Vikingcon Part One

Now he goes plunging, like a journey to the center of some small, hostile planet, into an enormous bonbon chomp through the mantle of chocolate to a strongly eucalyptus-flavored fondant, finally into a core of some very tough grape gum arabic.
-- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

Friday, August 18, 2000
One year ago: American Pie
Two years ago: Two-Tone

Two years ago yesterday was a very special date for Jack and me! I'd been over to his place, but he hadn't visited me at my home. I was totally attracted to him! mmm, what a cutie.

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I got email from Jack this morning, warning me that the on-campus location of Vikingcon had been switched at the last minute, obviating all the planning they'd done for facilities and program space. What a horror! The college had basically screwed them over. I was grateful that he let me know, so that I could tell the taxi where to take me.

Registration was happening in the lobby of the dorm. I picked up my badge and the program book, then wandered upstairs to Ops (short for "operations"). I found Jack at the computer in the back room, feverishly reformatting a "pocket program" page to put on the back of a "magic decoder ring" map of the campus. Where one building was listed in the main program book, another needed to be substituted, and the specific room number.

The biggest problem of all this switching: there wasn't another section on campus where all of the con activities and the dorm space where members would sleep, could all be together. They were split by about a quarter of a mile, too long to just dash back and forth ad lib. Fortunately, the college would provide a shuttle with driver, during the day on Saturday and Sunday.

Jack said that Jon Singer had arrived, so I wandered off to hospitality to find him. Jon had a big backpack on -- all his luggage for the trip.

At ten, Jon was scheduled for a reading. The main feature was a great selection from Gravity's Rainbow: "The Disgusting English Candy Drill." I'd not heard this before. It was great! And Jon read it very well, funny voices and all. Other short humor pieces were read also. It did seem to range too much into the turkey readings that were scheduled for Saturday night. If I'd known what was going to happen, I'd have brought some Robert Benchley!

Around midnight or one, we dragged Jack away from being on duty. He drove his daughter H---, Jon and me home. It was only a few blocks, we could have walked, but we were all tired. When Jon found out that Jack snores, we decided that Jon would sleep in the bedroom, and Jack in his recliner, and me on the futon. I tried to reassure Jack that Jon wouldn't mind the mess and clutter; Jon's a notorious packrat himself! We were all asleep quickly.