Archon Saturday Insanity
Saturday, I was mostly busy at Archon.. man, doing close to 8 hours of massage work on too little sleep takes a lot out of a person. I did get out to go buy some books from both Glen Cook and Larry Smith. The dealer's room was actually in two separate ballrooms that weren't connected (new hotel, new logistics) and when I came back in, I swung by Alaina's table (she sells the crowns and jewelry) to find Sam's wife Jill browsing the room.
I asked her what she was doing wandering and she said that she had gotten away from Sam since he was blaming everyone but himself for a box of booster packs of trading cards being stolen. (Sam's idea of "watching the table" is to sit behind the table and pull out a book to read.)
That sucked for them, but Sam's always setting up his table in ways so its easy for merchandise to get lifted. In twenty plus years of doing shows, he's never learned. :-p
I have a late client (he showed up at 5:55!) who wanted like a 1/2 hr of work. So, I'm about the last dealer out of our particular dealer's room. We go back to our hotel, I grab a quick shower and dress for that night. I wanted to show off my shiny! purple! corset from Curious Cat clothing. We drive back over to the main convention area and I end up dropped Rob & Alaina off by Pujols' in order to go find a parking spot. I eventually find one in the depths of the parking garage way on the other side of Westport Plaza from the evening's activities and meet up w/ the rest of the group for dinner.
One of the ladies in the group is a very obnoxious, very opinionated hair dresser who acts like she knows all and that she's never wrong. Our waiter wasn't the fastest gentleman and apparently she had an issue with that and made her opinion of it well known, to the point of insulting Aimless and telling her that she shouldn't go behind her back and make up for her not giving the guy a bigger tip. She's downright bitchy about it and I was getting ready to slap her and tell her to just STFU and pay her bill already. Then, she couldn't figure out what amount of money she was going to give him, since she couldn't go the math. (Hello - that's what the calculator function on your phone is for, or go old school and break out pen & paper!) So, she was the one who wanted to go back to the hotel the soonest because well, she'd worked all day and was tiiiiiiired. Well, so did I! Massage takes a lot more out a person than hair dressing does, I'm sorry to say. I can only hope that next year she doesn't come to Archon and expect Aimless to cater to her, since I was the one who had been wanting her help over the weekend (After all, I got her the dealer's ribbon & rate for a reason. :p) At some point, I will train Aimless on my massage database and how to work it, so I can keep on top of my records next year with more ease. (I was less busy this year, but I had some longer sessions... which balanced it out. It's only my 3rd con working as an MT and last year's Archon I think I made more money, at the Steampunk con I went in the hole and Archon I at least came out ahead, but still not as much as I'd hoped.)
We finally leave Pujols' and head to the Chalet hotel where all the programming is at. Somewhere along the line, I lose or have lifted off me, the keyfob for my car. I realize this not too long after and go to security to see if anyone's turned it in - nada. I ask the hotel front desk and they haven't had it. I ask the cops for help and they pretty much give me the brush off, figuring I was a drunk who didn't know what I had done with them. I even retraced my steps from the bar (where I tried to ask the bar manager, but he didn't speak but broken English) down to the parking garage and along the walkway from where I came up out of the parking garage to the bar.
Rob disabled the car (he pulled the starter relay circuit) so no one at the con hotel could drive off with it and we even asked the gal working the booth in the parking garage when we left - nada.
Well, Sunday comes around, we pay the hotel bill and head back to the con hotel where I have four more hours of work in the dealer's room before I can break down & load up.
Rob, in the meantime, has done some investigating. Turns out some kid got the key - 3 witnesses saw him grab it & a 4th person saw it in his backpack. He has been looking for the kid with the backpack and said that he would offer him a $20 "finder's fee" if he returned the keyfob... otherwise, the blade on his leatherman was very sharp and he would cut vital parts off the kid's anatomy if he didn't return the keyfob. (The point of this being that it's a switchblade computer chipped key keyfob - you have to have it in order to start the car and the keyfob could lead them straight to the car by wandering around the parking lots and/or garage hitting the lock button to make the car beep.)
Well, it turns out he didn't have to do either one. The kid was walking out of one of the dealer's rooms w/ his backpack open and Rob simply lifted the keyfob right out of his bag without him noticing. He let the kid get to the end of the hallway before telling him that his bag was open and he didn't want to lose all the booster packs in his backpack. The kid's reply was, "Well, they're not even my booster packs."
Rob goes directly to the cop who was one of the ones from the night before who blew me off and told him about the kid having the key. (Now the cop was interested - attempted theft of a brand new vehicle - felony charges time!) The cop asked, "How old is he?" Rob's answer was that he didn't know, so the cop walked right over to the kid and said, "How old are you?"
"Nineteen," was the answer.
"Good, then you're old enough to go to jail," the cop said and arrested him right there on the spot.
Rob also gave him Sam's contact info, since we suspect that the kid was the one who lifted the booster packs from him - either he lifted 'em or one of his buddies he was rooming with did and he was just the end mule. Either way, this kid's Archon ended with a pair of shiny metal handcuffs and a trip in the back of a Maryland Heights police car to go to jail!
