Home again.

[vakkotaur]

Short version: I went to LibertyCon, had a good time, and am now back.

I left for LibertyCon last Wednesday and made my way to Indianapolis where I stayed overnight with mzmadmike and his family. I managed to arrive while there was still daylight, which was just as well. The street signs I needed to see are not that visible at night.

Part of the evening was spent dealing with vehicle loading so as to avoid taking the van which would certainly have carried everything, but gets lousy gas mileage and currently lacks working air conditioning. That was quite an incentive to get everything to fit in two cars.

Thursday morning there was more preparation, including some last minute ACME stuff. In the early afternoon we (Mike, his kids, and myself) finally started out. We arrived a bit after 10 EDT. We checked in, unloaded the car, and that was about it for the day.

The night, however, went on a while. Someone handed me something blue. "What is it?" "It's.. blue." Some years ago I read that one handy rule of convention or party survival was to never drink anything that was blue unless you knew exactly what was in it. I drank it anyway. I think I violated that rule every night of LibertyCon, with different blue drinks. Fortunately only one of each and the rest of what I drank I knew what it was. So my nights were late, but my mornings were never hung over.

I stayed with the kids Friday morning while Mike (and a good number of folks) went to a local range and got some shooting in. I watched some TV, a rare thing for me to do at a convention hotel, and did a little bit of setup. There is no single dealer's room at LibertyCon. Instead, one hallway is "Huckster's Alley" and vendors are set up in the suite area of their rooms there.

I watched the kids at the pool for a while. When Mike returned and others were able to look after the kids I went and dealt with registration and something resembling lunch. At least I had been up just early enough to get to the hotel breakfast.

Eventually Mike's wife Gail arrived and that car was unloaded. A friend of Mike's had arrived a bit earlier and I moved my stuff into his room - an arrangement chosen to keep Orvan somewhat hidden and away from the activity of Mike's kids and business. It wasn't just too long before most of the ACME stuff was ready to go. This friend had brought a couple of bottles of scotch. The "cheap stuff" was $55. It was very good. I didn't have much of that or the other from the more expensive bottle (no, I don't recall the names). Partly it was that pricey though mainly as I knew I'd be making an appearance as Orvan. Somewhere in there someone handed me a bottle of Long Hammer India Pale Ale and that went into the fridge.

I had opportunity to scout the hotel and see what was where. I didn't go up to the third floor, but the first floor was the party floor with the party rooms the ones that opened to the courtyard and pool. The main convention activities were all on the second floor. The meeting rooms, game room, computer room, con suite, huckster's alley, and also the lobby and breakfast area as the main "just hanging out" space. Also, the nearest stairway was found which was useful as it was faster than waiting for an elevator.

One of the party rooms was put on by the Baen books forum folks. The forum is the Baen Bar and thus the room was "BarFly Central" which makes it sound not as good as it was. Yes there was alcohol and plenty of it. There was also plenty of stuff without alcohol, and it was often stocked with food enough that it rivaled the con suite.

I changed into Orvan and stuffed a few boxes in a big cloth bag (my at the time unused laundry bag) and stopped by Mike & Gail's room so Gail could follow me around with her camera. I'm not entirely sure of the order of things and not everything was photographed - though I do have copies of the photos that were taken. I just haven't yet edited them. Brandy (daughter of the convention organizer) was at the registration table and got the "survival kit" with various items. I heard that at least one was an item she could use.

There was a gathering of authors for a book signing session and Orvan caught up with a few folks there. Due to the rush earlier, I had not completed one item and so Sarah Hoyt opened an empty box. Orvan indicated ACME could be a bit screwy and took the box back, clearly annoyed at ACME. A couple other folks got items that were not empty boxes, and the order worked out. There was concern that one person might be offended by the joke if he didn't know he wasn't being singled out so we had to make sure he didn't get the first delivery but instead saw a couple others first.

I think Orvan wandered a bit and might have made a final delivery off-camera when Gail needed to be someplace for a while. The appearance either went on or there was a second appearance and two more deliveries were made. A couple six packs were delivered to the con suite (ACME India Pale Ale and Liberty Pale Ale) and another couple to BarFly Central (ACME India Pale Ale and ACME Pale Ale). Yes, there really are those ACME ales.

After that, Orvan was done for the evening and I had a shower. Then I could wander around and see what I might have as supper and what all was available to drink. The art show had plastic "test tubes" of stuff. Red, White (well, close), and Blue. The blue was okkay, but it was the white I had to be careful about - it was minty. I left before I tried to have another (and another, and...) Friday turned into Saturday morning and eventually I noticed. I went back to the room figuring I might have to be careful about not waking up my host. Nope. Host was still out and about. I heard him come in sometime later, but I've no idea when. I found out later that that was an early night for him.

Comments

[malterre.livejournal.com]

I think it's great you have the whole Orvan idea working and streamlined thee days and it sounds like people are delighted to receive the ACME products :)

Oh and I'm a fan of India Pale Ale myself.