No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on September 8, 2011

I have been reading various reports from DragonCon from various friends and groups. A number of people were talking about this thing that they call “Con-Drop” or “Post Con Blues”. And I can see where they are coming from. One anticipates that weekend where one is among people of their ilk and it is a rather intense weekend. Then one goes home and back to reality of the rest of the year or until the next convention is on the horizon. I have also noticed over time that a number of people put things off until after “X” convention and post convention they have to deal with all the things they were putting off.

I have been putting off dealing with the mess from having to move from downstairs to upstairs a chunk of Peter’s office in anticipation of a hurricane, the post build for the art show, and everything we packed for DragonCon that need to be unpacked. So today I am starting in the kitchen and working my way around to get the house back into a reasonable shape. I figure this is going to take a while to do so I do what I can each day. However I am taking tomorrow off because it is my birthday.

Our next convention for the family will be New York Comic Con in October and then I think we are done until next year unless I forgot something we agreed to.

The cats seem happy that we are home. I have had one of them curled up at my hip anytime I sit down on the couch. Fig grew while we were gone. Kitty politics are about the same.

I see sunshine outside for the first time since the day before the hurricane. I hope it sticks around long enough to evaporate some of the water that is outside. The soil is super saturated right now and we are very leery of wind storms.

Football starts up tonight. I am wondering if more players are going to get hurt because of the shortened conditioning seasons. I believe that Payton Manning is probably out for the season if not done forever. Neck injuries are nothing to be played around with. He has to decide if he wants to play now or walk later.

Caroline got up right when she needed to get up for school so I think we have nudged her back to East Coast time.

Well off to recover the kitchen from all that has been happening over the past three weeks.

I am grateful I have a dry house to clean.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 7, 2011

But first, Peter and I took Caroline to the bus stop for her first day of the Third Grade. She got the teacher she wanted and I wanted too. She has all her school supplies and her snack for the day. She is excited to say the least. She had a good summer with a nice ender with DragonCon but she is ready to go back to school.

The DragonCon thoughts are under the cut because it got a little long

(more…)

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 6, 2011

First off, we are home after an 18 hours trip accompanied by what was left of Tropical Storm Lee. That was probably the hardest slog home we have had coming back and I hope it stays that way.

Monday started early with a visit to the art show to get my number for check-out. I was number 7 which meant that it would be pretty easy to get out.

After that Peter, Caroline, and I went over to the walk of fame so all the people over there who know Caroline could see her. She got a lot of compliments and it was nice having a few moments to chat before having to run off to the next thing.

I had to go out and replace the cord on the GPS but ended up having to get another GPS to replace ours which is on its last legs.

Most of the rest of the day was saying good bye to friends both old and new.

I got back and went to artist Alley which was shutting down at 3. I helped Peter and Caroline pack up and we went back to the room. Peter ran off for his last panel and Caroline came with me back to help me pick-up the art show. We did that said more good-byes and went to see Peter’s last panel.

After that we went to my parents house for burgers and conversation. Sean and Rozanna were still loading out their stuff from the hotel so it was my parents, Sheila and Father Bryan who had been a program participant at the convention. It was a nice time to unwind a bit before heading out in the rain.

The less said about the drive back probably the better. We did make it back safely and that was the best thing about the trip.

Tomorrow will be my random thoughts about DragonCon but first I have to get Caroline ready for her first day in the Third Grade.

I am grateful that we got home considering all that happened along the way.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 6, 2011

I meant to post it yesterday but the day got away from me

Wow! What a day with a lots of highs and a few lows but overall it rocked.

The day started with me going to my parents to pick up Caroline so she could enjoy the convention too. We rushed back to the convention because I had a 10 AM panel in costuming for puppetry. I was about 10 minutes late but that was OK because Cheryl had to leave 10 minutes early. Beau stayed the whole time. Beau I had needed to track down because he was in charge of the puppet slam and we had to go over the logistics. So now, at least, I know where to find him.

I took Caroline up to the room and then to Peter’s table where she made $27 for drawings she did. I am quite proud of her. I went to get supplies for our annual dinner we have on Sunday night. I did that in good time and got everything arranged. I then finally was able to get me and my two victim…er…I mean volunteers in the same room at the same time to rehearse the puppet show. John and Rachel quickly sorted out what they needed to do. I had to redo the hands but I was expecting to do that anyway.

