Weekend

Had an overall great weekend that descended into craptasticity by Sunday evening.

Got to Philadelphia on schedule and met blackholly and give her a picture he drew, because Spiderwyck is one of his fave books. Cool.

My aunt, Elaine, also came into town and paid for a one-day pass, and hung out with us until about 5:00 pm. Also saw awelkin briefly and throughout the day.

Charles Vess is delightful! I forgot that Michael Hague would be there, so did not bring books for him to sign and didn't feel like buying any. Also never saw the Matthewses, so I could have left my heavy Arthurian Book of Days, The Bardic Sourcebook, and Gawain home, but of course, had I not brought them, I would have seen them immediately. Likewise, ellenkushner's presence was not known to me on Saturday, and she didn't have signings scheduled until after I was supposed to be in the air returning home.

Supposed to be. Because my plane took off an hour and a half late - we taxied out later than we were supposed to have *landed* - and what with all the waiting, I accidentally left my jacket in the seats at the gate. Realized it halfway up the aisle to my seat on the plane, though, so had to get a flight crewman (co-pilot, I'm pretty sure) to escort me back and retrieve my coat. It turns out that the nice lady who had been sitting next to me planned to bring it on board with her, so I would still have been reunited with my T pass and my house keys (and my coat!), but no one can guarantee these things, so better that I remembered when I did and not as we were pulling away from the gantry.

Anyway. Flight (once we actually ascended) took 45 minutes, but it took fully 2 hours to get home from the airport. Grr. By which time I was horribly late for rehearsal, but went anyway.

I will not rant here about David. Really. Because I know it's partly that I have been tired, and partly that I'm bitchy, but God Damn, that man does not listen well. Nor do I feel like he trusts me as an actor. Different styles. Or maybe we're too much alike. I don't know. But not ranting.

So what was FaerieCon like? Well, it was a good first effort, but basically it was one big exhibit hall with vendors. They had one of the rooms on the lower floor (which reminds me, Elaine offered to take us upstairs to the bigger halls and show us, but we never did get up there), and it was large and open and had no divisions and most importantly, nothing to absorb sound. They had two stages set up, one on either side of the back of the room, but if one went further than about 20 yards away from the sound system, it was impossible to hear. It was very difficult to really hear and understand even *with* the amplification.

As for vendors, yes, there were lots. Future Relics - I got to chat with Billy and Simon and Maggie. (Apparently my replacement ring is on tap, as soon as they do another casting. Yay!) And fabricdragon - I couldn't remember who said you knew her--it was liamstliam - but it turns out we are separated by 2 degrees on like 5 planes. Because she is the one who suggested "Bad-Ass Faeries" as a title to Danielle! Heh.

Oh, and theboomboom, Tiernan Redwolf sends his love.

So, the thing is? It was a trade show / shopping mall on fantasy/faerie themes, and while there was a LOT of cool stuff, and some really beautiful clothes, fabrics, etc., it was all stuff I really have no use for. I'm not going to spend $95 on a bias-cut jaggedy-hemmed velvet skirt, no matter how pretty it is. There was one merchant who had gorgeous stuff, and really interesting: he hand-felted fabric and dyed it, he had dyed china silk camisoles, and then he had dyed camisoles over which he dribbled liquid latex in contrasting colors. The effect created some partially rubberized clothing, and as he put it, it added "boning structure". But it was seriously expensive. The felted pieces that I liked best were over $200. Um. No.

But lots of good costuming ideas. I am sorry that I didn't see the fashion show, but watching people walking around gave me a lot of great mental imagery.

I hope that next year they get different spaces for the programming, and offer a little more in the way of it. Even if I'd been on a flight scheduled later, I don't think we'd have had any reason to go back. Except for Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer. And the Matthews signing.

So here it is only Monday and I'm exhausted. I'll be dragging my ass all week to get to Friday.

But it was SOOO great to see Wendy again, and to spend time with Elaine, and to see Catherine ever-so-briefly. And it was fun.