Boskone 54

[redbird]

cattitude, adrian_turtle, and I went to Boskone Friday and Saturday (commuting rather than getting a room at the hotel). Friday Cattitude and I got there before Adrian, and I felt vaguely out of sorts for a bit after we got there and picked up our badges, because I was having trouble finding people to talk to (a combination of not seeing people I recognized, and seeing people who either didn't see me/hear me say hello, or were on their way elsewhere). We indulged in some restorative hot chocolate, and then Adrian got there, and things started coming together.


We had dinner with Doug Faunt and Lise at a small seafood place, and got back to the con in time for most of Lojo Russo and Lorraine Garland's concert, with lots of balloons, people encouraged to dance with them while the band played a medley that included about 2/3 of "Jabberwocky" (this was gerisullivan recreating something she had greatly enjoyed at Minicon years ago), and the delightfully exuberant Tardis Dancers. I think we did something after that, before heading back to Arlington.

Saturday was more music and conversation, starting with a nice talk with Geri, and a bit with Alter in the con suite. We scrounged something for lunch in the con suite (mostly hard boiled eggs and very good bread), and wound up getting Chinese food delivered for dinner and eating in the con suite. [There aren't a lot of places to eat near the hotel, and if you eliminate bars and places that aren't open on weekends.] After dinner we went to Lorraine and Lojo's Saturday evening concert (another odd mix of stuff, including a couple more old Flash Girls tunes—it was nice to hear the songs live, and to watch people who were hearing them for the first time), which was followed by the awards ceremony, and seeing papersky win the Skylark Award. She gave a good thank-you speech, riffing off the warning that this is the most dangerous award in science fiction to speculate on using it to melt down the Prometheus Award, and ending by pointing out that part of maintaining civilization is providing ramps for the stage when you are going to be asking someone who uses a cane to get up there.

I spent enough time in the dealers' room to get a copy of TNH's new book from NESFA Press, and to buy a pussy hat, which is symbolic, very nice and warm, and fits me. I also had an odd conversation that, when I thought about it afterwards, felt as though I had been gently fending off missionaries for the Church of Lafferty who had identified me as a co-religionist and wanted me to attend services at their parish. It's cool that they have set up a small press to reprint some of his works, and are having a Lafferty con in New Jersey later this year, but odd that they asked Cattitude, not even as a full sentence, "Favorite Lafferty?" (and then cheerfully discussed his answers) and that they seemed impressed that we had met him once, and that I sat on his lap (his idea, not mine).

The con suite ran out of milk around lunchtime yesterday, leading me to experiment and find that while I prefer my tea with cow's milk, I did like it with soy milk (specifically Silk Original); this may simplify my and Adrian's lives.

If we go to Boskone next year (likely) and it's in the same hotel, I am either bringing food with me (I don't like boiled eggs that much), making meal plans further in advance, or both.

(This is briefer than I'd like, but I want to get it down before I forget, having just spent a chunk of time updating LJ and DW filters instead of writing anything.)

Comments

[anne]

I had a good non-fannish weekend, but I'm very sad to have missed Alter. And everyone else who didn't come from quite as far away, of course.

[bibliofile]

Sounds like a reasonably good convention. Yay, concerts, and people you don't see very often.

[ashnistrike]

We were sorry that we couldn't make Boskone, but there was just no way to make the numbers add up. Will you be at WisCon this year?

-Nameseeker