I had a great time at the con. We didn't get out of Chicago until 9 PM on Thursday night, so we pulled into our motel in Flint MI at 2:30 AM Eastern time. *yuck* But the bed was comfortable and the Motel 6 was a darned sight cheaper than the Super 8 chain has become.
The next morning,
daisy_knotwise and I grabbed lunch at the Lone Star Steakhouse near the hotel and headed off to Toronto, crossing the border at Sarnia with no problem. We got in around 5 PM, checked into the hotel, and hooked up with a dinner party that included filker0, spiritdance, demoneyes, Kathleen Sloan, and Trace. (I think. I must have needed more sleep.) Melissa did the "pregnant woman devours all" routine, which I gather continued for the rest of the weekend.Back at the hotel, I ran the coats up to the room, pulled out the guitar and wrote the first of the two songs that I wrote that weekend. I got downstairs just in time to catch the Boogie Knights, who are a lot of fun to listen to. (I got to sit in the circle with them on Friday and Saturday, which was also good.) Then we headed off to harass
jhayman at her workshop, which was well attended and had a number of good ideas about how to put a song together. I then proceeded to filk until absurd o'clock with a group including catalana, decadentdave, Phil Allcock, and more. Gretchen crashed out fairly early on Friday, which was understandable, given the previous day's drive. I stayed up for a very reasonable political discussion (frequently a contradiction in terms) with Steven Joel and jslove.Saturday, we crawled out of bed. I went down to
tarkrai's performance workshop (which took a considerably different tack than most). Then Gretchen joined me and we went over to the A&W for lunch, the option for breakfast having sailed past while we were sleeping. We caught Judith's concert, then I headed up to the room and wrote my second song of the weekend (which I'd actually started the last weekend at Minicon, but hadn't had time to finish before the Dealers' Room closed). Came back down and caught Carla Ulbrich's last song, followed by one shots, and Steve's concert, where I made a cameo appearance as a dragon. (I'm told that this may show up on the cover of the next FKO CD. We'll see...)The Filk Hall of Fame banquet followed, where we were joined by Dave, Erica, Daniel, Melissa,
scs_11, and unkbar. Conversation was quite suitably silly. I knew that Clif's FHOF induction was coming and went up with folkmew to tag team his (unwritten) acceptance speech. I said I was hoping that this would get Clif back to more cons and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does. filkertom was inducted next, I having figured out that he was probably the next inductee a few minutes earlier, followed by Judith and Dave. A good time -- and a lot of tears -- were had by all.I went to the room to take a Zyrtec (beat those food allergies into submission!) and stopped to check on the Illini game. They'd beaten Louisville, so I knew I'd be busy on Monday. Then I caught the second half of the song-writing contest, which was followed by the Interfilk auction. Smac was somewhat nonplussed to discover that he was getting to auction the last scheduled piece of the auction, the Urban Tapestry DVD. But that's where it came up in rotation and it would have been hardly reasonable to take it away from him. Since he got $600 CDN for it, I don't think he did too badly. :)
Open filk followed until 4 AM EDT. (Damn! Lost an hour somewhere!) It was good to get a chance to hear everyone in the circle, including Gretchen, Steve S., John, Phil,
oreouk, the Boogie Knights, Erica, Tom, Pete, Judith, Smac, katyhh, shannachie, and zencuppa. I'm still trying to figure out a way to get Erica to sing a bit more often. (She's very polite. Actually, so is Ju.)Gretchen crashed out a bit before I did; then Erica, Steve S., and I chatted in the hall for about 45 entertaining minutes before I crawled off to bed.
Sunday morning arrived very early. We packed out of the room -- leaving my brand-new can of deodorant behind -- and threw the luggage in the car, then headed back to the A&W for lunch. I came back early to meet Steve and MEW so we could practice Clif's pieces for the Filk Hall of Fame concert. With five sets, it was long, but it was a lot of fun. (And while Miss Congeniality 2 may not be a great film, it's probably not so bad that I wouldn't pay $2 to see Sandra Bullock in it...)
A massive round of hugs followed Sam's Song and Home to FilkOntario, then we had to start on our nine hour drive home. The slush abated around London and it was clear sailing the rest of the way, with only a short wait at Sarnia. (I think we waited longer at the currency exchange.) And, of course, the conversation was good.
I'm sure that I left things out, but it was a fine time.
And we've bought memberships for next year.
