G2005 Con Report, part 1

[mandolin]

Okay, here's the first part of the Gathering 2005 con report I promised. I only took notes for Friday, Saturday and Sunday - bad Mandi, no biscuit - so it'll be a bit disjointed.

This year's primary lesson - When attending a con in a place like Vegas, take off an ENTIRE WEEK. Five and a half days is not enough. Also, to everyone else who was there, if I drove you nuts playing with my hair, sorry. It's already a long-standing nervous habit, and the day before I left, I got fed up with my hair and had it chopped back to chin-length - about three inches shorter, which made the tendency even worse than usual.

Tuesday, July 26th

Or, the Day Mandi Went Crazy.

Left the house at 5:50 am to get to the hairdresser - it was on the way to work, and I had a 6:15 am appointment because I was squeezed in at the last minute and my hairdresser knows where I work. Yeah, I'm nuts, but I was short on time and made it to work by 7:15 anyway. Ha!

I left work as soon as the baby shower ended, dropped off the cable modem at the Comcast office and then went to spend three straight hours packing up the last of my apartment. It was nearly 4 pm when I realized there was NO WAY that I was going to get it cleaned up as much as I wanted and get back to the house by 5, so I gave up, took a last dip in the pool and turned my keys into the rental office. jennies made it to my place just as I was unloading, and after the last box of junk was in the house, we went out to Sorrento's for dinner. Jen was not attending the con, but was coming along for the excuse to go to Vegas - since she'd been trying to set up a trip to Vegas for two years now but had been thwarted the last couple tries.

This day was notable largely because it showed how crazy things were up to that point (which is why I had no time or means to throw a costume together, so there) and because of the birthday present she gave me: a bunch of Aero bars and fruit gems. Apparently there's a store in Annapolis that sells Irish candy. *squee!* That, and the quote: "I graduated from Hood. I have a degree in bitch."

Wednesday, July 27

Actually got up with time to spare - around 6 am - and managed to make breakfast with the last of the eggs before we hopped in the car and headed to the airport. It took a little longer than anticipated to get to the Econopark place, and the line for Security was longer than it was when I went to Columbus last year, but fortunately the line was fast and we got to the gate in time. We didn't get hassled by Security at all. I guess they didn't see anything threatening about us. (Of course, they don't know us, and Jen left her knife at my place, but that's neither here nor there...)

Got a connecting flight in Charlotte and then settled in for the long haul to Vegas. I didn't manage to sleep on the plane - although the squishy neck pillow Mom gave me was a nice thing to have - so I watched the in-flight movie, Miss Congeniality 2, on and off once it became apparent the creativity demons weren't going to be cooperating. Apparently, the colored notebook wasn't dark enough to pick up the gel pens and they didn't like that. What I saw of the movie was mildly amusing, and I spent the second half of the four-hour flight actually scripting and completing a comic strip. (Although now I want to redraw some parts.)

I decided to call Kathy when we landed, figuring that she was already at the hotel - but she was actually at the airport at the time due to travel delays. After a bit of fumbling around and walking RIGHT PAST Kathy with our cellphones to our ears, we did manage to meet up. I place part of the blame on the airport design, though - it was like the world's worst designed shopping mall. The immediate presence of slot machines and the sheer number of people holding up signs for arriving passengers was fairly amusing, though. It was a good thing we did meet up with her, since I had no idea where the Palace Station shuttle was and - as I would soon discover - I needed to hang on to my cash. So we waited for the shuttle and chatted with Princess Alexandria for a bit.

We got into the hotel with no real problems, Kathy got our names put on the room, and we went and grabbed lunch at one of the many restaurants in the casino - La Guadalajara, I think - and got caught up. We saw Allaine and Mooncat in the lobby, and Seth (I think we saw Seth first, but I can't remember).

Back in the room, Kathy had boxes and boxes of con T-shirts that the bell desk had sent up, so Jen and I helped her fold and sort shirts to free up her afternoon that much quicker. Kathy also gave me a combination housewarming/birthday present that was really neat - a big book called "Dare to Repair" with how-to instructions for most home repair jobs. I suspect I'll be making use of it before long.

We took a minute to establish just where the convention rooms were by cutting through the highly distracting casino, and drooled over the bakery selection they were taunting us with at the (unopened) Grand Cafe. This, incidentally, gave Kathy an idea to prank Greg with banana creme pie, but that never panned out. (Greg, you dodged a bullet this year.)

After waffling over just what we were going to do (it's Vegas, there's almost too many choices), we ended up going to the booking desk to find out just what was available for same-day tickets. There wasn't much - every Cirque d' Soleil show was sold out, and it was too early to consider either of the male revues I'd been recommmended - so we wound up going to see "V - The Ultimate Variety Show" at the V Theater in the Aladdin/Desert Passage mall. Highly entertaining, and surprisingly amazing for a last minute choice. The acts that really stood out for me were the Russian acrobats/contortionists and the impressionist who... well, Kathy put it best, he must have been raised on hours of "The Gong Show."

Afterwards, we had a free dinner at Lombardi's, and I felt bad about being too full to finish all the food. It was a nice meal, marred only by the sad news Kathy got over the phone. (Rest in peace, Serena.)

