Live From ConFusion: Day 1 (Friday)
Note: the reference to bringing a fifth of Jack Daniels as part of my pre-con checklist was a joke. For the record, I barely even drink the stuff ;)
ConFusion Day 1:

I got of to a GREAT start on Friday. I hadn’t even left Lansing yet when stuff started to hit the fan. First, I’m getting ready to leave and my map/directions to the hotel flew out of my hands. This resulted in a Moby Dick-esque chase around my parking lot that lasted nearly six minutes. What made the scene even more silly was that I carrying a cup of coffee (with no lid) while running around. Hilarious.

After I finally got on the road, I was nearly run off the road by a Budweiser truck trying to merge off the highway as I was trying to merge on. So I missed my merger and pulled into a medical center down the road.

Much to my surprise, I happened to pull into the EXIT driveway. After surviving the confused looks from those trying to leave, I pulled into the parking lot and turned myself around to get back on the highway. Later, when I was near Dansville I realized that all of the cash I had been saving for the Con was still back at my apartment in Lansing.

I made a quick stop at a truck stop and hit up an ATM. Problem solved, but I was still mad at myself for being so forgetful. It could have been worse though, at least that was a problem I could easily fix without having to drive back to Lansing.

Things got better once I made it to the hotel. I met up with Dean and after I checked in I helped him and his gang set up the Art Show. I got to meet Guest of Honor Carl Lundgren and even helped him set up his display. Very neat. After that I got cleaned up and came down to put my time in on Artist Alley where I shared a table with illustrator Steve Brown. I didn’t have any buyers but I had people ask about the book and take a few of my free mini-pins. The pins have turned out to be a really great idea: people are glad to take them from my table and I also put some out around other places in the hotel, and they go pretty quick.

I left the Art Show around 9 so I could hit up the ConSuite and sample the tasty chili. After that I explored the rest of the Con. I ran into Freon and Jim Hines. I chatted with Jim for a while, this was our first time meeting but we’ve been talking via the internet for a few months now. The first thing he said was “I didn’t recognize you without your Jayne Hat,” as he is accustom to seeing my Livejournal avatar with the picture of me wearing it.  We discussed the signing we’re doing in March at Bestsellers Books & Coffee (along with artists Dean Stahl and Adam Talley) and other writing stuff and he introduced me to some other writers. He also owns the most amazing leather jacket I’ve ever seen in my life: this thing is full of compartments and pockets – very handy. It is like if Batman made a leather jacket for Fonzie.

I wandered around the hotel, hitting up the MST3K room party and the Futurama room party - where they had Popplers (popcorn chicken), Slurm (Faygo Moon Mist) and Chicken a la Bender (salted chicken).


Welcome to the Food of Tomorrow!


Slurm!


a fellow con-goer.

I also hung around the first floor and hit up the dance party – and attended the traditional Time Warp dance at midnight. I finally called it a night sometime around two or three in the morning after hanging out in the ConSuite for a little while.