Convention II
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I was awakened by a BEEP BEEP BEEPing alarm clock. By 6:30 AM, I was showered, dressed, finished packing, and on the road. I had green duffle bag of clothes, a blue tub of tools, and a pair of parents with me. I have the most rulingest parents.
7:30 PM
We arrived at the Comfort Inn in Manchester, NH, quite by accident. I was just saying, "I think this is the wrong road. We'd better turn around," when out of the blue there was a Comfort Inn across the street. Getting my key was too easy. I had expected to have more trouble with it, but all possible troubles had been Miaed out of existence. I had pizza with my parents and went to bed around midnight. I didn't run into any Rinkies.
Saturday, July 28, 6:00 AM
I was awakened by the phone ringing. It was Ticia informing Mia that she had arrived. A while later, Ticia arrived at our door. I got a blurry, without-glasses look at both her and Mia.
7:00 AM
I woke up again. This time I got out of bed. Mia was still sleeping. I got dressed, etc. I waited around too long, and when I went down to breakfast I knew I was going to be a bit late if it was actually true that the festivities were going to begin at 8:30.
8:45 AM
I arrived in a conference room where I found a bunch of people that I have NEVER MET IN MY LIFE. I wondered briefly if I was more insane than I originally thought.
I immediately recognised Elly, Sam, famous, and Dave. Everyone else either took a minute to figure out or hadn't arrived yet. Sam did not recognise me.
Stuff happened. Announcements, arrivals, the handing out of junk, other assorted silliness.
People started giving me stuff for the RinkUnion Mobile. I got my blue tub of tools and started attaching hangers. This attracted some interest and more people gave me stuff to hang. It's really cool when that happens.
Lunchtime
A bunch of us went across the street to eat. A bunch more soon appeared. We took up a bit more than two tables and made a lot of noise. I almost choked from laughing a few times. I wonder what the other patrons thought.
Later
I started hanging mobile bits. I drew a crowd. I worked through most of the afternoon activities. I'd planned to finish the mobile by the end of the day. Dave read an IABBBBM review. The remainder of the weekend was liberally sprinkled with quotes from it and the other readings that happened.
We watched The Bad Movie. I worked on the mobile. People went for supper. I finished the mobile. Someone brought back pizza, so I got to eat too. I decided I didn't like the mobile and redid the last bit the hard way. During the bottle game I pronounced the mobile complete, and people made me pose for a picture with it.
The mobile includes the following:
I'm sure pictures will be forthcoming.
Sunday, July 29
We were tourists. Insane, silly tourists. I'm sure everywhere we went they breathed a huge sigh of relief when we left without destroying the place.
I laughed. It hurt after a while.
The Ring Around the Darien in the parking lot was the best silliness I think. Unless it was the caves. Or maybe it was...I dunno...way cool day.
For the record, I was consciously not bringing up the Canadian thing for most of the time. Occasionally when I go to the States, I say "eh" on purpose just to mess people up. This time I just spoke normally. I think it helped that Matthew was there with his much more outrageously obvious accent. No one made me say "about." That was cool.
The money does bug me though. You end up with a whole fist full of flimsy paper one dollar bills. C'mon, get a proper coin and introduce something for two dollars while you're at it.
Um...that's it. The mobile, by the way, went home with Sam and Leen. They deserve it.
Next year I highly doubt I'll be able to go. I'm in school next summer, and California's way far away.
After that? I suggest you bring it to Canada at least once. (Do you know how much farther your dollar will go?)