Ari(si)a

Saturday, January 16th, 2016 02:51 pm
chanaleh: (sleeping)
[livejournal.com profile] arisia is happening right now. And I am not at it, obviously, but reading the posts of everyone who is, and feeling a little bit of the echo of what it would have been to be there. So, thank you all for that.

But the new Lois McMaster Bujold book is out today (e-book version only; hardcover will be released Feb. 2). So I bought that this morning, and will try to read some of it this afternoon while sitting on the nursery floor watching Babykins play. Right now she is napping and we are making a token effort at cleaning/tidying.

(This also means no MuffinButtons at the con this year, again, obviously. Someday soon, I need to figure out how to sell off the approximately 1000 already-made buttons I have in my inventory.)
chanaleh: (breathe)
I am pretty sure the last time I was at Lunacon was in 2008. So it's changed a lot:

(1) The hotel has been substantially renovated. I actually quite liked the changes aesthetically (fireplace!), but by the end of the weekend I was a bit nostalgic for the old look (and the old coffee shop!)
(2) Apparently the con's gotten smaller since I was last there, and apparently also there was some extra-special organizational chaos going on -- but from where I was sitting, I felt approximately zero impact (programming? what's that??), so whatever. Everyone I saw seemed to be having a pretty good time, or at least holding it together while enabling other people to have a good time (so thanks to all those people for that).
(3) In particular, I very much felt the absence of [livejournal.com profile] ablock, as well as [livejournal.com profile] xdaemon and [livejournal.com profile] aurelis and several other specific folks I associate strongly with Lunacons past. (No bagel run! Sniff!)
(3a) Relatedly, this may be the first time I have ever been at Lunacon without at least nominally working tech.
(4) It is also for sure the first time I have ever traveled to Lunacon on the MetroNorth commuter rail rather than roadtripping from Boston. (No Rein's Deli!! Double sniff!)

In any case, however, it was excellent to get to see [livejournal.com profile] kalessin and [livejournal.com profile] mercury_sparkle (even if it was mostly in the ops office, at least we still got to have dinner together)... and lots of other dear friends, and some cool new ones. And I did make it to the hot tub for about 20 minutes (went down by myself, but chatted with the nice folks who were in there, and it was all good) before heading up to a certain single-malt-themed party.

And bringing MuffinButtons to Lunacon for the first time was definitely fun and worth doing. FAQ #1: How'd you do? I broke even on my con expenses (including transportation and Saturday dinner) with literally about $4 to spare. Oh, um, except that's on gross receipts and I still have to pay sales tax out of that, so came out a bit under, after all. But that's still pretty good.

And, signal boost: my next-door booth neighbor was this adorable young math teacher who draws an adorable, smart webcomic called Monster Haiku. And every single time new people came up and he would pitch them the book, my brain kept serving up to me the idea of how much Tiger Boy would have liked it. Which was both exasperating and endearing in about equal, if small, measures. Yes, every strip actually is a haiku (in the basic American 5-7-5 sense, not the Japanese content-structure sense). With monsters. Since I use LJ as my RSS aggregator, I have syndicated it as [livejournal.com profile] monsterhaiku.

... And now I'm headed out shortly for my performance at the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Society. This is a scaled-down reprise of the January show I did at Temple Israel Center in White Plains ( LJ | DW ), consisting largely of Anna Russell's delightful parody piece "How to Write Your Own Gilbert & Sullivan Operetta", plus a bunch of solo/duet/trio selections, and finishing up with Trial By Jury because hey. 7:30pm at the Community Church of New York, 40 E 35th St (corner of Park). Robbie, our Fearless Leader, called me this afternoon to warn me that some of our folks might have trouble getting to the show if the snow got bad, and so, basically, "be prepared to wing it, the show must go on, all that". So if we end up doing a spontaneous from-memory 4-person rendition of the entire Act I finale of Iolanthe... well, I just hope they have a camera running. :-}
chanaleh: (scream)
Posting the upcoming calendar a little early, in part to plug the concert in which I'm singing this Friday night (March 1).

