Arisia Tales, Vol. I: The Geeks Have Landed

[slipjig3]

(Too much Arisia stuff in my head to be done away with in one post. I have some time today and in the near future, so allow me to sprawl this thing out a bit...)

The trip out to Boston of Friday was so uneventful it made me nervous. rafaela and I arrived at the Hyatt Cambridge at four, only an hour into check-in time, but the garage was already so damned full that we had to park the rental car on the highest level, which would come back to haunt us when (a) issendai called to ask if I could give her a ride after her radiator exploded, and I had to pass on the front desk's message that we wouldn't be able to get back into the garage at all; and (b) we finally left on Monday, after the discovery that rental places don't tend to leave snow brushes in the trunk.

That dispensed with, though, we quickly began my favorite part of Arisia Fridays: running into every last human being you know in the lobby, and serially hugging them. I'm not even going to attempt to name everyone I saw, because that would lead to failure and brain lesions, but I must pass on the moment that defined the Con for me within an hour of our arrival:

I had located daev in the Kafkaesque registration line, and he and I were chatting after he'd picked up his badge. Dave is an old college friend from Illinois who had been to Arisia in '06 while attending enegim's wedding, and we'd been trying to get him to come back. This was the year at last, and he was already buzzing about it. "The thing I love about Arisia," he said, "is that I feel like I'm among my own people."

"Yes, exactly," I said, and mock-announced rather too loudly, "Gather around, people!"

Immediately, two girls passing by in semi-gothy vampire costumery came running. "What? What?" I apologized, stammered a bit, said that I wasn't really trying to gather people around, and they cheerfully bounced away.

Dave watched them go, eyebrow in a curious arch. "Did you actually know either of those girls?"

"No."

His grin was wider than the lobby itself. "THAT," he said, "is why I love Arisia."

Yep. We'd arrived.

Comments

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

THAT is an excellent story. I think we could use that power for great eviljustice if we wanted to. I'm actually thinking that next year me and my Basket of Cool Stuff to Hand Out will ask you to do that once or twice, and then see how many people come over to get stuff once they see other people getting stuff. I mean, I got pretty good coverage just chatting to people, but I can do BETTER.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

I would love to! I enjoy being the loud and demonstrative one for things like that. shadesong has already asked me to learn the Brave Sir Robin song so I can be her personal minstrel next year.

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

I'm also thinking that since felis got a decent reaction to her sign, maybe I will make a sign that says "Ask me about my artists" to put up between things. . .

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

This image brings me joy. Laugh-y joy.

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Some rental places DO give you an ice scraper....Hertz does, anyway.

[slipjig.livejournal.com]

Sadly, this was Enterprise, which I have never had a problem with aside from this one very minor detail. Luckily, the day we left was relatively warm and the snow was loose, so my coat sleeve did just fine.