Arisia '05[.1] recap

[chanaleh]

Friday: Never did go into the Park Plaza for the afternoon; did laundry and house things, worked on lines. Went to shul, davened Kabbalat Shabbat, left in the middle to run off to massage class at MIT from 7:30-8:30, detoured to E25 for a brief visit en route to the T, then ran off to the con. Spent about 3 hours running around saying hello to people, and watching some of the Rocky Horror pre-show with aurelis (chatting about the brilliance of Jim Steinman), but didn't manage much else in the way of con. (Friday is a slow night, no two ways about it; something should definitely be done about that for next year.) Got a much-appreciated ride home with awhyzip.

Saturday: Slept in as best I could (mmmm), and went to Talley's Folly rehearsal, which was very very productive (more on that under separate cover). Came home, picked up some stuff -- ablock and kalessin had convinced both me and inseriatim to take them up on their offer of crash space on their floor, and then they managed to get not one but two cots for their room, and then they actually gave us girls the bed -- what good friends. Anyway, this turned out to be a great thing because it meant I could stay up partying all night, and so I did. So:

Showed up at 6pm, dropped off stuff and changed clothes.

Had a too-short chat with penghuin.

Attended the Masquerade as always.

Had the wonderful good fortune to fall in with the strapping young learnedax (Prince of Party), and the very sweet laurion whom I so rarely get to see except in passing, and the bright and charming anu3bis whom I can't believe I never managed to meet before this, for the prime party-hopping hours.

Ran around in my velvet tights.

Was plied with a number of frozen concoctions.

Sat on a number of very comfortable laps.

Gave and received compliments.

Gave and received massages.

Completely neglected to get to mabfan and gnomi's, darn it, or to rmd's, or to the Tech Party for that matter.

Wandered down to the Club Dance in the ballroom around 2:30am. Proceeded to dance for two more solid hours, most notably with zebediah ("Don't you ever get tired??").

Made the mistake of sitting down around 4:30am, whereupon began winding down unmistakably.

Went up to bed shortly before 5am, which is totally the mark of a successful con experience.

Sunday: Awoke briefly at 9:30am, then got back to sleep until the more reasonable hour of 11:45am.
Determined that, yes, the other three places I was supposed to go Sunday afternoon/evening were all canceled for snow, which meant I could hang around the rest of the afternoon and evening ("Arisia '05.1"), which was just what I wanted, really.
Made half-hearted attempts at being helpful with tech/strike. Ran around and chatted more. Went out to a very large, leisurely, late dinner with the tech folks. Spent another hour running around, including the Dead Dog Party (where I finally met gentlescholar!) and having a last drink with the tech folks, narrowly escaping the final Div Heads meeting. Got a much-appreciated ride home from Kosher Boy.

I did succumb to one major impulse purchase shortly before the Dealer's Room closed for good Sunday afternoon: a fabulous ankle-length brown Polartec cloak... plus, then, okay, a circlet with beautifully worked maple leaves and tiger eye to complete the Elves of the Third Age ensemble, which then I had to wear around the con for the rest of the afternoon in order to get maximum enjoyment out of them. Next time I will sell more buttons to make up for it. :-) I'll post a picture when someone e-mails me one.

In short, it was just enough of pretty much everything I could have wanted. And no psychodrama (but just enough echoes and stories, of the psychodramas from years not so long past, to make me appreciate the lack thereof). I feel great. And having the blizzard raging outside just gave it that much more of a cozy, we're-all-in-this-together feeling.

Conversely, tonight, the Tu B'Shvat seder we were supposed to have -- considering that all parking within 6 blocks of the shul is completely snowbanked in -- got scaled back to a sort of Tu B'Shvat wine-and-cheese nosh... which, although I did miss going through the cosmic Kabbalistic aspects of the seder, really was just fine with me for today.

And tomorrow, more rehearsal for TF... which I'm totally thrilled about, but means I should go study up before bed.

(P.S. New icon courtesy of cheesyhill, who declares that my new default icon is too "solemn" and that this version "reflects my personality" better. Yeah, okay.)

Comments

[ckd]

I completely missed seeing you all con, alas.

I agree with cheesyhill on the icon, though; this one is much better.

[laurion]

I wanted to thank you for a great time Saturday night. My only regret is that I faded out when I did. I was rather enjoying how things were going.... *grin*

I ended up staying later than I thought I would be on Sunday, and probably should have stayed until today. C'est la vie.

[navrins]

Cheesy is quite right. I'm sure the other one is appropriate for some posts, but on more than one occasion I've been struck by the contrast between the solemn serious picture and the happy bouncy post.

[nacht_musik]

It was lovely bumping into you at the con. Hope you're not too snowed-in this week....

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Nice seeing you - sorry we didn't have more of a chance to chat! (And, nice picture!)

Buh

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

It was a lot of fun hunting down parties with you. We should definitely do it again some time.

(So now I'm picturing Prince of Party as a console game where one has to acrobatically explore exotic arabian locales, like hotels, fighting off stony guards to obtain precious potables. Trippy.)

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

You did look good in the circlet and cloak

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Next year, perhaps join us for the Kosher Konspiracy dinner for Shabbat? It was fun, but I specifically was sad you weren't there, as I thought we might get to socialize a bit.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Aww! I'd love to come. This year's Friday night had some complicating circumstances, but in theory I should be able to plan ahead for it. :-)

On a related note, I've actually always wanted to hold a "real" Kabbalat Shabbat service (lots of singing, preferably egalitarian -- if I were going to lead it, anyway... or maybe a women's minyan?) at Arisia; I think if it were publicized as such in advance, we'd get a fair amount of traffic.

Buh!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I think Prince of Party would be a splendid console game.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

I like the new icon too. And want to see the new outfit.

thought My birthday's during cloak season...I have a (fairly) large apartment...maybe this year I need to throw myself a costume party.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Ooh, and right around Purim, not too far away! ;-) Sounds like a great idea.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

checking calendar Hello. Purim straddles my birthday and Diana's this year. Wonder if she'd be interested in a joint party...

[besamim.livejournal.com]

Conversely, tonight, the Tu B'Shvat seder we were supposed to have -- considering that all parking within 6 blocks of the shul is completely snowbanked in -- got scaled back to a sort of Tu B'Shvat wine-and-cheese nosh

Well, at least that's better than a Toronto Jewish organization which last weekend held a singles' Tu BiShevat seder in which "we subsititute four Seder cups of wine with four different Martinis and mix things up throughout the night. Tickets are $60 and include martinis, dessert, entertainment and a limo ride home. Cash bar available." I wish I could say I was making this up.

[inseriatim.livejournal.com]

You looked like the queen of autumn on Sunday! Post pics.

I like the new icon, too.