We wandered around Desert Passage for a bit, and then I spotted the display window by Department 56 - a display that I will henceforth refer to as the Yellow Duck Collection of Doom. (It was called the "Just Ducky" collection, but I like my name better.) Yellow duck umbrellas, suitcases, banks, mugs, even a toilet brush holder with webbed feet. I pointed it out to Jen, and we immediately had to go in and add to her already well-stocked bathroom of yellow ducks. I saw some signs for coupon books for AAA members, and having brought my AAA card on the off-chance we took a car trip and had something happen, I went and picked one up.

Walked back to the Tropicana, pausing every so often to play camera Nazi, since Jen was putting her Nikon to good use (and I decided that I would just try to pool photos with her since I'm sure she got the best shots of the Strip), and I think we crashed after 1 am.

Thursday, July 28

Actually got up around 8 am and took my time getting ready. Kathy had taken off an hour ago for con stuff, but, lazy bum that I am, I slept another hour. Since the con wouldn't start til Friday, Jen and I decided to take the shuttle to the Strip and check out the Luxor and Excalibur and do a preliminary sweep to see what was out there. We hit Starbucks for breakfast since it took credit cards and because I wasn't sure how much I had in the Bank of America account (the only ATM card I brought). Said hi to a few more people I recognized - I still wasn't taking any notes for whatever reason - and went out to wait for the shuttle.

It was 100 degrees in Las Vegas, and absolutely beautiful. No, really. What you have to understand is that we came from Maryland, where the humidity was thick as pea soup, and in Annapolis the humidity drove the heat index up to 120 degrees. So this dry heat was nice by comparison. The only problem was that I got dehydrated more easily without knowing it ("Oh, I'm dehydrated, that's why I have this migraine!") and had to put on SPF 30 so I didn't turn into a lobster. (Jen was fine, but the Swedish and Dutch part of my heritage outweighed the Italian in terms of sun tolerance.) We explored the Excalibur and the Luxor, hit a couple of gift shops, and debated whether or not we had time to do Reboot: The Ride.

We headed north from then on, poking in shops and stopping in the Desert Passage mall to make use of my coupons and spend some more time investigating the Yellow Duck Collection of Doom. We went around the entire mall, stopped in Godiva and chatted with a guy who had to go to Baltimore for a con, and then headed north once more, taking more photos as we went. We made it all the way up to Treasure Island to find out when the ill-fated Sirens shows were scheduled, and checked out the Venetian, although we concluded that the wait for the gondola rides would necessitate doing that later. By that time, our feet were trying to go on strike. Fortunately, the OTHER shuttle stop at the Fashion Show mall was about a block away, and that saved us from having to get a cab or limp all the way back to the Tropicana.

So we got back, crashed, rested our feet, and I got a quick shower and changed for the Tournament of Kings show that the group was going to. We met up at the Con Suite, and I was promptly tackled by Dancer (it's tradition at this point), and finally got to say hi to just about everybody as we piled into the con suite and they attempted to handle things in an orderly fashion. Along with the ticket, I got my packet early - and was pleased to discover that yes, I did order a T-shirt. I'd registered at G2004 and could not remember for the life of me if I'd gotten a T-shirt. So, yay. G2003's shirt design is still my favorite, but I rather liked the gray T-shirt with the playing card design.

Tournament of Kings... well, if you've been to a Medieval Times, this was much the same thing. Good fun, though - they seated us in the DRAGON section, which means we got to cheer for the bad guys. Naturally, the villains' cheering section was the loudest. The food was pretty good and so was the company, and it really is fun to cheer for the bad guys even though you know King Christopher the bland hero's going to win. We made a lot of noise, had good food, and I got in a couple illegal photos. And some of the kings were pretty easy on the eyes (well, Russia wasn't my type, but he was an unrepentant cheater and was thus fun).

Afterwards, Jen and I were too wired to just go back to the hotel, so we ended up in Chris Rogers' car to make a late tour of some of the sites of Vegas. We managed to catch the Bellagio water show, and I got lots of pictures as Jen operated the video camera with one hand and the Nikon in the other. I also got a photo of the world's largest chocolate fountain, which was protected behind glass for obvious reasons. But we weren't so lucky at Treasure Island; we got there too late to be admitted to the 11:30 Sirens show. So we decided to go on to the Mirage to catch the midnight volcano eruption before heading back to the hotel and crashing. I think Jen and I crashed before Kathy did, because I didn't hear about the missing cell phone til the next morning.

Next: The actual con begins, and I have notes to work off of instead of trying to rely on my Swiss-cheese memory. :)

Comments

[ecogryff.livejournal.com]

the King of Austria (where we were seated when we went) was very easy on the eyes. mmmmm. : )

and the Bellagio water show is absolutely amazing. i could watch it for hours...well, if it didn't make me need to use the ladies' room too often. ; )

[violetbloom.livejournal.com]

He he. The Yellow Duck Collection of Doom... Brilliant.

Mmm. Did you get a picture of the urepentant cheater of a Russian king because he sounds like MY type.

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

WOW! Sounds like I'm going to have to try to make it to Vegas one of these days!