journalcon: san diego pt. 2
October 29, 2005, 8:25 pm

Okay, so I didn't update the next day, but here's my continuation of all the events from JournalCon 2005.

After Thumper and I checked into the hotel (swanky), I immediately went downstairs to greet my fellow journallers, pick up some swag, and squeal in high-pitched tones to make a dog's ears bleed. I decided to greet my friends on my own, without Thumper, you know, to add some mystique or something.

As soon as I hit the conference room, a Cheers-like "JESSI!" resounded, and I knew I had come home. Seriously, how many places can you go and people are THAT happy to see you? It felt excellent. I was delighted by the baseball t-shirts of the exec. staff, and overwhelmed by the swag, which was, to be honest, way better than mine. I thought my beer openers from last year deserved at least an honorable mention in the "Best Swag" awards; this year, my crappy Halloween bags and Sharpeed bouncy balls just couldn't compete with the Divine Mrs. Bix's drink shakers, the elegant earrings from LA, the hilarious red nose + tiny rubber chicken combo from Mary, the tasty designer M&Ms from Deb, or, my favorite, the elaborately concocted contest and GORGEOUSLY packaged incense and tea candle from Carrie, who I really enjoyed talking to in smatterings over the weekend, and who I'll be reading now. Yeah, leave it to me to only talk about the free stuff. (Oh, Fiestada,, I missed you so. Don't worry, I snagged duplicates for you of everything. I'm so naughty!)

I must have hugged everyone in the joint for about six minutes each, even the people I had just met, which was fine, and then I jaunted back to the room to put on my dancing clothes for the night's dinner. I have to say, getting everyone together for a dinner to kick off the festivities was an excellent idea; I tried not to be too high schoolish and insist on sitting with all my friends, instead, I grabbed a table that was closest to the door, and kept asking people when they came in if they had someone to sit with.

I wish I could remember everyone at my table, but MoPie's brilliantly designed JINGO game kick-started my competitive nature; I HAD TO WIN. I had Pablo sign the space for the Person I've Always Wanted to Meet; I had Mighty Kymm sign my "has met 50 online writers" space, and then I told her I loved her, which may have been awkward for a moment, but we let it pass. She ended up winning the complete JINGO game with a BLACKOUT, but my tenacity and determination scored me second place for six JINGOs, and when I returned to my table, Thumper said, "Hey babe, I really, really enjoyed my dinner. How's yours?" and looked pointedly at my full, now cold, plate. He just had to shrug, really, because he knew I would be like all participatory and what-not. "Quiet, you, I just won us free drinks!" and I had; best. prizes. ever.

After schmoozing with everyone at the hotel bar for a long, long time and several drinks later, we hit the road to Patrick's. Now, I'm not sure if it was my hotness in my purple shirt, my cute shoes, or my proximity to Mare, but honestly? I had a blast, and I was drunk.

Not just a little buzzed, but somehow I lost count of my imbibing and managed to feel all kinds of silly.

I stumbled into Patrick's and shared a table with Ray, Fredlet, Cruel Irony and Trance and a few other people that honest-to-God I wish I could remember but my mind is blanking. Will you let me know if you were there? Please? Thanks.

I remember dancing with Mare, and making some sort of crack about visiting the bathroom WITHOUT making out with some stranger, and then CruelIrony pulled me aside and whispered conspiratorially that Thumper had the cutest expression on his face watching me dance, and I got all a-fluttery. Ray and I had a great baseball conversation, where I extolled the beauty of Camden Yards and the downfall of the Orioles in general, and the band was good, I remember that. As Thumper and I left, we swayed to "Brown-Eyed Girl" outside, where we left Pablo< /a> and Jake and Weet enjoying the night air.

Thumper says that he had to corral me on the way home, as I kept trying to dance with passing cars and swinging my purse out at passer-by. On our own in California for the first time, we went upstairs, and it was a GOOD night.

I jumped out of bed on Saturday morning with a kind of "OH SHIT" mentality; I was introducing the Diarist.net Award Winners, and although I knew it would be easy, my stomach was still in knots, not to mention, I was pretty hungover.

The first panel on Person vs. Persona I felt went really well; I'm always in awe of well-established writers on the net, and although I've never read Beth or KarenD, I can see why they were good choices. Beth is very well-spoken and her comments really kickstarted another entry idea for me, that I'll get to sometime, but it'll have to do with if I'm truly a real person writing on the internet or a mutant zombie-prom queen from another planet trying to infiltrate American Society.

Time for the Diarist.Net Award Readings, and they were AWESOME. No wonder these people have won awards! There were more dynamic sentences read in that 45 minutes than the entire first floor of Borders, I bet! No offense to any of the other presenters, who were fabulous, but my favorite entry went to the talented Poolagirl and her recollection of a lingering washcloth. I got the feeling that Poolagirl was a bit overwhelmed by the adulations put upon her by others, but she wore brilliant yellow shoes, so that sort of put to rest any thoughts that she was really shy. I'm definitely a fan of hers now.

For lunch, I didn't mumble too much when a gaggle of us headed to a brewery that I had eaten at a few nights before; I was craving a cheeseburger, and was delighted when an entire PLATE of COW was put in front of me for my dining pleasure. Very full, I eschewed dessert but managed to down a few bites foisted upon me by the dessert-Nazi Minarae and cheesecake-pushers Ray and Fred. Damn, that's good eatin'. Fredlet managed to get the Angelic Halo Award for the weekend by treating 12 people to a not-cheap lunch. Fred, I don't know what you do for a living, but damn girl, you're awesome! Thanks!

We got back in time for the afternoon panel where the panelists were positively shiny with rhinestones because they're so great and I appreciated contributions from Dichroic, who has more energy than me, I think and especially Marigold, who I think I scared by telling her so later at karaoke, but who is quite a nice person so I hope she doesn't think I'm scary.

My sisters and Nick and Thumper and I ganked a coupon from the hotel and had a sumptious dinner at the House of Blues ( I liked the one in New Orleans better, but what are you going to do?) and I made a nice elderly gentleman at an adjoining table's birthday by giving him a coupon, too.

Karaoke is far too fun and long to post here; Thumper is sick with the flu (we cancelled our Halloween party...another entry, another time) and I just heard the beginning of Neverending Story echoing from downstairs, so in the meantime, you can see the hilarious video from the adorable Meg, who is sweet, funny, and the cutest person alive. I am not responsible for your ears bleeding upon viewing if you choose to watch it sober. I promise to also post about how much I love Pratt, but that's for later.