FOGcon! I got to go this year!
Mar. 17th, 2013 01:19 pmYear 1: Junebug was in utero, which meant he had no choice about going where I went. Sigh. Good times, good times.
Year 2: Junebug was in his first year of daycare and handing me many, many diseases, one of which kept me at home.
Year 3: I meant to go Friday night and Saturday. Junebug, of course, came down with something Friday night. So I stayed home with him Friday night. And then I callously handed off a sick baby to Mr. E and flitted off to Walnut Creek all day Saturday. And it was WONDERFUL I regret nothing. I should also point out that despite the fact that I retroactively cancelled my reservation at the Walnut Creek Marriott, once I said "sick baby" they actually gave me my money back. Lovely people, they deserve your business.
So I showed up for my one panel, a group discussion of Nicola Griffith's Slow River, as did the rest of my wonderful co-panelists….and two other people. Both friends of someone on the panel. I'll admit I felt kind of shitty about it at first. But we abandoned the panel structure and pulled chairs into a circle and decided we were going to talk about our damn book, and you know what, it was great. We'd actually met for breakfast beforehand, and I love hanging out with my friends, could have stayed at breakfast all day, but a structured discussion is different. We had a moderator (Lisa Eckstein), and people had notes, and things we wanted to discuss, and a really interesting book, and it's just a kind of interaction that I really don't get enough of. I guess maybe that's what a book club is like when it works right? We discussed:
Anyway, by the end I was kind of happy other people hadn't shown up, because what if they were jerks and then we'd have to be polite and pay attention to the opinions of jerks? I know this is the wrong attitude to take to a con, though.
Let's see. Then a bunch of people went to lunch at the Japanese place, which was great especially since someone brought up The Wind-Up Girl and we ended up doing a group extempore filk on "Why Are There So Many Books About Sex Dolls?" (to the tune of "The Rainbow Connection", obvs.) Then![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cme and I killed a couple of hours hanging out in the bar and catching up. And it was so wonderful. I can't remember the last time I just hung out and shot the shit in a bar all afternoon. I was telling this to a friend of a friend yesterday who has no kids and he said, "Welp, not having one of those then." And I was like YES YES CORRECT DECISION. I mean. There are many, many compensations. But your lazy afternoons are OVER, my friend, at least for quite a while, and if you are really that attached to those, cling to them and cherish them. Don't go the other way.
Went to the UnAward banquet with my friend E, who was trying to get over the fact that she went to one of those How To Write panels that included That One Guy, who brought handouts - handouts! - of his own Very Special Writing Technique, which he handed out to everyone and then proceeded to take over the entire panel like it was the Sudetenland. That's not the part she was trying to get over. She was trying to get over the fact that she'd previously been on an OKCupid date with the guy. And then he followed her on Twitter. Is this a thing now, where you go on terrible failed dates with people and then think "Hey, I know what will make this less awkward! Following them on Twitter!"?
Went to the Liars' Panel, which was great: clear winners were Vylar Kaftan & Ellen Klages. Although I think Ellen may have violated the spirit of the panel with some stories that, although extremely funny, I believe were also true. And then I realized that it was going to be my turn to take care of a sick baby all the next day and I grumblingly and crankily went home.
One last thing to mention, though: at dinner at one point we were discussing early marriages, and someone mentioned what engagement ring you would pick at 17, and I died. Because let me tell you. If I had gotten married in my teens? You damn right I would have had an engagement ring, and that engagement ring would have had a DRAGON on it. And probably a wizard. And the diamond would have been at the end of the wizard's staff. Oh yeah. So many reasons to avoid teen marriage!
Year 2: Junebug was in his first year of daycare and handing me many, many diseases, one of which kept me at home.
Year 3: I meant to go Friday night and Saturday. Junebug, of course, came down with something Friday night. So I stayed home with him Friday night. And then I callously handed off a sick baby to Mr. E and flitted off to Walnut Creek all day Saturday. And it was WONDERFUL I regret nothing. I should also point out that despite the fact that I retroactively cancelled my reservation at the Walnut Creek Marriott, once I said "sick baby" they actually gave me my money back. Lovely people, they deserve your business.
So I showed up for my one panel, a group discussion of Nicola Griffith's Slow River, as did the rest of my wonderful co-panelists….and two other people. Both friends of someone on the panel. I'll admit I felt kind of shitty about it at first. But we abandoned the panel structure and pulled chairs into a circle and decided we were going to talk about our damn book, and you know what, it was great. We'd actually met for breakfast beforehand, and I love hanging out with my friends, could have stayed at breakfast all day, but a structured discussion is different. We had a moderator (Lisa Eckstein), and people had notes, and things we wanted to discuss, and a really interesting book, and it's just a kind of interaction that I really don't get enough of. I guess maybe that's what a book club is like when it works right? We discussed:
- the family dynamics that made Lore such a robot
- how Lore is fascinated by things and has no interest in people: she can talk for half an hour about the light in her apartment but her entire take on her mother and major shaper of her life is "competent"
- the interesting plausibility of the sewage treatment stuff
- whether that one guy was a magical POC (I don't think so, he was completely uninterested in Lore growing as a person or whatever)
- that one terrible scene where Stella takes off her dress to confront her abusive parent and everybody freaks out about whether the vodka she dropped in the fountain might poison the fish
- whether Lore's first sexual experience is with a sex worker or not (so ambiguous! Still not sure!)
- lots of great stuff.
Anyway, by the end I was kind of happy other people hadn't shown up, because what if they were jerks and then we'd have to be polite and pay attention to the opinions of jerks? I know this is the wrong attitude to take to a con, though.
Let's see. Then a bunch of people went to lunch at the Japanese place, which was great especially since someone brought up The Wind-Up Girl and we ended up doing a group extempore filk on "Why Are There So Many Books About Sex Dolls?" (to the tune of "The Rainbow Connection", obvs.) Then
cme and I killed a couple of hours hanging out in the bar and catching up. And it was so wonderful. I can't remember the last time I just hung out and shot the shit in a bar all afternoon. I was telling this to a friend of a friend yesterday who has no kids and he said, "Welp, not having one of those then." And I was like YES YES CORRECT DECISION. I mean. There are many, many compensations. But your lazy afternoons are OVER, my friend, at least for quite a while, and if you are really that attached to those, cling to them and cherish them. Don't go the other way.Went to the UnAward banquet with my friend E, who was trying to get over the fact that she went to one of those How To Write panels that included That One Guy, who brought handouts - handouts! - of his own Very Special Writing Technique, which he handed out to everyone and then proceeded to take over the entire panel like it was the Sudetenland. That's not the part she was trying to get over. She was trying to get over the fact that she'd previously been on an OKCupid date with the guy. And then he followed her on Twitter. Is this a thing now, where you go on terrible failed dates with people and then think "Hey, I know what will make this less awkward! Following them on Twitter!"?
Went to the Liars' Panel, which was great: clear winners were Vylar Kaftan & Ellen Klages. Although I think Ellen may have violated the spirit of the panel with some stories that, although extremely funny, I believe were also true. And then I realized that it was going to be my turn to take care of a sick baby all the next day and I grumblingly and crankily went home.
One last thing to mention, though: at dinner at one point we were discussing early marriages, and someone mentioned what engagement ring you would pick at 17, and I died. Because let me tell you. If I had gotten married in my teens? You damn right I would have had an engagement ring, and that engagement ring would have had a DRAGON on it. And probably a wizard. And the diamond would have been at the end of the wizard's staff. Oh yeah. So many reasons to avoid teen marriage!
