Previously Unexplored

I had a fantastic time at Arisia 2014. This was the second time I attended and even though this year I lacked Will, I also lacked classes which meant that I had a lot more time to focus on the people.

I took the bus to Boston on Wednesday which gave me a day to recover from moving before the crazy con stuff started and after dealing with all of the shit that the movers pulled, I was very glad to have added the travel padding. I spent the night relaxing and writing full on rage emails to our moving coordinator. Sometime early in the morning a friend, who was the hotel liaison, called to let me know there was an excursion to the hot tub planned because she had the keys to the castle and was heading down with some friends. This was approximately when I discovered that I had apparently shipped the bottoms of my swimsuit to Japan. Substitutions we’re made, good conversation was had, and the the hot tub was enjoyed.

Thursday was wonderfully slow, for some definitions of slow. I started the morning with an epic shopping run with Deb and then spent the rest if the day learning how to work things at the InnKeeper desk. Hotel work wasn’t something that I’d ever really gotten into before, I’d mostly stayed in Hospitality and Ops, and it while I’m not sad that I didn’t get into it before, I’m really glad that Nchanter brought me on board. It was so much fun and now I know what I’ll be throwing myself at once I finally pull myself away from Social Media.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are a blur of party running and table sitting. A good blur, mind you, the dessert teem was a hit, surprise surprise. Doing those things, which I don’t usually do, forced me to talk to a lot of people that I would have hidden from otherwise. Staff is my safety zone for my shyness which is why I know so many con runner and also why I work in so many damn cons. But fear of failure is a powerful motivator, and it was the push I needed to step out of my shell.

I took an extra day after the con to recover before attempting to move in to the Twin Cities, and while that turned out to be problematic for weather reasons, having an extra night in my giant pillow fort (king sized bed + seven pillows) was ideal.

I will refrain from rehashing the travel issues I had, and only say that I will never fly anything other than Delta ever again. If you’re really interested in the story you can head to my Facebook account and read about them with some very colorful language.

Arisia was wonderful and I’m very much looking forward to heading back next year.