rivers_bend

I'm finally sitting down to do a Wincon Week post. I'm hoping I won't have forgotten everything already. D: This is what happens when you let your life get all busy and stuff ;P


In the run-up to Wincon I moved and started a new job, so everything was a bit chaotic. But Wednesday night after work I went down to my parents' house (where half my stuff still was) and spent the night there so it would be easier to get to the airport on Thursday morning. I had anticipated it being easy and not just easier, but they were out of town, so I had to take the train and BART. My train was cancelled, but fortunately I had left enough time that I didn't miss my flight despite that. Once I got to the airport I was all thrilled and filled with excitement, instead of stressed and freaking. Yay for fangirl anticipation! I landed about 4pm and went to baggage claim to meet balefully and lazy_daze and FORTUNATELY loveflyfree who I had TOTALLY forgotten to text/email about shuttle sharing. I mentioned the stress, right?

After ridiculous numbers of conversations with the shuttle people, we got on the shuttle and found we were sharing with another fangirl, and a lone, poor woman NOT going to Wincon, who had to put up with our squee and flailing and Wincesting.

I had grabbed some fruit and brie and bagel bites at the airport in SF, but forgotten to bring lunch for the plane. By the time I got to baggage claim, all there was was Starbucks, so I got some cake of some kind. Then they gave us a warm chocolate chip cookie when we checked in. By the time I was putting my bags in the room I was shaking with sugar consumption. And, see? I've forgotten already what exactly happened. There was registration, and hugging and somewhere in there some food at the Sports Grille. Sam and Lucy and I gathered a rotating gang of fangirls around us, including dauntdraws, nola_rue, missyjack, elizah_jane, aggybird, and other people who I loved talking SPN with but whose recaps I haven't read so haven't had my memory prompted. I also ran into scarlett in the ladies' and we squeed about my current true love, Adam Lambert.

We totally missed the Madmen Cocktail happy hour, I think. But I did get lots of hugs from nu_breed and we did run into elizah jane and aggybird and beckaandzac later and hear about their crazy Denny's adventures :D :D

Friday we all made it to breakfast (Sam and Lucy didn't do a lot of breakfasting last year) because wendy had suggested there might be Sam discussion over waffles, and then went to the opening ceremonies. I lurked around trying to see as many fangirls as possible, went to the Fan Art workshop and had a great time, ate lunch with the awesome poisontaster, coiledsoul and ethrosdemon (though maybe that was Saturday? eeef) and generally rolled around in the awesomness of fangirls some more. Then I went to the Vid show, which I always love. It was fantastic having it be multi-fandom this year, though I didn't know a lot of the fandoms. That night it was SPN viewing time! I cuddled up on a bed with drvsilla and beckaandzac and there was singing and a room full of amazing. Probably best SPN viewing ever.

Saturday I managed to lurk in one of the common areas trying to type up some fic and chatting with people and tackle-glomping deirdre_c when she arrived. Then I went to the tin hat pageant and Fic Idol, where I spent most of the time looking at Adam and Tommy gifs on my netbook and cuddling up with becka in order to block out the scarring fic :D That night I went with nine others to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, and after quite a long wait and some staff-wrangling by deirdre_c we finally got tables. There may or may not have been straw-wrapper fights with the other table. There was definitely delicious food shared with beckaandzac.

Then it was PROM. omg Prom at Wincon is THE BEST EVER. All those women dancing and drinking and laughing and dressed up and being totally gorgeous. There are no words, really. One of the highlights was flawedamythyst and saltburnbaby dressed as demons, mostly because it's been ages since I saw Amy, and I'd been dying to meet saltburnbaby. ignited and aggybird were other costume favorites for me. So very much awesome, though. There was rather more drinking of alcohol than I usually do, and after shutting down the Con Suite, missyjack, elizah_jane and Sam and Lucy and I retired to our room and talked until 5 in the morning.

I wasn't in too bad shape the next day, but Lucy was really suffering. Despite that, she made it to our Beta panel. I'd gone to the pro writing workshop that morning, which was useful and then we did a bit of planning in time to do the Beta Shop at 2:30. Only a few people came, but that meant that we could all talk and have discussion, and I think it went really well. I also got to meet appols and talk to her about Arthur/Eames fic, which was very happy-making :D Unlike the fact that people were leaving already, so I was having to say goodbye. D:

Went to the "stragglers" dinner Sunday night where wendy and I had a table on a raised mezzanine which meant we could look down to where all the other fangirls were having a wonderful time. We got a little nostalgic and even a bit teary-eyed about the awesomness of fangirls, and it was really awesome to get some time to chat with her. We retired again to the ConSuite where a group of us laughed for like two hours about clowns shoving people under tables and flailed about all kinds of things. It was a truly awesome night.

Then, as happens every year, Monday morning rolled around. I'd missed saying goodbye to nola_rue the night before, so she was awesome and came back to the hotel before driving home, so I got another hug. Then there was packing, and meeting fangirls in the lobby for more hugs and to catch a taxi to O'Hare with missyjack so we could pick up our rental car.

And that was the beginning of the epic 5-day road trip from Chicago to San Francisco. Which is where I'll leave you now, because I have errands to run, and I'd like to post this today.