Friday:
Already noted with the sick. It was bad enough that I almost didn't go to the con, but a nap and a handful of pharmeceuticals and I was better. Still nausea, but the headache was liveable.
Stopped at Cub to pick up some foodstuffs for the weekend. Packed the crock pot, so I got a couple of cans of beans, some barbecue sauce, and some polish sausage. I figured that the concoction would be good warm food and would save me from eating at the restaurant all the time.
Got to the hotel at about 4:00, which was later than I wanted to. I had brought a furniture dolly, and with the cooler and stuff, I was able to have a stack of stuff that rolled.
Got the room keys, got the registration and badge, did preregistration for next year, and headed up to the elevator. Super thanks to Ishmael, who managed to get me in the short tower with a single despite the missing hotel request.
[Quick note here: having the preregistration forms pre-printed is a stroke of genius.]
Elevator. Elevator has gap. Gap is just wide enough for wheels on cart to flip sideways and dump my carefully piled stack all over the elevator floor. Get to the 7th floor and start piling stuff from the elevator floor just outside the elevator. Unfortunately the elevator decided that it wanted to go back down so the doors started to shut. I stuck my arm in the elevator to keep the door open, because every elevator in existence has sensors on the door to keep it from closing on unsuspecting children and limbs and stuff.
Except this one. The elevator shut on my arm and didn't open. The female voice started scolding "please let the elevator doors close" when half my stuff is outside on the floor. I hit the "door open" button. Nothing. I hit the 7th floor button. Nothing. I start to panic and yank my arm back inside; the doors close, and I'm frantically hitting buttons trying to get the doors to open. No go.
The elevator meandered its way down to the first floor stopping at pretty much every floor both going up and going down. I finally made it back up in just a few minutes; and all of my stuff was just fine. I re-piled and made it to the room. Then I remembered that I was parked in the loading zone, so I grabbed my keys and headed back down. I ended up parking in bumfuck west, knowing full well that I wouldn't be going back to the 'Sploder.
Finally, I was settled in. I brought the DVD player to hook up to the hotel TV in case I wanted to show Pray for Daylight, though I figured chances were slim. I went to prep the food for the crock pot and discovere dthat I had forgotten a can opener, so all I had was barbecue sauce and polish sausage. I dumped em all in the crock pot and left it on low.
The facade was awesome, particularly considering the last-minute panic in getting it done.
After that, kind of fuzzy. Opening Ceremony seemed just a touch off for some reason. I know that I hit the hot tub at some point (which was really not hot, and was best described as merely tepid), I ran into
theatre_nerd and we chatted in the tub for a bit. I was still not relaxing, and could feel my body clenching. Hugs from dddragonlady were unbelievably good. Eventually I went back to the room and crashed. I think it was around 1:30.
Saturday:
Up and awake early enough to catch a panel on making sets on the cheap. I knew 3 of the 4 panelists already, and they had some cool stuff to show. I was especially impressed with the styrofoam wood, which is a technique I had never seen before and is impressive as hell. The rock was also cool, and looked real from just inches away.
There were more panels, but there was again the sick coming back, and I decided to not fight it and I just went back to the room and lay down for a nap.
Turns out that was a good idea. I woke up in the afternoon feeling a whole lot better and was able to enjoy things much more.
A few more panels, an escape to TGIFridays for pot stickers, discovering the Source's DVD collection in the dealers room, Soylent Blue (which was more musical than anticipated). Met up with the NerdPod, and got a call from Sasha, convinced her to come out and cruise room parties. And lo, did she come, and she was indeed sexy. And we all cruised, and ran into a lovely lady who I haven't seen for a couple years despite being at the same convention.
I shall call her Artemis in an attempt to protect her identity until such time as she lets me know it's okay to release her real identity. (Actually I kind of like the name Artemis. It's somehow fitting.)
There is something of a story there, but it is not particularly for public consumption. I shall just say that it was a lot nicer than I was expecting. I found out that Artemis reads my livejournal, which was a pleasant surprise. There was dancing, there was drinking (though I was still in diet Coke land), and there was a lot of laughing.
Eventually, folks got tired. Sasha went up to my room to crash, Artemis left to another friend's room (despite my offer of cuddlesome company). I went upstairs shortly thereafter to discover Sasha sort of passed out on the floor outside my bathroom. Not actually unconscious, but in that room-spinny state that is familiar to me from years past. I got her a pillow and blanket, took off her boots, and went to bed, where I tossed and turned for a few hours before finally passing into the great darkness.
Sunday:
Sunday I woke up way too late because the phone was ringing and I couldn't figure out how to work it. After a few rings I got it: it was
avindair and his cheery self. Of course, this woke up Sasha, who had managed to crawl her way to the couch. After a few minutes, we descended the elevator to meet with the NerdPod, said goodbyes to Sasha, and I returned to the room to shower and pack. I managed to get everything together and check out at 12:03 (noon checkout), everything strapped to the cart heavy-duty style, and hauled all the crap out to the 'Sploder but for a bag with dry clothes, some fruit and diet coke, and whatever essentials I figured I'd need. Then I deposited myself in the tepid hot tub for a few hours-- actually until almost 4:30 (the tub did warm up some by then, and the floaty was good). Then I headed off to the closing ceremony.There was a line. I don't ever remember a line for the closing before, or at least not one that long.
After that, a douse over to TGIFridays where I met up with a bunch of folks. I was finally starving, so I managed to down a bowl of the chickienoodle soup, a bacon cheeseburger and fries. Not exactly healthy, but I was Starvin Marvin. Then back to Rex for movies until quite late-- somewhere around 1:30-2:00 they shut down. I wandered into the room of storytelling but decided that I was too bushed and headed out to the 'Sploder and home.
Sad that the con was over.
Unpacked when I got home. Sadie eventually heard me downstairs and came to greet me and get petted and cuddle for a bit, until I fell asleep. And sleep I did: I managed to sleep through two alarm clocks and finally woke up at about 10:30 this morning.
Monday:
Post-con. Laundry. Lots of pooch time. A little cleaning. Far Cry.
Weighed myself this morning. I didn't work out at the con at all, other than walking from place to place. I didn't eat a lot except for a couple of trips to Friday's, where I did kind of nosh more than anticipated. Knowing my penchant for weight gain if I'm not exercising, I figured I'd have gained somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-8 lbs.
Boy, was I off. It was 9.4 lbs.
Loss.
I had lost over nine pounds from Friday's weigh-in, and Friday's weigh-in was almost five pounds under the weekly average. From last monday, my weight is sixteen pounds less.
I couldn't believe it. I weighed myself three times this morning, figuring that the scale was being flaky or I had stood on it wrong or something. Nope, it was consistent.
I'll see if it remains consistent the rest of the week. I was back on the bike today, and did quite a bit of walkies with Sadie today as well. Hey, if it remains down, I'll be happy: I have a particular goal in mind. And actually, if I can maintain my goal rate, I will hit my first major milestone by the end of the month.
Regardless, even with a 5 lb. margin of error, this is the lightest I've been since I started tracking.
Quick convention summary
The Good:
Pre-printed pre-registration forms
Pocket programming guide
registration on first floor
Hugs and smooches, lots and lots
Bringing fresh fruit to the con
The Bad:
Much of the weekend was spent with nausea, and not being able to eat. Of the 20 polish sausage, I had three.
Fire alarm during Soylent Blue
Feeling of the whole con being a bit off-kilter, even though things seemed to go smoothly
The Ugly:
My first convention weekend entirely sober
Child-hating assholes
Unfortunate intestinal events