Insert Witty Journal Title Here

I was worried I'd lose everything I typed in the last one if I didn't post it.

Okay, so, more thoughts.

Books - I bought the WisCon Chronicles and the chapbook thing with the two GOH stories in it at Room of One's Own, along with 2 used paperbacks. Then I got 6 ARCs at Galley Ho. Then I bought a book at the Circlet Press party. And that might have been the end of it, but then I put in bids at the Tiptree silent auction and won some paperbacks that Ellen Kushner had donated. (And a Riker yo-yo, because it struck me as ridiculous, and plus Star Trek.) I also got a rainbow flag at Room, which I haven't seen yet if it survived transport in my suitcase. And a Tiptree shirt. I think that's everything. I didn't get anything in the Dealer's Room this year. Partly because I was conscious that I only had so much room in my carryon luggage (since I didn't intend to check a bag).

Panel - I was on a midnight TV panel. I thought that went pretty well. I totally forgot to talk about Once Upon a Time/Wonderland, but we all know they're pretty awesome, right? I could have gone on about Doctor Who or Sleepy Hollow, but there were tons of panels specifically about them.

Missed People - Kater didn't go! (Booo.) Ellen Klages hurt her back and wasn't there. That was a real downer for a lot of people. Mary Robinette Kowal also wasn't there, and I was looking forward to running into her, since she'll be at the workshop I'm going to in a couple weeks.

Twitter/WiFi - The hotel wifi was suckier than it's ever been before. I would type up a tweet only to be told I was no longer connected to the wifi. It did improve after most people had left, but that's not much help, is it?!

Panels - Panels are awesome.

People - People are even more awesome. I met people I knew. I met people I sort of knew. And I met people that I should have known, if I'd had a better memory. And I met new people. Yay new people! I didn't meet any Clarion 2012 or 2013 people, but I heard y'all were adorable.

Um.. oh, I read the latest WisCon Chronicles on the plane. (Not all of it, but several bits of it) And it's always worthwhile to buy and read some or all of those. You learn about aspects of the con that you didn't experience yourself. Because you are not capable of being everywhere, and because you are not everyone. How you experience the con is always going to be different from how every other person experiences the con. And it can be eye-opening.

So definitely check those out. They're all still on sale from Aqueduct Press, and probably on Amazon.

On the way to Wiscon, I bought a hummus sandwich at the Cosi in the airport. It has leaves of basil on it, which was odd. I would've preferred spinach. I also bought a bagel at DD. The fate of the hummus sandwich -- I ate most of it on the bus, discarded the rest eventually. The fate of the bagel -- turned hard and got thrown out, but I used the cream cheese on a later Starbucks bagel.

I got off at Memorial Union and walked down State Street with my luggage. So to reward myself, I stopped into Noodles & Co and got a pad thai with tofu and a fizzy peach drink. I thought I'd get back to Noodles & Co later, but I didn't. These got consumed in their entirety once I reached the room.

Had a fancy local root beer in the bar that night. Then went up to the Governor's Club lounge for desserts. A strawberry cupcake that was hard and dry and not very good, and a chocolate coffee trifle that was very good. (The con hotel does better with chocolate than other types of dessert.)

Breakfast was also in the Governor's Club lounge. Scrambled eggs (sometimes these seemed to have cheese, other times not), fruit that's mostly melon and pineapple, and various breakfast pastries. (They also have yogurt, cereal, bagels, english muffins, etc.)

I may forget the order of things after this point.

Restaurants

Mirch Masala(?) It's sort of around back of the hotel. I think I ate there last year, but if so, they've remodeled and might be under new management. Ate here with Kimberly, who reminded me we had the ASL dinner together last year, and with people she'd gathered. Some of them were new to Wiscon.

Decided I like (* is a wildcard):
paneer *
* korma
* pakoor (if that's the chick pea batter)
samosas are okay

They serve a buffet earlier in the day, so that might be a good option for some. Someday I will try Indian drinks, such as lassi.

The Fountain

For the gender variant dinner, we ate here. It's really close to the hotel and is probably new this year. It's a burger and sandwiches place, but it has not only one veggie burger option, but two! I had a portobello mushroom, but I could've had a black bean burger. They were a little slow. Our party was about a half a dozen, so not so terribly large. Fortunately its proximity to the hotel meant I didn't miss the start of the Tiptree Auction. Also had sweet potato fries.

Got a smoothie from the farmer's market. Pineapple. Mmm.
Had a free piece of Ian's mac and cheese pizza at the appdev meeting. So I never got into Ian's on my own and got my card punched for another year. Woe. Also, they moved across the street.
Bought a cheesecake chocolate brownie thingee from the Tiptree bakesale. Yum.
Lucked into a fresh batch of popcorn at the consuite once. Got soda and water there on other occasions.

Never had dessert again in the governor's club lounge. Did have breakfast most every day there. Had hors d'oeuvres once. Tortilla chips and black bean dip, veggies and bleu cheese dip, and veggie dumpling things that I didn't very much. Also a Shirley Temple.

Various chocolates from the reg desk or parties. Really knew better than to stick any in my pocket, but did it anyway. I had to throw my mp3 player's earbuds out (they were old anyway) and clean the player as best I could.

