Alexandra and I had a wonderful first World Con. Everyone in Kansas City was very nice to us and the convention center had food vendors on the third floor so (despite doing a lot of walking) I didn’t have a single low blood sugar episode.
We went to some great panels and readings, but the best part of any convention is the people. There were certainly some there that are not my type of aquantance (including some drunken frat boy types who screamed in our faces), but we spoke to and hung out with the best. It is always great to see old con friends and get the opportunity to meet new ones.
I was also glad that my Theory of Low Annoyance Selection went so well. The trick of it is select diverse panels and readings (it doesn’t work with events) while avoiding any with more than one white cis man you wouldn’t vouch for. I Googled panelists for an extra feeling of security but that didn’t end up affecting my decisions. It worked remarkably well for something so simple, but I forgot to take the audience into cosideration. A few of the panels we attended had minor unanticipated problems with the audience but that didn’t ruin any of them for me and I would still take them all again.
I also learned that I am not very good at telling when people are famous. I almost took something for John Scalzi to sign but I ended up figuring that he wouldn’t be famous enough for a signing line. Um, turns out he is actually a Big Deal. And apparently Nora from WisCon is Hugo winner N. K. Jemisin.
I did at least know that that George R. R. Martin is a big deal, so we got books signed by him.
The Hugo awards and the subsequent parties we got invited to where very surreal. Some of our conventions friends were nominated for Hugos and people we had lunch with won. It was really amazing. And then we went to the official after party which was thrown by one of my favorite people AND had astronauts. After that the night somehow got even more fantastical since we got invited to George R. R. Martin’s Hugo Losers party where Alexandra won an Alfie.
Honestly, I keep looking at the picture of it on Facebook to remind myself that it really happened.
Well, I guess everything is up to date in Kansas City.
Oh, and I started the legal name change process so that’s a thing.
