Richard Brook

Picking up where I left off in Part I

III. Geek Girl Brunch, October 2017: Cosplay

There was the long drive to brunch from the lake, playing Jo's 'Done Well By Their Name' playlist, not in costume as originally planned. After wearing Scarlet, and The Blue Princess Dress, for all of yesterday my back was killing me at the end of last night and when I woke up this morning. Thus, I went with my back up brunch shirt, the pink VS shirt that has big white block letters readings "Brunch Before Boys" that I bought specifically for GGB.

I ended up being one of only two people in the whole brunch without a costume, and I felt about an inch tall the whole way through. It's over and done now, and know people will tell me to not worry about it, but I still feel a bit of a failure for not doing my makeup all perfect and just weathering through the drive and another 4ish hours in Scarlet for the sake of GGB.

The event itself was good. The trivia was amusing. The coloring sheets were used. The Grab Bags had candy and tiny shot glasses, reading "Pick Your Poison." I never got a look at the raffle table, but everyone seemed to really love everything they walked away from the raffle table with. (I'll see more of it when I'm curating the pictures for the write-up on the GGB international website.)

Even though we're having some no-shoe issues again, it was truly great to see so many new faces, too.

III-B. Geek Girl Brunch Officers Meeting

Meeting was short but sweet and had in the ice cream at Brindles, next door to the place we held brunch. (For the third time ever, in five billion years, or like ten, I showed up and they had my Honey Pine Nut ice cream. I got a small serving and a pint for my freezer for much, much later.)

So; meeting; short, sweet, to the point. We covered the big, surprise, amazing things we're doing for the December Magical 80's Movie's Ball and picked the themes for January through June (Star Wars, DC, Geek Girls of Color, Crafting, Comics/Graphic Novels, and Pride/LGBT Geek Girls).

IV. Grand Prix Watching Parties: Rostelecom

This is the new brainchild of the 2017-2018 Figure Skating Year, leading into the 2018 Winter Olympics. I will be holding Figure Skating Watching Parties while the Grand Prix, second half, and Olympics are going on. It's for friends, family, people they bring. Fun for watching, fun for food, drinks, working on self projects. Everything.

This event was actually kind of delightful. It wasn't without its bumps, but we managed to gather. Two friends, one sister, and myself. We watched all of the Men's Short Program, and a video of all the 1st-3rd winners in every single category (Men's, Women's, Pairs, Ice Dance).

Jess worked on her JJ/Otabek/Multi-Fandom Itabag while she was here. Kat worked on pieces of a Christmas gift. Mel hugged her pillow and had delightful commentary. We all drink wine, and I talked to Laura about skating and some other stuff throughout it. For something that requires 12 hours of watching to catch everything, it was only about 3 hours for most, and a little longer toward like 4 for my sister.

I'm so very invested in everything already and ready for more.

Next weekend is Skate Canada!




~*~

The evening post-people was quite and calm, spent revisiting, beautiful reads and talking to Laura. All in all it was actually a rather lovely, low key way to end a very busy back-to-back weekend. Now that I've finished three pieces of it, and three pieces I meant to get posted, I need give another once over to King Lear: Act II.

(Then, I have to go clear my bed of all the boxes and bags from packing yesterday morning in a two hour rush, and of the bags taken for traveling during the weekend. Which after all these are completed, I'll be able to locate my bed and go to heavenly lands of sleep.)

[ Day I | Day II | Day III | Day IV | Day V ]

DAY IV - What are you afraid of?

( Life begins where fear ends )

( Subject Index )

I. Nerdvana Con

This went about as well/not-well as I truly expected it to. The things that were badly planned for a first year, over all, were still badly planned for a first year (and one of them even went as unpatroned as I knew it would), but more importantly I made the decision to focus less on the con as a whole and more on the postage stamp area that is mine (/ours): which is only the Gaming Area/Gaming Committee.

Gaming went amazingly well. We had X-wing mini demo's. A game vendor who brought dice & games to sell, as well as was our awesome people who checked out both board games and card games for free play, too. We had a huge area for Intro to DND, with four different DM's running 1 hour campaigns. During the whole nine-to-two period of the 1st Nerdvana Con we never had less than 75 people in our area. It was a resounding success.

There was some incredibly inconvenient stresses with the person who headed up our committee for this last year, but it's about to be run, more specifically, by the four of us who've been around more during all the planning. During yesterday we filled two documents with how it's going to be run during the next year, too. All pro's, con's, ideas from us/the kids/the people volunteering time & product for us.

I went into the con yesterday burned out and not all that pumped (and considering the idea of not coming back at all to the big planning group or the small committee for next year), but I've come out off it proud of what we managed to accomplish for the fist year, and newly inspired for everything we can do in the next year to prep for the next Nerdvana Con.


II. Laura & Brian's Family's Halloween Lake Party

My whole party response has been underwhelming.

After two years of feeling guilty for never being able to make it to this rocking Annual Lake Halloween Party (which Amber & Laura go to, which is, I know now), run by Laura's husband's parents), I finally made it. It's out about an hour from town, and it was, undeniably, a gorgeous drive. Especially during the last 10-20 minutes of it, when everything is dips, and dales, and green rises, cutting into valleys and lake scenes.

Apparently, though, everything about party this year was bust. Everything that it wasn't, it was instead. The party usually has 60-75 people; it had about half that. The party is around a bonfire, because it's usually freezing; it was unexpectedly Texas hot even far away from the bonfire (and terribly warm near it). The party usually runs until 2-4 in the morning; we were leaving to shower and sleep around 11.

It being unprecedented, even the people who come every year were very surprised, and I've been told multiple times by multiple people 'it's never like this.'

My second borrowed DragonCon dress from Laura ended up being a bust, as the stays actually punch into the top of my thighs when I sit down. I crashed hard after the party. The nearby cabin we stayed in wasn't terrible, but the tiny place decided to not get cold and there was one glaring light through the front window, which mean after sleeping like brick, once I woke up at my normal 6, it was almost impossible to get back to sleep.

The party itself was a burst, but really the rest was just fine. It was lovely getting to hang out with Amber, Laura, and Brian, meeting Brian's parents and their friends across the way. The hours getting into perfect makeup and costumes for everyone was fun. The hot dog bar was a lovely, lovely thing, and second favorite to the venison sausage. The mule-rides were hilarious (especially when I accidentally stepped on the gas during one, and another where we were all trying to carry bottles and open drinks while going and down the hill in it).

During the same said main house alcohol raid which lead to the mule ride with the open drinks, I discovered a new alcohol I have a deep, new love for: Tennessee Fire. It's cinnamon whiskey, but it tastes exactly like a red hot. It's better than any Fireball or Goldschläger.

It was nice to have a catch-up session in general, since I don't see Amber usually during my weeks or months anymore the way it used to be daily working in the same grade-leve/department as her. It was nice to see Laura for something fun and frivolous, and not simply related to us talking about my arduous -- that are mostly rare, but highly emotional bouts on the -- path with everything revolving around my endocrinologist.

Pipe Creek is gorgeous in the blustery, just barely sprinkling morning (and now, raining!), with a riot of garden colors and a million birds singing. It really is a lovely place and I can see the appeal all around. It will be fun to come back in the spring and see the infamous St. Patrick's Day party.

We've plans off to breakfast next with all the crew out here, and then I'll be off into the rest of Insane Weekend's plans. Geek Girl Brunch will be in the middle of my day with October's Cosplay brunch, and then tonight my house is hosting a viewing party for Grand Prix Event #1: Rostelecom. More on these and other things once they've come to me.