Oh my, now was that a lot of fun or what?
I had a really wonderful time. I only hid in my room afraid that everyone would think I was a dork for a couple of hours, and from the moment I left the room it was all fun all the time. (and no sleep none of the time)
Where to start? So many people have already written really lovely, thoughtful entries about Journal Con. The most coherent thing I can come up with is ‘oh my god I had so much fun’.
So this will be a collection of rambling thoughts and recollections. The nice coherent thoughtful entry will have to wait, maybe forever.
Michelle is incredible. She’s warm and funny and smart and a whole hell of a lot of fun. Her husband is nice and kind and friendly. Her daughter is apparently a bit of a wild child, but behaves perfectly sweetly in front of company.
The drive down was a blast. You can learn a lot about a person in twelve hours. You can also spill a lot about yourself. By the time we arrived in SF we were practically old friends.
The Friday night banquet was a little overwhelming. A whole lot of people crammed into one room. There was much glitter and sparkliness and the overpowering radiance of Karen.
I sat with Jen, Meg, Ian, Molly, Frank, LisaNH, Michelle , and I think a couple of other wonderful folks, but my memory is bad, bad, bad.
I met Selila, and like a big over affectionate dork threw my arms around her and squeezed hard.
Shhh… here’s a secret. I was a little afraid to meet LisaNH. I long ago decided that she was the most wonderful kind and funny woman on the planet and if Frank ever lost his mind and left her I would marry her in a second. Even if it meant I had to live somewhere as cold as New Hampshire. And, up close and personal? She is. She’s kind and funny and smart and sweet and not the slightest bit intimidating. And Frank is gracious and charming and a delight. We talked about wine and gardening. Great dinner companions.
And Jen Wade? You know how she’s so smart and logical and businesslike and ready willing and able to call you on it when you’re being a butthead? She’s also perfect and tiny and cute as a button. No need to waste a second being intimidated by her.
The post dinner quest for the perfect bar went on a little too long for me, and I hit the wall. I went back to the room, watched about 10 minutes of Law and Order (was that a Law and Order movie? Did anyone else see it? Could someone explain?) and woke up 3 hours later fully dressed, shoes on, with the lights burning my eyes.
I made my way down to the lobby early Saturday morning to find it chock full of olden folks. Me and the little old ladies – story of my life. I wished I’d brought my knitting with me. I was saved from lonely old ladiness by LyndaB who was reading by the fireplace. She sounds exactly like she should, don’t believe the hype.
Saturday morning I attended two panels. “Writing for fun and profit” and “Full Disclosure: How much is too much?” Both were excellent.
I skipped out on the Moveable Type forum. I heard it was wonderful, but it sounded too much like work to me. I had this awful vision of myself turning into Tech Support Queen….excuse me, but I have a client who’s trying to migrate his files from Berkley to MySQL and he’s running into this error……..
Instead I had a wonderful lunch with Spinny, Pink Stinky, Lisa (ljh), Susan, Molly, Selila, Adam, and Stephanie.
I had a too brief chat with Selila. This is my big JournalCon regret. Not enough Selila. I was in a fairly rambunctious mood the entire weekend, and I really wanted to spend some quality time with Selila, but I just couldn’t get a handle on my goofiness and have the conversations I wanted to have. So it’s decided – I’m just going to show up in Massachusetts one of these days and have her all to myself.
Post lunch LisaNH. and Lisa , and I bussed up to the bottom of Haight Street. We walked all the way to Golden Gate Park, window shopping and chatting along the way. We sat in Golden Gate Park for a couple of hours talking. I wish the weekend had been long enough to spend that kind of time with everyone.
Jen Fu and Mo lead a group of us to dinner at a teeny tiny Indian place in the Tenderloin. There was a curry incident and Mo and I spent the rest of the evening being the Princesses of Yellow Curry. I’m hoping for our sakes that the path from Yellow and Fuckin’ Curry-y to Pink and Fuckin’ Sparkly is not too long.
Après Dinner we retired to chez Jen Fu. Ian and LyndaB and I played with Jen’s kitty Fang. I think the fact the Fang’s favourite toy is a stick with Pink and Fuckin’ Sparkly feathers on the end of it demonstrates quite clearly that the universe has the innate the capacity for perfection.
And then off to Karaoke. There have been many descriptions of the Karaoke extaravaganza. I think Ian’s is the best. A whole lotta love in that room. Really really nice people. And I’m Canadian folks, I know nice when I see it.
Pineapple Girl, who I am marrying, made me sing. My sincere apologies to everyone.
Pamie rocked the house. Once. Twice. And three times a rockstar.
Krystyn turned her talent loose and made the rest of us look bad.
Pete melted the hearts and uteri of all the women in the room with a Tom Waits-esque performance.
AB did a standing back flip in the lobby.
Meg created a perfect transcendent moment, and we all twisted and shouted the night away.
At JournalCon the fun never ends. At 1:30 am the night is still young and there is more to come.
But fun part deux is going to have to wait… I need to get some work done now.