rj_anderson (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rj_anderson) wrote2004-08-05 01:58 pm
rj_anderson) wrote2004-08-05 01:58 pm
Convention Alley -- The Full Scoop -- Part One of Two
At 8 a.m. on Friday, July 30, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
avarill, lydaclunas and I jumped into our minivan and hit the road for Ottawa.
We planned to arrive at the University for 2:30 p.m. or so, well in time for the Meet & Greet session that was scheduled at 3 p.m. It being an approximately six-hour drive from my place to Ottawa, that should have been easy, right?
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
What we did not plan for was that someone would get into a serious accident (not us, thankfully) and overturn their van across the eastbound lanes of the 401. Nor did we realize that this incident would take the police and other authorities six hours to clear up. As such, we ended up stuck between exits, moving at an average speed of 1 km/h (no, I am not making that up; I really wish I were) for nearly three hours until we were able to make a detour and get back to speed again. However, we kept ourselves mildly amused by listening to the Eighth Doctor audio drama Scherzo on the way. Bothavarill (a devoted Whovian) and lydaclunas (not so much) declared it to be astoundingly shippy and quite, quite psychedelic. I am still not actually sure whether either of them actually liked it or not, but hey, I do.
Needless to say we were all very happy when at last we arrived in Ottawa, some nine hours after setting out. There, after some confusion, we managed to get ourselves properly parked and checked in, then joined the always-delightfulcallyperry and a large group of CA participants for dinner at a local seafood restaurant. After the meal avarill's credit card was mixed up with someone else's by an inexperienced server, but fortunately she had a back-up and was able to cancel the missing card before anything untoward happened. The restaurant gave us the meal on the house, but still, how annoying is that? It's a good thing avarill travels prepared.
The rest of Friday night was relaxed, with little to nothing on the schedule, so we mostly just hung out in our residence and chatted happily with each other. Among other things, we discussed HP casting and how amusing it was that both Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson had now appeared in the films, and whether in some strange way that made Lockhart/Trelawney canonical after all. At which point we discovered thatavarill was tragically unaware of hedda62's brilliant Lockhart/Trelawney fic "Things To Come", so I read it aloud to her off callyperry's well-appointed laptop (I'm so glad other people think of bringing these things). And of course, she found it as hilarious as the rest of us did. So if we couldn't have you there, hedda62, at least know that you were there with us in spirit. :)
All of us had custom shirts made by yours truly for the occasion --
It's a pity the imprints faded horribly when Sylvia and I washed our shirts. I'm a bit peeved about that, as I went two rounds with the printer trying to get them right, and he assured me they should be OK now. Sigh.
avarill, lydaclunas and I jumped into our minivan and hit the road for Ottawa. We planned to arrive at the University for 2:30 p.m. or so, well in time for the Meet & Greet session that was scheduled at 3 p.m. It being an approximately six-hour drive from my place to Ottawa, that should have been easy, right?
Ha.
Ha.
Ha.
What we did not plan for was that someone would get into a serious accident (not us, thankfully) and overturn their van across the eastbound lanes of the 401. Nor did we realize that this incident would take the police and other authorities six hours to clear up. As such, we ended up stuck between exits, moving at an average speed of 1 km/h (no, I am not making that up; I really wish I were) for nearly three hours until we were able to make a detour and get back to speed again. However, we kept ourselves mildly amused by listening to the Eighth Doctor audio drama Scherzo on the way. Both
avarill (a devoted Whovian) and lydaclunas (not so much) declared it to be astoundingly shippy and quite, quite psychedelic. I am still not actually sure whether either of them actually liked it or not, but hey, I do.Needless to say we were all very happy when at last we arrived in Ottawa, some nine hours after setting out. There, after some confusion, we managed to get ourselves properly parked and checked in, then joined the always-delightful
callyperry and a large group of CA participants for dinner at a local seafood restaurant. After the meal avarill's credit card was mixed up with someone else's by an inexperienced server, but fortunately she had a back-up and was able to cancel the missing card before anything untoward happened. The restaurant gave us the meal on the house, but still, how annoying is that? It's a good thing avarill travels prepared.The rest of Friday night was relaxed, with little to nothing on the schedule, so we mostly just hung out in our residence and chatted happily with each other. Among other things, we discussed HP casting and how amusing it was that both Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson had now appeared in the films, and whether in some strange way that made Lockhart/Trelawney canonical after all. At which point we discovered that
avarill was tragically unaware of hedda62's brilliant Lockhart/Trelawney fic "Things To Come", so I read it aloud to her off callyperry's well-appointed laptop (I'm so glad other people think of bringing these things). And of course, she found it as hilarious as the rest of us did. So if we couldn't have you there, hedda62, at least know that you were there with us in spirit. :)All of us had custom shirts made by yours truly for the occasion --
| Cally and I had "Darkness & Light" shirts (hers blue, mine green) with the text of the Feather Scene from Personal Risks (her favourite part of the trilogy) running through the background; |
 |
| Teri (lydaclunas) received this "World's Best Beta" shirt, since she's read and commented faithfully on my fics for nearly four years now; |
 |
| and Sylvia (avarill) received a blue shirt with the RUSS-L logo on it, since we met and became friends via the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell fandom. |
 |
It's a pity the imprints faded horribly when Sylvia and I washed our shirts. I'm a bit peeved about that, as I went two rounds with the printer trying to get them right, and he assured me they should be OK now. Sigh.
And that's the scoop for the first day. Tonight or tomorrow, I'll put up the second part of the report, with details of the various presentations we attended, pictures from callyperry's digital camera, and an explanation of why stalking Steve Vander Ark is our new favourite pastime.