Wednesday, June 28th

On the road to Atlanta! I met Hubby and the kids at home and loaded the last of the stuff into the car. Hubby has a simple two-part packing rule: (a) If it folds, it fits, and (b) everything folds. Stops for food and gas, and we were en route...a couple of hours later than I’d hoped, but who’s counting? O.K., besides my cousins, who were expecting us in Atlanta around 9:00 p.m. EST. Oops! Made it to their house (1 hour north of downtown Hotlanta) closer to 11:00 p.m., with kids still bright eyed and excited. Whee! *Yawn* Tucked the kids into their sleeping bags and fell into bed. I could hardly wait to meet all my list-sibs the next day!

Thursday, June 29th

Woke up bright and early when the kids woke up and decided it was playtime. They ventured downstairs to explore and then discovered their un-cousin (their cousin’s cousin on the other side of the family) was awake too. Fun, fun, fun! So much for sleeping in. *sigh* It turned out that my cousin and his wife had two of their three kids at home, my two, her sister and her two kids, and another sister’s child, all in town on the same weekend. It was Child Central! Better them than me. *evil grin* I was really looking forward to that con now!

We finally left around mid-morning. The kids were happy, and didn’t seem at all bothered by our departure. FREEDOM!!! We headed towards downtown Hotlanta, not having a clue what exit we were looking for, although we had a street address for the Downtown Ramada. "Just point the car towards downtown; we’ll find it", I said. Sure enough, it really wasn’t that hard to find. I guess the Force was with us. *smirk*

The Ramada....Oh dear, what can I say about our accommodations? Well, a set of towels per person would have been nice! And so would keycards that would open doors without canceling out the keycards of every other occupant of the room! And so would elevators that don't get stuck for several minutes with occupants inside. OK, so it wasn’t the Hyatt, but it was cheap. At least considering most downtown hotel prices. At least we had soap, which was more than one of our other Ramada listsibs had!

Arsinoe and Sestra had checked in the night before, so we moved our stuff into the available space (and inadvertently nullified their keycards, but we weren’t to discover that entire comedy of errors until much later...suffice it to say that things were never fully straightened out until the final day of our stay!), and I costumed up to head over to the con. Thursday was my "generic SW universe woman in slinky black jumpsuit" day. I decided later that it was my "Healer Shaya goes undercover" outfit.

Registration went smoothly enough. Within 5 minutes of our arrival, all of the people with last names in our alphabet range (C-H, or something like that) were called to the front of the line, so we didn’t have to wait so long to get our badges and programs. I thanked Hubby for having a convenient last name. *grin* Then we headed for the Dunwoody Room to look for listsibs, figuring they’d be at the Matters of the Force programs. It was a good guess, and sure enough, I found them right outside of the MotF room. A giggle of women wearing brown robes and ivory tunics is kinda hard to miss! We got our Qui-Gon Jinn Discussion List badges, and to my surprise, I also got a Dragon*Con VIP badge with a lovely Qui-Gon picture on it. (Aren’t I glad I volunteered to be on Liz’s panel discussion!) I also gave Arsinoe a button from my collection, which I had decided was perfect for her when I found it while I was packing: "Graduate of the Han Solo School of Action Without Thought". *grin* (Ari plays Han Solo during our role-playing chats.)

Hubby and I sat down and figured out what panels we wanted to attend in the next few hours, then he vamoosed, leaving me with my brown clad buddies. I wished I’d worn my Jedi robes, but I was saving them for my panel discussion the next day. We went upstairs to Liz’s room (and Shan’s. Stacey’s, and avatar’s), where I met avatar for the first time, and she gave me a gift that reminded her of me. A bear. (Inside joke. *smirk*) Other Jedi came and went. We were all worried about Star, since her flight was supposed to have arrived early that morning, but she wasn’t on site yet. (Later we found out she was double-booked and was not able to attend.) I think this is when I hauled out my memory book and passed it around, asking people to sign it. (If it wasn’t then, it was in the same room a little later that day. This is what I get for starting a journal after the con, but hey, I was too busy to write it at the time!) This started a trend. Arsinoe and Shan got into the act, and others picked up on it a little later.

