rattfan | At the Worldcon

Things started quietly on the evening of 5 August. Both my room-mates were very late from no fault of their own; a late train and plane respectively. One was only staying the first night; she'd been unable to extend her own booking and we were glad to help out a fellow fan.

satyapriya would be sharing for the entire time, seven nights in all. Nothing had formally begun yet, though there were a lot of fans wandering the streets. Even without badges, one can always tell :-)

The Crowne Plaza rooms weren't bad, though you got no fridge unless you paid an extra $10 a night for it. The hotel was quite close to the Convention Centre, which was aircraft-hangar huge and there were many decent places to eat without needing to really look. Central Denver was clean, well set out and full of trees and flowers. The only real threat to life and limb was the (very frequent) Mall buses/streetcars which used a light rail track running down two sides of the wide malls. And yes, I nearly get run over by trams in Melbourne also.

First day was spent registering, then surveying the dealers room and learning where everything was that I might need to find later. It also involved a wearying walk around several banks and discovering that most banks now share a paranoia about travellers cheques which I hadn't noted at all four years earlier. Yet travellers' advice was still to carry them, along with a card and cash. Fortunately dealers at the con were happy to take the tcs; one even said it was plastic he didn't trust. Go figure.

There were at least a dozen streams of programming, plus filking, small meet-the-writer gatherings and readings, happening at once. Far too much to even give coherent examples. I've got the Quick Reference Guide book here; if anyone really wants to know more detail, ask. Half of the stuff I noted for possible attending I didn't get to. Though things began at 10am, by two days in I was already too tired to get moving that soon!

6 August. In the evening, I went to get a look at American baseball. That was also the night Denver decided to break its drought. So our group got the atmosphere of the stadium; the crowds, the hot dogs, the party mood. What we didn't get was any baseball. The rain wasn't heavy but it was constant; the thunderstorm sitting right on top of the stadium and refusing to move. Even so, I quite enjoyed the outing. Our group included local sports fans, a Lockheed engineer, a New York fan who thought the weather was just like home and a baron of the SCA who had been fighting in the Society for over 30 years. Eventually the weather got colder and rainier and a cancellation was announced. We had to hike part of the way back before splitting up to our various destinations. Three of us then caught the light rail shuttle back down 16th Avenue towards the convention centre but it only managed a couple of blocks before trundling to a halt. A disgruntled voice emerged from the driver's seat, "Good people, I'm sorry but this bus has broken down on me."

Everyone cracked up. What else could you do? So we got off the bus and hiked on, getting ever damper and performing a rendition of "Singing in the Rain" for the benefit of passers-by until we sloshed through the lobby of the Crowne Plaza. My room-mate headed to another party and I went to bed but my troubles were not over. I woke around 3am, after barely four hours sleep, to the repeated dinging of one of the lifts, which appeared to be stuck on our floor, opening its doors though nobody, inside or out, wanted it. At 5am I got out of bed and went down to the lobby to inform the staff. This was to be but the first chapter of our experiences with the lift, apparently an older and louder model which won few friends for itself and the hotel.

7 August. I did some time on the 2010 bid table. Melbourne's was the only serious bid, though I have to say the Xerps beings did a great job representing their planet, with tourist brochures and details of the very latest freeze chamber equipment to get you there. So the pressure was not too bad. I just told people what they wanted to know about Oz and once I was informed of basic stuff like the dates for the proposed con, I did all right.

Note: Never again eat a heated soft pretzel, especially not with salt on it or with extra cheese. The hot toxic-yellow liquid in the cup IS the cheese.

Toured the art show today, noting some very nice pieces, though nothing I could (a) afford or (b) get back to Australia with any ease, see (a). There were familiar themes; a lot of space scenes, unicorns, dragons, fantasy wolves and big cats. I also found several of the books on my list, noted in another LJ entry about loot.

Attended my first panel: Growing Old in the SCA, which included the baseball baron, now more formally attired in his garb, together with several other dignitaries of the Society. Yes, I too get nostalgic about the days when I beat people around the head with a rattan sword [or got beaten up, which is one reason why I quit...:-)]

At the Worldcon

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