Well - I had a great time. I have a paper (two papers really) to write so this will be rather "scrawled."

As always it was great to see friends old and new. And, as always, there were far too many people I didn't ever end up talking to really like daisyknotwise or kyttn or... well - lots of people! I did enjoy my traditional hair cut with museinred not just because I always look so fabulous but also because it is a great time to just sit and chat and catch up with her. Likewise although they were really busy with the con I enjoyed the chance to sit and talk with jhayman and Dave who had kindly let me crash in their sumptuous suite! :-) (thanks again!)

I was proud and sniffly and happy to watch 3 old friends (well 4 since Judith and Dave are a couple) get inducted into the Hall of Fame. I really do consider it a great honor and it makes me happy to see people get well deserved recognition.

I never made the open filking. At all! I assure you this was NOT by design. What happened was Friday I knew that I was going into the weekend tired and should pace myself or I'd be trashed for the Hall of Fame concert on Sunday which was one of my obligations so I went to bed early. Or, well, I *started* to bed early, like maybe 11ish (we'd arrived at 9:30 or something) and ultimately, by the time I'd talked, and wandered, and stopped at the consuite for a bite of dinner which I'd never had... well it was 1 am and then Judith came in and we talked a bit so didn't get to bed til 2! Then Saturday night after the auction got over I had promised to sing Lullabye for a Weary World for Michelle Sagara. (It's sort of a tradition because when I saw her more regularly she always asked me to sing it). But I didn't want to ruin the Hall of Fame concert so I tried to find a quiet corner. Tanya Huff had the lyrics and chords so she went to get them and we crossed paths, so by the time I found a corner and sang that plus a few others and had fun chatting (and got to hear filker0 sing Caledonia and some others yay!) it was midnight and I was tired. So I decided, alas, to go to bed. Er yes, well... I started to bed but see, well, there was this little lobby filk with Dave Clement and Pete Grubbs and... to make a long story short I ended up going to bed around 5 am!!! YIKES! I haven't stayed up that late at a con in ages! Certainly not since rowan was born!

One of the highlights of Saturday was the Gospel choir that was mentioned on ohiblather and allisona's journals. When a soloist from the group did Amazing Grace but stopped after verse one I almost jumped in but decided it just wasn't a good idea but when Pete Grubbs asked for verse 2 and she said she didn't really know it I couldn't resist So I jumped in. I am told (though I honestly wasn't paying attention) that several of the gospel group were giving me approving stares. Mind you, the young woman who sang verse 1 did absolutely gorgeous gospel ornamentation and I'm sure mine was rather "white girl" but still... much fun!! Definitely the universal language! Many thanks to whichever kind soul gave me a CD! Greg McMullen handed one to me and said "it's an anonymous gift!" :-)

I managed to survive Sunday's concert. In spite of my total embarassment at realizing I'd been calling Lissa "Lis - sa" all these years and not only that - correcting people who called her "Lisa"!! Sigh. This, of course, became a running joke and, of course, like all good running jokes took on a life of its own. At the resteraunt later our waiter whose name badge said "some-persian-name-I=don't-remember" told us "but you can call me anything" Well, naturally he became "Lisa". Sigh. Good thing we tip well.

As always I enjoyed seeing jhayman's daughter Jenn. And it's always wonderful to see andpuff who is just so funny and charming and witty - just like her books! I especially enjoyed reaquainting myself with msagara and her husband Tom. I'd forgotten how brilliant and caustically funny Michelle is and how patient and funny and kind Tom is. He even helped me do my math homework! (yay!!)

As always I loved doing the juried one shots and am glad that everyone seemed to find them useful/fun. I learn so much doing them too. One of these days I swear I'm going to partipate as well!

I had fun playing peteralway's lego dulcimer! I'm still amazed that someone could make a lego dulcimer that really plays!!

Had fun talking with unkbar and billroper and scs_11 (I wonder if I'll get all these lj names right?!) and agreed that A) I should really try to make a DI THing again when I have more money and B) I should try to hit the midwest cons again cause I really really miss people.

jhayman did a good songwriting workshop which made me re-think writing songs. She focused on the song as short story. Interestingly I'd never though of *writing* a song that way yet when I *sing* them I think of them that way all the time! Funny isn't it? In spite of us being the most badly behaved class she could have gotten she did a great job! :-)

It was very nice to find some time to really talk with old friend tarkrai and new friend katyhh. I have liked Katy since I first met her and it was nice to sit and chat some. I think she and Steve will be very happy together through many years and look forward to watching them grow together. (and to the excuse to visit them in Germany some day! ;-)

It was great to hear sexybass's girlfriend Marlene sing! She seems really nice and what a great voice! I hope they can find a way to be together more easily!

Another highlight of the weekend for me was the drive to and from. I got to spend time with persis and jslove who are dear friends and it was especially nice to get to know maedbh7 (added you to friends list!) and happyfunpaul (aka: happyfunpope a victim of sleep deprevation...) more. I really enjoyed talking to them both. It was very cathartic to talk about Iain with Paul. Hugs. And it was great to talk about sex and children and parenting and relationships and housework and... with Heather. ("Mom will you hold my Woody?" sighhhhh) Clearly we need to organize a wenchcon East! :-)

Ah there's so much I could say - but I'll get to those papers now and just say:
It was wonderful and I just wish I could do it more! I can't wait til we're more solvent again and can come to more cons.