After a while Ari and I decided it was time to forage for a late snack/lunch. (I had belatedly realized that I hadn't eaten anything all day!) So we went exploring, looking for the Food Court. I was trying to find the food kiosk with the wonderful Teriyaki Chicken that Hubby and I had sampled on our way to the Hyatt earlier, but never did find that area of the Food Court. *sigh* We settled on Dairy Queen hotdogs instead.

We returned to the MotF suite in time for part of the George in Toyland panel, where we met Barbara and Aiacha. I was a bit distracted during the beginning of the panel, since on the way down, we passed by a familiar face sitting in the lobby. "Umm, is that Aaron Allston?" I asked Ari (my fellow alt.fan.wedge buddy and Wedge/X-Wing fan). She shot a quick look upwards and behind (our escalator was descending) and said she thought it maybe was, but she wasn’t sure. So a few minutes later, curiosity got the better of me, and I headed up the floors to see if he was still there, figuring it might be the only time I’d catch him relatively alone during the con and that maybe I might get in a minute or two of uninterrupted conversation before he got too caught up in con activities. I got to the main lobby level. He wasn’t there. Drat. So I returned to the George in Toyland panel.

The afternoon was spent exploring the hotel area and visiting with newly-met list friends, basically killing time until the MotF Brown Bag Dinner. When it was close to time, I headed out to pick up dinner from the Food Court, only to run into some of the Qui-Gals headed back to the Hyatt with pizzas in hand.

At the Dinner, I met even more list-sibs, and soon we were grouping up for photos in front of the life-sized Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stand-ups. Leslie Fish was also there, providing some filksong entertainment when she wasn't crusading for smokers' rights and puffing cigarette smoke from some bizarre hi-tech sort of filtering device that allegedly keeps second-hand smoke from polluting the room air...though it didn't prevent her from exhaling, and we could still see smoke drifting upwards from it, so I rather doubt its effectiveness. *grin* It gave her something to rant about between songs, though, so whatever makes her happy. Aaron Allston was also there for at least part of the time. When he walked in, I think Ari noticed him first, and told me "Yes, that was Aaron we passed in the lobby." So I turned, and sure enough, there he was. He wasn't a mirage after all. *grin* He sat near the front and made a few joking comments about our crazy Jedi (this was while we were posing for goofy pictures next to the cardboard Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan), but I think he left before the hour was up, perhaps sometime during the Leslie Fish smokers' rights rant. After that sprint upstairs and back to look for him earlier, did I go up and introduce myself? Nooooo, I got hit by an attack of shyness. (I got over it later. *grin*)

Afterwards, we stayed for the Costuming Panel to support our list-sibs Stacey Lee and Pam K and Mindy/"Igraine". The panel went very well, although towards the end of it I was distracted by a phone call. It was my cousin's wife. "Your son is fine, but I can't get your daughter to stop crying!" I checked my watch. Eek! My baby had been crying for me for hours! During the conversation, I also realized that we had forgotten to leave the car seats behind. By now I was distraught, feeling like a rotten mom, abandoning my children to have fun at a con. (She had spent the night away from us before, so we had no idea she'd be this upset!) So as soon as Hubby returned to the room, I told him about the call and we left to assess the situation and figure out what we needed to do. So we called my cousin's house once more from our hotel room, figuring we'd see if matters had improved before driving the hour back to their house. They had. My cousin's wife had taken the kids to the pool, and my daughter brightened up immediately. I guess she decided anyone who would take her "s'immin'" couldn't be too bad! The car seats still needed to be delivered to them, but Hubby agreed to run up that evening after my daughter was asleep (since we were all worried that she'd start back up again if she saw us), and he dropped me back off at the con.

