gerisullivan: (Default)
ConQuesT was lovely. The flights back to New York weren't. The same storm that rained out President Obama's Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery played havoc with our flights through Chicago.

Fortunately, I was traveling with [livejournal.com profile] benyalow. We only got back to New York because he knows all the tricks of the game. It still took standing on line for 1.75 hours in Kansas City. Most of the people ended up stuck there after our flight was delayed for 35 minutes, then 55 minutes, and then 3 hours, only to be cancelled before it was originally scheduled to depart. Even though US Airways was telling all of the United passengers that they were full, full, full, and to go away, Ben scored us seats on two fully booked planes and got us to New York through Washington National. We arrived at La Guardia less than an hour after our original flight was due in.

The top thing that makes a convention good for me is meeting new friends. ConQuesT is a great place to do that and I left Kansas City knowing and getting along well with at least twice as many local fans as I knew before the convention started. Tops on that list is [livejournal.com profile] athenaartemis. I met her at dinner Thursday night, then kept having good times every time we saw each other throughout the weekend. So neat. Welcome to my friends list, you delightful person, you.

Then there was Jimmy Hollaman's Room Con. Three cheers for more fans raising the hospitality bar, and Room Con certainly does that. Thanks, Jimmy! What a fine, fine time. Equal thanks go to Bland Lemon Denton and his compatriots for the 5 hours of music they made at Room Con. Live music feeds my soul. It was soooo good to hear long time faves as well as material that was new to my ears.

Add to that the good times and flying, screaming monkeys thanks to [livejournal.com profile] smofbabe, [livejournal.com profile] dlacey, [livejournal.com profile] benveniste, [livejournal.com profile] nkcmike, [livejournal.com profile] dragonet2, [livejournal.com profile] drpaisley, [livejournal.com profile] npulsifer, [livejournal.com profile] erikvolson, Vince Docherty, Mike Pins, and other friends I've known for years; a GoH appreciation by [livejournal.com profile] debgeisler that brought smiles and happy tears to my eyes; two trips to Jack Stack and two more to Arthur Bryant's (but only one to Sheridan's, alas); the surprise of enjoying every minute of my appearance on a literary program item; and more news, gossip, and eye-popping "wow" moments than I remember in the last three conventions combined....

Suffice to say the entire weekend was officially Fannish as Hell. Thank you, [livejournal.com profile] rohanna! Thank you, ConQuesT!
gerisullivan: (Geri_Pickle_Homo milk)
I'm having a lovely time at ConQuesT despite the fact that I seem to now be allergic to every state except Massachusetts. I drove across the border into Connecticut on Wednesday and started sneezing. That followed me into New York, through Chicago, and all the way to Kansas City.

That hasn't stopped me from enjoying KC BBQ for dinner, lunch, and dinner. Yum. It hasn't stopped me from enjoying the convention, either. ConQuesT is full of friendly fans who are very approachable and easy to talk to. Some might think that had to do with the fact that I greeted people leaving opening ceremonies by saying, "Hi, I brought money to give away. Would you like some?"

But it's no different when I'm not handing out coins scooped up from my Time Travelers International Money Dish before I left home. It's good to see friends, to meet new ones, to lend a helping hand, and to just plain relax and enjoy myself.

I'm off to the George and Howard Power Hour now. George RR Martin and Howard Waldrop. Oh, my. No questions. Gotta see that.
gerisullivan: (Geri_Pickle_Homo milk)
Wednesday: Toad Woods to Da Bronx

Thursday: LGA to MCI to ConQuesT 41. Whee!

As I just wrote to my friendly and helpful guest liaison, "I packed some yarn to donate to the Charity Auction. I packed my collection of convention badges for the special exhibit I'm putting together in the Art Show. I packed a few copies of the Annals of Improbable Research to give away."

Program items I'm on:

How to throw a room party - Friday, 6pm
Jimmy Hollaman
Diane Lacey
Geri Sullivan
Toni Weisskopf

I tried to Read it, I Really Did - Saturday, 3pm
David Lee Anderson
Sue Sinor
Geri Sullivan
Ian Tregillis

GoH Interview Thingy* - Sunday, 2pm
Diane Lacey
Geri Sullivan

Blogs and Sci-Fi - Sunday, 3pm
Geri Sullivan
Ruth Lichtwardt
Diane Lacey
Ben Yalow

Plus Opening & Closing Ceremonies, and that sort of thing.

*Formally called "Geri Sullivan: The History of Fandom, Part 2" aka "The Geography of Fandom: Minneapolis, MN CANADA, " "Fun, Desperate Fun," and "Geri'n'Diane: 2 Fans, 2 Countries, 1 Friendship"

Plus lots of other neat folks on a sweet variety of program topics.

So, a friendly wave to folks headed to WisCon, Balticon, Oasis, BayCon, Marcon, MisCon, MediaWest*Con, or any other conventions this weekend, and a great big See You Soon! to all who will be at ConQuesT!
gerisullivan: (Scrabo_CU)
The back cover of the ConQuesT 40 program book as an ad for ConQuesT 41. It includes mention of the following guests of honor:

Author GoH: Michael Swanwick
Toastmaster: Toni Weisskopf
Fan GoH: Geri Sullivan

Am I ever honored, both by the invitation and to be in such company. Nice. Thank you, ConQuesT!

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