10/7/02

Sheesh, so much has happened since I last wrote. Most importantly, as of yesterday, JournalCon is over. It feels like it all happened in about 5 minutes instead of two-and-a-half days, but it also feels like I've been off in a faraway land for a couple of weeks. It was held in downtown San Francisco, which is just a few miles from my house, but I stayed in the hotel and saw so many people I never see that it really didn't feel like home. In fact, while I was returning from dropping people off at Alcatraz, I ran into another grad student in my program downtown, and I immediately asked him "what are you doing here?" forgetting that he, too, lives just a few miles away.

I was really worried that I wouldn't have a good time at JournalCon. I tend not to enjoy my own parties, because I have an unfortunate tendency to see it as a personal failing if everyone doesn't have a wonderful time. But after all the hard work I'd put in with organizing it, I was determined that I'd have fun--and I did! I think a huge part of that was the fact that the organization this year was a true group effort, and while I was technically the head of the committee, it was wonderful knowing that I had so many other competent and reliable committee members to foist various tasks off on!

While I know that most people had a great time (even Michael Rawdon!), it wasn't perfect, and it's kind of hard to get past that, too. A couple of people didn't show up at all, which makes me feel horribly guilty. Others didn't come back at all after the first day. Was I too busy having my own fun to make sure that everyone else was having fun, too? Sarah had her bag stolen from a bar in the Mission. BitterHag got spat upon by a homeless man on the bus--and worst of all, I was standing a few feet away talking to Renee and Jenna and didn't even realize that it had happened until I got home last night and read Bev's entry!

I really shouldn't overemphasize these relative failures, though, because overall, I really did have a fabulous time, and I think most everyone else did, too. The panels all went well and people actually showed up for them, we ate tons of good food, people got to see the city, and the weather was absolutely freakishly perfect. We took over a karaoke bar, and I got to sing with Mo, Emily, Lynda, Jill, Renee and others. We continued the "if you sing 'Like a Virgin' at JournalCon karaoke, you must give someone a lapdance while doing so" tradition. I won a little wooden box with a picture of a cat "who looks kind of like Taylor" on it at Pamie's panel. I managed to get through moderating my panel on "Writing about sex in your online journal" without giggling uncontrollably. The LCD projector for the Movable Type panel actually worked. There were no fights, and lots of glitter. Oh, and Amanda organized an attendees' campaign to put together gift bags for all the organizers with souvenirs from pretty much every part of the weekend, which was incredibly thoughtful and totally unexpected. As Kymm told me "we thought you were so sharp, we were sure you'd figure out that something was up, but you didn't, so I guess you're not!" Awwwwwww.

And now I have to wrap this up and go to work and try to remember what I'm supposed to do. Re-entry into the real world is very strange.