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Capclave and related events trip report
Oct. 21st, 2002 11:54 amThursday night, MAB and I met at South Station at around 3:30 for a 4:15 train. We bought drinks for the trip (the newsstand in South Station has much better prices than the cafe car on the train) and then found a redcap to take our luggage - we've found that the price of the tip is very worth it, as they board you half an hour early. We boarded and got settled on the Acela express train. This was the first time we were taking the express, and we were quite taken by the more comfortable seating and the seatings for foursomes that have a large, fold-down table between the two sets of seats (we only had companions for the short stretch between New Haven and Newark, NJ, and that was due to another train breaking down). The trip was mostly uneventful, except that, starting at New Haven the train was behind schedule and much more crowded than originally anticipated due to the train in front of us (175, the all-reserved non-express from Boston to DC) having broken down and all the passengers of 175 being reticketed for our train. So we didn't get to Union Station until 11:30 or to our friends' place in Silver Spring until midnight, at which time we grunted at our friends and fell asleep.
In the morning, our hosts had already left for work by the time we got up. After breakfast, MAB and I headed down into DC to the National Museum of American History to see the September 11th exhibit they have, plus other exhibits that are there. We spent about 4 hours wandering around the museum, but then we headed back to Silver Spring to head to the hotel for the convention.
After another brief visit with our hosts, we were driven to the hotel and we checked into both the hotel and the convention. Some time was spent getting settled into the room, but then we headed out to see who we might find wandering the halls. We ran into some friends and vortexed for a short period ("vortexing" is a term I coined to describe the phenomenon at conventions of stopping to talk to one friend briefly and getting caught in a conversational vortex that expands and contracts in terms of participants and that sucks up more time than the participants realize). We had to go and prepare for shabbat and try to hook up with my sister and brother-in-law and nephew, as they were bringing food for us.
We had a small but lovely shabbat dinner with the aforementioned relatives plus two others and then MAB had a panel from 7-8 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a fun panel, but we were very tired afterwards, so after a brief wandering to say hi to people, we basically went back to our room and collapsed.
On Saturday morning, MAB had a panel from 10-11 and then we headed out to meet our friends (the ones who had hosted us for Thursday night) for shabbat lunch at their house. Actually, we met them at their synagogue, and I had the opportunity to re-meet a cousin of my father's who davens by the same synagogue as our friends. Lunch was a lot of fun, but we couldn't linger long as MAB had a 2:30-3:30 panel back at the convention.
We spent the rest of the day at the convention, going to panels and seeing people. MAB had a reading at 7, which went well, and then there was an autographing party from 9-10:15-ish, which we followed with party hopping around the various room parties. Eventually, though, we went back to our room with a friend just to shmooze away from the loud parties, and eventually we went to sleep.
On Sunday, we got up early and packed, and then MAB had a 10-11 panel. Right after the panel, we did one last pass in the dealer's room (I bought the second book of Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series, as I'm greatly enjoying book 1 and had already bought book 3, plus I bought two pairs of earrings) and then checked out of the hotel and went to catch our train home.
The train trip home was uneventful and the train even came in early to Boston. We went home, called and e-mailed those we'd told we'd let know when we were home, and then basically collapsed. It was a fun trip, but extremely exhausting.
In the morning, our hosts had already left for work by the time we got up. After breakfast, MAB and I headed down into DC to the National Museum of American History to see the September 11th exhibit they have, plus other exhibits that are there. We spent about 4 hours wandering around the museum, but then we headed back to Silver Spring to head to the hotel for the convention.
After another brief visit with our hosts, we were driven to the hotel and we checked into both the hotel and the convention. Some time was spent getting settled into the room, but then we headed out to see who we might find wandering the halls. We ran into some friends and vortexed for a short period ("vortexing" is a term I coined to describe the phenomenon at conventions of stopping to talk to one friend briefly and getting caught in a conversational vortex that expands and contracts in terms of participants and that sucks up more time than the participants realize). We had to go and prepare for shabbat and try to hook up with my sister and brother-in-law and nephew, as they were bringing food for us.
We had a small but lovely shabbat dinner with the aforementioned relatives plus two others and then MAB had a panel from 7-8 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a fun panel, but we were very tired afterwards, so after a brief wandering to say hi to people, we basically went back to our room and collapsed.
On Saturday morning, MAB had a panel from 10-11 and then we headed out to meet our friends (the ones who had hosted us for Thursday night) for shabbat lunch at their house. Actually, we met them at their synagogue, and I had the opportunity to re-meet a cousin of my father's who davens by the same synagogue as our friends. Lunch was a lot of fun, but we couldn't linger long as MAB had a 2:30-3:30 panel back at the convention.
We spent the rest of the day at the convention, going to panels and seeing people. MAB had a reading at 7, which went well, and then there was an autographing party from 9-10:15-ish, which we followed with party hopping around the various room parties. Eventually, though, we went back to our room with a friend just to shmooze away from the loud parties, and eventually we went to sleep.
On Sunday, we got up early and packed, and then MAB had a 10-11 panel. Right after the panel, we did one last pass in the dealer's room (I bought the second book of Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner series, as I'm greatly enjoying book 1 and had already bought book 3, plus I bought two pairs of earrings) and then checked out of the hotel and went to catch our train home.
The train trip home was uneventful and the train even came in early to Boston. We went home, called and e-mailed those we'd told we'd let know when we were home, and then basically collapsed. It was a fun trip, but extremely exhausting.