By the time I got back, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was already playing in the Dunwoody Room, and all the doors were locked. I jiggled the door in frustration, since this was the event I'd most looked forward to for over a year--the opportunity to watch TPM with all the friends I've been discussing it with ever since the list formed! Just then, someone with a Security badge walked by. She told me that the con policy was to keep the door locked during a movie so that the audience wouldn't be constantly interrupted during the showing. But when she noticed my VIP badge, she instantly fell in love with it (it featured a wonderful picture of Qui-Gon) and decided to make an exception for me. Out came the keys, and into the room I bolted! (Thanks for inviting me to join your "Jedi in the Force" panel, Liz. Mesa verra verra grateful for my VIP badge!)

I found an empty seat near the front of the room, and found myself sitting near some of my list-sibs. The movie was a very good quality copy with Asian subtitles. With a little imagination, one could imagine it was alien text. (I know; I live in the ozone!) The audience was very responsive, making the experience the most enjoyable showing I've ever seen and participated in. It was like "Mystery Science Theatre 3000 meets The Phantom Menace", with the wisecracks flying like desert sand during a Tatooine sandstorm. And there's nothing like watching TPM with a bunch of crazy Qui-Gon and Padawan wanna-be list-sibs wearing Jedi robes!

The evening ended with a laser show, then some more visiting with list friends, but soon it was time to call it a night, so we headed back to the hotel, to get some beauty sleep for the following morning.

Friday, June 30th

Friday was "Healer Shaya" day for me, since I had decided to wear the Jedi costume I had designed for my Jedi Healer character in my eight-part fanfic In Remembrance. My robe was similar in style to young Obi-Wan's, only more colorful, since my Healer had been assigned to a world that revered bright colors. I figured that if the purpose of Jedi robes was to make the Jedi less conspicuous, because it mimics peasant clothing on a variety of worlds, then it would make no sense for Shaya to wear drab colors on a world where even the poorest people wear colorful clothing (even though more muted in tone), so I gave her a forest green robe and burgundy pants to match her ivory tunic/tabard/obi combination. (Aside from all that, my real reason for making a colorful Jedi costume for myself is that I look hideous in browns! *grin*) I had barely gotten the costume finished in time to wear it (in fact, I hadn't even begun sewing it until the Friday before the con!), but I was really looking forward to wearing it when I rejoined my robed list-sibs.

I spent the morning visiting with friends, with nothing really pressing to do before I had to meet the alt.fan.wedge folks in front of the Dunwoody Room for our lunch outing with Aaron Allston and Mike Stackpole. Arsinoe was planning to accompany me for that, since she's an a.f.w. buddy as well as a Qui-Gon list-sib. We found time for a very quick visit to the dealer's room, but soon it was time to head downstairs and meet Mike, Aaron, and all the Wedge/X-wing fans.

We decided to head to the Food Court, put a few tables together in the eating area, then take turns foraging for our lunch at the food kiosks of our choice. Hubby and I headed for a Middle-Eastern food booth (no, I'm not planning to describe what everyone ate, but this becomes important later) to pick up our meals.

By the time we got back to the table, everyone else had returned before us. The conversation was well under way. For anyone who was wondering, yes, Mike and Aaron are just as personable in person as they are on the alt.fan.wedge newsgroup, and just as funny as you would expect from their writing. In fact, I think having them together only increases the effect. The cumulative effect of that much wit concentrated together is nearly terrifying. Perhaps it was for the best that Tim Zahn wasn't with them to complete this unholy trinity! *grin* Aaron is punnier (no, that's not a typo) in person than he is in his Wraith Squadron books. One shudders to think what Janson's humor would have been like had it not been for those translation problems from Basic to American English.