I went down to the table where Beau was suppose to be only to find out he had lost his voice which he very much needed for the evening show. So he was resting. I went back up to the room and cleared the decks for our dinner. Peter and John went to get the food. They got back and we had dinner with friends wandering in and out.

Now cool things happen at DragonCon that you would never expect to happen. I got a chance to show Jim Steranko my puppets which was really cool. He liked them. I got the what was going on with the puppet story from Misha. And a number of other friends came by to eat some food and have some good conversation.

Starting at 9:30, I had to get ready for the Puppet Slam. I went down to the table and Beau and I worked through what I needed for my piece to work. I was told that I needed to be at the International Ballroom South at 11:00 for what little bit of tech rehearsal we might get.

I went back up to the room and spent some time watching the Masquerade. It was drawing out longer and longer so I had to go. Sheila, my wonderful sister, took over Caroline duty as John and I headed for the Hyatt.

As we rounded the corner we found a rather long line forming going the length of the street. We asked them what they were waiting in line for and were informed it was for the puppet slam. I thought that was pretty amazing.

Tech was a bit messy but the stage manager did a great job of getting everything set up as did the crew. So we off and running with the show.

We were fourth in the running order. I think we did pretty well. The audience reaction was good.

I had almost forgotten how much fun playing with your peers can be. We had a great time cheering one and other on. The audience had great energy and we supported each other even through the inevitable mistakes that are going to happen. One of them did happen during ours but we worked it into a rather comic moment. I was happy to find out afterwards that Peter had been there for the show. We recreated the Avenue Q sketch that I did at Shoreleave.

I went up to my brother’s room to see who was there I needed to say good-bye to. I had a good talk with the twins and a number of other people. Then I felt the adrenaline drop that I get about half an hour after performing. That on top of lack of sleep made me find my way back to my Hotel room. Now I am typing this before I go to bed although I will probably post it tomorrow morning.

I am so grateful to everyone who participated in the Puppet Slam. Y’all just rock.

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Posted By Kathleen David on September 4, 2011

Saturday was a lot of running around and getting things set up for the next two days.

Peter and I went out to breakfast to discuss business. The meeting of the minds went well.

After that Peter ran to his panel and I wrote up the web log for Friday. We met up after his panel and wandered around the walk of fame chatting with various friends about various things. I got a chance to catch up with Bill Sienkiewicz as always it was a delightful conversation.

Peter and I went to his table and set up for his day. I ran a couple of errands and at 2:30 went to my panel about the Workmanship Contest. The winners talked about their costumes and we spoke about how we judged the contest. The theme for us was that the contestants make it harder and harder for us. Things that might have won a year ago were good but everyone had brought their A+ game and made it even harder.

My next panel was about Harry Potter costuming that got tripped up on some technical aspects. I showed up in my basic Snape outfit. I did my spiel for how to make cheap costumes that allow them to be recognized as the character but don’t break the bank. I had to cut out because I had the banquet and Peter was the MC for the evening.

The banquet was nice and the food was really good. It is also a great place to catch up with people. I got a chance to chat with Terry Brooks which is always a pleasure. I had a short chat with my former bosses from Del Rey Shelly Shapiro and Betsy Mitchell. Peter did a really good job presenting the Julie Award to William Shatner along with keeping the crowd entertained.

Afterwards Larry Dixon found me and I went back and had a nice chat with Mercedes Lackey. I ran into Laurell K. Hamilton and Jonathon Green and had a little time to catch up on about a years worth of news.

Later I went to my brother’s Saturday night party. I helped my youngest brother get to the room. You have to understand that many people we know don’t believe that we have a younger brother. They have met me, Sean and Sheila but to them Patrick was a myth. So a lot of people were shocked to see the four of us together. Balance was restored to the force.

I talked to Patrick for a bit and then caught up on news with Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Tim and Anna Zahn, Don Maitz, Janny Wurtz and William Stout. Don introduced me to Michael Whelan and his lovely wife Audrey Price. A number of other friends from back in the day came wandering by and I caught up with them. My friends Jeff and Angelo came back from the Erasure concert to help Sean with the party. I caught up with both of them but at 1 am I became a pumpkin because I needed to get up at 7:00 to go over to the folks’ house and pick up Caroline.

It was a good but exhausting day however Sunday trumped it so far. But more on that tomorrow.

I am grateful for all my friends. I like how we can just pick up where we left off and continue the conversation.

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