2: October 2003 Archives

The reason I'm updating at five in the morning, in case anybody was wondering, is that I'm suffering from a case of virtual jetlag. Between the weird and hectic hours I was keeping over the weekend and the office picnic I attended on Tuesday (which turned into an almost-all-night-party), I was worn out last night. Positively exhausted. So I went to bed early... really early. Six-o'clock-in-the-afternoon-while-it-was-still-light-outside early.

And I woke up at four in the morning.

So now that we're all caught up...

For whatever reason, I hadn't been picking up my camera much for a while. The photolog had gone for an unprecedented month without updates. I'm working on improving that timeframe as I try to write more often as well. Part of the slow-down has been my schedule recently. Over the last month, I've been working 45- to 50-hour weeks, then working on preparations for JournalCon after work. Now that JournalCon is over, I'm back down to a life and a half, rather than the three lives I was juggling previously. I'm glad for the change.

I've spent way more time than I should have spent reading people's accounts of the convention. One thing about journallers: you get them all in the same room together, and they write about one another. They write a lot about one another. I don't have a whole lot to add to the discussion. I didn't get to go to karaoke because I didn't have my id with me, and I apparently look twelve. I did go to the tattoo parlor, though, and took some pictures:

some bar on Sixth Street
Emily getting tattooed (if needles or tattoos squick you out, you might not want to click on this one)
Shannon getting painted with henna

Most of my regular audience will be sick of me writing about JournalCon by the time the weekend is over, but somebody somewhere wants to know how JournalCon is going, so I'm going to be the girl who tells you.

So far, JournalCon is going swimmingly! We have the Chambers Bar reserved at the Omni all weekend as our hospitality room, and it was pretty packed with people for most of the evening, during the welcome mixer. The webcam got moved around periodically to show different areas of the room, and it was funny to see people move to avoid it.

After the mixer, people headed out for dinner, and then later in the evening, about 40 people showed up again for Web Writers Gone Wild, where several journallers read revealing sex-related entries. They were all fabulous; some were funny, some were poignant, and every one of them was entertaining.

People keep commenting on how weird it is to meet the people whose journals they read regularly, and it's true, it is weird! For me, it's even weirder to hear people say, "Oh! I've read your stuff!" I forget sometimes that I have an audience outside a few close friends, some of my family, and people googling for random things.

So, yeah, the conference is going very well. I'm proud of our committee for organizing things well ahead of time, so that we can mostly mingle and enjoy the conference ourselves now that it's actually rolling.

I'll try to continue posting regularly over the weekend.

Oh! One funny story before I submit. I got to the Omni at around 2:30, so by the time the welcome mixer was well underway, I'd had a couple of drinks (over about three hours -- I was hardly intoxicated). Then we had a cash bar for the mixer, and I was talking to CY and another journal writer as I was exchanging a ticket for a drink at the cash bar.

Long story short, the bartender gave me my ticket back because it had taken him so long to give me a Shiner Bock, but the ticket fell to the ground. I stooped down to pick it up, but my center of gravity was all messed up because the bar was in my way, and I managed to roll backward onto the floor, hitting the illustrious AB of Hashai.

She, of course, was all concerned for my well-being, because it looked as though I had completely fallen over, when in fact, I'd just rolled a bit.

Yeah.

Hi! I'm Rachel. I'm on the Host Committee, and I'm a total spaz. Nice to meet you.

More JournalCon later.

Want to know what those silly JournalCon attendees are up to? Go check out the live webcam!

Why is it that I never think to drag Catherine to Austin journalling events? She would've enjoyed our pre-JournalCon get-together this evening. Lots of friendly Austin people were around, plus Beth from Hawaii, who I found to be very interesting, and Fredlet from San Francisco, in whose cult I intend to be involved, though I didn't get much chance to talk to her this evening.

I've borrowed an iBook from work to take with me to JournalCon this weekend. Rumor has it I can find a bit of stray wireless access somewhere in the convention hotel, so I'll try to update if I find a spare minute.