As it was, there was a lot of fun and laughter, but the highlight (for me, at least) came when someone, I can't recall who, nearly made me laugh at the wrong moment. I made some comment about having nearly sprayed Aaron (who was sitting across the table from me) with ice tea, to which Hubby glanced at the meal he was eating and said something along the lines of "Yeah, but at least you didn't have spicy rice shooting out of your nose!"

Hilarity ensued as this lovely visual image impacted with our humor-sensitized brains, much like a proton torpedo hitting the Death Star reactor core. Mike looked at Aaron. Aaron looked at Mike. They both looked at us. You could see something diabolical going on behind those sparkling eyes as they communicated telepathically, the way that longtime friends can do. I had a baaaad feeling about this, a true disturbance in the Force. Well, truly disturbed minds absorbing this mental image and contemplating nefarious ways to use it, anyway. Hubby, realizing he had committed the mortal sin of making a Truly Memorable Statement in front of two authors, gave them a resigned grin and added, "If you end up using that in a book, just make sure you spell my name right". I noticed Aaron scribbling something on his napkin. I wondered if I would somehow end up immortalized on paper as some fictional character shooting spicy rice from her nostrils. Couldn't we have just stopped at Glamour Shots for a portrait instead? Thank you, Hubby dearest. You have to sleep sometime....

The lunch ended sometime a little before 1:00, since some of us had 1:00 panel discussions to go to. I returned to the Dunwoody room for my "Jedi in the Force" panel with Elizabeth Durack, Pink Padawan (a.k.a Lyta, a.k.a. Xanatos), Robert B./"Jar Jar" of Jedinet.com, and T-Bone of Starwarz.com. When I went to the side table to look for my name tag, it had disappeared. (I'm sure the MotF planners made one for me, because I had seen it the night before.) So I looked through the ones that they had and commandeered Aaron's. It was a toss-up between his and Mike's; I knew they had a panel coming up, and I wanted to see if Aaron would notice his name tag had my name written in on the other side of it. Kinda hard to miss, actually. I went through my panel with a mild identity crisis, because every time I'd glance at the table in front of me, I'd see this tag proclaiming I was "Aaron Allston"! (So, Aaron, if you're reading this, did you ever wonder if you were me? *grin)

At 2:30, Arsinoe and I left the MotF programming area to go to Aaron's book signing. Afterwards, we stepped out of the room and quickly scanned our books to see what he had written. Ari burst out laughing. He had signed Solo Command with one of her favorite quotes. (From the infamous Janson scene: "Nice rear, lieutenant!" She had been telling him how much she enjoyed the humor in his books and the Janson scene in particular when she handed him that book to sign.) We slowly made our way to the room where he would be reading from his book-in-progress, Mongoose among Cobras, wanting to sit for a while and get comfortable, since she was sweltering under yards of Handmaiden costume and my feet were killing me. (Note to self: get Jedi boots that fit properly before next year's con!)

The reading began at 3:30, giving Aaron a mere half-hour to read a quick excerpt before his 4:00 panel began. The chapter was good, and the "editorial comments" added to the fun. (Aaron was adding in bits of commentary about stuff like sound-alike words in the text--"eyes" vs. "ayes". I can't possibly remember all the comments, and they wouldn't make sense anyway unless you were hearing the story at the same time. You just had to be there!)

Before the reading began, Ari and I had noticed that we had been practically shadowing Aaron all day. I decided we must be Aaron's Angels; she decided that if she had to be an angel, she must be his dark one. (Not a surprise there, hon! *grin*) So after the reading we informed him that, as his angels, it was our duty to escort him to the "SW Technology" panel. Off we went to the Dunwoody room.

The "Star Wars Technology" panel was quite enjoyable, and Ari and I were reunited with several of our list-sibs there. Afterwards, most of them headed for the MotF Annual Costume Party. However, since Mike was having his book signing in the Dealer's Room at the same time as the Costume Party, I had volunteered to carry books to the signing for those who were committed to participating in the Costume Party. So, heavily laden with books, I set forth, following Mike since I figured he would know where his book signing was. I wasn't certain I remembered how to get there.