Also, MuffinButtons.com will be vending at Lunacon, March 15-17!

Other priorities for the coming month:
* Get the Blue Hill Troupe's Mikado program off to press
* Get my freelance book project THROUGH press and safely delivered
* Plan and publicize a 35+ Shabbat dinner at T&V for April 5
* And oh yeah, Pesach is the end of this month and I will get a much-needed week's stay-cation.

Basically everything else is negotiable/subject to bailout. Send hugs. And cookies (well, until March 24).

Stand up and March, March, March... )
chanaleh: (sleeping)
I was about to say "belated con report", but it's really only been two days since I got home, even though it feels like about 6.

Things that were awesome about this Arisia for me: lots )

Things that were less awesome: few and minor )

But, seriously, that's kind of all I can think of. It was pretty fab all around.

So I've pretty much made up my mind to sign up for vending at Lunacon in mid-March. :-)
And now I have done three loads of laundry and it's time to go to bed.

Arisia or bust!

Thursday, January 17th, 2013 12:12 pm
chanaleh: Muffin the Vampire Baker: "It's him, Muffin! You have to protect him at all costs!" "I'M ON IT!" (i'm on it!)
Stayed up til 1:30am last night finishing complete revised page proofs on the book project. Now I can leave for [livejournal.com profile] arisia with a clear conscience! Then I got up this morning and spent another ~3 hours getting the button supply ready to print up.

Here is what my anticipated Arisia schedule looks like: I should really copy this into the master calendar for future reference, too )

So if you want to run into me, you have some idea of where to find me!

I have some additional stated goals for this Arisia (interestingly, all of them self-care related):
  • To pack myself off to bed as early as I damn well feel like it, instead of feeling socially obligated to stay up until 3am
  • To get in some hot tubbing, in either the Renaissance (where I will have a room key) or the Westin (where I won't, so only if with others who do)
  • To treat myself to an actual restaurant meal on Saturday night, between 7pm close of dealer's room and the 10pm Chantey Sing

    So if you feel like joining me for either of those latter two things, speak up. :-)

    PS: I keep forgetting to ask: is anyone interested in buying a full-length full-circle brown polarfleece cloak from me? I bought it from Cloak & Dagger five or six Arisias ago, and I love it, but it turns out to be a bit too bulky/warm for my personal costuming needs, so I've probably only worn it out of the house three or four times total. I paid about $120 for it on sale. I'd love to get $50 for it. Let me know, and I can haul it with me.
  • chanaleh: (breathe)
    This coming Sunday is a major work event for which my entire department is working late nights all week trying to get ready.

    The weekend after that is Arisia, when I'll be working 9-hour days at the MuffinButtons vendor table. I am super excited about this, but have also decided that my priority outside of vending hours will be... going to sleep as early as I damn well feel like it. (Maybe I'll get up at 6am on Sunday morning and catch the *end* of the DJ/80s dance, which I totally forgot about last year and kicked myself for missing.) Any other early birds who want to hang out for breakfast in the lobby around 9-10am, please do -- I found that that was one of my favorite times of the con last year.

    The weekend after *that* is a Shabbat dinner with my synagogue choir, and special choir performances at both Friday night and Saturday morning services, in honor of Shabbat Shirah (the Sabbath of Song, so named because we read about the Israelites' crossing the Red Sea and their ensuing Song of the Sea). And, um, I got recruited to coordinate the dinner signups, which is cool because it's basically "put together a fancy signup sheet and then hound everybody until I hear from all of them, and then hound everybody some more until I get all their prepayments", at all of which I am an old hand, but... it takes some cycles.

    Also, the ASL 2 class (8-week sequel to the 6-week ASL 1 class I took in the fall) starts up tomorrow night.

    Also, I am lead program designer for the Blue Hill Troupe's spring show. The hard part of my job is more-or-less-almost done, but I still have to set up a bunch of article templates based on the design specs we've settled on.

    Also, remember that book project that I'm trying to get out the door? Maybe by the end of this month?

    Also, I, um, agreed to serve as production stage manager for Utopia Unlimited's next opera production, La Fille du Regiment, which is dress-rehearsing the last week of January for performances Feb 1-2.

