Overall, I personally had a very good time at Baycon but this was a weird year for a number of my friends, which prevents me from saying it was a good con.
clockworkbuddha,
sinmix and myself arrived late night Friday just in time to pick up my badge and (most exciting) my namecard for my first ever panel the next day. After that I got changed and checked out the party floor. Things were going reasonably strong and, hilariously, the entire hallway on the 3rd floor was wrapped in plastic, prompting many condom and dental dam jokes. The usual hours of running into friends and party hopping ensued.
Saturday morning I got some breakfast, and then it was time for the panel. I was nervous but it turned out to be a real hoot and it would be nice to do it again at Silicon. Afterwards I finally hung my art (no new pieces, because of printer problems) and checked out the Dealer's Room before it was time for the SF/SF staff meeting. By the time that was over I was startled to realize it was still only Saturday afternoon-it seemed like I'd been at the con for days.
After decorating the Lounge for the Saturday Night Disco-Steam barely-sekrit theme I took a nap, which helped. I changed into my evening wear which included a groovy sequined headband. I peer-pressured the other roomies into joining in (JP was already rockin' a open collared black shirt under a blue jacked) and they ended up looking fantastic. We hung in the Lounge for a bit, then got some dancing in. At some point I ended up in the Lounge for a while longer before heading up to bed. When I got there, The Magnificent Seven was on and we all watched the end of that before hitting the sack.
Sunday I was free as a bird, with no panels or other responsibilities. We missed the breakfast buffet so got lunch instead, I hit the clothes swap briefly, then a panel, and spent most of the day enjoying the process of wandering between meals and conversations that formed, split and reformed. Eventually it was time to get changed to the evening and out Weird West Travelling Medicine Wagon group costume. I had been a little frustrated with my own outfit for it, and some things I had not finished in time-but
clockworkbuddha did an awesome job with his part and we looked good as a group so it ended up being tons of fun.
The rest of the night varied from great to lousy depending on who you were and were you were standing, and I was periphally involved in parts of that. I felt like I had a very good night, but the knowledge that an unusually large number of my friends did not put a bit of a damper on things. In the end a handful of us stayed up until dawn and managed to be the first people in the restaurant at 6 a.m. when the buffet opened, which was one of those nice con-type experiences.
Monday was the usual last day of touching base with folks I didn't get to talk to except in passing, doing a last pass of the art show and dealer's room and laying plans for future mayhem with various people.
A full report to follow in SF/SF, as always.