Not a Con Report

[naomikritzer]

I'm home from WisCon. We drove back up on Tuesday, through some rain that was heavy enough at one point to make us pull over to the side of the interstate and sit for a bit in the hopes that it would lighten up.

I was on a couple of programming items -- a panel called "Culture Shock" (about the clash of cultures in SF), one called "Does Your Baby Make You Smarter" which was moderated by scalzi (and apparently research indicates that pregnancy itself makes women smarter but we're all so sleep-deprived that no one can tell), and one on Feminist Fairy Tales (which was also generally on feminist readings of traditional fairy tales, and was an exceptionally intellectually engaging of the panels I was on, despite taking place in the middle of the night). I also read with tltrent, Lyda Morehouse, and Catherynne Valente. Everyone laughed in the right places while I was reading my short story, which was reassuring.

I saw lots of people I generally only see at WisCon but really enjoy seeing, like robgates and lrcutter, and met a bunch of new people, like wicked_wish, who is incredibly fun to hang out with. Like, so much fun that if you could talk her into going to the DMV with you while you waited in line for hours to renew your license, it would probably be the highlight of your week. Even if you'd never met before. She rocks. And apparently my children attacked maevele while she was dropping her son off at the childcare.

My writers' group (Harry LeBlanc, lyda222, swords_and_pens, Bill Henry, Eleanor Arnason, Rosalind Nelson, Sean Murphy, and Kelly McCullough) threw a party on Sunday night. I wore this fabulous green velvet dress that Ed got for me as a Mother's Day gift after I admired it.

My excuse for wearing the dress was that this was also the night of the Fancy Dress party, even if mostly I'd be spending the evening at the party I was co-hosting. It was a lot of fun to wear, despite the fact that the sleeves are so tight I had to carry a pen around to scratch itches with, as I couldn't really bend my arms. (Emily, the woman who made it, put slits in the sleeves so I could unbutton them, and halfway through the evening I unbuttoned the sleeves and left them that way.) I had worried that the dress would be too warm, but we had the air conditioning blasting and I would have frozen my butt off in a lighter dress, actually, so that was fine. Several people wanted to examine how the dress was put together. (They all wanted to know if I'd made it myself, and were clearly eager to talk shop if I had. I can sew buttons back on to shirts but that's about the extent of my sewing skills.) There was also one lady who informed me that this was the perfect neckline for me and I should trade in all my scoop-necked shirts for boat necks. I actually hate most boat-necked shirts, though; they feel precarious. The dress wasn't a stretchy fabric, which was part of why I could deal with the neckline.

Anyway, the purpose of the party was to hand out copies of our chapbook, which is what we did. There were actually people lined up outside the party room waiting for us to open so they could snatch up chapbooks, which was pretty darn cool.

This was the 30th WisCon, and a lot of the former Guests of Honor came back. I will refrain from name-dropping (because for one thing it would take all night) except to note that Ursula LeGuin is funny and down-to-earth and incredibly cool.

Comments

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

Who cares if you had to scratch your itches with pens? You looked AWESOME.

It was great to see you, however briefly, and I can't wait to sink into that chapbook.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Haha! Many thanks, kind lady - and you were no slouch yourself! Thanks for giving me such entertaining company for lunch :)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

So glad that you got to meet each other!

[allochthon.livejournal.com]

You looked spectacular in the dress!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

wicked_wish mentioned that she had a great time when she met you! *sigh* wish I could have been there.