Aaron writes...

SUNDAY

Same plan: Get up early, sell pre-reg. Same flaw in plan. Once again, Greg showed up at nine. Once again, I begged for another hour. Once again, I went back to bed. Once again, Lynati and Greg came back.

Only this time I just threw them the forms and let them get on with it. Mara and I did get down there and spell them eventually. Lots of people showed up to register and just to hang out. That filled the day until the Auction.

Lynati and I traded footwear about then, so she got to wear my nice comfy jungle boots and I got to wear her really cool, but pinchy as all get out, gargoyle feet.

I spent way too much money at the auction, but I had fun doing it and it's for charity right? Mr. Andy is quite the auctioneer and I hope he'll consider reprising the role next year.

At the auction we finally figured out who Carol was. Yay! Unfortunately, she was leaving before Closing Ceremonies, so we couldn't really hang out much. Boo!

We went back and sold more pre-reg until CC. The end of a con is always bittersweet at best, so my impressions of Closing are kind of vague. The awards for Art Show were given out. Mara won "Most Nauseatingly Cute" for her picture of Chibi-Demona.

And then it was over. Another Gathering come and gone. We went and sold more pre-reg, operating from what was the registration table, since the dealer's room was closed. Siryn came through, almost in tears at having lost a $200 set of markers. (She did find them eventually)

After the dust settled, we were supposed to have a staff meeting. We went back to the sushi place, with like twelve people, which made the service slower, and talked idly about the con. Not much got done.

We decided to go for mini-golf after sushi. Following that, we decided somebody needed to grab Greg and bring him along. We needed to make yet another quick stop by K-Mart, but we figured that wouldn't be a problem.

Needless to say, by the time we got back to the hotel, everyone who'd talked about mini-golf was gone. Oh well.

Eventually, we ended up in the con suite swapping stories. I really wish Greg had come in ten minutes sooner when Hudson and Revel were telling medical stories, instead of when he did, which was the "stupid things I did while drunk" segment of the evening, but what can you do?

As the evening wore on, we migrated out to the volleyball court for "Story Time with Un'ca Hudson." Basically, an extended version of Hudson's Rant-fest from the night before.

All too soon, it came time for us to depart. (We had to leave at like 3 a.m. to make it back to New York to make our plane. Stupid discount tickets) We'd already promised GXB a ride back too, so we loaded the car with all our bags, and gods know how many T-shirts that Sarah told us we had to take at the last minute. (Apparently, they brought them down in a U-haul, and we had to get them back to New York in the convertible. A little warning would have been nice)

The trip back was wild. I blinked and lost time on four separate occasions. The first two were okay. The third one I unblinked and there was a state trooper behind us. He gave us a warning and let us go. I still don't know what for. The fourth one I found out we'd taken a detour into Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, to be precise.

I woke Mara up, semi-panicking, demanding that she navigate. (For me, being in another state from where you need to be is a panic situation. I'm not used to this hit five states and a district of Columbia in one day thing)

Mara: "Calm down. How do you know where we are?"

Me: "We just drove by the First Union Center! It looks exactly like it does on TV!" (I realize this means nothing to the non-basketball fan) "Trust me."

Eventually, we did make it back to New York, only to discover we'd lost my backpack somewhere. This made me unhappy. Plus, returning the rental car was an adventure and a half, and getting on the plane with no tickets and Mara's cat Anna was tricky.

But Hudson and Lynati found my bag, and eventually returned it, and the giant plush armadillo I bought in the DFW airport cheered me up some.

And that, as they say, is that.

Random quote for this year: "The fandom is so full of Sluggites that all you have to do to start a conversation is yell "My world is a crotch!" and see who responds."