BotCon 2000 - Scylla

Ok, let's see if I can turn my experience into anything interesting. Just so you know, I didn't see any panels at all so don't read this for anything but seeing what my trip was like.

Pre-BotCon

The Sunday before BotCon I agree to meet with several other SF Bay Area TFans (Megatron33, Lord Xiphos, Arcee and friends) in Monterey for what turns out to be a fun but gruelling day. I'm currently unemployed, a mouse potato for the last two months, and on a weird sleep schedule so I accidentally stay up all night which means I've been up 24 hours by the time I meet everyone so I'm a bit out of it and unprepared for the trip to the aquarium and the beautiful hike afterwards. I had a lot of fun but I end up never catching up on my sleep or healing my feet of blisters before BotCon. Big mistake! I get a head cold and worry it won't clear up by BotCon. (It didn't but I survived.)

Thursday

I left early Thursday morning so I'd have time to catch up on my sleep in Ft. Wayne and start out BotCon relaxed. hah! I arrive late due to traffic, barely have time to check in my luggage and board the plane. On the happy side I got the emergency exit row that has foot room, yay! and good seat mates. I strangely don't notice Hydra on the same plane.

When I get to Detroit for the link to Ft.Wayne, I run into Hydra. He had fooled me by bleaching out his hair. (We live in the same town so we run into each other occasionally). We travel together the rest of the way, which is great as time travels quickly when talking TFs. On the shuttle bus to the hotel, we run into Doug Dlin and catch up on things. Weird side note: There's a welcoming committee at the Ft.Wayne airport that hands out cookies.

In the lobby of the Hilton I run into Robowang who looks very familiar but, as usual for me, I can't remember his name. We talk about his roommate troubles and I check in. I decide I can't stay up any longer (having been up 24+) and go up to my room to nap. Silly me, #1 rule of BotCon, eat when you can! (#2 is sleep when you can but the bed is always open as opposed to restaurants.) I wake up at midnight and wander around the place. Dinner is a bag of peanuts form a vending machine. I should say here that I'm working for Rugby's Starbase this year and I expect them to arrive at any point, one of the crew is my roommate. I catch a spectacular thunderstorm with *huge* bolts of lightening. Even since I moved to the SF Bay area, I haven't seen such storms so it's good entertainment for an hour. Reading Richard the III is good for another hour and then I finally give up waiting and go to sleep. I find out later that they told Rugby's that my room had been "cancelled" so that's why my roommate never showed up.

Friday

I know that we don't set up until 1/2/3 p.m. (I receive different times from several sources.) so I sleep in a bit. Then I have breakfast, trying to carbo-load while I can. At the end of my meal I run into my roommate and we clarify that yes, everyone is here. We walk around, I give the tour since I've already been there last night, we go through registration (much easier than last time!) and we meet up to unload the truck. If you've seen the Rugby's display (a whole wall of tables) you understand just what unloading the truck means. We unload and unload and unload and unload. Then we try to set things up for display but are finally kicked out. We hope there will be enough time tomorrow to finish some of it. Only two of us were lucky enough to get tickets, mine was a last minute miracle (Bless you, Jon Hartman!). so the two of us (me and Matt Warsocki, boss of Rugby's) go to dress up for dinner.

We arrive a little late but there's a huge line and delays so it's ok. (Though waiting in heels wasn't. Blah!) Semi-formal was an interesting term for what some were wearing. The women generally dressed up more but some of the guys looked more like they were getting their school pictures taken than attending a dinner. I'm sorry, but if the fashion police were there, many wouldn't have gotten in. I know it's a pain to dress up, but come on, folks! Is dressing up once a year too much?

I was delighted by the vegetarian dish, usually the veggie dishes are bad. My only complaint (other than a *seafood* dish for vegetarians!) was the mystery coloured water we got. Iced tea, maybe? It was hard to tell... The wait staff entertained us with their bickering and rudeness. The exclusives were nice (the comic and plate) but I would have liked the plate more if it was actually functional. I seldom display plates so I would have gotten a kick out of using it. Oh well. I guess it can join my Catwoman collection.

I stood in line with the others to get the exclusives and ran into Lord Xiphos. (Actually, I'd been running into M.Sipher before and kept almost greeting him as Xiphos, damn cloning.) Poor man, they had closed Detroit airport because of thunderstorms (he had been forced to go Friday because of work) and he ended up taking a grossly large amount of money cab ride to get here. Unfortunately it was only the beginning of his troubles...but this is my report, I'll let him tell that story.

After dinner, it's decided that we should go track down the Rugby's crew who didn't go to dinner to make sure they know we have to be in the dealer's room at 6am. (I should note here that, that's actually 4am, my time.) After a search that goes nowhere, apparently they had decided to take part in Ft. Wayne's more risquÈ clubs I came back to my room to be greeted by a sleepy roommate's rendition of a late night prank call someone decided to do. Gee, thanks, whoever...hope this doesn't become a BotCon tradition. :/ My roommate decides to talk all night and I get one hours sleep and then it's 5:15, time to get up to prepare for the Dealer's room.

