friday, august 11
okay.. where to start... how about Toricon?
toricon '00, Part I.
friday, august 4
---
after a restless night on angela's couch, and being woken up by a garrett who was complaining about his morning light being broken (timed lamp) i got up around 9 and continued working on my overdue papers. woo, fun. and theeen.. packing. because this was the last real time i'd have at angela's before leaving the country, i finally had to deal with sorting through the last 5 boxes of junk and boxes from the apartment. so many hard decisions..
"...what the hell is up with these 50 000 unlabeled cassette and video tapes without covers hanging out in a box? do i want to throw them out? but one of those tapes has all those cds i taped from gene, i want them with me. "junk mix '99"? what the hell's on that tape? why do i have it? should i bring it? argh!"
around 2 p.m. we were ready to leave only to get stuck in an emergency of trying to find somebody to pick up a late toriconner at the airport and so it took another 40 minutes until we were actually on the road. as usual when angela's driving a new route it was a fun (heheh) ride filled with "turn left. turn left. I MEANT RIGHT! TURN RIGHT! oops.." and the like sprinkled through it, and one incident of panic stopping in the middle of an intersection. luckily, we made it to the hotel alive and got to check in. hooray!
it took me a day to figure out why our room number kept feeling so familiar until the pj harvey line "he got lucky one time.. hitting with the girl in room 509" popped into my head.. heh..
so. after a brief look at our (pretty pretty) room, complete with fruit and SHROW-DAH! (gouda :) basket i rushed off to meet up with my professor for some last minute stuff. it was so odd being on campus and knowing that most likely, it's my last view of it for a very long time. yeah, i got sentimental. deal. i took pictures of the campus echo office, and one of my teacher who refused to pose with a smile.
"i know what you're doing! you're planning not to return! well, you're not getting any good pictures of me, missy, because you WILL return so there!"
after a few detours (to an aquarium shop, of all places) he dropped me off at the hotel. when i tried to say goodbye he just snorted again and said "oh, so this is the goodbye thing? fat chance! you're gonna be back or else! see ya!" ... now, this was the attitude everybody took with me, and well, while it was really nice to have so many positive 'you'll be back' wishes, it was also sort of frustrating. i know, i'll be back somehow, but sometimes you really, really want that big dramatic goodbye, you know? especially when i'm pretty positive i _won't_ be back for quite a while. *sigh* oh well.
as i walked into the lobby i spotted a bunch of people i suspected of being toriconners. oh fuck! i quickly snuck off to the elevator and mine and angela's room. it finally dawned upon me that, erm, 47 attendees means that 47 people will be present and I HAVE TO MEET THEM. waaaay scary. gulp. i hung out with the SHROW-DAH! a while, took a few more breaths and ventured back downstairs to enter the hospitality room.
oh.my.ghod. what the hell was i thinking? why the fuck did i think spending a weekend with 40+ strangers where the majority have no idea who i am and could give a fuck would be a good thing? a few familiar faces greeted me, and i spotted angela in the room and quickly sat down next to her; i promptly spent most of the con locating and stalking angela. heh.
seated as such i found myself interjecting a word here and there as angela spoke with bramble and koert and looking panic stricken. by now it wasn't so much the people that was the problem - i'd now met and greeted most of them. i just felt utterly out of place and idiotic. i began to think of things i could say if forced to interact.
"hmm. there's fredrik. well he's norwegian, i could always say something about that. nymsa? what do i say to nymsa? nice hair - i tried purple too but yours look better. okay, that's good. fastrada? hmm. 'how's work?' might be okay." ... etc, ad nauseum.
yes. it's true. i, the one who just won't shut up and often can be seen singing loudly at bus stops turns mute when around more than 2 people she's never met before yet is expected to interact with. i just hate it. as a result, most of the weekend was spent clinging around angela (who got along fine with everyone) or standing awkwardly by a wall, braiding the tassles on my purse feverishly and uncontrollably.
yeah, i'm lame that way. i mean, i wish i could play it cool like all these other people i see who claim to be introverted, but no, i suck at it. you can tell i'm scared out of my skull when i a) distance myself 5 feet or more from a group, b) braid the tassles on my purse without looking, c) uh, look freaked out? i'm so subtle.
eventually it was decided we should go find food. a walk around the block proved fruitless, so we piled into a few cars and tried unsuccessfully to find a place called jamaica jamaica. it wasn't so bad - i was in the goth car with angela, bramble, nymsa and colin, listening to boingo. eventually angela took charge and we steered to franklin street, chapel hill and ate at bandidos. mmm, mexican food.
(at this point in my telling, i'd like to hint to you where this is headed by singing a little song:
"THIS IS THE ENTRY THAT NEEEVER ENDS, YES IT GOES ON AND ON AND ON. THIS IS THE ENTRY THAT NEEEVER ENDS, IT JUST GOES ON AND ON AND ON. THIS IS..")
back at the hotel we walked into the hospitality room to find it almost filled to the brink with other toriconners. yey? i freaked and left for the bathroom only to come back to all these little groups everywhere, talking. after a brief (but good) conversation with jeni on a couch, people gathered around the large table to play the 'i never' drinking game, and i found myself in the little group next to it of 'i never play drinking game'rs. it proved good.
i ised up my koert tailored line immediately. "hey there. i know two sentences in dutch. i'm unsure which means which, but i can say either 'i'm beautiful' or 'i'm tired'." this lapsed into a language discussion that ended with koert stating that american is a horrible, flat language, and michael the polar bear shouting in his best faux british "OH I CAN'T BEAR TO LIVE NOW, OUR LANGUAGE IS SO FLAT" leading to much snorting laughter all around.
okay, so that was a 'had to be there' thing. sorry. i'll try to stay more general. :)
next came the arrival of ben waggoner, master punster and endangered evolution teacher for (i know, i know!) arkansas... i think. unfortunately for me, he sat down next to me and greeted me happily with this look on his face like he expected to learn that i was in fact angela, and not some unknown lurker from the news group. i panicked. what do i know about ben? is he from arizona? i think so. okay, what's my arizona opener?
"hi! i'm jennie. i don't post much so you don't know me. i've been to arizona!"
ben got this look on his face, the wellknown "what the hell is she on about?" and after a polite "well, i've only been to northern arizona a few times" i realized that holy fuck, ben was not from arizona, and i just sounded like a crazy person. hooray. embarrassed i nodded and then he left, thank ghod.
after a few hours more of conversation around the room, me and angela decided it was time to get some sleep and raced up to our room to start gossiping. most entertaining. unfortunately, sleep proved elusive despite the nice, cold hotel room, so most of the night was spent tossing, turning, and me snoring due to a swollen throat.
and that's the end of part I. aren't you TOTALY EXCITED to read part II? thought so. i'll chill on it a bit. later.
images � jennie alibasic (except when not)