Memories of a weekend that was:

-Sitting in the hall looking at Kathleen's wonderful beadwork. When I first saw Kathleen's beadwork I believe she was working exclusively from patterns, but now she's making these gorgeous original pieces of bead art. So impressive!

-Talking with Judith, one of Kathleen's proteges, about her beadwork. Coveting the beautiful Elven leaf beadwork that she donated to the Interfilk auction, knowing I could never afford to win it. Posing so Judith could take photos of my Gondorian tree cross-stitch for a future bead project.

-The Interfilk auction, which went smoothly and lucratively despite the auctioneer becoming ill at the last second. It was fun helping with the silent auction.

-Amanda's Sunday night room party. So much fun!!

-Talking camera talk with folks like Debbie, Rob, and Greg. I learned tons about my new Powershot A85 by putting it into intense action over the weekend.

-Understanding the true power of LiveJournal when the first questions almost everyone asked me over the weekend were "How are you feeling?" and "Oooo, is that the new camera?" :). Getting to spend real face time with so many of my LiveJournal friends.

-Yummy chocolate-cherry wine from beige_alert. And thanks for introducing me to Spot, the snake :).

-And Jim Poltrone's delicious chocolates! Thank you, Jim!

-Sitting with Debbie, Jodi, Andrea, Mary, Carla, Joe, Rand and Adam at the Pegasus Banquet. Being stunned and honoured when Urban Tapestry received the Best Performer Pegasus Award for 2004. Hugging Jodi when "The Lady" received the Pegasus Award for Best Song. Congrats to Matt Leger, Rand and Adam, Kathy Mar, and Julia Ecklar, who also won Pegasus Awards.

-Buying a really lovely green mottled t-shirt with a Celtic tree design in the Dealer's Room. As I saw at least 7-8 other people with that shirt during the weekend, it was clearly a popular design!

-Making plans for our trip to Germany next fall with Katy and Ju and Steve.

-Going to "The Book Loft", a really amazing bookstore in downtown Columbus. Mary drove Debbie and I over there and it really was one of the coolest bookstores I've ever seen. Two Victorian houses have been split up into about 30 small rooms that wend around three floors and are full of books, calendars and bookmarks. Despite having very little room in my luggage I ended up buying four bookmarks, a German culture/language calendar, a paperback of "The History of Almost Everything" and a copy of Volume 2 of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" for John. Thanks, Mary!

-Listening to caver stories from Bryan Snyder, Scott's brother. Listening to Amanda Snyder tell all these stories about our early filking days together that I had managed to forget :). Though she had to pay me two dollars (U.S.) to tell the story about the night Scott met Urban Tapestry. Amanda and I have a deal about this now, as in "if I had a dollar for every time Amanda has told that story about how Scott met Urban Tapestry..." :).

-Looking through Seanan's sketchbook, which included some lovely sketches for me.

-Getting the lyrics to Maureen O'Brien's Rosie/Sam song, "Rosie's Song" and learning to my delight that the song could be found on-line. I've listened to it, like, a half-a-dozen times now and passed it on to two on-line Tolkien friends.

-An overwhelming sense of emotion and nostalgia that just threaded through the entire weekend. Being so grateful and happy to be with friends that geography and schedules and finances and obligation keep me too far from. Breath-taking musical moments that could instantly throw me back several years- hearing Luis drumming and harmonizing with Rand and Adam, listening to Scott sing "I Play Magic Now" and singing "Lady of The Wood" with him, hearing Kathy Mar sing "World Inside The Crystal", hearing Paul sing "By My Side" and harmonizing with Alisa and others on "Where The Magic Is Real", the fun of singing "Still Can't Buy Me Love" with Ookla at the children's concert. Such moments are as rare and precious as mithril.

Thank you to the OVFF concom for throwing such a fun convention. I know how hard you worked to show us a good time. There were moments this weekend where I knew there was nowhere else on Earth where I'd have rather been.