The Long-Delayed Anthrocon Report, Part 1

So, do I win the prize for most-delayed con report yet? Probably not, but it is about time that I commit this to LJ. This is going to get long, so I’ll split it over a couple of entries.


Thursday, July 7
The original plan was to awake bright and early at 4:30 AM. Takaza woke up even earlier, at 4:15. I was shocked! But then I stumbled into the shower. The trip to the airport was not as pleasant as I would have liked. Yes, it was only $2.00 for each of us each way, but we had to walk a fair distance between the apartment and the bus stop, then to the train station, and finally through O’Hare Airport. Let’s just say it was a somewhat sweaty experience. We found out as we were checking in (and coughing up the extra $25), Dan had been a little too efficient in packing and had stuffed it quite full – it weighed in at 67 pounds.

We met Chouette at the gate; much to our surprise she had beat us to the airport by a fair bit (having taken a cab and ridden in air-conditioned comfort). The flight was uneventful. When we reached the gate in Philadelphia, I was watching out the window, waiting for the plane to empty out, and saw our luggage being taken out of the hold – including our suitcase with the pull-handle sticking out in an odd angle and obviously broken. Not good. I got up to leave and my pants caught on something sharp in the armrest and tore a 3” hole in the leg. Even better.

We retrieved our bags and went to the United Baggage Service Counter to survey the damage. The handle was indeed broken, meaning that the heavy suitcase now had to be carried to move it. Unfortunately, United doesn’t cover damage to wheels or handles. Chouette’s suitcase was torn, so she filed a claim for that as well. We had a nice chat with the airline agent and while she was sympathetic there wasn’t much she could do. She did take a claim for my pants, though – that helped. (One thing I’ve learned from watching Airline – be nice to the agent and they’ll be nice to you!) We met up with Datahawk and had no problem getting a shuttle through Lady Liberty and the driver was even a good navigator, avoiding at least one major traffic jam. We got to the Wyndham rather quickly, I thought, stumbling in at around 12:30 PM.

We had a slight problem with our reservation, but Uncle_Kage was kind enough to put the Wyndham salesperson, Ashley, on the job and she got us fixed right up, no problems. We were in Room 2502, which was a suite on the end of the hall. It was a lovely pair of rooms, with a fabulous view from the parlor (though, I noticed, no curtains besides sheers). While the bedroom was the size of a normal room, the parlor was on the small side. Still, with a bit of moving of furniture, we easily set it up so that Linnaeus (who arrived later that evening), Datahawk, and Chouette could sleep there comfortably. Once we got the room squared away, I headed down into the maelstrom that was the con in full set-up mode to see where things stood.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the Artists Alley and Con Store equipment was already in place, though a few items had to be retrieved from Ops or storage. As he has been in the past, Kellic was a huge help in getting everything ready, and Grandma and Grandpa were already setting up the Con Store. Once we had everything straightened out, I helped Datahawk a bit with setting up the Dealers Room, and generally hung out for a bit there, helping a little with dealer check-in as well when the time came. I had a bit of a fright when I realized that the Alley registers needed to be reprogrammed but it proved a simple task and I learned a bit more about the registers, which is never a bad thing. The rest of the evening was pretty low-key, hanging out a bit in Ops and I wisely chose to head to bed on the early side.

Friday, July 8
As usual, I was the first one up. No big surprises there. My wonderful husband stopped by the local Wawa sometime in the previous night’s travails and had left me some Doubleshots in the room refrigerator. He eventually got to bed at around 3 AM. Again, no big surprise there. I noted with pleasure that it was quite easy to get an elevator down at 8 AM. I busied myself in Ops making signs and generally getting things ready for the start of artist sign-ups. I opened up the room at 10 AM and it quickly became filled with artists worried about how the lottery process was going to work. I explained and everyone seemed to understand, though I had to repeat that if they signed up at 10 AM they didn’t have to wait in the room until 11 AM, when sign-ups closed. Danruk joined me not long after I opened sign-up and we passed the time chatting, as well as talking to a couple of the artists who hung out to kill time. At 11:30 AM, sign-ups closed and I had a nice surprise: we had 66 artists for 80 seats! No lottery was necessary, and everyone was happy.

We opened up Artists Alley at noon and there was the usual craziness of people getting used to the payment process and learning to use the registers. Con Store opened at the same time and that went pretty smoothly, with only a few bugs with the register. I generally hung out around Artists Alley and helped where I could for most of the afternoon. At 5 PM we closed the Alley and had our first payout, which went OK, but there was room for improvement. I secured the room and retired back up to our hotel room to enjoy the silence. Eventually Chouette, Linnaeus, and Datahawk showed up and we enjoyed sitting around relaxing. I passed the rest of the night hanging out in Ops a bit and generally avoiding large groups of people.

More to come soon…

8 thoughts on “The Long-Delayed Anthrocon Report, Part 1

    1. woofwoofarf Post author

      Well, it’s not so much that the curtains were bad, it’s that since there were only sheers the full brunt of daylight went into the parlor. I’m really glad I wasn’t sleeping out there because light wakes me up; I would have been up every morning at about 5:30 AM.
      The badge was done by the incomparable (who is, coincidentally, one of the Guests of Honor at Midwest FurFest this year). Her website is http://www.kenket.com.

      1. sumatrae

        She did one for your hubby too, I remember.
        Love her work on the EF program guide a few years back.
        Coming to MFM or is that too much of a drain?

  1. typographer

    I need to know the parameters of this contest. Do you mean for cons in general or just this year’s Anthrocon? Because I frequently don’t get around to writing some con reports until a couple months later.
    And if I finish part three of my AC ’04 report now, a year later, does that count? ^_^ (I have been working on it off and on for all these months…)
    I’ve become completely enamoured with shuttle bus services. We have one company here in Seattle whose prices are just so reasonable (okay, not as cheap as $2…). But it’s cheaper than the park and rides up here. That’s hard to beat.
    Note to self: remember to figure out what our options are for getting to the hotel in Schaumberg.

    1. woofwoofarf Post author

      Oh, I know I don’t stand a chance on a contest like that, not when procrastination is a competitive sport in the fannish world! As for getting to the airport, the CTA isn’t a bad way to go for us. Just maybe not with freakin’ huge, heavy luggage. In the middle of summer. Ugh.
      And as for getting to the hotel: hey, you don’t need to worry about that. We’ve got it all taken care of 🙂 (MFF treats their guests right!)

      1. typographer

        procrastination is a competitive sport in the fannish world
        Hmmmmmm, a sense another possible panel topic…
        As for getting to the airport, the CTA isn’t a bad way to go for us. Just maybe not with freakin’ huge, heavy luggage.
        The transit options from our neighborhood to the airport involve changing buses at least once. And we generally have at least one suitcase full of ‘zines, so have the heavy luggage problem, too.
        We’ve got it all taken care of 🙂
        Oh. Duh. Okay, fine. 😛

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