je's con report

I found this cleaning out my email. It was what I told Sobi when she asked how it was. I see no con reports for 2012. It wasn't a very big con, but it was a great one! Anyway, here's my much belated con report:

Diane Kenny is a treasure. She's open and honest. She thinks that most people have a filter they put between themselves and the world to help them not say the wrong thing, and that she doesn't have one. I think she may be right, but it contributes to her being so genuine. She's amazingly positive in light of all she's been through over the years. She's not religious in the traditional sense, but she has the attitude that someone out there must be looking out for her. She said she wakes up every day and is grateful for things like being able to walk and being able to swallow. (When she had her stroke, she couldn't swallow for a while. She said you'd never guess how much saliva your body makes until you can't swallow it!) She's now grateful for eyelashes. She said she never realized they were so functional until she didn't have any. (Side effect of her breast cancer treatment.) She gets disability assistance from the government. Her house payment is only $100 less than her monthly check. I have no idea how she lives on $100 a month! She also owes the hospital thousands of dollars that her Medicare didn't cover, but she said as long as she sends them a few dollars every month - which she does, they're happy.

I think the 25th anniversary panel was just a series of people sharing stories. Not exciting, but quite nice all the same.

I've been trying to put my finger on why it was such a nice convention. Partly it was because the flicker-flicker story was back, but I think there were 2 more such stories. They're simple, funny, fun, delightful. On the first one, Pat K told Judy she thought the phrase for Vincent should be "Hubba, hubba!". (That's the phrase for Catherine. Vincent is "Oh, baby!") Judy told her, well maybe, but I wrote the story, and this is how it is! It got a big laugh. The memory sharing was also very nice.

The dealer room had lots of stuff. I'm not that much of a shopper, but it was a sight to behold. Likewise the art room. I'm afraid the extensiveness of the art room meant that things didn't go as high as they might have in the auction. I got Chan's Coming Clean for only $35! Much of this bounty came from Marilyn Howard's collection.

I might have enjoyed it more partly because I got to help out a bit, unloading the truck when it arrived Wednesday night, opening boxes, helping carry things into the con room, putting prices on things (just the stickers - JoAnn is the expert on deciding how much to charge), etc. And a bit at the end taping up boxes to ship to Cleveland, but I felt like I was in the way more than anything else, so I didn't stay too long.

Family Feud went ok, but was rough around the edges. Maybe next year we'll play with the alternate rules I developed. We did a trial run Thursday night, with Laura and Deb as the 2 teams and Angel hosting. They liked the original rules better so that's what we went with. In the alternate rules, we'd just divide the room in half and take turns guessing. It might be less fun that way, not sure. Folks in the audience were shouting out their guesses anyway. Shrug.

There were craft projects, at least 3 of them. One was a simple one where we made a flower ring out of pipe cleaners. We sat on the stage while Lori gave us directions.

There was a lot of pleasant togetherness. In the memories, Vee gave a very heartfelt and vulnerable speech and thank you about being there. Jan Sutter's husband Bruce (who also donated some things from Jan's collection), said that Vee and Shannon saved his life by being there for him after she died. Pat W told a story about how Roy kept in touch with their class after she started a project inspired by the death of one of the class. Roy kept writing for years, she said. Lots of really nice stuff, and I bet those moments are a big part of why so many of us are saying it was a such a great con. Winter thinks we should do it every year.

The Cleveland vid was delightful. It started with a lot of episode snippets along the lines, of "Where is it?" "Do you know?" "Where" Pretty funny, and it kept the suspense up until Cleveland was finally revealed. Folks were whispering amongst themselves too. "Do you know?" "No, I don't know know."

Laura dressed as a Winterfest candle for the talent and recited a funny rap version of Othello.

Lots of fun things!

written 2012.7.17, posted 2026.10.10

PS: Diane Kenny passed away a few years back, but I don't think she would mind my mentioning her medical and financial isues.