Following Lady Blackbird, I finally met up with Adam of the Side Project Podcast. We’d been trying to get together all con, but the con’s schedule grid — four hour sessions with no transit time — doesn’t allow for much socializing except within games. Once we got together, it was good to chat about our various projects.

Then I wandered around to enjoy the last remnants of the con: some folks tearing down the front desk, others playing CCGs at it, a gathering of players all still engrossed in some long historical boardgame in the main hall, some people carting out trolleys full of supplies. I checked out the Artemis room, sans computer equipment. I also tried to get a little better oriented to the hotel. Then I headed out and home.

A few general observations about this year’s Con of the North:

• John and I ate at the hotel restaurant Sunday night. The food was decent, but the service was pretty confused, like they were all operating on too little sleep or too few people on shift. Seems like I’ve seen this sort of thing before: hotel restaurants desperately unprepared for the onslaught that is a fannish convention. Do hotels and convention center managers ever schedule enough staff for conventions? Do they even know how many people are going to be in for a given convention? Seems like the management often doesn’t plan well for this kind of thing. Or there are other factors I don’t understand.
• I was still feeling under the weather Saturday and Sunday. I brought hand sanitizer and tried to use it frequently. Hopefully no con crud was spread!
• This is a secret I hesitate to reveal, but… The chili at the concession stand was really quite good. It isn’t that runny chili dog stuff, but rather hearty and filling. A bowl of it completely hit the spot.
• The ceiling above the main corridor is this slatted thing that goes at a 45° angle and produces headaches upon sight. It’s like Azathoth’s own pinstripe suit. And, I noticed this year, the front desk directly faces it. I wonder if front desk staff get hazard pay?
• I somehow ended up with five drinks tokens, through generosity of others and forgetfulness on my part (I kept buying drinks and forgetting to get them from the Con). Well, hopefully I’ll be able to use them again next year!
• For only being at the con two days, I met a lot of really cool people. It was nice to chat with Adam, it was also great to re-meet Kailey, and I got to play a game with Melissa, whom I first met in high school. Neato!

It was a shortened con for me, but still a great one.