Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I just bought a membership in this year's Wiscon, which is entirely online, so I don't have to worry about energy levels, or covid risk, and all I'm paying for is the con, not airline tickets and a hotel room and all.

I won't be going to Wiscon this year, and I have a reservation at the Concourse which I would like to pass along. It's for Thursday night through Sunday night (Monday departure). I told them one person, but if I specified one king bed or two smaller ones I don't see a record of that here.

I'm posting to my own journal first; if I don't get a reply here in a few days, I'll post to the DW and LJ Wiscon communities and the mailing list at wiscon.info.

I am arriving Thursday afternoon, possibly in time for the Room of One's Own reception and readings, weather and traffic through O'Hare allowing, and will be leaving after breakfast on Monday. Seattle is a lot further from Madison than New York is, and there are no nonstop flights. I'm not on programming this year (I didn't volunteer, because I wasn't sure I could attend the con until after the sign-up deadline), which means either that I am more flexible than usual, or that I will spend more time wondering what to do when.

If I'm going to Wiscon, I should get plane tickets soon. They are already looking expensive, but I'm not sure whether that's timing, this year versus last, or flying out of Seattle rather than New York. The thing is, a lot of what I'm finding involves getting up unreasonably early (6:50 out of SEA) meaning getting up I don't know when); is this just an artifact of stupid software that will let me specify "depart between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m." but not "anything that leaves between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m." (in which case I will take a deep breath and run umpteen searches and scribble notes on paper) or is it really showing me what's out there and/or halfway affordable, given that I'm looking at flying a significant distance east and making at least one connection?

Also, if there's anything non-obvious and useful that you know about this route, please tell me.

The first thing I did on Friday morning of Wiscon was wake up much too early.

The second thing I did was go soak in the hotel's hot tub. It was a little weird being there that early: when I got there, someone was using a pool vacuum to clear out some sand. We chatted a little, and he showed me how to turn the jets on. There was nobody else in the water, but two or three people were using the exercise room. I soaked a bit, hoping it would ease my shoulder and back, which had been sore for a few days, slid into the cool pool to keep my body temperature okay, and repeated. (Usually I swim, slowly and awkwardly, in the cooldown stage, but this time I just stood around, rather than exert my sore shoulder.)

I had an early lunch Friday with elisem at Nick's, a Greek diner on State Street (which is, or was, a regular hangout for Madison fandom), lured in by the chance at avgolemono soup. We talked, which was good, and then went back to the con, where I helped her set up her dealer's table. I went to my room, got a pair of earrings I'd sent her a bug report on a little while ago, and she put on new earwires. This batch of earrings had been sold as experimental, so I thought, correctly, that she would appreciate the bug report; I wasn't expecting free repairs, especially as Elise's usual "guarantee" is "everything will break, sooner or later" (though my earrings seem to get lost more often than wearing out). I think part of Elise's reason for repairing them/replacing the ear wires is that it gave her a chance to examine them and confirm our guess as to what had gone wrong.

This was also a chance to hang out and talk to her, and roadnotes, a bit more. Eventually I wandered over to the Gathering, where I browsed the clothing swap (but found nothing I liked that fit), and got a cookie and some hot water for tea. Someone expressed surprise that I had brought my own tea, but I have accepted that the otherwise excellent hotel cannot boil water. So I had some jasmine pearls, because I'm happy with green tea brewed at temperatures that would be too cool for black.

I went out to dinner with ashnistrike, her wife Nameseeker, and their friends Brin and Gary, who I don't think are on DW or LJ. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby long enough to miss opening ceremonies, as I usually do. (I sometimes enjoy them when I go, but they don't feel important to me, unlike the GOH presentations on Sunday.) In the last couple of years I've fallen very naturally into spending large chunks of time with them at Wiscon; this is one of those friendships that, as bcholmes puts it, are years deep and three days wide. My friendship with Ashnistrike and Nameseeker may be getting a bit wider than that: I do read Ashnistrike's LJ, and am hoping to see Nameseeker here in New York in a couple of weeks. But I wouldn't have any idea of how to find Brin and Gary, whose company I enjoy, other than by asking them to put me in touch.

The only party I specifically remember going to on Friday evening was the LJ/Dreamwidth one, which had user icon stickers, cake, and mimosas (holyoutlaw's idea of a weak drink was still stronger than I'd asked for, but not problematically so). Random conversations, and so to a relatively early bed.

(I didn't get to any programming Friday, unless you count the Gathering.)

The chiya was a mistake, alas.

roadnotes and I had a fine dinner at Chauttara last night, but I yielded to the temptation of caffeine, which meant that after much good talk with her, when I tried to sleep, my arms were badly tensed up. Still, I am here and starting to feel caught up on that connection; Debbie ([Unknown site tag]) and elisem reasonably want us at their panel on the anatomy of friendship tomorrow, partly I think for how long we've known each other.

And then I woke up too early; since my shoulders have been tense and sore all week, I went down to the hot tub. I am now caffeinated, and going to go back, eat last night's leftover lamb by way of breakfast, and then see. Missing both Cattitude and Adrian at the moment, though I am used to having the morning tea alone while everyone else sleeps. Also missing a real keyboard; just take that as read for the weekend.

Con report, Friday of Wiscon 35 (27 May 2011):

I should note up-front that I talked to a lot of cool people during the weekend, and even if I get through to Monday, these posts are in no way complete. (I'm starting this one the Sunday after the con, with some brief notes I made mid-week.) As you know, Bob, Wiscon is a feminist science fiction convention held in Madison, Wisconsin. The con hotel is a block from the state capitol building. This was Wiscon 35, and I've been going almost every year since Wiscon 20.

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I'm leaving for Wiscon in a couple of hours. I am not taking a laptop, and will be online minimally if at all.

I am taking my cell phone, but it's likely to be on vibrate a lot of the time. Your best bet for reaching me at the con, other than random encounters in the lobby or con suite, is probably to leave a note on the magic message board near Registration.

My flight home lands at LaGuardia at 9 p.m. Monday, so don't expect to find me online until Tuesday evening.

I offered to be a moderator on up to two panels that needed moderators. I'm not sure if I forgot to say "but not consecutive" or if that got lost. So, should I accept "Outside the Hero's Journey," "We're All Mad Here: Madness in Fiction," or both? (In either case, I'd be moderating one person I know and like, one I know of but don't know personally, and two I know nothing about, so that's not a basis for deciding.)

I'm mostly thinking aloud, but suggestions are welcome.

That's the end of May. In a couple of weeks, I, cattitude, and adrian_turtle are invited to a seder at my aunt's house. It's tempting, but the timing is a little tight: I'm going to Montreal April 15-18, and the seder is the afternoon of Tuesday the 19th. (Adrian would come down the 19th, stay over with us Tuesday night, and go home Wednesday morning.) It would be a bit tight, but not ridiculously so: I have tickets that should get me home from Montreal before dinnertime on the 18th.

Again, the issue isn't "do I want to do this?" but "these things are closer together than would be ideal for me."

ETA: I have spoken to my aunt, confirmed the timing, and told her I will let her know by Thursday whether we'll be there.