August 13, 2004 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

August 13, 2004 - How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Recently, I spent 10 days traveling with my family and The Gryphon. The first leg of this was a beach vacation at the Jersey shore. During the second portion of my vacation, I served as a staff member for the 2004 Otakon in Baltimore.

Baltimore at night

Day Nine: Grand Finale (Sunday, August 1)

Sunday was the last day for Otakon. My sister and her fiancé had to head back to State College. In the morning, we all got up and got ready, heading out at the same time. As they headed out, my sister and her fiancé thanked us for letting them stay in our room.

"Any time," I said.

I was back to work, so to speak, helping with registration once again. Yes, there are people who register for only one day, Sunday. I found it hard to believe, but I suppose some people have schedules that prevent them from coming at other times. And if you want to attend for only one day, Sunday is the cheapest day rate.

Although we had a fairly steady stream of people, I had fun joking around with the other staffers working reg, especially one guy who was making jokes about talking in whale language, as in Finding Nemo: "Neeeeeeexxxxxxt!"

At about noon, the Reg Queen made me a Badge Nazi. I'll explain.

Every year, Otakon offers six to eight different badge designs that members (con goers) can choose from. Some people like to collect these, so at the end of the convention, those who are willing to stick around and wait in line can pick up extra badges.

Of course, some badges are more popular than others, so we were stationed next to the stacks of the most popular badges and were supposed to be Badge Nazis, watching that people didn't take too many.

Since the Reg Queen needed to stay to monitor this process, when time for the staff signing came near, she asked me to go for her and have a program book signed for her. I told her I would. On the way, I stopped by the Info Desk and told The Gryphon what I was doing. He came along with me.

Inside the door, I saw The Cousin, so I told her my doppleganger story. "Cool," she said. "I have another sister now." She was referring to the fact that people often think she's the sister of my college roommate.

The Gryphon and I sat down at a table to wait, and he surprised me by handing me a gift he'd bought me in the Dealers' Room. It was a beautiful carved bear made from some sort of copper flecked glass that resembles a semiprecious stone. He knows that the bear is my totem animal, so it was very, very sweet of him.

As we waited for the guests to arrive, I chatted with some fellow staffers, such as someone who had worked with the Press Department, whom I'd never met before. She and I talked about women who show up at the convention in revealing outfits that don't look good because they reveal too much or are painfully tight.

We also talked about her small business, a costumer resources business. I was interesting in how she takes orders from her web site, since my brother's wife is considering doing something similar to sell her jewelry.

Since The Gryphon wasn't as interested in having a program book signed for himself, he had one signed for the Reg Queen while I got one signed for myself.

The guests were very polite, very gracious. One of them, Tony Ching, an action choreographer, had posters available for his latest project, starring Michelle Yeoh. I had him sign one of those, as well.

The American guests were very chatty and wrote silly things, which were much appreciated.

After the signing, we headed back to registration to give the program book to the Reg Queen and ask her if I could take a lunch break. She said that was fine and that afterwards they'd just be tearing down the booth anyway. So if I wanted to, I could just as easily help break down other departments instead.

So The Gryphon and I grabbed our lunches and looked for a place to eat that was out of the way in the staff area. Not too many places looked good, so we ended up on some chairs at the end of the hallway.

After we were done, we walked down to the Dealers' Room to help provide more of a visible staff presence. Since we had no specific duties, I browsed some shops.

I looked at the jewelry at the same store where The Gryphon had bought me my bear: Undiscovered Treasures. Looking at the jewelry there, I found a necklace that seemed to fit the description perfectly of what my sister wanted for her wedding gown. It was silver and red, with dangly red stones and a sort of antique feel. Since it wasn't too expensive, I figured I'd buy it and then if she didn't want it, I could wear it myself.

When the Dealers' Room started to shut down and no one was there anymore but staffers and dealers, The Gryphon and I went back upstairs, looking for a way to be helpful. We soon discovered a visible staff presence was useful in the Pratt Street Lobby. As the time neared for the convention to end, people were milling around, starting trouble.

So when we saw, for example, two people sword fighting with their fake swords, we stepped in and said something. The truth is, you can hurt someone even with fake swords, which is why swordplay is expressly forbidden in the BCC during Otakon.

We also caught some people racing on the wheeled chairs that had been used for Registration. Enough of them were doing this that we grabbed a Special Ops person to help us ask them to go on their merry way.

Then we made ourselves useful where we could. And since we'd made plans to meet some friends for dinner, we went back to the hotel in time to get a shower and change.

We met up with the crew, which included The Cheshire Cat and his wife, The Paper, as well as The Dormouse, The Punster and his wife, and several other people. We ate at a place called Moe's Wharf, a seafood place that actually has door-to-door pickup. They send a van which picks you up and brings you to the restaurant and then back home afterwards.

As you might imagine, the food was on the pricey side but was worth it. I ate a bit too much of it. (What a terrible week for dieting!) After dinner, I had to get something from the hotel room, so The Gryphon and I took a taxi back there and then walked to the staff party, held every year after the convention is over.

The party was crowded, as always, and there were plenty of people to talk to and joke around with. Everyone was in great spirits, if a bit exhausted.

I had a great time talking to old friends, and new, and then in the wee hours of the morning, listening to The Gryphon as he conferred with other staffers about ways to improve things for next year. And so the cycle begins again.