Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Reporting in

People are so dang annoying. Mr. Guy Down The Hall wants me to buy him a book. I have a copy in the library 15 feet from his office door but it’s too hard for him to find stuff outside of his office. He just “can’t ever find anything.” Anyone remember Lyndon Johnson’s comments on people trying to pour liquids out of boots with instructions written on the heel? Yeah, that would apparently be him. But, I’m not annoyed yet. You see I have another problem. I SHOULD have the book in question in the library but when it came in Mr. But I Have To See It Right Now I Promise To Give It Right Back Honest borrowed it before I could catalog it. That was last frelling year. Now the story will certainly be – who me? I’d never! You’re obviously mistaken.
Annnnnnd, at the same time I’m researching that order, I run across the invoice from last year for 2 things that never got cataloged because my Chicago office simply had to have them right now. I need them today and they’ve never returned them. What do you suppose the chances are I get them back (or, better yet, if they can even find them since they got them last October)?

Sigh. This job would be so much easier without all the people!

Anyway, CopperCon was nice. I’ll have to just go with nice though. I went stuck in the wrong frame of reference. The smallest con I’d been to previously was 1100 attendees. I think CopperCon had something just north of 300. Every con has missing panelists, but in a small con one missing panelist can really kill the hour. And attendance at panels was sketchy too – after all, there were only 300 of us to go around, and I think some people never left the bar.

Small attendance also means there are fewer people in between the idiots and me. This is not a good thing. For instance #1: a panel on humor in the genre should be funny not an exercise in tedium. For instance #2: when attending a Guest of Honor’s reading you should not get out your own papers and shuffle through them so you can edit them for your own reading later --- honest to pete this guy did that to Charlaine Harris! We’re sitting in this circle of 10 people, he’s one person away from her and in the middle of her reading I guess he got bored or his meds ran low, he gets out his backpack, finds his papers, shuffles though them, and proceeds to start reading his own stuff (not out loud, thank you for small favors). She kept glancing over at him, everyone else in the circle is glaring at him, and he’s blithely shuffling away.

There was lots good about CopperCon –
1. great hotel (save for the fact their concierge is more interested in gossiping with coworkers than actually doing her job) – just check out the view from the walkway in front of my suite –
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Check out the really cool lobby ceiling –
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And I was lucky one evening during happy hour to look up and catch the great sun effects in the lobby dome –
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The hotel also featured a wonderful daily, free breakfast buffet and a daily, free happy hour (I can vouch for the margaritas and gin and tonics).

2. lots of great people – everyone was so friendly and welcoming

3. yeah, it was hot – really, really hot – but it was also beautiful
img_4599

4. Charlaine was GoH – you can’t go wrong there!


5. I got some good stitching in! Yeah, I know. It’s about time. Aside from getting mostly done with yet another secret project, I made headway on Vierlanden
Vierlanden 9/11/2007
Vierlancen 9/11/2007

And a little on Midsummer Night’s Dream Quaker Meetinghouse
MND Quaker Meetinghouse 9/10/2007

6. I got books!!!!!!!!!!!! No con is successful without hauling home books you “know you didn’t need.” lol
The Charlaine Pile:
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The Chelsea Quinn Yarbro Pile:
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And the misc pile:
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7 comments:

Unknown said...

Your Vierlanden is BEAUTIFUL. I love the variegated threads in the round motif.

Small conventions. Well, I go to some of them; Midwestcon (125), Conjecture (100), SMOFcon (125), but I don't recommend them to others unless they know a LOT of the people there. Since we know 50% of the people at these cons we always have a great time. For some of them it's the ONLY time we see some of our friends (like seeing the Dennis's at SMOFcon where they are NOT behind a dealer's table or some stitching friends at Midwestcon who never leave the Midwest.) But other than friends, just enjoy the hotel, the time away, and the stitching. We will be at Conjecture (San Diego) at the end of September and Loscon at Thanksgiving.

Ruth said...

Thanks, Kathryn.

I really did like CopperCon, but it took me a while to adjust to an absence of bodies. :) And I met some very nice folks. I actually found people much more friendly there than I at any previous con I've attended. I don't know... it struck me that there were more folks on their own or folks on the look out for people on their own.

No matter what it was nice. I just had to adjust. :)

Unknown said...

About that SMALL Mirabilia, yes, even with the beads the Christmas tree is small! At least compared with Fa La La, which is THIRTY inches wide! What was I thinking? I also have a lot of her mermaids. My husband liked mermaids.

Unknown said...

About that SMALL Mirabilia, yes, even with the beads the Christmas tree is small! At least compared with Fa La La, which is THIRTY inches wide! What was I thinking? I also have a lot of her mermaids. My husband liked mermaids.

Kate said...

Ah, your library sounds like our library here at the museum! "Yes, we *do* have that book. But not here. Maybe Steve in Fish has it? If not, go ask Pat in Marine Inverts. Or Brian." Lol! At least you get to meet a lot of people that way.

Sounds like you had a great con, even with the small crowd.

Vierlanden is looking great... and massive! I love the colours.

Unknown said...

Maui...well. This trip was supposed to be all about the cottage; buying furniture, setting it up, getting a realtor. But instead just before we left San Francisco we got TWO offers for our old house (on the market for 18 months). The one we accepted is a quick close. So quick that we will head back to the mainland on the 26th, go to Conjecture, then turn right around back to Maui so that we can move the furniture out of the old house to the new one. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the amount of work we need to do. We rarely come to Maui and just relax. Maybe next year.

Jeanne said...

Wow Ruth, what fun I had reading up on your blog. Your Vierlanden is gorgeous! I am honored you signed up for my PIF challenge. Could you please email me your snail mail address? My email is in my profile on blog. Then I will start planning what to stitch for you! Thanks.