Dysprosium: Monday

At Swancon in 2013, Monday came and I had not had enough. At Eastercon this year, Monday came and I needed more rest. Possibly because the Helsinki party was so great! I discovered a new kind of chips that alas are not sold outside of Finland. Another reason to bemoan the fact that I will have to skip Archipelacon which I have been so looking forward to!

What Monday did bring me was a great GUFF meeting, one that I had been missing in the last year and one that we were not able to make happen at Loncon and Shamrokon, for various reasons. Mostly, great programming on my end and the fact that a Croatian fan had a hand at organizing Loncon 3 volunteers’ which in reality meant that I had things to do even when I did not know I had things to do. (Am kidding: Petra did an awesome job and even managed to find me volunteering jobs that were ok to do with a kid in tow!)

Sitting down to talk about GUFF at Dyprosium was a new experience for me. All the people I have met IRL at various cons and that I have emailed for ages were suddenly there and agreements could be made without time delays and work and life interfering. Oh, joy! (Gillian, the only thing missing was you!). Thus, I missed almost all the panels I meant to go to, but had an awesome time brainstorming fan funds and just chatting to people afterwards. I should have taken more photos but this is where Irena saved me by graciously allowing me to use hers. After lunch, Irena left to see some London, leaving a sad Irish man behind and I found a quiet corner to do some work in.

I did manage to get to the panel on Fairies which dipped into the surreal every 10 minutes or so while the conversation went from how they got used in the panelists work to talking about them as if they were real (and uninvited!) beings. I alternated between being amused, very, very afraid and quite interested in all the turns the diversity in fandom conversation might go should the fae suddenly decide to come out at a con.

In the afternoon I took a walk around the hotel – the first time I went outside in three days, because convention! – and discovered that there was sun outside! The closing ceremony… I never know what to think – we don’t have those in Croatia. While I do enjoy them, I always find myself wondering why I do not feel prompted to organize one at home.

At Shamrokon, I was devastated not to be able to go to the Dead Dog Party. So I was going to go to this one, even it meant spending the night at Terminal 5! (Luckily, I was saved from that by James Shields and Fionna O’Sullivan: THANK YOU!) So, in the evening I talked to (almost) all the people that I did not get to talk to during the con, saw the worst apology in the world, collected all the issues of Clickety Click to take back to Croatia and  hung out with Fluff – whom I had no seen one on one since Swancon perhaps and whom I very much hope to see again in Barcelona.

I also met the European Chocolate con lady Gillian told me about this summer! And I even had some Croatian chocolate on me to offer! A person handing out chocolates at cons is such an awesome idea (and it is how I met Gillian Polack who was last year’s GUFF delegate at Loncon3). The Dead Dog Party conversations are always deep, silly, full of laughter and insane details and topics – mine at Dysprosium were no different and I loved them.

All I have to do now is figure out how to afford going back next year.

Dysprosium: Monday