Yesterday I dragged my ass out of bed at 8a, or rather hit snooze twice then dragged my as out of bed, threw stuff into my suitcase for checkout later, then ran downstairs for the last panels.

Diane was there with the new baby, and it was great to see her, and then was her panel, Life After Journaling with Jane and Eleanor. My favourite moment of the panel was Diane saying, "My life now consists of babies and trying to write my novel, who would want to read that?" and the entire room chorused as one, "We would!"

Then was my panel, Personas In Online Journaling with Lynda and Karen, moderated by Beth. It was awfully interesting, especially in that Karen and I believe completely opposite things about one's persona on the internet and how it relates to who we are and what do we owe our audiences and so forth. And it was really well-attended, which shocked the shit out of me, since we were opposite the sex panel and I expected to be speaking to an empty room.

I talked and talked and talked and talked and talked, as is my wont, and Beth was thrilled to be able to tell me to shut up. I was happy to make her weekend, though probably what really made her weekend was her lack of sinus headache.

Afterwards was the last panel, The Pamie Panel with Anna Beth as moderator, which was very fun and silly.

We all went to some fake diner for breakfast at lunchtime, Abbycat and Beth bringing up the rear because it is not polite to leave the lady with the baby to fend for herself, and also, as Abbycat said in his entry, we were having fun talking to each other.

When we got there, everyone was seated so we sort of sat adjacent to everyone else. There is a lot that I missed out on at JournalCon because I kept gravitating to smaller groups, and there are many people whom I spent almost no time at all with. Anna Beth! Jenfu! Wendy! Scalzi! Lisa! Amaya! Pamie! Michael! Spinny! Susan! Beth, my God, Beth! But had I spent time with them, had I not gone to Alcatraz, had I gone to karaoke, had I been with the big group for lunch, then I would have regretted missing the things that I actually did do.

Clearly, there are three ways around this problem. First would be a longer JournalCon, like a week or so. The second way would be cloning. Five copies of everyone should do the trick. And the last way would be just to accept what you cannot do and enjoy what you can. Nah, cloning's easier.

Back to the hotel, after happily eating my hard-boiled eggs, for the last bunch of readings. Which ended up being only Wendy, Chauffi and me. So it was a good thing that I missed out on the Saturday reading, huh? I read this entry, which felt too long and I started trying to rush through to the end, but Lucy assured me that, like the caterpillar, it was the exact length that it should be.

And that, as Luny pointed to her ass, was the End of JournalCon.

People didn't disperse to the four winds right away, though, first there was a great deal of sitting around in the lobby, picking glitter out of the chairs. The over-arching theme of JournalCon was, "How the hell did I get glitter there?" I'm fairly certain that we'll be picking it out of our asses for weeks to come. Krystyn should be proud.

Lucy said that one of the reasons that they picked that hotel was because of the old-fashioned lobby space, just made for the sitting and the talking and the hanging. I could have done without the old-fashioned elevators with the signs saying no more than four people at a time, and they meant it. And when those four people were Abbycat, Beth, me and baby Victor, it was made abundantly clear that the four people in question were not three rosy, robust adults and an infant, but four anorexics. But that annoyance was worth it for the lobby of fabulousness and comfy leather chairs. Covered in glitter.

I went up to the swag room to get my extra swatters (I was not going to make the same mistake two years in a row) and while I was at it, snagged some extra magnets and Play Doh. Hey, they were just leaving it behind, it was fair game!

Went back down to say goodbye, and just as I was heading out the door to Lucy's car, Amaya asked me what kind of film I used. How could I pass up the opportunity for photographer geek chat! I don't know any other photographers in real life, and having him recognize me as a peer was really cool, since I admire his work greatly. Actually, he asked me about my lenses, too, but I am so un-technical about that, I just know that there's the long one and the short one. Film I can talk about! Lisa ended up having to drag me out by the hair.

We drove Karen to her car (and I finally told her to re-start her journal, I was very proud of myself for holding that in for as long as I did!) and Lisa and Jared to the airport, then Lucy and I went to her house to collapse. And, in my case, check my email for the first time since extremely early Friday morning!

We (and John) went to a real diner for dinner, where I had a brilliant grilled cheese sandwich, then back to the house where Lucy and I stayed up talking far too late. My flight was at 6.30a, we both knew that entailed getting up at 5a, and yet we still just yapped and yapped as though our jaws were hinged in the middle.

This was JournalCon. Being too tired to do anything but crash, but staying up talking anyway. That and all that glitter.

Today's horoscope:
You may shock people a bit with what you say. Asserting your freedom of thought is especially important. Originality is highlighted.

One year ago today:
I keep telling myself no more snap judgements, but I may be too old a dog to learn that trick.

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Last Updated Fri 11 October 16:32:09 2002