Saturday

We work as fast as we can but it looks like we won't have enough time. I look around the room briefly, since I know I'll be working most of the time and this will be my moment of peace. I run into Ryan (can't remember his last name who I met at BotCon '98. That was my first BotCon and it seems a good sign to see him there; he has a table and ends up selling most of his stuff. I buy an Arcee T-shirt from Dan Khanna and a BW book and some wind up toys from the Japanese dealers. I'm on a strict budget this year so no major purchases. :/

Going out into the lobby I see the surging crowd and feel fear. They announce the doors are opening and we rush to our stations. We're so large that the 10 person crew has been divided into pricing, register and security. As the wall of people crams forward we all try to be as alert as possible, processing multiple requests while at the same time trying to make sure everything gets paid for. One of the problems with more people attending is the likelihood of theft increasing too and we're vulnerable with all those tables of stuff. Still, everything goes well for us, though not for some other tables. :/

The day seems to go forever. I'm allowed a one hour nap break so I'm not there the entire 12 hours but I'm still exhausted by all the standing, pacing, lifting, etc. This is much more difficult than selling art, like the last two years. (I worked for Dan Khanna then.) Some of my friends come by the table and I have them sign my autograph book. I have had a lousy time getting Voice Actor autographs (missed everyone the last two conventions) so I decide to focus on fellow ATTers, instead. I got: Robowang, Retrax, AlexJ33106, Rock/Pyre, Tykus the gladiator, Trixter, Thylacine2K, Megatron33, Swifteagle, Quezovercoatl, Hydra, Tengu, someone who was so fancy I can't figure out who it is, and surprisingly, Ian Corbett, Alec Willows and Venus. I guess the rest of y'all were good luck! I'll bring my book next con and hopefully get more. It was really good to see Tykus since we've emailed/chatted for a good while now without meeting and I finally got to collect all the hugs he'd been promising.

A BIG highlight was Dalmatian giving me a Frenzy cassette. It wasn't mint but who cares? I LOVE IT! My sad little G1 collection now has another member! THANK YOU SO MUCH DALMATIAN!

Saturday night I go out with the Rugby's crew. One of the things I've noticed is that it's way too easy to spend all of BotCon within a few people's company and miss everyone else. This definitely happened to me. Hopefully next year I can mix some more. Anyway, it's a farewell dinner, as Matt Warsocki is getting out of the TF business (He's selling Rugby's to another crew member so it'll still be at BotCons.) There are many nice toasts (he's the best boss I've ever had, really cares about his crew!) and a wonderful meal. Really, I'm a vegetarian and it was a steakhouse, yet even I was full. All the food inspired a very silly retelling of the entire TFTM as an advertisement for A-1 steak sauce and I really really wish I could have taped it for everyone.

It was late when we got back and I had to leave Sunday afternoon so I packed to be ready for check out and went to sleep.

Sunday

Sunday, I didn't have to work and was finally free! Unfortunately I had to deal with the intricacies of checking out and leaving my luggage in the luggage room until my shuttle came later. This would seem simple but I had a 4 pieces and all the luggage carts were gone. I finally get everything taken care of and go track down my missing friends who I brought stuff for so I don't have to take it home. I find that wandering around without feeling guilty about not working is great. I should not work more! I checked out the art show and saw lots of great stuff. Saw the Nightscream toy and thought maybe I'd get it after all. Talked to some friends and then ended up back at Rugby's working after all. How'd that happen? The good part of it was that I was in the dealer's room when they had a special signing for dealers/dealer's helpers which is how I finally got the Voice actors' autographs. But that's not all! In my other life I'm a trained Massage Therapist so I asked the actors if they wanted a neck and shoulder massage and Venus said yes! That was an enjoyable 10 minutes for both of us! The only bad part was that I had brought my massage table (have table will travel...) with me and Venus said if I had said said something sooner she would have wanted a full body massage. D'OH!!! Maybe next time....

So the convention finally ended which meant it was group portrait time for some reason. So I posed with Rugby's and then with my fellow ATTCM moderators which made me miss my shuttle. :/ But the good news is because of that I got to hang in the bar/lounge with Ian Corbett and Alec Willows and ride the shuttle with them. And Dalmatian, it turned out. That was much fun as they are fun, witty guys. Everything seemed great until I got to the airport and realized they had left one of my pieces of baggage behind. This was the last flight apparently where I could make my connection so if I missed it I was SOL. They radioed the hotel to send my bag on the next shuttle. By the time it came the flight was getting ready to leave, I got to run across the tarmac and yell at them to hold the plane and everything like in some movie. A little too much excitement for me. Fortunately, it was better from then on, since Dalmatian was on my flight to Detroit. I had been upset since he didn't draw a squid in the convention scene in his comic: http://www.funnyfarmcomics.com/ so he drew me a very cute squid shopping at BotCon. What a guy!

After another long flight, a medical emergency on my plane (where another BotCon attendee I didn't know volunteered themselves for help, are you an ATT reader too?) and one of my bags getting stuck back in Detroit I was home. Phew.....

So when/where is next years? I should be recovered by then.

A huge thank you for 3H for having a kickass convention!

A big apology for everyone I left out...