Partially coherent thoughts about alt.polycon 12.

[rivka]

I'm still tired, and my cold is worse, so I'm not sure how brilliant and complete this is going to be. But I wanted to get some thoughts about apc12 down before the memories fade.

I enjoyed myself immensely, and I'm so delighted that other people had a good time. (Although, actually, on that front, I seem to be alternating between "proud" and "convinced that I personally did nothing and it was purely the unparalleled excellence of my concom that made it all come off so well.")

It was so good to see everyone. If I told you more than four times how happy I was that you were there, I apologize for the repetition - but the most frequently-occurring thought I had really was "Yay! ______ is here!" I hadn't seen most alt.polyites since Toronto, which was, um, August of 2003? And there were new people there I had never met, such as eeyorerin (with whom I got to have some great long conversations, yay!), and people I had only ever met for 30 seconds, such as the lovely, fascinating, and possessing-the-best-laugh-ever lcohen. So many great people! And not enough time, of course. There never is.

The most surprising thing about the weekend, for me, was how cherished I felt. A number of people brought me completely unexpected gifts - for example, dragon3 gave me a gorgeous ceramic gecko, because he knew I'd wanted to have a gecko at the con. kalmn organized a Secret Plot that culminated in the presentation of a beautiful silver-and-copper otter pin. There were gifts for the Li'l Critter and gifts for Michael and I as incipient parents. And then there were all the people encouraging me to sit down, bringing me drinks and treats of food, coming up at exactly the right moment to hold my hand or give me a hug... all weekend, I felt surrounded by loving care. It was beautiful.

There were some frustrating missteps with the hotel - the consuite wasn't available on Friday when we were told it would be (although we eventually got moved into another room ten stories higher up, which had a much better view, so that was just fine), the promised flip chart and markers never arrived despite repeated queries, there were ventilation problems in the programming rooms all weekend, an unexpected $100 charge was added to the brunch bill (which I managed to get removed again, fortunately), and the food for the brunch wasn't labeled with its ingredients, even though the contract spelled that out as a requirement and we confirmed it in person three different times. But in general, the hotel staff were helpful and friendly, the rooms were lovely, and the consuite was perfect for our needs. I'm still glad we chose the Tremont Plaza - I suspect that the problems we had would've been just as likely to occur at any other hotel, whereas the flexibility and courtesy might not have been.

Okay, I need to go to work - more later. I'll close with an explanation of my con badge.

Badge decoding:
(For those unfamiliar with alt.polycons, there's a long-standing tradition of putting stickers on one's badge to convey any number of important or unimportant things. The badge code is generated fresh for each con - anyone can add an item to the code, and entries typically build upon each other in silly ways.)

My badge had:
- a green stripe (okay to take my picture)
- a blue star (I think I'm on the concom)
- a green star (I've been to 3-5 alt.polycons, including this one)
- four large red hearts (I have four partners)
- a waving penguin (I date geeks)
- a yin-yang symbol (I'm bisexual)
- a spray of lilies (don't ask me about my dead ex)
- a smiling book (I have an LJ)
- a microscope (I'm a scientist)
- a wheelchair logo (please offer me a seat)
- a sparkly alien head (I go to SF cons)
- the word "wow" (I have an undeclared crush)
- a bat (bring me gift offerings of chocolate)
- a fuzzy bunny (I'm kinky)
- a pelican (warning: may burst into tears for no apparent reason)

The Li'l Critter's badge had:
- a sparkly yellow hand (please ask before touching)
- a purple star (this is my first alt.polycon - please be nice to me)
- a daffodil (it is so not cold here)
- a soccer ball (my favorite sport is kicking)

Yes, that last sticker was added to the badge code specifically for the Li'l Critter. It occurs to me, in retrospect, that she could've also had the sparkly alien sticker - she did go to Worldcon. Oh well.

Comments

[carbonel]

No stickers at a.p.1. That was the only one I've been to, so I'm pretty sure I'm remembering correctly.

[annaoj.livejournal.com]

Huh. Well, I still have my badge from apc1, and it does in fact have a few stickers on it!

Not nearly the proliferation of later years, though. There's an eighth note, a lavender heart and a pink heart, a toucan and a lizard. No clue what they signify anymore, of course...