Macbeth Hath Murdered Sink!
Jan. 19th, 2004 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gnomiArisia was a blast, if exhausting. Between mabfan and me, we had 15 panel items, so our attendance at panels was dictated by what either he or I was on. Thus, we missed much of the rest of the con (having only a one-hour lunch break and a one-hour dinner break on Saturday).
Things we never made it to this Arisia include:
-- The dealer's room
-- The art show
-- Other people's panels
So if you were there and I didn't see you, I apologize and I hope to catch you at whatever our next intersecting convention is.
Here are some highlights (as I can remember them) of the weekend:
-- Shabbat dinner: due to the tightness of our schedule (shabbat started at 4:20; 3 of the people at dinner were on the same 7 PM panel), dinner began promptly at 5 and ended promptly at 6:30 (I heard a number of "We're on time? Isn't this a Jewish event?" comments). Thanks to all who attended and all who helped in the set-up and clean-up processes. And to all who dropped bymabfan and my room to check out the bathroom sink. I learned a valuable home-decorating lesson this weekend: don't put red-veined marble in one's bathroom sink. Here's the deal (and it explains the title of this post): after dinner, I carried a bunch of stuff from the room where we'd had dinner into MAB's and my room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something disturbing, and I yelped. No exaggeration, it looked like someone had been murdered in the bathroom sink (magid, mamadeb, farwing, will any of you corroborate this assertion?). After a moment, when I took a closer look, I realized that it was simply the pattern of red veins in the off-white marble. But boy, was it scary for a brief moment.
-- Panels, panels, panels: Many they were, but fun. I saw a large number of people who knew to find me and/or MAB by looking at the program grid and tracking us down in whatever room we had just had a panel. I was on panels with all sorts of fun people, which is always a good thing. Debate was lively, and much information was gleaned and shared. And to my surprise, we had the best turn-out I'd ever seen for a language-related panel when, on Saturday afternoon, I moderated a panel on "The Future of Language."
-- Birthday gathering: Lots of fun, with people wandering in, staying for a while, and then heading off. We had a number of people who came and joined us as we watched the masquerade...or, at least, attempted to watch the masquerade. Silly camera-operator-type people. :-) Finally, after a well-placed phone call by MAB, we were able to actually watch the meat of the half-time show and not just the reactions of the presenter of the half-time show. And after the masquerade, more people dropped by to help me celebrate my birthday. Thank you, one and all, for helping me make my birthday a real celebration.
-- Sunday: MAB and I didn't get to sleep until about 1:15 AM, and then we got up at 7 to finish packing. We met a friend at 7:30 for a run to Brookline to (a) bring our luggage home and (b) have breakfast. A lovely time was had, and then we were brought back to the hotel for checking out of the hotel and then more panels. He had a 10 AM, I had an 11 AM, at 12 we did our one brief trip to Dealer's Row, where MAB bought me a lovely pair of earrings from Angelwear Creations (an annual Arisia tradition for us; birthday gifts of sparklies are a lovely thing) and other random things (including talking to a friend we'd barely had 2 seconds to say hello to during the rest of the convention). At 1 PM, MAB and I together had a panel, and then I had a 2 PM. We left the convention at 3, went home, did some non-convention-related errands, and then metmamadeb and jonbaker for dinner at our local kosher Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we browsed at Barnes & Noble (we're SF fans; what do you expect from us?) and then headed back to the hotel, where we'd arranged to meet some friends for drinks - due to the craziness of our respective schedules, we hadn't had time to meet up until after the convention was officially over. So we spent a lovely 2 hours with them, then made a brief appearance at the Dead Dog party* and then headed home to sleep.
In all, a great weekend and a fun convention.
*The Dead Dog party is the party run by and for the committee and staff and others involved in running the convention, sort of a "whew; we all survived" kind of thing.
mabfan and me, we had 15 panel items, so our attendance at panels was dictated by what either he or I was on. Thus, we missed much of the rest of the con (having only a one-hour lunch break and a one-hour dinner break on Saturday).Things we never made it to this Arisia include:
-- The dealer's room
-- The art show
-- Other people's panels
So if you were there and I didn't see you, I apologize and I hope to catch you at whatever our next intersecting convention is.
Here are some highlights (as I can remember them) of the weekend:
-- Shabbat dinner: due to the tightness of our schedule (shabbat started at 4:20; 3 of the people at dinner were on the same 7 PM panel), dinner began promptly at 5 and ended promptly at 6:30 (I heard a number of "We're on time? Isn't this a Jewish event?" comments). Thanks to all who attended and all who helped in the set-up and clean-up processes. And to all who dropped by
mabfan and my room to check out the bathroom sink. I learned a valuable home-decorating lesson this weekend: don't put red-veined marble in one's bathroom sink. Here's the deal (and it explains the title of this post): after dinner, I carried a bunch of stuff from the room where we'd had dinner into MAB's and my room. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something disturbing, and I yelped. No exaggeration, it looked like someone had been murdered in the bathroom sink (magid, mamadeb, farwing, will any of you corroborate this assertion?). After a moment, when I took a closer look, I realized that it was simply the pattern of red veins in the off-white marble. But boy, was it scary for a brief moment. -- Panels, panels, panels: Many they were, but fun. I saw a large number of people who knew to find me and/or MAB by looking at the program grid and tracking us down in whatever room we had just had a panel. I was on panels with all sorts of fun people, which is always a good thing. Debate was lively, and much information was gleaned and shared. And to my surprise, we had the best turn-out I'd ever seen for a language-related panel when, on Saturday afternoon, I moderated a panel on "The Future of Language."
-- Birthday gathering: Lots of fun, with people wandering in, staying for a while, and then heading off. We had a number of people who came and joined us as we watched the masquerade...or, at least, attempted to watch the masquerade. Silly camera-operator-type people. :-) Finally, after a well-placed phone call by MAB, we were able to actually watch the meat of the half-time show and not just the reactions of the presenter of the half-time show. And after the masquerade, more people dropped by to help me celebrate my birthday. Thank you, one and all, for helping me make my birthday a real celebration.
-- Sunday: MAB and I didn't get to sleep until about 1:15 AM, and then we got up at 7 to finish packing. We met a friend at 7:30 for a run to Brookline to (a) bring our luggage home and (b) have breakfast. A lovely time was had, and then we were brought back to the hotel for checking out of the hotel and then more panels. He had a 10 AM, I had an 11 AM, at 12 we did our one brief trip to Dealer's Row, where MAB bought me a lovely pair of earrings from Angelwear Creations (an annual Arisia tradition for us; birthday gifts of sparklies are a lovely thing) and other random things (including talking to a friend we'd barely had 2 seconds to say hello to during the rest of the convention). At 1 PM, MAB and I together had a panel, and then I had a 2 PM. We left the convention at 3, went home, did some non-convention-related errands, and then met
mamadeb and jonbaker for dinner at our local kosher Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we browsed at Barnes & Noble (we're SF fans; what do you expect from us?) and then headed back to the hotel, where we'd arranged to meet some friends for drinks - due to the craziness of our respective schedules, we hadn't had time to meet up until after the convention was officially over. So we spent a lovely 2 hours with them, then made a brief appearance at the Dead Dog party* and then headed home to sleep.In all, a great weekend and a fun convention.
*The Dead Dog party is the party run by and for the committee and staff and others involved in running the convention, sort of a "whew; we all survived" kind of thing.
