WisCon 24

Anyway. I'll be filling in entries from my vacation over the coming days.

I decided a month or so ago that I should take a vacation, since I hadn't had one since the new year. I have the vacation time, and it'd be a good idea not to wait until I'm dying for a vacation to get away. So, with WisCon 24 coming up, I decided to head back to Madison for a week and a half to visit friends. My friends Charlie and Dan agreed to put me up, and they live in easy walking distance of the con hotel. So I bought a plane ticket through Lucy and off I went.

Traffic on Thursday morning was hellacious. Trish, already going to watch my cats for part of my trip, offered to drive me to the airport. I left my car in the garage at Apple and waited for her to pick me up. Wouldn't you know it but there were accidents on both 85 and 280, and she got stuck in terrible traffic and was half an hour late. Well, fortunately I had plenty of time, and the ride to the airport is the reverse commute, so although it was just a little tight, I had no problem making my flight. Woo-hoo!

Dan picked me up at the airport and we had gyros for dinner. Boy, I sure do miss Madison gyros. The gyro places I've eaten at in the Bay area are pricier and not nearly as good.

Charlie, it turns out, was at a training session for his new extracurricular activity: Writing tickets for people who illegally park in handicapped parking spaces. Apparently this is a new program in Madison for which civilians can apply, and Charlie - who is himself disabled - is having a ball with it. Little did I realize just how many people violate the disabled parking law! One wonders what the Madison police think of Charlie's industriousness; he has to send all his tickets and reports to them for processing. Well, I can't say I feel sorry for the violators. I guess his mandate is primarily to educate where appropriate, and I think he also hopes to persuade a few business owners to change their handicapped parking arrangement to better meet the needs of their clientele.

Friday I headed to WisCon. I'd announced in e-mail that I'd be showing up, but some folks hadn't heard. It was neat for them to recognize me and be happy to see me! It's nice to be fondly remembered and thought of. I realized (much later, as I was flying home, actually) that knowing this makes me feel a little better about having moved to California; it doesn't make my move seem quite so final, as if I've left everything behind me. I can go back if I want to.

(I've exchanged e-mail with several folks in Madison since moving, but e-mail isn't quite the same.)

The author guest of honor was Charles de Lint, who writes modern or "urban" fantasy. In preparation for the con, I read a couple of his books, Mulengro and Trader, which are reviewed at the link I just referenced. In summary, I was disappointed in Mulengro, feeling it seemed without purpose, but I quite enjoyed Trader which has quite a moving ending. I'd read more stuff by de Lint, except that I'm usually inclined to read science fiction before fantasy (witness the various Tim Powers books sitting unread on my shelf).

Although I attended many panels, I don't have a whole lot to say about them. I went to some panels on writing (sigh, I know, if I'm going to go to writing panels I ought to actually do some writing), and went to Dick Russell's "best silent SF films of 1999" (at which we play charades to act out the film titles). I also went to several panels for the fan guest of honor, Jeanne Gomoll, a longtime Madison fan and a key person in the group which edited the feminist fanzines Janus and Aurora in the 1970s and 80s. I've know Jeanne for a few years and enjoyed seeing the panels she was on, especially the "roast" that several of her friends held for her; it was a hoot!

I also enjoyed the art show, which I think was the best WisCon has had since I started going. I put bids on two pieces. I also ended up voting for all four of the award winners at the show, and one of the pieces I bid on was the "best of show". Sadly, I ended up getting outbid on everything I wanted, and went home with nothing. Sigh. I really liked the best of show piece, too, but the woman competing with me I think just wanted it more than I did. Oh, well. (I was pretty bummed after losing out on it and spent Sunday evening walking down to Memorial Union Terrace to cool off.)

I also went to lunch and dinner with a variety of my Madison friends. Had a good time doing that, tried out a few restaurants I hadn't been to, which were generally fine. Ate several more gyros. Stayed up past midnight for the parties on a couple of nights (since I try to be a morning person, this was exhausting!). One friend of mine had invited some other friends of hers to the Saturday parties, and one of them was extremely cute, but, being basically a shy person about such things, I didn't say anything...

So it was a good con. Next year is WisCon 25, which I expect the folks running it will try to do up a bit more, as they did with 20, so I will probably try to go back.

The con ended Monday afternoon, so I split, and found Charlie and Dan were out. After waiting for a little while, I headed down to get dinner (I was feeling a bit down, probably due to the end of the con, but Pizzeria Uno cheered me up), and went to my old favorite coffee shop on State Street to read. It was a little odd, since I realized most of the students had gone home, and State Street and the shop were both fairly empty, but it was fine. The coffee is still good, although Borrone in California has much better whipped cream.

Oh, and did I mention that after a sunny arrival on Thursday, it spend the weekend being cloudy and/or rainy? A theme which would be continued for the rest of the week...