The line had already formed when we arrived, so I found the end of it and waited for my turn, my arms feeling like they were growing longer by the minute due to the load of books in my bag. (The Force would have been quite handy!) I hadn't brought all of Mike's books that I owned to the signing, since I'd wanted to limit how much weight I'd be carrying around during the day, but even so, I felt like a walking library! And then when I got to the table and unloaded my bag, I was amazed by how many books I had packed in it, despite my attempts to limit myself to just a few. (The curse of collecting books by a prolific writer, I suppose. *grin*) I had my picture taken with Mike while he was autographing them, which I can't help but laugh at whenever I look at it. I look frazzled, like I've just jogged all the way from Dunwoody with 50 lbs. of books (only a slight exaggeration!). Mike has a big smile. I can't blame him; I guess I'd grin too if I were the one on his side of the table!

I returned to the Hyatt towards the end of the Costume Party, and then all of the Qui-Gon List-sibs went outside to the giant stone arch on the corner that we had dubbed "Theed", to have group photos taken in our Jedi finery. Our photographer was CartoonCheryl, dressed for the occasion as Queen Amidala in the white ceremonial gown. Cheryl is a professional wedding photographer, and she did a thorough job. I'm not certain I had that many photos taken at my wedding! She did a very Queenly job of bossing us around for the next...hour?...it felt more like two, although we were having fun just being together and watching the reactions of passers-by to the giggling Jedi assembled on the street corner. I was exhausted by now, though, and so was Ari. After the photo shoot, we decided to pass on any more con activities, and lacked the energy for any room parties, so we returned to the Ramada for the evening, using the rest of the night to enjoy a bit of downtime and get better acquainted.

Saturday, July 1st

Saturday was "Manari Shaya" day (from my fanfic In Remembrance), or perhaps "Adumarian Garnet", depending on how I chose to interpret my costume at any given moment. It was blindingly colorful, a mixture of Filipina and Indian garb never meant to be worn together; a glaring assault on the eyes. (OK, so my mother dresses me funny! *grin*) I figured that if Hubby needed to find me, he wouldn't have any trouble picking me out in the crowd.

I got to the Dunwoody room in time for the MotF Charity Auction. There was a nice selection of collectibles up for auction, as well as several SW authors and actors. Unfortunately I was nearly broke, which didn't stop me from drooling copiously all over the collectibles tables, but it prevented me from placing any bids. At least, until I realized that Aaron was still available in my price range. Out came my pen, and I outbid my listmistress Elizabeth (thinking "Liz will forgive me!"...only to discover later that she'd bid on him for me, hoping to surprise me if she won. What sweet friends I have!) Elizabeth, on the other hand, was hunting down the list-sibs to collect a pool so we could bid on Dave Prowse. It was, after all, Mr. Prowse's birthday, and what better way to liven up a room party than to have a Birthday Boy in attendance?

The auction ended, and to my mild yet happy shock, I discovered I was the proud "owner" of an hour of Aaron's time. Now that I had him, what could I do with him? (Within the bounds of propriety, list-sibs; I know how warped your little minds are! *smile*) We decided to meet for lunch at 11:30. This left me with just a short time to hunt down others who might be interested in joining us. I managed to find the other "Aaron's Angel" in time, but Hubby was nowhere to be found.

For the second day in a row, we headed to the Food Court for lunch. While trying to decide where to eat, I had mentioned that I was open to just about anything but the Hard Rock Cafe, since I didn't wish to try to hold a conversation over blaring rock music. The place we finally selected had a small dining section that was fairly private and looked very promising. As we stood in line to order our food, the fire alarms began blaring. Fire alarms mixed with Classical Muzak weren't quite the atmosphere I had hoped for, but the alarm soon ended, and the rest of the meal was peaceful. Or at least as peaceful as any meal can be with two dinner companions who often kept me too busy giggling to eat. And since I didn't feel like I was among strangers, I felt comfortable enough with them to regale them with an impromptu Chicken Concerto. (I know...I know...weird stuff happens at cons, OK? And yes, I was quite sober! *grin*) It was a thoroughly enjoyable hour, or possibly a bit more; I'm not sure anyone was keeping a close track of the time.

