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Originally posted by _:
people became amazed at my OVERPOWERING AURA OF NORMALITY.

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Saturday (a blogged day in progress)

Where to start, where to start..... cell phones and elevators. That's all you really need to know.

Saturday was brown chenille sweater day. Oh, how I love that sweater. I get to wear it only like five times a year..... Florida isn't exactly known for it's sweater wearing weather. So I was MOST thrilled to be able to have an excuse to wear my sweater.

I think I took a shower before heading down for a cigarette. One of the mornings I went downstairs for a cigarette with a wet head, and instantly regretted it. Was it that morning? Possibly. AT any rate, I'm outside on the curb bleakly havinga my morning cigarette, slightly hungover from the WE party the night before, aching neck starting to catch up with me, headachy, and, well, bleary. Saturday was the day of no contacts. Just glasses. Maure and GMZoe come up all cheerful like, and I blearily regard their early morning countenances. I don't remember what they said to me. With my luck, it was probably the meaning of life (which, incidentally, the previous occupent of our hotel room thoughtfully left behind the mathmatical formula for the meaning of life.) They go away. I finish the cigarette.

I think a long hard time on just how much I really want to go the library panel. There's a very large part of me that feels obligated to go. So I do. I see Delerium74 and her husband there. And Jody the Librarian whom I've exchanged some emails with prior to FG. And Bookbabe, who I didn't know was Bookbabe at the time. But it was her. It was a very lively and engaging panel, saying all sorts of lively and engaging things.

After that was maybe a signing? With a very long line? That I skipped. Little did I know that this early morning panel would actually be the last panel I attended.

I probably went back to the bar for a cigarette, and I think that's where I ran into Maure again. Smoke break buddies are ever so lovely. She tells me things, and I tell her things, and things are told. And now I retell the telling of the things. Such a beautiful cyclical world we live in.

Do I have a nap? Not yet. I wander around for a while, with the intention of following people and seeing where they lead me. I do this with Circus for a while. Then I might find Xine? I don't really remember. More cigarettes. Is there lunch? Yes! There's lunch with Mikka and Xine. But that's after the one signing I got to -- the Jill Thompson and Charles Vess one. Little did I know that that would be my last signing. I use the credit card at the Dreamhaven table. I purchase FG magnets, much to my neverending delight. Things are signed.

Xine and Mikka and myself go across the street to the Hilton for lunch. The cook staff seem to like Xine and Mikka, as they get their lunch like a half hour before I do. Something ridiculous. What do I have? Salad? Probably salad. I'm forever eating salads.

We head back to the hotel. Is this when I nap? Maybe. I take a brief nap at some point in the day.

And, Chris is right, WEers did seem to gravitate to the bar. I gravitated and found Amy and James there, talking to a brother and sister duo (amy's powers of persuasion have even encouraged the brother to join our merry band here ). Amy has fries. I eye the fries. I eye Amy. She lets me have a fry. The fries are good! I order my own plate of fries. And a beer. Circus pops in briefly for chicken fingers.

Chickens don't have fingers. This has always puzzled me.

Jen swings by with her laptop. I get a chance to check emails and secret mod threads. Talking and chatting and fries and beers and cigarettes.

I may have gone to try on Maure's tiara again. Cannot resist sparkle.

Is it time for the auction yet? It must be. I can't think of anything else.

The auction was quite entertaining. Neil was a most delightful auctioneer Xine had somehow gotten us front row seats. Xine is good with the seat getting. This was the first auction I'd ever attended. I understand that it was a most uncommon auction. The prices were quite discouraging from the bidder's point of view. Not that I'd bid on anything. Not that I was tempted. Really. The one thing that did catch my attention (other than the tori shirt, of course), was the one done by whats-his-face with Dream holding up the sigil looking for his sister. That one tore me up a bit inside, for personal reasons.

Then the tori shirt came up. And Delerium74 started off the bidding. Then Amy and Jen quickly got into the spirit, trying to outbid each other. I was most please that one of our WE bunch would get it. Cause, hell, if someone had to get it, at least it would be one of my friends. And then that cute moment when Neil looks at Amy and says, "You ARE a cornflake girl." Ane we all clap delightedly.