Looked at the pasty shop's veggie options, decided I wasn't interested. Failed to find the food cart at the farmer's market that last year had great Thai wraps.

Dessert salon, I had the chocolate mousse, because that's consistently good. Had the wrong shaped spoon for it. The pecan pie thing had a hard crust that wouldn't cut with my fork, so I just ate the topping off of it. Went back later for a chocolate decadent cake thing that gave me a good shot of sugar and caffeine. Not sure if it had coffee in it or not.

I think that was everything. Never enough opportunities to eat at all the cool places. Plus I felt I should eat in the governor's club lounge when I could, since I was paying a premium for the privilege.

Nearly an hour after I left my house, 35.50$ poorer, I am now a 5 minute car ride away from my house. But, hey, free wifi. Anyway, it turns out an airport shuttle is cheaper and while it wouldn't pick me up directly at my house for that price, it would pick me up at the hotel across the street. This bus is more crowded than I'm used to seeing it.

So because I procrastinated and because airlines go under and restructure and whatnot, I couldn't get a reasonably-priced plane ticket straight to Madison. This year I'll be flying into Chicago and taking a bus from there. It's not ideal, but I couldn't justify the ~300$ otherwise. Maybe when I'm rich and famous. Or at least rich. Although if you're famous, it's easy to be rich. Funny how that works.

Have now run out of things to do to take advantage of this free wifi and am contemplating turning the comp off and reading a book on the ereader.

Plan tonight is to get to the hotel by 6ish *fingers crossed*, check in, get some food, and see if Access or any other con department needs some help tonight.

Still don't know what I'm reading at the OA reading, but I printed out two Clarion stories if I fail to write a new story in the next 48 hours or so. Turns out I really gayed it up at Clarion. :)

In other news, I submitted two things to markets yesterday. Should hear back in a few weeks.

While I have your attention, I'll be doing the Clarion write-a-thon again this year. So be ready to support a great writing workshop!

I have a tooth that's bothering me and I'm vegetarian. So you may notice a trend of softer foods, and vegetarian ones.

Cinnamon and Sugar soft pretzel in O'Hare while waiting 3 hours for my next flight.

Cheese and fruit at AROOO reception.

Pad thai with tofu from Noodles & Co. In retrospect, a smaller bowl would've been better. But I did eat most of it later that night. Right before bed, which I usually do NOT do. It turns out if you want a fridge at the Concourse (and you're not in the Governor's Club), there are specific rooms with fridges. They won't deliver one. And I'd already changed rooms once at that point.

Spinach, tomato and feta pizza and a nice salad with chick peas and beats from Ian's Pizza. Got another punch on my card! How many Wiscons will it take for me to get a free slice? Also orange Fanta. Not enough places around here have Fanta. (Domino's shows it on their website, but they liiiiiie. It's actually Sunkist. Which has caffeine, so it's actually a difference that matters!)

Veggie dog from consuite (Smartdog). Also popcorn.

I may have had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich later that night.

The best wrap EVER! from a food cart at the farmer's market. It was Sweet Thai Chili with basil tofu. I asked for light on the chili and no onions. Excellent, excellent, excellent. I'm sad it was a food cart, because they might not be there next year! And then only on Saturday!

I believe I also ate 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches this day.

What was Sunday lunch? Hrrrm. Oh yes, der. The ASL Lunch I organized was Sunday lunch. We went to Hawk's Bar & Grill and I had the portobella sandwich. I didn't like whatever they'd marinated the mushrooms in. So I won't be having that again. They did have a veggie burger and other vegetarian options though, so I won't write them off entirely.

Sunday dinner was Flavor of India. I believe I had.. aloo chana. Very mild. It has chick peas and potatoes. I probably wouldn't get it again. Mostly because there's so many other Indian options that are vegetarian, I'm sure there are other things I'd enjoy more.

Then malt something something ice cream from Chocolate something. Reportedly the best ice cream place in Madison. And I can't exactly disagree. It was quite good.

Then the dessert salon, previously reported on.

So it was a shame that at that point I'd had several different desserts. There was plenty of cake left when I popped into the Broad Universe party. But I did not need more sugar! Diversicon also had lots of vegetarian food at their party. I didn't have any though.

Monday I didn't eat anything but a few pretzels until I got home, where I ordered Papa Gino's right before they closed. Ravioli if you're interested. :)

And I think that was it. I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying a Cornish pasty or getting over to the crepe place. Goals for next year!

And I can't praise the consuite enough. Fresh made popcorn is awesome by itself, but they have hot dogs! Veggie hot dogs even! With wheat buns! Also the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I made myself were also wheat buns. They also have fruit, veggie, hummus, pita. Some of the other usual things you'd expect in a consuite. Wiscon has the best consuite ever and puts all the others to shame. Which is kind of redundant, since the con is so close to so many awesome restaurants of varying price ranges.

READERCON, I'm looking at you!!! You could learn a thing or two!!!!

To pick up where I left off..

