Sunday

I was woken up at about 5:30 AM by Dan coming to bed. Egad. We talked quietly for a few minutes. I tried to get back to sleep, but finally gave up at about 6 AM and took a shower and headed down for Alley sign-up. Except…there we no one there. Cool! I checked with the Dorsai and they said that they had chased away the early risers who had come down to line up, telling them to come back between 7:30 and 9 AM. I set up a table in front of the Dealers Room and waited until 9 AM. I passed the time chatting with several nice folks who happened to be passing by and commiserating with Jazz about the early hour of the day.

At 9 AM I went into the designated room and announced that, as only 63 artists had signed up for the 72 slots we had available, there would be no lottery – everyone got a table! With a little assistance from Galen and the Dorsai, I opened up the Alley.

The day passed reasonably well, with no hiccups like the prior day. I was able to secure lunch for the cashiers in the Con Store and Alley, which was cool. I need to look into being able to do that each day for people who are on shift over lunch.

Closing was at 4 PM, and this time we were ready for it. Given that Closing Ceremonies were at 5 PM, we had to really push to get everyone taken care and I’ll be damned if we didn’t clear the last artist out of there in about 40 minutes flat. We paid out approximately $7,000, bringing the Alley total for the weekend to something like $25,000. Wow.

Closing Ceremonies were entertaining, as usual. Thank you very much, Kage, for your gracious mention of Midwest FurFest and myself as well. I left after the first few questions because, as usual, they very quickly took a detour through the Valley of the Stupids. In the meantime, with Datahawk and Linnaeus’ help I boxed up the registers and packed up the remains of Artists Alley. In an extremely pleasant surprise, while we were working through payout, Grandma and Grandpa Kage, along with other family members, packed up the Con Store inventory and took it down to Operations where it could be loaded onto the truck. Cool!

We finished up just in time for the staff dinner, so we headed up. Free food, my favorite kind! The roast beef was delicious, and the chocolate cake really hit the spot. It was good that Dan had a dinner he could actually eat this year 🙂 I was also foolish enough to volunteer my services for Artists Alley/Con Store again next year to Giza. Guess I’m just a masochist.

After dinner, we changed into swimsuits and headed down to the pool. There were a few too many people there for my comfort, though – I was seeking something nice and quiet, and that wasn’t it. So while everyone else hung out at the pool, I went back upstairs and changed, then went looking for something to do. I stopped by to say hello to Roho and Genet, but they weren’t in. Ah well – I’ll catch y’all up in Chicago if nothing else! I would have liked to have met Kenket, though; I had a brief chat with Gatcat and he seemed a genuinely nice fellow.

My next stop was at DaveQat and Synicism’s party. I opened the door and was greeted by a sea of people and a wash of heat generated by too many people in too small of a space. Eek. Fortunately, Dave and Jim came out and we chatted a bit in the hallway. Cuttercoon walked up and was kind enough to bring me a cup of Remy Red (yum!) from somewhere amidst the sea of people in there. Jim, Cutter and I adjourned to the balcony to chat for a bit, then I invited them up to the room to try a bit of homebrew (doesn’t everyone keep a keg in the closet at conventions?). We passed the rest of the evening chatting, joined by my prodigal roommates a bit later.

Around about 11:30, after Jim and Cutter had left, Dan started packing up our stuff. I wasn’t very helpful, but I’m told my snores made a nice counterpoint. Ah well…

Monday

Rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain. Torrential rain. Flash-flooding kind of rain. Fortunately, we left most of it behind as we drove into Maryland.

We came home by way of the Bay Bridge in Annapolis, MD, on the theory that worse the weather, the worse the potential for traffic jams. We chose reasonably well, I think. The drive was pleasant, at least.

The one bit of excitement was coming into Richmond from the north. We were right behind a truck, so I caught just the last bit of a warning on one of the variable-message signs: “THRU TRAFFIC USE ALTERNATE ROUTES”. Oh boy. What did the rest of the sign say? We had no idea, and didn’t see any more variable-message signs. I took a gamble and quickly directed Dan onto I-295 and hoped I was right. Sure enough, we came upon another variable message sign: “I-95 NORTH AND SOUTH CLOSED AT MILE 66″ – that’s just south of downtown. We had chosen wisely! We were, of course, penalized later by choosing to stop for dinner at The World’s Worst Hardees (I ordered a two-piece chicken meal, all white meat, with mashed potatoes. I got two thighs and a cup of gravy – no potatoes). There we learned that a 6” natural gas line had been punctured right next to the interstate, thus the closure.

The rest of the drive home was uneventful, if nerve-wracking due to the heavy rain which we found again around Oxford, NC. We rolled in around 9:15 PM and collapsed into bed not long after.

Final Thoughts

This was a very good con for me. It was extremely busy, and there were some snafus, but I found all of the work extremely rewarding. The early-morning wakeups suck, but oh well. We will absolutely be getting a Junior King suite again next year. Not only does rooming with other people help defray costs, it’s a big enough space that everyone fits reasonably comfortably and it makes a nice social center as well. As I predicted, ordering out for dinners really decreased the stress level and, in the case of the pizza, was a ridiculously inexpensive meal as well. After all the stress, all the hassle, and everything else, I can honestly say I’m already looking forward to Anthrocon 2005. Go figure.