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Radcon
To each man is reserved a work which he alone can do.
-- Susan Blow
Saturday, February 17, 2001
Three years ago: Meeting
This morning, I wanted to get my temporary Radcon badge traded in on a permanent one. Registration was not well staffed or well organized, so they had a lot of trouble taking care of me. Seemed strange -- don't they expect people to show up and register? wouldn't Saturday morning be a prime time for that?
I saw in the program book that C.J. Cherryh was listed as a guest. She's one of my favorites, and I certainly would have gone to any programming she was a part of, but -- they didn't list which program items she would be at! Argh!
There was an event scheduled with live big cats which I would have tried to see (which didn't seem to have any science fiction connection that I could figure out) but it was canceled -- bad weather kept the black leopard at home. So I ended up not participating in any programming today.
* * * * * * * *
After Jack woke up and got some food, he made sure that all the Vikingcon group had their assigned tasks for the party this evening. I decided to go with him on his excursion, to get groceries and booze.
The liquor store was right close to the hotel, so we stopped there first. There was some booze left from previous Vikingcon functions, so he didn't need to go all out there. The grocery store was interesting, as a sample of Pasco demographics! There were lots of Mexican products.
We drove around town a bit, too -- Jack wanted to show me the hospital where he was born, and the neighborhood where his grandparents lived. He recognized many of the buildings; I guess things haven't changed too much in the last thirty years or so in Pasco. We were also looking for some kind of bookstore, since we needed a bartender's manual. No luck! We didn't find any bookstore, and the book sections at K-Mart and the like didn't have what we needed.
* * * * * * * *
We had to do some searching around the hotel. Last night, a convention committee member had said that Vikingcon could use a special suite (with hot tub!) for the Vikingcon party. Jack wanted to get that confirmed (the guy might have been in his cups, after all), so we went looking for "operations," the nerve center for the con.
Somehow, we kept getting sent from one place to another. Hospitality? no, try registration. Nope, not there, try this suite in another wing. After several iterations, one of the staffers revealed the truth: operations was "wherever Wayne is!" Seems like a lot of pressure for Wayne (the chair?) to have to handle. But we managed to confirm that we would get that suite at a certain hour, no problem.
I went back to the room and rested while the Vikingcon folks worked on party stuff, cutting up the food and organizing things. I find I need some quiet time when the day gets too busy and there are too many people around -- the introvert side of me! But I returned before too long.
When it was time for the actual party to begin, I volunteered to be the badge and ID checker at the door. That keeps me out of the crowded, hot room! The suite was a good party site, with two rooms, and the fancy bathroom. (The hot tub was put to use after the party closed down, but I'd been in bed a long time by then.) People still get a kick out of the hand stamp we use: "Clinical Specimen." We had a reasonable crowd most of the evening, but it wasn't the busiest party Vikingcon has ever thrown. There are still atomic cherries left! But that jar won't last forever. Jack wants to find more everclear alcohol and make another batch; they are good for eliciting donations.
I collapsed around midnight, but the party and cleanup wasn't over until five AM or so.
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