The dog was a military dog and got to ride in the cabin with us! Way up front with the cool people. United is so silly. They call all these sorts of 'plus' and 'premiere' people for pre-boarding. Waste of freaking time. What's the advantage to boarding first anyway? So you get to sit in the plane longer than you sat in the airport. I understand if you have little kids or have mobility issues, because you need the time and space to get settled. But everyone else? You first class people? Fah on you!

It was a 2 hour and something flight, so we got drinks. And no snacks! Not a single peanut or pretzel! And the guy next to meet insisted on invading my space with his elbow. :P

Chicago had no free wifi. Grr.

I wandered around in search of food, until I discovered I wasn't encountering much variety. Overpriced mushroom and veggie sandwiches or overpriced yogurt. Hrrm. I almost gave up and got something at McDonald's. (Except I couldn't figure out what! Salad or.... did they have yogurt? I couldn't tell.) Then I walked a little bit more and lo and behold, an Annie's Pretzel. So I got a cinnamon and sugar pretzel.

There was an earlier flight, but I think it would've cost me 75$ to switch to it, and it was way off on another concourse. So I stuck with what I had. And then wondered if that was the best plan when I saw all the gates around me (I was at the head of a semicircle of gates) posting flight delays of an hour due to 'late aircraft arrival' and 'air traffic control'. That did not bode well! But when our flight eventually showed up on the board, since I had a 3 hour wait, another plane came in and went while I was waiting, it never got the Red Font of Delay. Though it did update our arrival time from 4:42 to 4:50.

There were 21 empty seats listed when I boarded. I thought I'd have an empty seat next to me. But then after like 5 minutes, they piled some more people in. So I shared a seat with a guy in a suit. Did that mean he was an air marshal?

Short flight. We actually arrived a bit earlier than our original scheduled time, so that was good. Then I got to baggage claim and lo and behold, my luggage was sitting all on its lonesome on a stopped belt. (I am really surprised more luggage doesn't just get stolen..) Turns out my luggage got that earlier flight!!

Called for the shuttle, was told one was waiting. Went out. It was empty! Shuttle driver said he was waiting for a flight crew. My flight crew came out! But they got in the other hotel's shuttle ahead of us. I didn't know the flight crew I ended up sharing a shuttle with. It was bizarrre. Because I'm used to having to wait for a shuttle and then cramming in with other Wiscon goers. Not a half-empty shuttle with a flight crew! Flight crews are kind of cool. They all had different accents, so you could tell they were from all over the States.

So I got to the hotel about an hour earlier than I expected and helped a bit with putting Access signs up. Then I had second thoughts about our hotel room being right above the street with construction. With big huge trucks on it! So I went back up and called the front desk and got a room change. This one has a lousy view. Picture the worst view you can, then swap it out for a rooftop. Because that's what the view is. With all the vents and ducts and fans and whatnot. But the construction isn't right below us. We are closer to the ice machine though, which woke me at 8am, but that's getting ahead of things.

I wandered over to the Reception and reading at A Room of One's Own and grabbed some much-needed cheese and fruit. Walked in a bit late to the reading of Joanna Russ's story. Looked a bit at the books on my way out, but did not buy. Yet.

Kater came in around 8ish, so we met up at Noodles & Co. A big bowl is big, and actually more than I wanted/needed. Pad thai with tofu, which is not listed as 'v', probably has fish sauce. When it comes to pad thai, well, it's worth some dead fish on my karma. (Or I could choose to think it's 'v' because of the eggs.)

Asked at the front desk if we could get a fridge, but was told all the fridges are in specific rooms. And I didn't think we needed to change rooms again. They don't need to think I'm fussy!

Got registered. Headed for the bar. Hung out with cool kids. Mostly other Clarion people (from other years/Clarions). Downloaded the Twitter app to my phone, so I could keep up with what's going on.

Came back after midnight. Ate more of my pad thai before it was completely inedible. Hope I don't get food poisoning, but you can't let all that pad thai go to waste! Even if it's not the best most awesome authentic pad thai ever.

And slept. Was woken up by a loud truck around 6 and was worried it was construction noise, but maybe it was just a garbage truck. Woken up again at 8 by the ice machine. But all in all, I got sufficient sleep.

Meeting Kater for food in a few, then going to the Gathering, then the Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading. So I need to rehearse my reading now.

More to come!

Livejournal is looking weird, which makes me suspicious of this totally unsecured hotel wireless network. Anyway... long trip report behind the cut.

( Long trip report )
Found some Wiscon attendees at the baggage claim and piled onto the shuttle. We'd probably all been on the same plane without knowing it.

Checked in, went to find food. I walked quite a lot, as I was hoping the good food was just around the bend or hidden in the middle of the next promising-looking block. Turns out it was true. Awesome sub shop. Silver Mine Subs. For all I know, it's a chain out here. It seemed like a much longer walk back. Didn't get lost. Because I'm awesome like that.

I went to help with packet stuffing, but they were pretty much done by the time I got there. So I came back to the room to see if anything was up on lj. I'll go back down once registration opens. I'm rather tired and could just sleep and watch tv or whatever, but I feel like I should do something Wiscon-related now that I'm here. And not be a hermit.

Stay tuned...