Sunday, October 6, 2013
8:03 AM : Wake up bright and early on a lovely sunny day. Decide “Meh.” and go back to sleep.
9:30 AM : I wake up again. Time to boot up my brain and try Consciousness 2.0. Luckily, this time the software is more stable and I remain awake and start preparing for the day. This time I am up early enough for the breakfast (not brunch!) buffet, but between dithering on whether or not I felt like pulling myself together enough for a meal in public and grazing on the remains of the snacks from last night, the point becomes thoroughly moot. I run out of time and I am no longer hungry anyhow. So I decide to just pack up and chillax at Chez Nous until Joe and Julian show up (they opted to sleep at home) so we can check out of our hotel room at noon.
I always find checking out to be a sad process. Perhaps I am just too sentimental. But it always seems sad to be leaving one’s little temporary home just when you were getting used to it and it was starting to feel lived-in. And after you check out, you are essentially homeless until you go home for the convention.
That doesn’t sit well with a security-craving homebody like me.
12:15 PM : Joe and Julian showed up just barely in time for us to be out of that room before noon and hence not end up being charged for another day. They had me worried there for a while. But we make it under the wire. They have no interest in going to lunch (reasonable enough, they just GOT here), so I am at loose ends for now. There are no panels I feel like attending until 2 PM, when of course there are three. How do they manage to do it? Schedule all the cool things opposite each other? It must take some kind of mad twisted genius.
1:15 PM : After a bit of aimless meandering (it’s easy when you know how), I end up drifting into Fuel, the restaurant’s insanely expensive coffee bar. I had just planned on buying an expensive fruit drink of the sort I like (a smoothie, a bubble tea, whatever) but I noticed they had a few forms of real food and my appetite suddenly woke up, and it was cranky. So I end up buying a $9 turkey club wrap, which comes with a bag of Miss Vickie;s chips, plus a Diet Pepsi and some intriguing looking little pastry squares. Sadly, the chocolate in those turned out to be dark chocolate, but after I got over the shock, they were okay.
Grand total was $13.75, which is a lot for what I got, although still less than the $20 I had budgeted for brunch anyhow. So I both spent to much and saved money.
And I have to admit, the wrap was really good. Tons of super fresh ingredients, expert construction, very tasty and very filling to boot. I am not sure it was $9 good, but it was good.
Now, to pick a panel.
2 PM : I decide to go to the one about science and religion, and how they relate to one another. I am tempted to ask the panel if any of them are Americans, because honestly, here in Canada, it is totally not an issue. We don’t have religious whackjobs trying to make us teach evolution in schools. It’s just not a thing here.
Regardless, I greatly enjoy the discussion. The subject of faith always fascinates me, being an outsider to it, and I enjoy discussing it with other intelligent folks. And science, of course, is awesome.
Sadly, I end up missing the last fifteen minutes of it because my body decides that I need to take care of an urgent bodily need right now this second. Stupid body!
3 PM : Waiting for the Turkey Readings to start and I am a-tingle with anticipation. They are, quite seriously, the most fun thing I do all year.
The basic idea is that the panelists read aloud from the worst science fiction and fantasy books they can find and the audience has the chance to contribute money to either halt the reading, or continue it.
So one person might say “A dollar to stop!”, and that person put a dollar in the kitty. If nobody wants the reading to continue, it stops and the panelist move on to the next book. But if someone wants it to continue, they have to bid higher, like “$1.25 to continue!”, and then put $1.5 in the kitty,
Usually, the reading continues, with stops and starts, until the combination of the terribleness of the fiction and the price of a bid to continue combine to make it just not worth it. All the money goes to the Canadian Unity Fan Fund, or CUFF, which is a fund used to send one lucky fan from one end of Canada to the other for a convention, thus making a connection between the two places.
While the readings are happening, volunteers from the audience act them out, and volunteer artists (this year, Felicity Walker and Joe Devoy) attempt to illustrate the action.
It is ten tons of fun.
5 PM : The Turkeys are over, and now I am waiting for La Gange to be done watching the Closing Ceremonies. I am still not a ceremonies kind of guy. But I find myself a nice comfy chair (one awesome thing about this hotel : comfy chairs everywhere) and settle in to make notes and read.
6:15 PM : Supper at Agitaro’s, a local sushi place we like. Attending are La Gange plus Amos and our good friend William Graham, alias spuug. We opt for a la carte instead of all you can eat. I solve the problem of far too much choice on an Asian menu in my usual way : I look for the combo specials and pick one that has nothing I do not like in it. Bonus : this comb comes bento style. I love bento. There is just something about having all the different foods in their own little boxes that appeals to me. It’s so pretty!
8 PM : Back at the convention and waiting for the Dead Dog Party to begin. Relax, that’s just the convention-ending party in Hospitality. I am proud of myself for not giving in to the urge to just go home that struck me when we were leaving Agitaro’s. That was my social anxiety talking, and I am glad I didn’t listen to it because if I had, I would have just been depressed at home, thinking how my friends were all having fun.
9 PM : The Dog is Dead! The doors to the party open. Time to socialize!
1:30 AM : Felicity is kind enough to drive me home, and the convention is officially over for me.
Can’t wait for next year!