    Basically, I've now decided that if there's anything I haven't already promised to do for someone in February, I am not doing it. (So, BHT yes, ASL yes, shepherding book through manufacturing yes, everything else no.) Seriously -- I had signed up to participate in the synagogue Purimshpiel, but I emailed them yesterday morning to back out, because no. I just don't need a whole new set of Sunday-afternoon rehearsals shoehorned into my month. Even if it is a short month.

    March will be Lunacon, and then -- holy crap, it'll already be Passover. Where does the time go?? (But, 10-day stay-cation!!)

    ... Speaking of Lunacon, I am thinking of vending there too, but I already bought a personal membership, and now the table fee comes with one (and they won't credit me for the existing one). Anyone want me to transfer a membership to them for this year? I'll sell it for the $30 I paid in October; they're already up to $50.
    chanaleh: Muffin the Vampire Baker: "It's him, Muffin! You have to protect him at all costs!" "I'M ON IT!" (i'm on it!)
    Since I am vending at [livejournal.com profile] arisia, I can't carry all my cargo on public transit, so [livejournal.com profile] ladymondegreen's household offered me a ride up from NYC. Only, when they got to my doorstep around 9:30 this evening, it turned out there was not in fact room in the laden car for both me AND my stuff.

    ... Which I'd kind of thought might turn out to be the case, honestly. So I buckled my MuffinButtons, crockpot, and food supplies into the front seat, cheerfully waved cargo and passengers goodbye 'til tomorrow, and headed back upstairs to book BoltBus tickets. I'm now getting an 8am bus out on Friday, so should be at the hotel shortly after 12:30pm.

    Which means I have an early morning. Boo! But at least I get a quiet night at home with [livejournal.com profile] justom first. Yay! :-D

    (Booked a return bus for Mon evening while I was at it, on general principles, since they're already filling up for the holiday weekend. 5:30pm bus will give me plenty of leisure to finish up in the dealers' room, and get me home around 10pm. And hopefully some of my cargo can still hitch a ride home.)

    We'll just have to make up for the missed opportunity by singing show tunes together in a confined space for several hours some other time!

    See (many of) you tomorrow!
    chanaleh: (breathe)
    It's Tuesday! Hence, I'm working from home. Well, I would be if I were doing any work at the moment. I'm waiting on feedback on the catalog project, but I do have page proofs on which I should input my final copy edits so I can order a set of lasers for the author. But, I tell myself, it needn't be right this minute. Right?

    To get it out of the way, I will report that there is still no real progress on the wedding-planning front; we are stuck firmly in procrastination mode. Still planning on 8/31/08, but until we sign something officially with a venue, at least, it's hard to consider that really sealed up. The only thing I've been looking into with any enthusiasm is wedding dresses, and even that is hard to sustain (I may make a separate post with all the gory details, but will elide them for now).

    The novel thing this Thanksgiving is that, no, I'm not traveling; my dad and stepmother are coming HERE for it. (This will, in fact, be the first time my dad gets to meet Tiger Boy. The TigerParents are also coming up, and we're making dinner at [livejournal.com profile] muchabstracted's house, which, unlike our place, has a dining room.) They arrive tomorrow night and are leaving early-early Saturday morning. Thus, we have roughly two days: Thursday cozied up in the house, and Friday out-and-about (not sure yet where to take them, though there is no shortage of museum ideas). They're staying at the Hyatt Regency on Mem Drive -- a.k.a. the new Arisia ziggurat hotel -- so that'll be fun.

    Speaking of Arisia, I've been idly pondering two things: both hotel-room-related, in a sense )

    November, of course, has been Community Theater Month, since all shows must by local ordinance be performed between Halloween and Thanksgiving. recap, with sneak preview of spring season )

    The last happening of note in the past few weeks has been getting not one but two shout-outs from grade school: one on Facebook, from an old friend of my little brother's; the other here on LJ from someone I've always secretly hoped would someday look me up, and finally did. *waves to ksn* *looks expectantly at email inbox*

    Oh yeah, and: The Menschen Take Manhattan! Honorable Menschen are going to be performing at the JCC in Manhattan next spring, on a Shabbat afternoon, which looks like it's going to be March 22 (immediately after Purim). All you NYers, consider yourselves alerted.

