DragonCon Eve
I managed to fill the Bug’s tank today over lunch ($36, thankyouverymuch) and have moved on to the next item on the agenda: preparing for DragonCon, which starts tomorrow.
Food. Somehow, I doubt that the hosting hotels would have an awful lot in the way of vegan food, and what little they have will probably cost more than I’d like to spend,[1] so I’ve accumulated some trail mix and a whole carton of Organic Food Bars, which is way more than I’ll need for the weekend but were on sale (50 cents less per bar than the cheapest price I’ve been able to find anywhere). With some bottled water and maybe an orange or plum brought along, plus maybe some late-evening snacks at home, that should take care of food for the weekend.
Clothes. Clothes are a bit problematic, because I’ll be going to work in the morning and to the con Friday afternoon, so I’ve got to balance geekiness, gothiness, and not getting sent home for wearing things forbidden in the dress code. (Though I’ve noticed scads of people wearing capris,[2] which are expressly forbidden in the DC, I don’t quite have the nerve to wear my Black Pleather Pants of Snarkiness[3] to work again, because they’re now specifically forbidden, as well. I’m such a wimp.) I think I’ve got something kind of picked out — red-and-black superlong socks, asymmetrical drapey skirt, and either of two possible bell-sleeved shirts, with obligatory clunky metal-heeled buckle boots — but have no clue what to wear Saturday or Sunday. I’ll have to rummage around in the closet and unfolded laundry still in the dryer, and figure something out. Perhaps, if it’s not too hot, the BPPoS will make a foray out into the real world.
Cash. Sadly, my cash-on-hand situation has reverted to type for me: I’m down to four cents. There is plentiful (well, for a given value of plentiful — perhaps “sufficient” would be more accurate) cash in the checking account, but ever since they closed the branch closest to the office, it’s been such an ordeal finding a cash machine that I hardly ever bother any more. Still, I should have at least some cash — some vendors don’t take cards, or prefer not to because of the surcharges — so I suppose I’ll have to hit one of the machines in the hotels and just deal with the out-of-network fees. Bleagh.
ConName. It just doesn’t do to put your real name on your DragonCon badge. Well, they don’t blink if you tell them your name is Lord Gcvxbeoinfadsoic of the Planet Ix, as long as your credit card goes through smoothly, so obviously you simply must come up with something interesting to put down. Last year I was, um, either Moghedien or Mesaana, from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, but that won’t do because the author’s actually going to be there this year and that would be awkward if I actually ran into him at a signing or something. (Hey, there might be a signing. I haven’t checked.) Plus there will probably be lots of other WoT fans there, and it wouldn’t do to be swimming in a sea of Forsaken when you have the same name. “PreRaphaelitePunk” might not fit on the badge, and “PRP” would make no sense out of context. It would sound like I named myself after the sound of a burp. Thus, I’m thinking about “SnarkyVegan,” or possibly “CrankyVegan,” but I like “snarky” better.
[1] Much, much better to save what money I’ve budgeted for the vendors’ room. I’m hoping for maybe a cool t-shirt, or some buttons (suddenly I feel the need for lots of little slogany buttons to decorate the straps of my backpack), or, ideally, a Slytherin bumper sticker to replace the homemade one that faded to nothingness in the hot Atlanta sun.
[2] Aside: Judging from the street fashions seen this summer in London, Americans should prepare themselves for gentlemen’s capris being extremely popular. Just saying.
[3] The friend who introduced me to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” pointed out that every single character who wore black leather pants on the show was evil, at least temporarily so. There were also the Red Leather Pants of Moral Ambiguity. Obviously, then, black veggie-leather pants would have to be of Snarkiness.
