Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Luke tries to convince me to pack him

This weekend was the annual retreat for members of Otakon staff, which we call Com Con. This is where we prepare the budget for that year's convention, do some preliminary planning, and socialize.

The Gryphon and I arrived Friday evening around dinner time. Some of our friends were gathering in the lobby, about to go to dinner. The Paper and The Cheshire Cat had beaten us down, even though we'd stopped at the exact same rest area on I-95 about halfway there.

We took our luggage up to the room and then joined our friends. I was met with some disbelief from one staffer as to my amount of luggage, but explained sheepishly that two out of my three bags contained work. This was absolutely true, as I'd brought a lot of work for Wild Violet with me.

The Paper, The Cheshire Cat, and The Dormouse joined us for dinner in Chili's, which was attached to the hotel. I never realized before, but they have a nice section of healthy entrees. I had the Guiltless Grill Salmon and a margarita. Both were excellent. I had half of the salmon boxed up to eat for lunch the next day.

We had a nice relaxing dinner, where we started out with a somewhat silly conversation and ended up talking politics. I seldom get to talk politics, because The Gryphon isn't terribly fond of that subject, even though we have a lot of fun discussing pop culture and other topics.

I was a bit tired, so I lay down for a brief nap before the scheduled staff orientation session. After I'd had a chance to rest up, I went downstairs to see what was happening.

They had several common areas set up. In one, there was a video screen set up where they were showing Panda Z, a quirky little series featuring cute animals doing bizarre things, completely in pantomime. In the back of that room was a table set up with refreshments, including soda, water, brownies and cookies. I decided to try the cookies, so I had two chocolate chips. I decided they weren't really worth it, so that's all I ate from that table. I did grab a bottle of water, though.

But I'd had a really bad holiday period where my weight bounced back up, so I decided to behave myself. I made sure to keep track of everything I ate so I couldn't accidentally go really far over. I'd also been good the rest of the week in preparation.

In the adjoining room people were playing videogames on a big screen. At the moment, it was Guitar Hero, where they activate buttons on a guitar shaped controller to match patterns on the screen. Some people were really good at that, even showing off a bit. I snapped some pics.

It was fun walking around talking to people I don't get to see that often, including the very tall cosplayer I call Mr. Kitty because of his penchant for Hello Kitty gear. He was wearing a snappy suit.

I also saw The Invisible Man and gave him a hug. We joked around a bit and then he disappeared to find a room party.

The Mad Hatter befriended the one-year-old daughter of a mutual friend. He was dressed as his character, Anime's Frank, for the Otakon Game Show. She thought he was really silly but seemed to think he talked too much.

The Game Show was a lot of fun. Four panelists compete to answer trivia questions related to anime. The Dormouse competed, along with this year's Video Department head, this year's con chair, and The Big Kahuna, who's in charge of registration. The Big Kahuna kicked everyone's behinds, getting a lot of lucky guesses. It got to the point where every time he won again, people laughed in appreciation of his luck.

Some of my friends were hanging out in another room where people were playing board games. I stepped in and waved to them all.

Then I found something totally awesome. The White Rabbit was showing this video called something like Anime Video Hell 3. It compiled the funniest moments from hundreds of anime music videos (AMVs). This is where fans take music and edit portions of anime shows to them. Some of these moments were just hilarious. A bunch of people gathered, laughing out back at the wilder moments, including Mr. Kitty, The Gryphon, and a bunch of great women who are involved in Otakon.

I love these girls because they're a lot like me: none of them are girlie-girls, the type who only care about makeup and clothing and conforming to societal stereotypes. Each of them has her own flair for dressing, which is all about expressing her individuality, and they prefer to talk about things like their hobbies or careers. They're all smart and funny and a bit silly, just like my friends from college. Even though some of them are my sister's age or younger, I get along with them really well.

One of them, who was the one who planned Com Con, was showing us her video from New Year's Eve, which her husband as well as several other Otakon staffers attended. Even without the sound it was hilarious, including one guy getting really silly, wearing a woman's coat and dancing as if he was trying to be sexy.

The funniest thing about the evening was that, aside from the margarita at dinner, I didn't drink any alcohol. I was figuring that Saturday would be the big party evening, so I'd wait until then. Besides, if I really overindulged on Friday night, I couldn't justify doing so again on Saturday.

So I'd get silly and people would assume I was drunk when I wasn't. This used to happen to me all the time in college, too. Mr. Kitty agreed that the same thing often happens to him, as well.

Other people, such as a friend who was a community member of the Monty Python Society with us back in the day, entertains himself by walking around in his costume as the sorcerer Tim from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

A number of staffers area already making good on their New Year's resolutions. The Big Kahuna has lost eight pounds, with 15 to go. He told me that he's trying to avoid his family's history of adult diabetes. The Com Con organizer had also lost about 15 pounds, as has another friend, who shares my name and who usually arranges hotels for Otakon. They were all looking great.

People would come up to me looking for The Gryphon, but I didn't know where he was most of the time. As head of human resources, he ends up getting pulled aside quite frequently for personnel issues. He also has his own friends with whom he wants to catch up, so we sort of do our own thing. I've noticed that other friends of ours, such as The Cousin and her husband, The Photographer, or The Cheshire Cat and The Paper, do the same thing. I've always taken it as a good sign of a positive relationship where you're comfortable being alone, doing your own thing, as well as spending time together.

I don't think that The Gryphon and I stayed up incredibly late, maybe about 1 a.m. Saturday was going to be a long day with a lot of business, and I'd promised to get up early with him for the continental breakfast.

The Gryphon watching funny AMVs

More from Com Con 2006:

January 24, 2006 - Sake and Smurfs

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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