    And now, I should go do something useful with the rest of the day, snow notwithstanding. One of my tasks for Thursday is the cranberry relish, and I can do that today. And clean house before my dad comes to see it. And tend to the ailing Tiger Boy (sore throat, poor baby). And lay out the shul newsletter for December. And finish those page proofs.

    PSAs

    Tuesday, March 14th, 2006 11:28 pm
    chanaleh: Muffin the Vampire Baker: "It's him, Muffin! You have to protect him at all costs!" "I'M ON IT!" (i'm on it!)
    I did some minor friendslist trimming this past week or so. Not that anyone had offended me (!), I promise I still think you're all cool; just that there were some people, friends of friends and whatnot, who I never really see or expect to connect with further. Anyone expressing disappointment will be cheerfully added back.

    Chag Purim sameach! and happy Pi Day! (Remember, only 31 to go until Tax Day...)

    Another reasonably productive day at work; I was there until 8:30pm, making it roughly a 12-hour day, but it was worthwhile. I might still manage to get this book to press by 3/24, if I can get the poor author to churn through the proofs fast enough. It will be awesome when it's done, though. Let me tell you: it is a great thing to be doing work that I am personally invested in.

    Speaking of book design: Tomorrow (Wednesday) night is the New England Book Show (for which I served on the judging panel this year). It's in the Copley Plaza; the reception starting at 5:30pm costs a fortune to go to, but the book display is open to the public for free noon-3pm, for those of you book geeks who are in the area.

    Still no motion on the car-buying front, for those who have been inquiring. However, I am starting to lean toward listening to the new-vehicle proponents, after all. If only I can get down to the freakin' dealership and check things out! Maybe this weekend.

    Speaking of this weekend: I am, sadly, NOT going to be attending Lunacon, as I must be in Cambridge for runthroughs of Antiphony both Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

    Speaking of the Family Opera: Tickets can be preordered here, though seating is general admission. I will appear in my solo role in performances #2 (7pm Saturday 4/1) and #7 (2pm Sunday 4/9), and in the chorus in performances #4 (6pm Sunday 4/2) and #5 (3pm Saturday 4/8). Got that? (Note that any performance I'm not in, the [livejournal.com profile] persis/[livejournal.com profile] jslove crew are in, so really you can't go too far wrong.)

    Tiger Boy is now on his plane back from New Mexico. Apparently the interview today went... Very Well. I am torn between pride and panic. :-}

    [livejournal.com profile] ablock finally got me registered for http://muffinbuttons.com! Now we just have to point it at my actual site. Or move the pages to somewhere useful, or something. Oh yeah, I should also think about updating the content while I'm at it. -- Incidentally, the Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson, whom I met at Arisia when she bought a "geek" button from me) blogged me last month. How cool is that?!

    And now to bed, as I have a dentist appointment in roughly 8 hours. ([livejournal.com profile] queue, I should be in around 10am.)
    chanaleh: (sleeping)
    [livejournal.com profile] jessruth said to me a week ago, "You haven't updated since Staxmas! I have no idea what you've been up to!" Yeah, I know; busy busy, not much to narrate. -- But when Tiger Boy says to me "Hey, you haven't updated in a while!"... I know I am overdue. :-)

    So let's see.
    long rambly State of the Chanaleh )

    LJ stuff: Suddenly both jweiss and Kosher Boy have succumbed. Welcome, [livejournal.com profile] brass_rat and [livejournal.com profile] toyb, respectively. :-D

    [livejournal.com profile] arisia stuff: Did I mention I'm selling buttons in the honest-to-God Dealer's Room this year? I may live to regret it, but hey, I have to try it once. You can find me at Table 8. And hey, Pup, Joelll, I'm crashing with you after all. *grin*

    Um, and there is more upcoming, but I think this is it for tonight. Bed is seriously calling.

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