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Thursday:
This was an experience. Ryan and
I left shortly after our classes for the day, praying that the snow would
stay away. It did, thankfully. The drive was somewhat long, but not the
longest I've gone for a con. Most of the drive was easy, until we got into
the vicinity of Washington D.C. Then it became busy, slow, tedious, and
confusing. We ended up having to turn around a couple of times, and then
found our hotel by sheer luck. Turns out that Chris and Drew were stuck in
traffic, so we tried to check in, but ended up having to wait, so we sat
in the car and played video games. Eventually, they showed up, we parked,
grabbed our luggage, and checked in.
Chris and I went downstairs to try to get our staff
badges, but they were still getting ready, so we grabbed a dinner voucher,
and headed up to the restaurant for a rather crappy dinner, but it was
better than the sandwich I would have otherwise eaten. Once we were done
with dinner, we went back downstairs and helped stuff the staff badges,
and ended up staying there to help pass them out. I was stationed marking
them off and writing up new ones, while Chris helped with the marking as
well as laminating. We were there for quite a while, but it passed the
time well, and was uneventful, except for one little girl who decided to
vomit in the middle of the room. But, it was cleaned fast, and we
continued with our jobs. Eventually, we were done, grabbed our own stuff,
then headed back up to our room to get some sleep, since our shift the
next day was in the morning.
Friday:
We started the day at around
8:30, and headed up to the staff suite to get some breakfast. (So *that's*
what a Presidential Suite looks like!) The con so far, well, it seems a
bit disorganized. In any case, we then headed down to the dealer's room to
check it out before it opened. Ryan and Drew appeared as we were leaving,
and since they had associate badges from Chris and me, they were allowed
in as well. I gave Ryan some money to buy some ramune for me and to take
it up to the room, since Chris and I had to go start our shift.
The other staff members seemed very nice, but I
patrolled with Chris this morning, simply because we arrived at the same
time. It was standard stuff. And let me tell you, while the hotel is nice,
it gets *very* boring when walking in the same circle for 8 hours. I can
only imagine how boring it was for the security staff in the other hotel.
At some point, Chris and I had to help a girl track down her brothers. Of
course, my shoes also had no arch support, they didn't help matters. It
was standard stuff, making sure halls stayed clear, making sure no one was
doing anything dangerous. At the end of the shift, they mentioned that
they needed people to help work at the concert. Well, I had no intention
of doing that, I just wanted to relax in a panel or something for awhile.
So, I went up to the room and changed into my costume after having dinner.
I walked around for all of half an hour, then the guilt got to me, so I
ran up to the hotel room, and changed back into my staff shirt, and headed
down to get an assignment for the concert. By the time, they were out of
the orange vests, which proved to be a hindrance later.
Before the concert, I was in charge of keeping the line
from forming, then keeping the line intact. Mind you, this involved
winding it around the hotel, then down a very narrow escalator, then
finally around the hotel some more. But, it was a good line (You guys
rocked!), and they all listened to me. It started moving, and everyone got
into the room pretty quickly. As staff, I was allowed to go into the VIP
section, but I found out that because I wasn't wearing a vest, the guy at
the post didn't know I was working, and wouldn't let me have free reign
around the room like I needed to have. I waited until Chris was done
inside, we left the VIP area, and patrolled the main room together, and of
course, when he needed to talk to someone inside, we couldn't get back in.
After walking around for a few more minutes out there, the con chair came
over to us, and escorted us back in, then told us what to do. Guard at the
post believed me then, and we were given the free reign we needed. The
people at the concert were mostly well behaved, but I think I could have
been hit by a glow stick and not noticed it due to the pain in my feet.
Could I say anything? Nooo, of course not. In any case, once the concert
was over and we got everyone out semi orderly, I decided that it was time
for me to crash, as it was almost 2:30am at this point, and I had another
shift in the morning.
Saturday:
We slept a bit later today, but
still had plenty of time to grab breakfast before heading down to our
shift. I for the life of me, can't remember the name of the guy I
patrolled with, but he was very nice, and fun to be with. We started off
with a patrol of the hotel itself, to make sure nothing was going on
outside the rooms, then headed back down to the convention, and did the
circles again. This went on until 6ish, when I decided that regardless of
any guilt trips they would try to give me, I really just needed to relax,
so I handed in my radio and vest, then went up to my room to change into
my costume, and headed to watch the masquerade. My awesome badge let me
skip the line and gave me very close seating...and yet, someone tall still
managed to sit right in front of me. Still, it was cool. Once I was done
there, I puttered around for a bit, and headed to the name that tune
panel. I never participate in it, but darned if it isn't fun to watch.
That killed a couple hours, and by the time that was done, I met up with
Ryan and Eric to watch some videos before we called it a night.
Sunday: Let's call this the
nothing day. There was a forecast for a lot of snow, so Ryan wanted to
leave early. By leaving early, I would be unable to work my shift that
morning. I was upset, though my feet were not. I let them know, and we
finished up our shopping, and waited until the others got their stuff
packed and out of the room before checking out. We then checked out and
waited around for about 20 minutes, saying goodbyes, all that stuff,
before getting on the road. While
this con was rather uneventful and I worked more hours than not, I still
enjoyed it enough to want to make the drive down the next year. And my
leaving early didn't affect them welcoming me back the next year either. |