesday was pretty mellow, all told.
Each evening, finari and I watched episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbender, of which I am now officially a fan. It got pretty bad. We'd consider each evening's option (go hang out, blah blah), and unanimously decide to stay in our hotel room and watch Avatar on my laptop. Heh.
Thursday, officially day one of the convention, went well. The retail chaos that is GenCon for me began with a bang. After the exhibit hall closed, we had dinner with the demo team on the patio outside the miniatures hall. Much fun was had - I got to meet some new guys, and get re-acquainted with my favorite demo guys. I also found out that several of them are avid Guild Wars players so I'll have to get back into that. Fun, fun!
That evening I got to do a good deed, too, and abuse my power in the process. Heh. The truck parked next to the minivan had its hood opened and a guy standing beside it with a look of cheerful resignation. We asked if he needed help and he replied that someone (a stranger to him) was on his way over from across the parking lot. So we loaded up the van, and by the time all our stuff was in, the other guy had arrived with jumper cables, etc. I quickly scribbled out two little "coupons" one each for a free miniature, one because good deeds rarely go recognized and the other because the other guy was so cheerful about it all. They were both pleasantly surprised, and redeemed their coupons to me on Saturday.
I had a good crew this year in the booth, although I especially missed not having Kevin there. He has been my best sergeant so far, and he is so very efficient. Ah, well. With this new crew, of course, there were some complaints after the first day of the show from some of my booth crew, I think primarily because they didn't realize how much ACTUAL work we do at conventions, heh. But luckily, everyone seemed to cheer up as the show went on. I got several compliments about them, so over all, I was happy with the crew and if I get the same crew next year, then I would be pleased.
Friday, we had a meeting with one of our international distributors that went well, over all. Points were raised from both sides and there were some resolutions to issues, etc. I sat and took notes, offered various suggestions, and enjoyed watching Ed go. Heh. I think the distributor didn't know what hit him half the time.
Saturday was super busy. I only had a little time to chat with Ged and most of it was to make plans for the evening. After the exhibitors' hall closed, we ran back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner and the White Wolf party. Dinner was great with crew and friends, Ged and Wayne. I only ever get to see them at GenCon since they live in England, so it was a real pleasure.
At dinner, I was outvoted on the White Wolf party idea since there was no guarantee that we would actually be able to get in, as there was a 700 occupancy limit on the building and we didn't even finish dinner til after the doors for the party were opened. Ah well. I got to spend some time with Ged and Wayne at Jillian's, which was a place like Dave & Busters. It wasn't an ideal spot for chatting, as the games and music were really loud, but I am glad I got to spend time with them, even though it wasn't enough.
Wayne's gift to us was too cool for words - he drew a caricature of us all together, based on the few photos he had from the year (maybe 2004?) before. It's an awesome and amusing drawing and I love it! Heh. I'm gonna use the me he drew as one of my icons once I have a chance to edit it. Hee!
Sunday was almost as busy as Saturday, what with swag trades and all. I scored a really neat wood etched set of some monsters and a tavern scene that I grabbed for the hubby, and some dice for my friend Dave. All the rest of the swag trades I worked out went to the guys at the shop. Whee, fun! Trades are always insane and fun. Tear-down didn't take quite as long as I expected, but it took just as much time as I predicted, if that makes any sense. I predicted that we wouldn't be out of there until 10pm and we weren't, but we were pretty much done tearing down by 8pm. It's just that M C and I had to go back to the motel and get the truck, and I had to settle our rooms.
After tear-down, we crashed and then got up early on Monday for the drive back. Darryl left Sunday morning by himself and arrived home with no trouble from what I've heard, so we had three vehicles in the caravan going home: M C and K in the truck again, R, A, Finari, B and I in the van, and Kyle and Linc in Kyle's car. On the trip back, the van (with Kyle following us) split off from the truck, primarily because the van had all us girls in it and we needed a pee-break and M C didn't want to stop. So he continued on without us and we took our bathroom breaks as we needed them. Oddly enough, we arrived back in Denton a good two hours ahead of them (9pm CST) since at some point M C missed an exit. Heh.
Tuesday Aug 15th, I got up and ran to the shop to pick up my luggage and other stuff and met Finari there. She followed me back to the rental place and I turned in the minivan. Then she came over to my place to hang out for a bit and go over all our free stuff. After she left, I took a very long nap. Sheesh, I needed it.
Wednesday Aug 16 had me back at work and running around getting everything caught up.
Same with Thursday and Friday.
This most recent Saturday was a blast. thewolfhound and I got up before dawn and drove out to Comanche Valley for the shooting match. thewolfhound wore standard western fare from the 1880s and I threw together a generic frontier woman outfit cobbled together from one of my faire skirts that was generic enough to do the trick, a petticoat, a long-sleeved blouse, some little button-up ankle boots, and a straw hat. The brim wasn't quite wide enough so my nose is a little pink, though.
I wore a corset, too, and even though the weather got quite hot (I think it hit 105 F/40.5 C) I managed quite well since we stayed very hydrated. Heck. I know it doesn't get quite that hot during Scarborough Faire, but I'm usually tighter laced for faire. The one thing that I will change for sure about my hot weather generic outfit will be the blouse. The one I was wearing was denim, so no breeze got through. I'm probably going to whip a cotton lawn or other very light weight blouse together. And maybe add an apron. I still plan on doing an 1880s riding habit, although I think I will reserve the wear of that for slightly cooler days. Heck, even 90 F/32 C is nice compared to 105!
Anyway, of course I would prattle about clothes and such before I get to the actual event. ^_~ thewolfhound did a great job of describing what went on in his journal, so I'll just sum up and give my own observations.
We showed up around 8am and started out by signing up and such, and then we sat in the table area near our orientation teacher, Hopalong Casey. I was surprised when they started the Pledge of Allegiance, though. I had to hop over the bench, and of course forgot that I was wearing a hat since I never wear them until I realized that everyone else had theirs off so I quickly just knocked it off my head and let it fall on my back and hang by its strings. After the pledge we and the other newbies sat for the newbie orientation, then we went down to shoot at the "fort."
I missed about everything in the first window, but did ok in the second window. I've never shot a single action gun in my life - everything I've shot has been semi-automatic and of course the pump action shotgun we own. So not only was I flustered and self-conscious, but I was firing weapons of a type I'd never used before. Well, at least normal gun safety, like where to point the weapons and such, transfers no matter what kind of weapon you hold.
However, one of the cool things that Hopalong did was after a person shot their turn, he had the person move to the "unloading table" and supervise the next shooter's unload. Then after that, I rotated to the "loading table" to assist/observe the loading. So not only did someone show me how to load and unload the weapons, I got to show the person after me the same. By the end of the day, I felt pretty confident about the loading/unloading process, as well as shooting. So much so that when it was my turn to go again, I didn't miss at all. Yay! 'Course, I wasn't fast, but first I'm going to concentrate on being accurate.
In all, I think SASS will be a really fun hobby. I'm glad this is what we've settled on for our LARP replacement, heh.
Monday (today) it's business as usual!