Current location:	home
Current music:	Once In a Lifetime(in head)
Entry tags:	fanac, filk

Whatta con!
Friday morning crankyinfrance  and I piled our stuff into the car and headed down from Philadelphia to Rockville, Md., for Conterpoint. Why leave so early? Because dunkelpig  , who has driven that route much more than I have, said "Leave by nine and the drive will take three hours, maybe four with traffic. Leave after noon and you'll be in the DC area by five, and at the hotel maybe by nine." So we aimed to leave at nine and were on the road, I think, just before ten. Good enough.

C.i.f isn't a filker and didn't join the con. But she wanted to see a lot of the museums in Washington, so she came along and stayed in the room. The hotel has a shuttle bus to the nearby Shady Grove Metro station. And my cousin, who lives in the area, gave us directions to the Greenbelt station, so I could drop her off there on the way down and give her another couple hours in town, and similarly pick her up there after leaving the hotel on Sunday. And she could use her computer to access the Internet while in the room.

[But the hotel's advertised shuttle service turns out to run only 7-10 a.m. and 5-9 p.m. Monday-Friday, and their Internet access costs $6/day. Hint, folks: that's cheesy. If it's a business hotel, you shouldn't be charging like that; if it's not a business hotel, you should run your shuttle on weekends, especially when you're hosting weekend events. However...]

Oh, heck, can I remember what happened when? Some highlights:

• cadhla, aka the how-does-she-do-all-that? Seanan McGuire, Interfilk Guest (whom I'd met at Consonance 2003 when Interfilk sent me there), in concert and in other people's concerts (by invitation, though I wouldn't want to try to keep her out if she wanted to join), and running a Ghost Songs circle
  
• Rob Balder, whom I was delighted to hear again after last Philcon-- I almost burst when I realized he was about to do the paintball song
  
• filkerdave , who is always great
  
• GOH Wild Mercy, in concert and in other people's concerts and running a British and Celtic Trad filk circle and a "Sneaky Guitar (and harp) Tricks" workshop
• Someone (Wild Mercy?) singing Talis's "Uffington Hill" at some point (I'd've loved to hear filkerdave sing his ripoff filk "A Few Years Later")
• Toastmaster John Hall, new to me, with some old filks that deserve to not be forgotten
• seeing old friends and new

But (you ask) what about your old friends Odd Numbers? and Vixy and Tony? the Boogie Knights? Tom Jeffers? Clam Chowder, whom you've been a fan of for years? Fercryin'outloudwhatabout The Wedding?

Alas, I'm finite in energy and locationality. I don't regret brunch and visiting with my cousin and his wife, though it meant I didn't get to any programming Saturday till John's concert; and time and money (and the hellish thought of DC-area Monday morning traffic) cost me the chance to join in Steve & Crystal's simcha and to hear the Chowder.

One other thing, though, that I did get to: the "True Love" songwriting contest. I sang the song that I wrote for my dunkelpig  for our 30th anniversary five years ago, "Once In a Lifetime", and the judges, um, well, liked it best. :-)

And she's waiting for me now. G'night.

[edit: more here]