Albacon!

This is my Albacon report, in lieu of an actual writing update report because . . . well, no writing happened due to math exams I had to give and grade and, of course, Albacon. I'm supposed to be grading and painting even now, but . . . you know . . .

So Friday, I piled into a car with pbray, jennifer_dunne, and an orange cat that did not like motion. We headed off to Albany. On the way, I was supposed to grade papers. I didn't. I chatted and provided a soft warm cushion for the cat. I had the presence of mind to put a coat over my lap so my white jeans (yes, white jeans) did not suddenly become orange jeans due to sheddage. The drive was filled will much discussion of important things that i can't repeat because I would be censored, and MUCH yeepage by the Jennifer. Being in a car with a Yeep is NOT recommended when the Yeep gets set off repeatedly. Aside from the ear bleedage, there's the problem that she's driving and yeeping typically forces her to close her eyes for extended periods of time.

We hit Albany, dropped off the cat at the Jennifer parental units (who are too bizarre to describe . . . and besides, Patricia has the better parental stories). We escaped, hit the hotel, checked in, and they headed to a panel while I hit my room with Neil Clark of clarkesworld fame. We found Patricia, Jennifer, Sam Butler (writer), and Barbara Campbell (writer) and assorted others at the ice cream social, where I was informed that at one point I was almost covered in hot chocolate without being aware of it. Instead of heading toward the obvious "you would have had to lick it off" direction, I played it safer and went with the "but I'm wearing white jeans!" angle. After this we hit the bar, of course. Where, much to everyone's regret . . .

I found a dartboard. Alcohol, darts, and writers, a disaster in the making. We tried to play a two-player game, but got a one-player instead, so practiced up on that. Then we figured out how to do the two-player and a real game ensued. I won. Mainly because my partner (Barbara) could only seem to hit 16 when she managed to hit the dartboard at all. This gave us many, many points. However the other team was MUCH better at hitting the bullseye, which was frightening. I couldn't hit it to save my life.

After that, Barbara and I put up signs for our reading the next day, and then I hit my room. I intended to read but crashed instead.

Saturday was a blast. The panels went well, it was nonstop gossiping with writers and con-goers in between, including tryslora, her husband, Maria at Flights of Fantasy, and so many others I'd better stop now. The reading went well (Barbara and I batted reading snippets and chatting back and forth so it wasn't just a borefest of me reading), I actually had some people show up for the signing, and the few panels I attended and was on were lively. We hit dinner, where we were conned into an Italian restaurant by a waiter (we walked up, decided to go elsewhere, and he hounded us from the door until we came on in). The food was excellent, wine was excellent, and when we got back to the hotel it was party time! I hit all of the parties, but the most active one for me was the TAU party. I'd donated a little cash to the party fund. They had alien chocolates! I crashed at about midnight.

(Notice I skipped over the section in the afternoon where Patricia and Jennifer and I were in bed, I beat Patricia, and she has bruises to prove it. Those at the con know what I'm talking about. We seriously could NOT stop laughing.)

Sunday was more of an "oh, god, I'm tired and I haven't graded anything yet" day. I had another panel, but after that we bailed, managed to grab the cat and depart without being fed by the parental units, and made it home by 5pm. Once arriving here, I was accosted by two women looking for a loft in downtown Binghamton. Somewhere during this conversation, Patricia and Jennifer vanished. (BTW, George thought that the women in the car were you guys, P and J. He told me afterwards that you guys were in fact gay and had a rainbow on the bumper of the car . . . and then I explained that they were not in fact you. He'd seen someone else.) On the drive back I did manage to get something graded.

Speaking of which, I should stop the LJ thing now and either paint or grade. Plus I need to write lectures for the next few days, and quizzes, and I need to tape my new cycling tape.

Hmm . . . I wonder what's new on amazon. . . .