Baycon: Sunday

Sunday morning started with cflute, the flower_cat and me having a huge brunch at the El Torito about a mile from the con hotel. (Well, actually it started with LJ on the Mac, coffee in the room now that I'd brought the coffeemaker and filters from home. But you get the idea.)

El Torito's Mexican Sunday brunch is made of yum. Chile verde, chile colorado, chile rellenos, enchiladas... fresh tortillas... flan and rice pudding... Have to go back there with the kids. Often.

One reason we went out for lunch was that the hotel's coffeeshop was made of fail, especially the buffet. The bacon, as far as I could tell, was deep-fried in the same oil used for french fries and fish. Bletch. But the other reason was to give Callie and Colleen some time for conversation. If we'd gotten started a little earlier they could have gone out shopping together, but Callie needed the sleep. Still, they talk on the phone a fair amount. I need to do that more.

I ended up not having any dinner which, with a 90-minute wait for the restaurant, was a Good Thing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The main event for the afternoon was the Recording Music panel. I was moderator, and some of the panelists were rather out-of-hand. Professional sound people, very experienced, but all of that experience was doing live sound with professional performers, big venues, and analog equipment. One or two good tips, but not as useful to a home recordist as it would have been if Jeff Bohnhoff (for example) had gotten more air time.

Callie spent much of the late afternoon and early evening in our room; a little conversation but mostly trying to get enough spoons back to play flute on a couple of songs in the evening's concerts.

Got to the first two concerts: Paul, Taunya, and Seanna; and Seanan McGuire and friends. Skipped the last one (The Roving Tars) in order to get more time in the open filk, meaning more time with Colleen and Callie. This time, the circle achieved what cflute called critical mass, and a lot of good songs got performed. Sang "Another Country", which Callie had wanted to hear, "World Inside the Crystal" (which mysticfig suggested as a follower to "Where the Magic is Real"), "Bound for Hacker's Heaven". Might have been one or two others. Got a bit sleepy between songs; somewhere in there Colleen decided to turn in, so I ran her upstairs in Igor at about 1:30.

Callie and I went out on "Demon Lover"; I finally got to bed around 2:30.

Baycon: Monday, and wrap-up

Not much to say about load-out day, except that we would have been able to check out a lot sooner if we hadn't had to wait so long for a table in the coffeeshop, or an elevator down that wasn't completely full. Would have taken forever if a maid hadn't shown us where the service elevator was. They would have done better if they'd allowed people to get late checkout, which would have spread out the peak a little, but they didn't. They would also have done better if they'd been faster at turning around tables in the restaurant.

Took cflute to the airport in the early afternoon. A nice chat in the car, but too short.

Colleen's main mode of social interaction at conventions has always been to plop herself down either in the lobby, filk lounge, or (at filk cons) con suite, and collect a group of people around her. These days I, on the other hand, prefer to have a series of one-on-one or small-group conversations, and gravitate in the evening toward the smallest available circle. Often I'll latch onto one person, as I did with Callie this con and pocketnaomi at Conflikt, especially if we seem to have a lot to talk about.

I seem to be rather bad about finding new people to talk to; usually I'll talk to the ones I know. Sometimes friends of the ones I know. I'm still shy, and have trouble starting conversations with people I don't know. Feel free to come up and talk to me, though. Remind me of your name, if it isn't on your badge, and maybe where we met; I'll have forgotten.