|
Journalcon 2003: Entry 1 If I don’t write about JournalCon immediately, I will never write about it. Every time I go on vacation I end up not writing about it. Let’s see if I can change that this time. (There won't be any pictures or links yet - what, you want it all at once?) I had to get up at 3 AM on Friday in order to shower and get my car to the park and fly in time for my 6:10 AM flight. I didn’t go to bed until after 11 Thursday night. You do the math! I was kind of tired. My flight to Austin was pretty uneventful, however – I had hoped to wear my “Hot, Angry Girls For Dean” tshirt through Bush Airport (I connected through Houston) but it sadly did not arrive in time, so the only thing worth mentioning about the flights is that the wonder of laptop technology meant I could watch The Fellowship of the Ring on the plane. Much better than trying to read at 5 AM. Also, Continental still feeds you on longish flights, which is a good thing. Eliza and I were on the same Houston to Austin leg so we spent that 40 minute plane flight gossiping and generally being excited and fairly obnoxious, if the looks from the guy across the aisle were anything to go by. Neither of us had checked a bag so we hopped a cab, arrived at the hotel, checked in to our room and immediately headed out for a Jamba Juice (her first! I’m so proud). We had awhile to wait for the other girls to arrive so we went out to explore the area. There wasn’t much within walking distance of the hotel besides restaurants and bars (no shopping bounty like in Chicago) but frankly, it didn’t end up mattering much. We headed back to the hotel to wait in our room and ended up watching Days of Our Lives, which we both watched years ago and watch on and off today even though it’s currently so terrible we can hardly believe it. I napped a little in between Eliza flipping to other soap operas and pointing out all the old supercouples that are still around because they can’t get any other acting jobs. Apparently the amount of info I once gleaned from Soap Opera Digest is still lurking in my brain as I remembered character pairings from soaps I’d never watched and names of actors I hadn’t seen in years. Scary. Soon enough Kate arrived and the three of us had lunch and then after that Erin and Amy were there and then Elizabeth and Mo and we were almost complete. Kymm had missed her plane, which I had predicted would happen the night before. Who knew that in post-9/11 air travel times you couldn’t show up 30 minutes prior to your flight and expect to check a bag and board the plane? I mean really, who knew? She tried to blame me for jinxing her but I would have none of that! We wandered down to the registration room and got our badges and swag bags and schedules and stuff and then ultimately ended up back there for the welcome mixer. Here I met many Suspects and assorted other journalers. So many people looked blankly at the name of my journal that I finally wrote “formerly of Pl@nning @ Sky” on my tag because that’s what I was telling everyone, and the blank looks soon ended. There were a lot of freaking people there, though, and I know I didn’t meet anywhere close to everyone. There were a few people there that I wanted to avoid, and I did a fine job of that! Lots of people mean you can blend into the crowd if you so choose and that is what I did. Then there was dinner (Mexican food) and drinking (the hotel bar) and bed. I slept with Mo the whole weekend. I know you’re jealous, and so you should be. The next morning there was more Jamba. We went to Erin’s panel and Mo and I were bad audience members, playing Hangman in my notebook and making each other laugh so hard (silently) that I was crying. There was lunch. There was a bus trip to another part of town for a little shopping where I bought some used books to sell and a teeny embroidered black purse. We came back and went to one of Rob’s panels. (Yes, we only went to two panels all weekend.) There was dinner at the fabulous Roaring Fork and two excellent one-woman shows and some hilarious videos, and then there was karaoke. And drama! What would Journalcon be without drama? And there was the attempt to find late-night food that wasn’t pizza. Somehow the girls survived an entire weekend without any member of the To family, and I have no idea how. And then there was more bed. Sunday there were hangovers and more conversations and lunch and much discussion of the drama from the night before, fueled by new information! Oh, the journally drama of it all. Sadly there were then a series of goodbyes, one after the other. Kate and Kymm and I flew to Houston together, and then Kymm was on to New York and we were on to Philly. The Continental planning was not so great on the last leg – we had to run to make our connection and barely made it with two minutes to spare. That was not fun. We watched The Two Towers on that flight and had to put the laptop away in the middle of the Battle for Helm’s Deep. (That was just mean.) I drove home and saw Greg and collapsed into bed, and here I am. I know I skimmed over a lot of the actual activities, but Journalcon is not really about the activities. It’s about the people. Let’s talk about them. I spent most of the weekend mostly with people I already knew. I knew that this is what would happen, and I saw it happening all over the place so I knew it wasn’t just us. Journalcon is about meeting new people, but for a lot of us, it’s getting to see really good friends that we get to see maybe once every year or two if we are lucky. However, I wasn’t completely insular. I met! I chatted! I re-met people I’d met in Chicago! It was good. And I must gush. Okay, this is way long. I must gush in the next entry. Which will arrive tomorrow! |
