Phoenix Rising: the activities
I'm going to do separate posts on the papers/panels and Bourbon Street.
I also want to say, here, that while I had a really good time at The Witching Hour, it had its problems (though not the ones that were wanked about). Phoenix Rising was an impeccably run con, and I want to commend praetorianguard and her team for being mature enough to learn the lessons of TWH and apply them to the next project. We all make mistakes, but it's an adult who learns from them. I had a great time at PR, and everyone commented on how well everything went. Congrats to them!
As many of you noticed, I didn't sleep Wednesday night, but instead stayed up packing and doing some beauty things I might have put off, like a pedicure, and then met ziggy1278 for breakfast. He sent me off to the plane with a tummy full of eggs and an ipod full of Damien Rice to listen to before the concert. I met up with heidi8 and we shared a cab from the airport to the hotel, where I dumped my stuff and had a nice lunch in the hotel restaurant with my roommate evil_erato and the always-lovely danijo1. Then I napped, because man I was tired.
Crystal and I went to the opening dinner, then ran back up to the room to watch CSI with alissomora and eibbil_libbie. The folks in the van from 'bama arrived later-wordplay, longtimegone, slytherincess, allysonsedai, dezzikitty, malachan, and frayer-and a bunch of us went to the first of tartpants's many parties. I love parties full of fun people, and it was nice to meet oulangi over a big cup of punch.
Friday there weren't any panels that really appealed to me I started the day with a bit of breakfast-we got a great continental spread with the room-and then ran off to the Harry/Hermione meet up at Cafe du Monde, where Liss was handing out orange goodie bags and we all just chilled and chatted. I love my pumpkin pie peeps, for reals.
The rest of the day was spent just chilling; I wrote Rymon while wordplay worked on her paper. We went out to a fish dinner that was a bit insane on many levels and then went off to karaoke, which will get an entry of its own later, when I've worked out how I feel about it.
Saturday was full of panels, which will also get their own entry, after which we mostly just chilled out, wandering around Artists and Authors Night. Julie read some of a story of hers, and I bought some portraits of Seamus and Dean from seviet through Liss.
Sunday was also full of panels, and then a big fun dinner with 13 people piled into the hotel restaurant, and then we checked out the masquerade ball, which like any other formal party in a hotel ballroom made me feel like I was at a wedding. But the costumes were fantastic and the DJ seemed to generally know what he was doing. That said, conga lines are even worse when you have to use one hand to hold your skirt, which might be why they weren't that popular in the 1790s. We went at the very end, so we saw one of the Marie Antoinettes macking on some woman in an 1870s gown by the door.
After, I went up to Rene's final party that and hung out with Allyson, Erica, Freya and Rene, watched some Shaun of the Dead, did some dancing, drank really good gin thanks to Angie, listened to the guy from the Remus Lupins do an impromptu mini-set, played a drinking game with too many rules, and then scrambled after the candy that fell out of the piñata. Nothing could have topped that, so I split shortly after.
Monday morning I left, sharing a cab with Christine, and came home, changed, and ran out to the Damien Rice concert. So you could say that Z bookended my trip!
I also want to say, here, that while I had a really good time at The Witching Hour, it had its problems (though not the ones that were wanked about). Phoenix Rising was an impeccably run con, and I want to commend praetorianguard and her team for being mature enough to learn the lessons of TWH and apply them to the next project. We all make mistakes, but it's an adult who learns from them. I had a great time at PR, and everyone commented on how well everything went. Congrats to them!
As many of you noticed, I didn't sleep Wednesday night, but instead stayed up packing and doing some beauty things I might have put off, like a pedicure, and then met ziggy1278 for breakfast. He sent me off to the plane with a tummy full of eggs and an ipod full of Damien Rice to listen to before the concert. I met up with heidi8 and we shared a cab from the airport to the hotel, where I dumped my stuff and had a nice lunch in the hotel restaurant with my roommate evil_erato and the always-lovely danijo1. Then I napped, because man I was tired.
Crystal and I went to the opening dinner, then ran back up to the room to watch CSI with alissomora and eibbil_libbie. The folks in the van from 'bama arrived later-wordplay, longtimegone, slytherincess, allysonsedai, dezzikitty, malachan, and frayer-and a bunch of us went to the first of tartpants's many parties. I love parties full of fun people, and it was nice to meet oulangi over a big cup of punch.
Friday there weren't any panels that really appealed to me I started the day with a bit of breakfast-we got a great continental spread with the room-and then ran off to the Harry/Hermione meet up at Cafe du Monde, where Liss was handing out orange goodie bags and we all just chilled and chatted. I love my pumpkin pie peeps, for reals.
The rest of the day was spent just chilling; I wrote Rymon while wordplay worked on her paper. We went out to a fish dinner that was a bit insane on many levels and then went off to karaoke, which will get an entry of its own later, when I've worked out how I feel about it.
Saturday was full of panels, which will also get their own entry, after which we mostly just chilled out, wandering around Artists and Authors Night. Julie read some of a story of hers, and I bought some portraits of Seamus and Dean from seviet through Liss.
Sunday was also full of panels, and then a big fun dinner with 13 people piled into the hotel restaurant, and then we checked out the masquerade ball, which like any other formal party in a hotel ballroom made me feel like I was at a wedding. But the costumes were fantastic and the DJ seemed to generally know what he was doing. That said, conga lines are even worse when you have to use one hand to hold your skirt, which might be why they weren't that popular in the 1790s. We went at the very end, so we saw one of the Marie Antoinettes macking on some woman in an 1870s gown by the door.
After, I went up to Rene's final party that and hung out with Allyson, Erica, Freya and Rene, watched some Shaun of the Dead, did some dancing, drank really good gin thanks to Angie, listened to the guy from the Remus Lupins do an impromptu mini-set, played a drinking game with too many rules, and then scrambled after the candy that fell out of the piñata. Nothing could have topped that, so I split shortly after.
Monday morning I left, sharing a cab with Christine, and came home, changed, and ran out to the Damien Rice concert. So you could say that Z bookended my trip!