Don't Talk About The Rabbits

Thursday is sort of a blur, actually. Apparently, I was really tired, or something.

I know I dragged myself out of bed at a decent hour, and hugged my cat, and made it down in time for the taxi -- which was early, as they *always are here*. That sort of freaked me out this time, because I knew on the other side of town, Margie aka_arduinna was on her way to pick up Celeste (teenygozer), and then drive back to her own place, so the cab could pick them both up at once. So now it was a race between me and the cabdriver, and Margie and Celeste. I got all tense, mentally calculating where Margie would be every step of the way, and failing to correct the cab driver when he twice made turns that would make the ride longer. I figured it was going to cost money either way, sitting or driving. We still won the race, but only by a few minutes, yay! They pulled up a few minutes later, almost got plastered by traffic as they crossed the street to us, and we piled all the luggage in and took off.

We hit the airport, rounded up some donuts and bagels and hot chocolate, and took whatever medications we needed. (Dramamine, baby.) Not only did we get off on time, but we left *early*. Our pilot apparently knew what was going on in Chicago, and he was not to be stopped by it. About halfway through the flight, he came over the speakers and announced, in a determined tone of voice: "There's some bad weather in Chicago. So, I'm going to speed up now. We're going to beat it." And we did! And, apparently, we were the last to do so for some time, as every single other flight from Boston scheduled for that day was pushed back until evening. So, go pilot!

Our baggage came out on a carousel that was not, actually, the carousel they listed for our flight. That meant some minor confusion and scrambling about. _tweeter_ met us at the baggage area. She had no plans to attend VVC, but instead, absconded with teenygozer for the afternoon, leaving us with just teenygozer's lugagge. Pfah! but, at least I got to see her again for a few minutes, after so many years!

We expected, because of the timing, to spot the_shoshanna at the baggage area, or possibly the shuttle pickup. Her flight was supposed to have landed only a minute behind ours, on the same airline. Unfortunately, her pilot was not quite as death-defying, or possibly just weather-defying, because he chose instead to park his plane on the tarmac over in yonder Canada for the next several hours. Instead, we spotted gwyn_r and falzalot in the shuttle area, and chatted with them on the way to the hotel.

Merry had already secured our room for us, so we just heaved all our stuff in, and then wandered about for a bit, seeing who we could spot. Then, spotting our opportunity, we hijacked elynross's car, and hit Dominick's, the grocery store a few blocks down, for weekend supplies. Okay, mostly water and soda. I myself lived on the yummy rice crispy treats in the con suite, and the pumpkin bread, and yes, for yet another year, we ignored the sad little baby carrots Margie had packed in an attempt to encourage healthy eating. We made it back from the store, and there was Dorinda, just parking! There were hugs all around. At one point, I turned from getting grocery bags out of the car, thinking there was an approaching Dorinda to hug. Instead, there was just... Merry. So I dropped my arms.

And Merry gave me such a look. And then proceeded, for the rest of the convention, to tell anyone she could get to listen of the terrible, awful way, I had gone "Oh, it's just you." I suspect I will hear about this one for years, yes indeedy. Like I hadn't already previously given her PERFECTLY GOOD HUGS. And maybe a few blows to the head.

Things get really blurry from this point. I know we went to dinner at the Outback. People were there. Um. elynross, and astolat, and maybe Dorinda, and I have *no idea* who else, really, because my memory and I suck. By the time the meal was wrapping up and was beginning to droop. I gave up, hurled my money at those there to pay up for me, staggered back to the room, and dropped. For whatever reason (and I now suspect it had something to do with the dramamine I took for the plane) I slept for something like 15 hours. Insanity!

Occasionally, I would wake up enough to know that Merry was not to be deterred by my sleeping status, and had brought approximately 87 people back to the room, and was determinedly pimping the first two episodes of Numb3rs at them. Comments from the pimping party drifted in during moments of wakefulness. In particular: "This is far more interesting than I had hoped," came through loud and clear, as someone went down for the count. I think I heard Merry cackle, too. She is like the iron pimp of DEATH. Everytime I came back to the room all weekend, to pick something up, or get a bottle of water, or whatever, there she would be, a fan (usually just_eunice) trapped on the sofa, a fannish IV of CSI hooked up to her arm. I told her to flee, but Merry had convinced her she was a *willing* victim. Ha.

And then there was blackness, until early Friday morning, when Merry attacked me with a shark.

Friday's report will mention that shark some more, and maybe, you know, actual vids and things.