Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
Getting ready to go down to the Auction. Club Jaders clean up well. If by clean up well you mean anything from evening gowns and boas to Jedi robes (or in my case both!) to pajamas and everything in-between.
Am slightly put out that Dave’s dress is better than mine.
Ha ha! Did sleep late, though. Made it in and out of the shower with only 15 minutes to Mary’s LFL presentation.
I commandeered a luggage cart!
Then pirate stuff, seminars, naked Luke dolls… I dunno. You’d think, being Club Jade and all, we’d be more about the naked Luke dolls, but… Not so much. Obi and Qui and Maul, sure. Han? Okay. Luke? Meh.
Oh, and last night? Those Damn Harry Potter Plagarists stole Jaina’s shoes. I bet they slipped all that vodka into my drink, too. DAMN YOU CASSIE CLAIRE!
You know what’s good? Vodka. And orange juice. And the fact that I’ve only had ONE and the room is spinning.
Yay vodka!
Here are a selection of memorable quotes, so far. You can use your imagination to figure out what we were talking about.
Or not.
(Thanks to Aaron for capturing most of these.)
More to come as soon as more alcohol gets served….
Arr! It be Movie Night. And tonight’s movies be Pirates of the Carribean. While we await the pizza and the start of the Pirates movie at the movie theater, we be watching the first movie, just to be sure we be understandin’ the new story. (Well. Old story, by now. I think the average number of viewings in this group is 3, by now.)
This afternoon we had a tea hosted by Michelle. She taught us all about teas, the proper way to prepare them, and the enjoyment of scones. Yummy!
After that, Diane and Derek taught some basic dance steps. It was kinda funny to watch.
We also had the auction preview. We’re up to 192 item donations and we still have people working on their contributions. (We’re going to have to auction quickly.) But the samples of Trace’s truffles? Big hit!
Arrr. I’m sure there are going to be a few drunken posts from here later tonight.
Last night we had “story time,” which isn’t really something we’ve done at JadeCon before, at least not in a formal capacity. Since this is our tenth anniversary (!) and not all of us have been involved the entire ten years, we kind of did a “sit around the campfire and pass on the collective wisdom.” If by “wisdom” you mean “insanity,” that is. Some highlights:
1996 Chicago and then GenCon: OMG, there are other professional women who are fans of Star Wars and don’t really care whether a Star Destroyer could beat the Enterprise!
1997, calls to 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm to change the release date of ROTJ:SE so that we could still see all three movies when we gathered together in Vegas. Got invited to a press screening that was moved back by one day so we could come. Met Timothy Zahn for the first time.
1998, the Smithsonian visit in DC. Jessa’s Bar makes its debut. We met Dak, who wore a button informing us “I’m Dead.”
1999, the prequels, and The Wedding. Marrying off cardboard standups of Luke and Mara in a real Las Vegas wedding chapel by a real Elvis impersonator. Yes, we scared him. Luke and Mara got locked in the bathroom at the reception when we left.
2000 was the first time GenCon was our main JadeCon. Orphans of the Suncrusher Auction. A funeral procession for Chewbacca around the second floor of the Hyatt Milwaukee and Anthony Daniels conducted us in providing a chorale accompaniment of “Duel of the Fates” while the Karrdes dueled on the skywalk between the Hyatt and the convention center at 1 am. “This floor’s not entirely stable!”
2001 was a baby shower for little Ben Skywalker and the Jedi Temple picnic (of Death!) crashed by the Sith. It was our last official JadeCon in Milwaukee, although many of us returned for the last Milwaukee GC in 2002.
2002 we were back in Vegas for AOTC. Tarts and Jedi (think Tarts and Vicars. If you’ve seen Bridget Jones Diaries you know what I mean.)
2003 was the first Indy GenCon. Podracing was appropriate for our first year in this racing city. :) We shaved Rogue’s head. Because we could.
2004 was the Galactic Games. We were rained out of the park and somehow thought it would be a good idea to light sparklers in the rain under a pavilion. After we were all treated for smoke inhalation we rethought that plan.
2005 was ROTS. Mini-cons for the actual movie, then Indy for the Hoth Winter Games. We broke Aaron at the ice rink (which was kinda more slushy than actually icy) and I got to meet one of the Lone Gunmen and tell him about the Lone Gunbabies. :)
Ten years. It’s hard to believe. Here’s to ten more. And then some.
We’re heeerrreee….
Ruby and Caroline (and presumably Susan) have just arrived after being diverted and circling Louisville. We’ve had some room issues but nothing as bad as years past. Alas, the staff is new and does not yet fear us. Fools.
Fanfic seminar was canceled but we had a nice roundup of recent fandom doings and kerfuffles last night. And also some kind of European raspberry beer. It tasted rather like Jello. But in a good way.
It’s the pre-Games Night chill and prep time. The suite has been decorated with relics of CJ’s past. Rogue and Dan are playing some pirate ship game. And I brought my computer here to be antisocial in public instead of in my room.
Tragically, the Hard Times Cafe, home of THE ONLY CHILI I EVER LOVED, is closed. WTF? I did not authorize this.
Arrived in Indianapolis last night (really this morning) around 1 am to the usual squees and hugs. Apparently I made it out on one of the last flights to not be subjected to the new security measures because of a thwarted terrorist plot in Great Britain that involved liquid explosives. This will no doubt majorly delay people flying in today.
Other than that, things are good here in Indy. Coming to the Hyatt is like coming home in a sort of weird way, especially after doing both SW Celebration III and GenCon last year. It’s good to be back. In about 45 minutes the Suite will be open and I’ll be handing out t-shirts. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to get to the con floor today, but that’s okay. It’s soooooooo great seeing everyone!
When are we building that citadel????
With gaming expo E3 closing the ranks, GenCon plans to expand in 2007. They’re staying in Indianapolis (phew) and only adding space to the existing con floor and hotels. The California version, however, will be moving from Anaheim to the Los Angeles Convention Center (location of C4) next year.
Will Jaders have to start driving in on Tuesday to get parking? Will the video gamers be any better at bathing than their RPG counterparts? Will there be more free stuff? Only time will tell…
As (sort of) mentioned at the bottom of the last post, GenCon/JadeCon, our annual gathering, starts this week – Wednesday for me, Thursday for some, and in the meantime I have enough to do that I’m pretty much ignoring the computer entirely. Posting will resume midweek – I hesitate to say regular posting because it is, after all, JadeCon. You can check out our accounts of 2004 and 2005 for some idea of what to expect.
Be warned: There will be drinking – I won’t guarantee that JadeCon posts will make sense. You can’t say you haven’t been warned.