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I Am The Dancing Queen
Jan. 18th, 2004 09:16 pmSomehow, things always wind up at their most perfect right after I give up on their even being the least bit enjoyable. This is, however, not at all a bad thing in and of itself.
Arisia weekend started out miserable. I had serious concerns about one of the games, and about the con's ability to handle the games. I had no idea of whether we would have a room at all, let alone one big enough to actually sleep in. I had a screaming headache, was stuck late at work, fairly convinced that I would miss the few people I wanted to see, and panicked about public speaking. I headed off to the hotel with extreme reluctance, quite ready to have No Fun At All. Of course, it turned out to be the best con I've attended in nearly a decade.
There were hiccups, of course. Things were slow to start, people occasionally went missing, and Saturday evening was interrupted by a serious case of no food, no downtime, and a need to spend about an hour in a quiet room with my sweetie, avoiding anything public. But all things considered, everything went blindingly well. The games ran smoothly, the room more or less worked, the panels I was on were fascinating and entertaining and noone pointed at me and screamed 'You Have No Right To Speak, You Unknown Clueless Person!' I caught up with old friends, started making new friends, and I staged a Marvelous (and Semi-Unintentional) Dance Rebellion.
One of the main reasons I go to Arisia (or to any con, for that matter), is to dance. I'm a dance junkie at heart, and I'll wiggle around happily to almost anything - so it's a testament to the DJ's sheer incompetence that I was utterly unable to tolerate the bizarre and singularly unpleasant noise that was blaring from the main ballroom. I half-jokingly suggested to several of my friends that we start our own dance in a separate room, forgetting that these people (being, well, my friends, and geeks, and pleasantly overenthusiastic) are far too likely to take a suggestion and run with it. Within fifteen minutes we had pulled together a CD player, the dance mixes from Friday night's prom LARP, and an empty function room on the fourth floor for a semi-private dance party. By 3am the Security staff was sending frustrated dancers from the main ballroom our way, and we had nearly 40 people jumping, gyrating, and generally proving that 80's hair metal bands are much better dance fodder than I had remembered.
Eventually the lousy DJ was given an invitation to the world, but it took the better part of an hour for people to filter back down there from our Guerilla Dance. And now I am tired, and sore from shoulders to toes (the new dancing shirt I bought is beautiful and sparkly and metallic and marvelous, but I've got several thousand tiny scrapes all over my sides from it subtly ripping up my skin as I moved. Must try to find a way to fix that before I wear it again....), and probably still fairly undernourished and dehydrated - but I'm also riding incredibly high from the joys of seeing my corner of the con run smoothly, from surviving the panels, and from pulling a kickass party out of a silly idea and a collection of cool people.
I don't so much want to sleep as I just want to lie down, close my eyes, and relive the whole thing half a dozen times...
Arisia weekend started out miserable. I had serious concerns about one of the games, and about the con's ability to handle the games. I had no idea of whether we would have a room at all, let alone one big enough to actually sleep in. I had a screaming headache, was stuck late at work, fairly convinced that I would miss the few people I wanted to see, and panicked about public speaking. I headed off to the hotel with extreme reluctance, quite ready to have No Fun At All. Of course, it turned out to be the best con I've attended in nearly a decade.
There were hiccups, of course. Things were slow to start, people occasionally went missing, and Saturday evening was interrupted by a serious case of no food, no downtime, and a need to spend about an hour in a quiet room with my sweetie, avoiding anything public. But all things considered, everything went blindingly well. The games ran smoothly, the room more or less worked, the panels I was on were fascinating and entertaining and noone pointed at me and screamed 'You Have No Right To Speak, You Unknown Clueless Person!' I caught up with old friends, started making new friends, and I staged a Marvelous (and Semi-Unintentional) Dance Rebellion.
One of the main reasons I go to Arisia (or to any con, for that matter), is to dance. I'm a dance junkie at heart, and I'll wiggle around happily to almost anything - so it's a testament to the DJ's sheer incompetence that I was utterly unable to tolerate the bizarre and singularly unpleasant noise that was blaring from the main ballroom. I half-jokingly suggested to several of my friends that we start our own dance in a separate room, forgetting that these people (being, well, my friends, and geeks, and pleasantly overenthusiastic) are far too likely to take a suggestion and run with it. Within fifteen minutes we had pulled together a CD player, the dance mixes from Friday night's prom LARP, and an empty function room on the fourth floor for a semi-private dance party. By 3am the Security staff was sending frustrated dancers from the main ballroom our way, and we had nearly 40 people jumping, gyrating, and generally proving that 80's hair metal bands are much better dance fodder than I had remembered.
Eventually the lousy DJ was given an invitation to the world, but it took the better part of an hour for people to filter back down there from our Guerilla Dance. And now I am tired, and sore from shoulders to toes (the new dancing shirt I bought is beautiful and sparkly and metallic and marvelous, but I've got several thousand tiny scrapes all over my sides from it subtly ripping up my skin as I moved. Must try to find a way to fix that before I wear it again....), and probably still fairly undernourished and dehydrated - but I'm also riding incredibly high from the joys of seeing my corner of the con run smoothly, from surviving the panels, and from pulling a kickass party out of a silly idea and a collection of cool people.
I don't so much want to sleep as I just want to lie down, close my eyes, and relive the whole thing half a dozen times...
