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Viva Las Vegas Baby!!
The day started out early - 6am usually doesn't appear on my alarm clock, but it
had to that morning. I'm glad we did start out early though, the check-in desk
was severely under-manned and it took forever to get my bags checked in. It
didn't help that I'd never used an E-ticket before and didn't know the
procedure.
Then, waiting in line to pass through Security, I got pulled aside and got the
complete you-are-a-potential-terrorist work-over :)
Yay for pat-downs by middle-aged chunky women!
The one thing I was determined to not have happen this flight was the inevitable
puking. Ladies and Gentlemen, can I get a round of applause for dramamine? The
wonder drug that, for some incomprehensible reason, is not available in
Australia :) That stuff tastes like shit, but it does work. I think it was
responsible for me sleeping most of the way to Atlanta.
Waiting to re-board in Atlanta, I succumbed to temptation and bought Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. By the time I landed in Vegas I was 3/4 of the
way through (and by the time I left on Tuesday I'd finished it, so much for
saving it to read on the plane home ^_^)
At the airport I was supposed to hook up with Liz/ sysrusb
and Nikki/y2hecate,
who were landing within a half hour of me. So I found a cleanish patch of floor
at the exit and proceeded to wait for them. And wait. And wait some more.
Luckily I had Andrea/lybell,
Anthony/archangel2000
and Nezumi to keep me company, because we ended up waiting about 2 hours for
them to show up. It turned out that the airline had lost the suitcase carrying
Liz's markers, about $900 worth and they had to hang around while calls were
made and forms filled out. We hung out on the exit floor for a while longer then
caught the shuttle to the Palace Station, site of this year's Con. I know others
have had bad opinions of the place, but apart from the indoor smoking I never
really had a problem - the beds were comfy, the AC worked, the food wasn't too
hideous .. :)
At the hotel Liz, Nezumi and I hooked up with Jade Griffin and her friend Seth
Long (hereafter called New Seth) and went out for Chinese. Apparently Vegas has
a Chinatown :) Back at the hotel we hung out at the Con-Suite and picked up out
packets early (we're sneaky :P) and discovered that due to several mix-ups, we
wouldn't be going out with Jen/crzydemona
and her group to see naked men dance. At my (joking) comment that I was really
looking forward to stuffing dollar bills down someone's undies, a young woman
came over and promptly unzipped her pants and showed me her panties. They were
green and very pretty. I gave her a dollar ;D
That was my very first introduction to Dancer ^_^
Not long after that we were kicked out of the con-suite, so we went down to the
foyer to wait for Jen, Cindy/cinsangel,
Patrick/patrickat,
Kyt/kythera,
Trishana/karlyl.
Rounding them up, we (them, JG, New Seth, Liz, I, Andrea and Anthony) went off
to the hotel's not-so-irish Irish Pub.
Mmmmm, Kahlua and milk ^_^
At this point of the night it was getting quite late and the new arrivals still
hadn't eaten, so we trooped off across the road to the Macaroni Grill for some
Italian. It was nice, but the best part was the paper tablecloths we got to
doodle all over :)
The last part of the night (before I completely collapsed at midnight) was spent
just chatting in the foyer with the group and a heap of other new arrivals.
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After a shower and a cheap breakfast, I was ready to start my Con Experience.
This year I had succumbed to insanity and offered to co-host the Clan Olympics
with Scott/brotherabram.
And since he would be arriving late, it was up to me to coerce 4 or more teams
into playing, as well as run the first two events. Sarah-The-Great was a great
help in rounding up a few teams (including her own), so a big Thank You! to her.
We decided to hang out a the Con-Virgin 101 panel to help explain what exactly
the CO were, and to recruit a little too. Good thing we did - we got first dibs
on the free cake and ice cream when it came out! :D
Next up was the Thom Adcox mug-a-guest (mixed with a really quick lunch). It was
a great time, only a dozen or so people, and Thom has the best stories. Next
year, he'd better bring in that standee of him in a chicken suit (or even just a
picture of it) or I'm going to be mighty disappointed :D
Afterwards, in a slight panic, I set up for the first CO event - a ball relay.
Easy enough in theory, but not when it's a giant yellow smiley beach-ball that
you can only carry with your back or front (no limbs or other helpy-type things
at all). Not to mention the envelopes that contained potential bonuses on the
floor (I made them pick them up with their feet, I'm evil ^_^). I'd managed to
rope Liz into helping me host the first two events, I think she enjoyed herself
quite nicely :) Unlike last year, there were only 5 teams, but they were great -
big thanks to Team Challenge, Da Brogues, Bottom of the Barrel, Clan Arc and
Clan Adia.
All up, it was a great event, full of chaos and confusion and laughter. Typical
Clan Olympics really ^_^
As this even ended just before Opening Ceremonies, I had to run around and clean
up as well as get some food. I learned last year that not eating beforehand lead
to a humongous headache. Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge of the existence of
a Subway in the hotel meant that I ended up with Burger King. Eew >.<
Opening Ceremonies was excellent this year. In addition to the regular stuff (gawd,
I sound like a veteran :P) we were also graced with an alternative first pitch
video and a fan-made lieca reel of 'The Last', the unmade Team Atlantis episode.
We were also told more about the Season 2 DVD release - the first 26 episodes,
up to 'Kingdom', will (hopefully) be out by the end of the year. The second half
of the season will, no doubt, rely on sales of part 1. We also got to see a
teaser of the special features, part of an interview.
Greg didn't really get into much about the comic, probably due to the fact that
there was a panel scheduled exclusively for that the next day.
The highlight of OC had to have been Keith David's sorry-I-couldn't-be-here
section of the cast/crew tape - "I've been denied everything, even my
CONVENTION!" ^_^ I don't think we'll ever run out of variations of that line for
him to say :D
After OC I Liz and I had to set up for Clan Olympics event 2 - Shot in the Dark.
I love this one! A series of targets, 5 squishy tentacle balls and a room with
no lights on. Way fun.
The teams loved it too, so much so that a second round of it was hosted by Scott
on Monday night, just for fun :)
Some of the team members scuttled off to Jade Griffins MGT, so others had to
double up on turns, but we didn't have any drama over it. In fact the game went
quicker than I thought it would, so I had plenty of time to make it to the Blue
mug-a-guest. While it wasn't all that blue, it certainly wasn't entirely clean.
I loved Greg's reaction to someone asking if a gay character would be introduced
in W.I.T.C.H, he said there was someone they were thinking of, but he would say
who. Immediately Anthony and Andrea both yelled "Is it Irma?" Greg, quite
shocked, asked how they knew. This must have really ate at him, because later in
the night he stopped in the middle of an answer, turned to them and exclaimed
"How did you know it was Irma?!" (or possibly her was looking for an excuse not
to answer - with Greg, who knows XD )
At 1am I was having great difficulty making my eyes focus, so I trundled off to
bed, after saying a quick "HI" to Scott.
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