Next was the "Obi-Wan's Library" panel, with Terry Brooks representing the SW authors along with Mike and Aaron. One of the questions was "If you could choose any SW character or situation to write a book about, who would it be?", and Terry chose Qui-Gon, much to the delight of the Qui-Gals present. Mike Stackpole's implant kept twitching everytime someone asked him a question about the NJO story arc. *grin* The panel was quite enjoyable, and afterwards we stayed on to see the "Mysteries of the SW Universe in Mythology and Religion" panel, since we knew our listmistress would be on that panel. Before long, she was engaged in a very spirited debate with Mike about Qui-Gon's mythic significance (or lack thereof) in the SW saga. (We all knew Liz would bring Qui-Gon into this somehow, right?) Oh for a videocamera to capture the bright fireworks! *grin* It was all in fun, though; no hard feelings afterwards. After that panel, Shytei and I went to hear Andreas Katsulas of Babylon 5, which was a hilarious hour of non-stop stories about his experiences with that show and the practical jokes he played on its creator, J. Michael Straczynski, and JMS' revenge. We returned in time to hear Roger Christian (art/props designer for the SW movies) talk about making props for the SW movies. You could see our giggle of Jedi taking copious mental notes during his talk. Once that was over, it was time to prepare for our room party.

Room parties are generally enjoyable, but with our Birthday Guest of Honor--Dave Prowse--in attendance, it was even more so. We presented him with a small gift contributed by various list-sibs, and then sat back and enjoyed listening to him talk about his career, his favorite role (the Green Cross Man who taught pedestrian safety to British children), and some behind-the-scenes stories about making the Star Wars movies. We very much enjoyed meeting the man behind the Vader mask.

Shortly after Mr. Prowse left, we turned on the closed captioned TV to watch the end of the Masquerade Contest, adding our own commentary to that of MC's Andreas Katsulas and Chase Masterson. The phone rang. It was someone calling to ask the "Qui-Gon Girls" out for a group date. More hilarity ensued after Verthandi politely told the caller we had other plans. Afterwards, once things had settled down again, we began the fanfic readings, with Stacey Lee leading things off with the thunderstorm scene from her popular "In a Strange Land", and the rest of us following her lead. "Mr. Lyta", aka "Fuchsia", surprised us all with an extremely warped retelling of the fateful Cantina scene between Obi-Wan, Luke, Han and Chewbacca. Ummm...let's just say I'll never think of Old Ben in quite the same way again! *shudder/grin*

We continued with one reading after another until late into the night, when we finally left to let our hostesses get some sleep. A wonderful end to a very memorable day.

Sunday, July 2nd

Sunday was our departure day, and we had to make room for Verthandi, who would be sharing the room with Ari and Sestra after Hubby and I left. So we packed our bags, then I rushed over to the Hyatt for one last book signing--Katherine Kurtz this time--and I had managed to find her long-awaited (10 years?) novel King Kelson's Bride, so I wanted to catch her at the 11:30 signing. The signing had just begun when I arrived, and the wait to reach the head of the line was pleasant, since Ms. Kurtz was chatting with her fans (including those of us still waiting in line) while she was signing. I told her that I remembered her as "the author who made me stop reading and cry at 3:00 a.m. one morning when Rhys Thurin died". She told me that she had cried too while writing the scene. (Yeah, but did you cry because the way he died seemed so senseless? I mean, geez! You fall in love with a guy over a series of books, and then he goes and slips and hits his head on a rock!) We also chatted briefly about the SCA, and I told her that my Oath of Fealty during my Baronial Investiture several years ago had been loosely based on one from her books.