Lest ye be gettin’ tired o’ the panels, let me regale you with tales of Friday night adventures.
This year at the gathering I hung out a little less than I usually do. But I did catch up with some friends, among them Lisa Cohen, Evelyn Brown and Margaret Ronald. It’s always good to see Evelyn, as we were in school together in the early 90s. Linguistics. Yay.
I was toting around the vintage hair book and sharing it. Margaret thinks we should have a vintage hair and make-up slumber party next year. We’ll have to hammer that out, but all I can say is start shopping for Dippity Do, and we’ll get back to you with the details.
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Some Minnesota cool people snagged me for dinner, and we went to an Irish pub. We talked a lot about Scottish country dancing, which might be a weird conversation for some, but almost all of them were taking lessons, and two had become engaged to be married thanks to it. So, like the good Scots girl I am, this did not pose much difficulty for me.
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After dinner, opening ceremonies. And after opening ceremonies. the usual Rabid Transit Karaoke and Dance Party. Which is cool. Because I am into karaoke like many of you are into dark chocolate. This year, Kristin Livdahl continued to man the reins, and her husband Alan DeNiro took over the mc responsibilities from Chris Barzak, who had to go to this little thing called the Nebulas. These guys really rock the planet, and we had a good time. I sang until I was hoarse.
And I had several partners in crime. Julia Rios hung out. Also Margaret and Evelyn. And tons of other cool new folks that I got to yell at for a spell.
Honestly, you really want to check out the karaoke party, if for no other reason than the chance to sing along and maybe dance. They do a great job every year. It’s one of the highlights of the convention for me.
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So, then, I had to see a little of the sixth floor parties. I knew I would find Rachel Swirsky and her husband Mike at the FogCon party. Just as I stepped up, the folks they’d been talking to before took that as their cue to exit. But I noted the name tag of one of them was Scott Lynch. I blurted out how much I enjoyed his books and he stuck around to talk about the characters and how the books came about. There were also some Codexians in the group, along with Rachel and Mike, so overall it was a good conversation that lasted until 1 a.m.
So, some familiar gifts and some new surprises. Tomorrow, we’ll return to panels, focusing on panels about death and Mary Sue.
Catherine
