More Orycon

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.
-- E. L. Doctorow

Saturday, November 10, 2001
One year ago: Seeing John Malkovich
Two years ago: Tweaking
Three years ago: Crowds
Four years ago: Orycon II

Jack was out so late last night, visiting room parties and talking in the hospitality suite, that he needed to sleep late today. So I got myself up around eight, showered, then went to the breakfast area in our hotel. Jerry Kaufman and I shared a table, looking through the Orycon Program Guide and talking about what looked good in the schedule. I feasted on eggs, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, and toast (carbs, anyone?). Then I took the second token and filled a tray for Jack, taking it back to the room. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this in previous years when Jack needed to sleep late!

After dropping off the tray, I tiptoed out of the room, leaving the "do not disturb" tab in the keycard slot. I wandered around the convention, hitting the dealers room and buying the new C.J. Cherryh book from Wrigley Cross. I realize now that I'm not on the Cherryh-list anymore, because I neglected to change my address when moving to this new domain! That's how come I hadn't heard about the book, Hammerfall.

My first panel was on world creation, but with an emphasis on the Jared Diamond book, Guns, Germs, and Steel. I want to read this! Panelists including Steve Barnes, James Fiscus, and GoH Melanie Rawn talked about how inter-relating factors affect how your imaginary world develops.

At noon, I headed to the fan lounge for the Fanspeak panel. The fan lounge is such a great resource; we are lucky to have this comfy retreat at Orycon. Jerry, Art Widner, Ben Yalow, and Dave Howell talked about fannish lingo, and I popped up with a few questions. Lots of fannish expressions came from acronyms: gafia or gafiate from "getting away from it all" ("all" being fanac, fannish activities). But I know that slang is born in other ways, also. Is there rhyming slang in fenspeak?

Then back to the Klamath room for "Carrying the Throne," all about how realistic should your historical fiction be? or, subtitled as "What did the majority of people in the Middle Ages do all day?" I don't think that topic got talked about much, though. I wanted to bring up Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life, but didn't speak. I did talk about Roberta Gellis (but didn't name her) who explained in an afterword to one of her books that she hadn't mentioned the bugs or dental problems, because her characters would have considered them part of everyday life and not worth talking about.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

At two, I returned to the hotel room for a rest. I must have passed Jack along the way! I reposed myself on the bed and started my book, then dozed a bit.

When I walked back across the parking lot at four, I found Jack in the fan lounge, which surprised me a bit. He'd been looking for me, and had settled down for the "writing for free" panel, about the zine-writer's mindset. Jerry, Art, and Chuq Von Rospach were the official panelists, though it's such an intimate setting in the fan lounge that any programming is more like a round-table discussion. Because of Chuq's experience on online community building, the talk veered over that way which was fine with me.

I dragged Jack and my friend Nick (a con virgin?) up to the Petrey auction. I bid on a few things but didn't actually buy anything -- a perfect auction when one has depleted pockets! Melanie Rawn did some of the auctioneering, selling some items that she'd crafted herself. Her stuff (beaded christmas pjs, for example) had a, ummm, unique style.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

We wandered away as the auction was winding down. Jack, Nick and I were going to go to dinner, then Art decided to come along also. Our only constraint was that Nick needed to meet up with Janna for the costume masquerade, around eight.

At first we were going for pizza. Art didn't think much of this. What about Chang's Mongolian Grill? It was only a block further, but it's such a popular place at Orycon that there was quite a wait, even for a four-top. Art exclaimed, "Let's just go over there!" pointing to the seafood place across the road. Nick looked concerned, and told me he only had five dollars cash on him. I told him I'd take care of it if his bill went over, not to worry.

We had a wait at the seafood place, but Art led us into the bar. He even stood us a round of drinks! (He and Jack both enjoy sipping single malt scotch.) We sat at a booth and realized we were in time for happy hour appetizers, then decided to just eat our dinner in the bar. (No, not drink our dinner!) Jack and Art traded stories about cars they have owned, and a good time was had by all.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *    *

Jack and I stopped by the room, so he could get stuff he needed for the evening's round of parties. He decided it would be fun to stash a bunch of tie-dye t-shirts in his bag, along with camera, flask, and back-packers guitar. His plan was to change t-shirts randomly throughout the evening and see if anyone noticed.

We visited the foolscap party, the Seattle Westercon party, a bid party for a future Worldcon in Glasgow, and maybe some others. We crossed paths with some Bellingham folks: Paul and Julie, Bill and Deanna, and the Almighty Jessica. Jack did dash into the bathroom in each party, and change shirts. No one noticed, though, until I gave Jessica a hint.

I think I pooped out around midnight, leaving Jack to do more conversing and partying. This highlights the fact that he's more extroverted than I am. I like talking to folks, but he gets more and more energized by it!