And I'm turning around and looking at Amy, and she's pointing emphatically at me and grinning and things are dawing in my slow brain and I'm all ooooooooooooooooh no you didn't and it's becoming obviously clear that ooooooooooooh yes she did. So. Amy and Jen are dorks and I love them completely and utterly. And if anyone knows where I can pick up a frame for a tshirt, you let me know.

Other things happen, and more money is raised and WEers buy lots of boots and GMZoe gets new fashion accessories and I'm really liking the minibar in the lobby and rum and cokes are never a bad thing.

Then it's time for the masquerade. I'm not the masquerade sort, so I get my jollies from watching Xine put makeup on Jeff, and watching David strut around with a raven climbing out of his shirt and Circus doing her Disney Character on Acid thing and llama and her hula hoops and Lauren with shoes nearly identical to mine and GMZoe with his creepy Neil jacket and Amy and James ever so darling in their Oberon and Titania costumes und so weiter.

I taste a amaretto sour for the first time. Boy, have I been missing out! I sip Maure's absenthe. Blarg. Wasn't missing out on that what. I witness Xine aquire more souvenir signs. There is dancing, which I do not do, I do not do black shoe. Then there is no dancing, and things wrap up, and Xine and I honestly try to help BeeZee, but that guy didn't like the way Xine wrapped cords, so we didn't help anymore. There were rumors of transvestite parties and there were rumors of 80s parties. How we chose the 80s party, I do not recall. But it was chosen.

There was a lovely dreamlike quality to the domed thingy up there. I'm not sure what it was. But it was lovely. Drinks were had, hugs were given, gaudy magnets were received, jokes may have been told, hulas were hooped, signs were presented and then we all got chased out.

Somehow Xine and I end up with Gal's tshirt in the lobby, recruiting boardians to sign it. We get Maure and Walker and Jeff and Rain and was that it? There may have been more. Everyone in the lobby is so sedate and talky and chatty and there's something down there. I don't know what it was. It was something weird, and it was something that itched at my skin the wrong way. So Xine and I gave the secret code to Maure, and then we headed upstairs with a most drunken Ingrid (who I've somehow failed to mention this entire time. Ingrid and I bumped into each other at least five times on Saturday. I like Ingrid. She's good people). But she was drunk-as-hell-good-people on the elevator ride up.

Xine and I give the secret password to Han, who allows us to enter GMZoe's Den of Rock'N'Roll Zombies. I will never look at a comb the same, ever again. I nod off at the end. But it was a good nodding off. There was something very right and something utterly comfortable about being with a group of Boardians watching strange zombie movies in a darkened Minneapolissian hotel room. It was a good moment.

Then I stagger off to bed and pass out next to a llama.

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stuff.

lookit me, i'm postin! wheee!

things.

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Originally posted by aitapata:
...and Circus doing her Disney Character on Acid thing...

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Originally posted by BeeZee:
_sighs_

that guy didn't like how I did cords either

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Originally posted by aitapata:

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Saturday (a blogged day in progress)

And I'm turning around and looking at Amy, and she's pointing emphatically at me and grinning and things are dawing in my slow brain and I'm all ooooooooooooooooh no you didn't and it's becoming obviously clear that ooooooooooooh yes she did. So. Amy and Jen are dorks and I love them completely and utterly. And if anyone knows where I can pick up a frame for a tshirt, you let me know.

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saturday edit :

How did I fail to mention Joccy's sublime back massage? I have no idea. The ecstasy must've been so great, that it closed off that portion of my memory lest the rest of me be depressed for eternity for having known, then lost.

Lemme tell you something : Joccy knows how to give a mean back rub. Seriously. I'd fly her over here RIGHT NOW if I could.

My neck had been doing the funky chicken all weekend long, and at the masquerade a bepirated Joccy did some very miraculous things in which I am forever grateful. So, if you ever get the chance, ask her VERY VERY nicely for a back rub. You won't regret it.

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Originally posted by _:


Distinctly not present (because he hates us) was Arvin.

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