Monday after Fantasm

Still recovering from Fantasm so I took today off. dude_the and Nick greatly enjoyed their first Fantasm, and I expect they’ll be back for next year’s.

Yesterday, we thought about going in for the “Con in Review” panel, but by the time we dragged ourselves into a semblance of wakefulness, we decided we’d rather go out for breakfast and then come back to soak in the hot tub. I’m sad that we didn’t get a chance to make our goodbyes, but we did make some goodbye noises as we were leaving on Saturday (technically Sunday) to folks like Zwi and Hugh & Melanie, so that’s something.

All of us are suffering from various aches and pains. My feet still feel like the soles are one big bruise. The hot tub helped a lot. Then we spent the rest of the day watching the last three episodes of Angel (dude_the hadn’t seen them yet) and the first six or seven episodes of Firefly in order, starting with the proper pilot. Seeing the Fireflys that way makes me want to sock Fox in the mouth even more. When I saw that show for the first time, I was beginning to think that Joss had lost has storyteller’s knack, but my faith has been restored. Now I’m just pissed that the questions I have about who characters are and where they’re going with the storyline will never be resolved. Dagnabit. Firefly, shown in the proper sequence, was top notch entertainment. Going to watch the rest of them today after breakfast, which will probably be lunch as everyone is still asleep and gives every indication of remaining in that state for several more hours. Even Hobkin.

Fantasm rocked. Again. The Ms. Fantasm pageant, despite my stressing before the contest to get everything/one organized and coordinated, went smoothly. All hail the new Ms. Fantasm! (*sniffle*) And many thanks to my panel of judges: Jay Lind, redwitch, Zwi (Ms. Fantasm 2000), greysonwolf, and alladinsane.

Although Iron Bartender went a little less smooth, IMO. There were apparatus issues. When we asked for drink trays, the hotel provided us with a pair of these super-sized platters that I could barely lift, much less serve drinks on, and we had to wait for something more suitable to get rounded up. The stage was maybe half the size of what it had been in the past, and I didn’t have any way to move between the Iron Bartender side and the challenger side, so I could only interact with the challengers, which toned down what I did a lot because I didn’t want to give the Iron Bartenders TOO much of an advantage. Plus I didn’t get to jiggle with bardiva. Pook. But still, it seemed like everyone had a good time, which is the important thing. Even Matthew, who throughout judging the whole competition managed to emerge unscathed until the very last shot (mixed by 9jack9) which was very pretty (flamey goodness), but after blowing out, the flammable alcohol hadn’t been all burned away. Poor Matthew. I believe he said it was much like doing a shot of lighter fluid.

The party battles were fabu, as always, but we were disappointed that F.A.G.G. didn’t have a representative party. Last year, their’s was just amazing and got my party judge vote. And, of course, they’re hella fun people. After wandering around checking out the various party battle scenarios (were there really only three official ones this year??) I had overwhelmed my pathetic alcohol tolerance and had a hard time keeping my balance at the N9 party with the strobing lights, the drumming, and the dancing people. I was trying to drink enough so that I couldn’t feel the shooting pains in my feet (Fantasm is not the place to break in a pair of 4-inch heeled boots) and had failed, despite my lack of equilibrium. So we retired to the Bendovaho bash where I commandeered a spot on the couch that was next to the door and could see, wave, and chat with everyone that walked in, while at the same time had a good view of the various and sundry entertainment. To the chick in the blue plaid Catholic schoolgirl outfit: you made the party for dude_the! (Anyone have pictures of dude_the and this worthy young lass?) Also had a fantastic chat with Zwi, whom I adore. I wish she and her hubby lived closer to Atlanta so our conversations weren’t limited to once a year!

Matthew didn’t bring along the digicam as we expected we’d be too busy to want to keep track of it. We’ve already got a promise from Al to send us his pix, and Remy took some amazing shots of Starchild and me. I hope at least some of the people who snapped pix will email me.

One thing which I didn’t expect was meeting fellow Mensans at Fantasm. yakdog brought an attractive young man to my attention, and his first question to me was “You’re an active member of the local group?” It being Fantasm and all, a number of “local group” possibilities went through my mind, but Mensa wasn’t in that selection. As it turns out, there were several more Mensans attending Fantasm. Gotta love it when social interests overlap. Think that’s my cue to become more active in our Mensa local chapter.

Hope the Slave Auction paid for the damage to the elevators. Remy (going for $400+ has to have broken a record for highest bid for a male EVER–which absolutely tickled me. He’s totally worth it.) and the hypnotized chick in the red dress were doing their very best to raise enough money all on their own.

Today, I think we’ll take it easy. We need to go grocery shopping, and we might zip into town briefly for a bit. Nick has expressed an interest in refilling his tea supply from Teavana, and we’re almost out of Empress of China ourselves. Or maybe we’ll just veg.