So, while I didn't make as much as I'd hoped at Archon, I finally got the paperwork from Mazda, so I can sell my old car now! Huzzah! That $1200 will come in really handy!
I asked her what she was doing wandering and she said that she had gotten away from Sam since he was blaming everyone but himself for a box of booster packs of trading cards being stolen. (Sam's idea of "watching the table" is to sit behind the table and pull out a book to read.)
That sucked for them, but Sam's always setting up his table in ways so its easy for merchandise to get lifted. In twenty plus years of doing shows, he's never learned. :-p
I have a late client (he showed up at 5:55!) who wanted like a 1/2 hr of work. So, I'm about the last dealer out of our particular dealer's room. We go back to our hotel, I grab a quick shower and dress for that night. I wanted to show off my shiny! purple! corset from Curious Cat clothing. We drive back over to the main convention area and I end up dropped Rob & Alaina off by Pujols' in order to go find a parking spot. I eventually find one in the depths of the parking garage way on the other side of Westport Plaza from the evening's activities and meet up w/ the rest of the group for dinner.
One of the ladies in the group is a very obnoxious, very opinionated hair dresser who acts like she knows all and that she's never wrong. Our waiter wasn't the fastest gentleman and apparently she had an issue with that and made her opinion of it well known, to the point of insulting Aimless and telling her that she shouldn't go behind her back and make up for her not giving the guy a bigger tip. She's downright bitchy about it and I was getting ready to slap her and tell her to just STFU and pay her bill already. Then, she couldn't figure out what amount of money she was going to give him, since she couldn't go the math. (Hello - that's what the calculator function on your phone is for, or go old school and break out pen & paper!) So, she was the one who wanted to go back to the hotel the soonest because well, she'd worked all day and was tiiiiiiired. Well, so did I! Massage takes a lot more out a person than hair dressing does, I'm sorry to say. I can only hope that next year she doesn't come to Archon and expect Aimless to cater to her, since I was the one who had been wanting her help over the weekend (After all, I got her the dealer's ribbon & rate for a reason. :p) At some point, I will train Aimless on my massage database and how to work it, so I can keep on top of my records next year with more ease. (I was less busy this year, but I had some longer sessions... which balanced it out. It's only my 3rd con working as an MT and last year's Archon I think I made more money, at the Steampunk con I went in the hole and Archon I at least came out ahead, but still not as much as I'd hoped.)
We finally leave Pujols' and head to the Chalet hotel where all the programming is at. Somewhere along the line, I lose or have lifted off me, the keyfob for my car. I realize this not too long after and go to security to see if anyone's turned it in - nada. I ask the hotel front desk and they haven't had it. I ask the cops for help and they pretty much give me the brush off, figuring I was a drunk who didn't know what I had done with them. I even retraced my steps from the bar (where I tried to ask the bar manager, but he didn't speak but broken English) down to the parking garage and along the walkway from where I came up out of the parking garage to the bar.
Rob disabled the car (he pulled the starter relay circuit) so no one at the con hotel could drive off with it and we even asked the gal working the booth in the parking garage when we left - nada.
Well, Sunday comes around, we pay the hotel bill and head back to the con hotel where I have four more hours of work in the dealer's room before I can break down & load up.
Rob, in the meantime, has done some investigating. Turns out some kid got the key - 3 witnesses saw him grab it & a 4th person saw it in his backpack. He has been looking for the kid with the backpack and said that he would offer him a $20 "finder's fee" if he returned the keyfob... otherwise, the blade on his leatherman was very sharp and he would cut vital parts off the kid's anatomy if he didn't return the keyfob. (The point of this being that it's a switchblade computer chipped key keyfob - you have to have it in order to start the car and the keyfob could lead them straight to the car by wandering around the parking lots and/or garage hitting the lock button to make the car beep.)
Well, it turns out he didn't have to do either one. The kid was walking out of one of the dealer's rooms w/ his backpack open and Rob simply lifted the keyfob right out of his bag without him noticing. He let the kid get to the end of the hallway before telling him that his bag was open and he didn't want to lose all the booster packs in his backpack. The kid's reply was, "Well, they're not even my booster packs."
Rob goes directly to the cop who was one of the ones from the night before who blew me off and told him about the kid having the key. (Now the cop was interested - attempted theft of a brand new vehicle - felony charges time!) The cop asked, "How old is he?" Rob's answer was that he didn't know, so the cop walked right over to the kid and said, "How old are you?"
"Nineteen," was the answer.
"Good, then you're old enough to go to jail," the cop said and arrested him right there on the spot.
Rob also gave him Sam's contact info, since we suspect that the kid was the one who lifted the booster packs from him - either he lifted 'em or one of his buddies he was rooming with did and he was just the end mule. Either way, this kid's Archon ended with a pair of shiny metal handcuffs and a trip in the back of a Maryland Heights police car to go to jail!
So, while I didn't make as much as I'd hoped at Archon, I finally got the paperwork from Mazda, so I can sell my old car now! Huzzah! That $1200 will come in really handy!