LA Hercules/Xena Convention 97 Report Page1
January 10-13 Burbank Hilton Hotel, California
Con Diary - Burbank, CA 1/10/97
Disclaimer: All events real and imagined are recollected through the fog and haze of a blissful, long and sleepless time, a time long ago, a time of myth and legend, when the ancient Gods were petty and cruel... or was that just the security guards? In any event, this account is no doubt riddled with inaccuracies and large gaps in both chronological and specific information due to a plethora of dead brain synapses brought on by lack of sleep, food and an over abundance of adrenaline, ale, caffeine and talking. Be kind in you assessment and be forgiving for my failures to be more accurate. Oh yeah, no Amazons or Hunters or other creative souls of various predilection were harmed in the writing of this diary, at least not on purpose;) Thank you.
Excited, what? Me? I've been packed for four days, haven't been able to sleep for a week or more, yeah, I guess I was a little excited:)
FRIDAY
I awoke on this Friday morning to a dreadful sight, fog. All the flooding and rain had saturated the soil and the tule fog was in fine form. I could barely see off the porch, I thought screw little cat feet and the poet who wrote about it:( I willed the fog to disperse, to no avail. Husband dearest, Vel, drove me to the airport, Sacramento InterGalaxtic (inside joke.. it was Metro and they renamed it Sac Inter'l but it has no international flights nor immigration facilities, wishful hoping I suppose).
Poor Hubby fussed over me as I, in controlled panic, stood in line to check the bag. Those in front of me were being told their flights were canceled. Woe be the poor slob who tries to tell me MY flight is canceled (I secretly imagined the painful kicks and punches I would deliver unto said bearer of bad news). AH, sigh of relief, my flight is delayed, there is hope yet:) I finally got Vel to leave me in the capable hands of Hermes in a red cap, checked my bag and joined the milling throngs inside the terminal. The bottom line was my flight was delayed just one hour and I arrived in Burbank without further glitches. I sat next to a most interesting lady on the plane, a worshiper of the Goddess and an artist of great talent. We talked and exchanged ideas and philosophies all the way which made the flight a speedy trip indeed.
I arrived at the hotel via the shuttle van and slipped into the registration area, straining to see who all the people in the lobby were, milling about excitedly. I recognized my No. Calif. cohorts, (I'll use netnicks to identify people) Marit(Drudd), Ceallach, Tyche and TaurusRat so waved and hoped that darling petite curly red haired person I blew a kiss to was Hebea. It was and she ran to the registration area to give me the promised hug. My first long awaited hug from a dear old friend on the occasion of our first meeting, ain't the net grand? Zipping through check-in I join the group in the lobby, greeting many and forgive me for forgetting some: Becca, Riordon, Psam, Danae, Jan and some Xenites who were name-tag-less. More joined our group having just returned from Hollyweird with their treasured 8x10 glossies of the Big Guy. Let the drooling begin:) MsMoo, Nuance~, Lady Pegasus, Gazelle, Lessa, Angelika, IRCMommy, Skeezix, Ephany and more (oh dear, where are the name tags when you need them?). Wow, then there was Lilac-erBabe (cohort and fellow Liar's Club Member) and the list Goddess her own self, Penthasilea, and what a beautiful woman she is, inside and out!
I got settled in my room with my roomie Marit and returned to the Lobby greeting more arrivees and making haste to the Bar, it was definitely time for a tall cold one. I am happy to announce they are now adding an Amazon Memorial Wing (to the Bar) in honor of our frequent and unrestrained use of said facility. It was a crowd of about 25 die hards that finally gathered with guest dropping in all night as well.
We were a generally well behaved group, colorful and never audio challenged in the volume or content areas. Sometime during this extended happy hour I was thrilled to put face to name and welcome some of our clever Hunters: Cathbad, Sal_Fan, Lord Nelson, Kittle all handsome and gallant. Hunter Luke and the lovely Robinsnest finally arrived as did Ciyeva and Vicki (bringing cookies and chocolates:), Carriebaby, Tnemmocon, Cleavules, Calico, Just Tanya, Antares, Rapunzel, Sorsha, Thalia, LauraJ (our own Xena) and Kimba. There were others there too but this Amazon was in a blissful state of holding court, crown in place, and I need to review the movie to name everyone accurately. I truly wish my color printer cartridge had held out and I could have made name tags for everyone! Just a note all the people I met face to face at the Con were GREAT, even nicer and more fun than on the Forum and Lists.
We drank and ate and did some hard core hanging out until about 9 or 10 PM when Hebea or was it Ceallach, wanted to know if anyone wanted to go over to the Con to see how they were setting it up. Hey sure, several of us said and off we went. In true Rock'n Roll style we barged in like we belonged there and sat up front while the guys from 'SWORDPLAY' did their run thru, er, rehearsal I should say;) We were treated to a lot of special showing off and antics and had a generally fun and flirtatious time, promising to cheer our swordsmen on the following day at their performance. We were quite impressed and some lucky (cute young thangs) amongst us were even privy to private swashbuckling lessons or so I heard;) But too soon the swashes were buckled up and it was back to the Bar for those still able to keep their eyes open. I did try to bring HerK along to the bar but the guard said he'd have to shoot me if I didn't let go of him (okay it was only the life sized cardboard kiosk of HerK) so, promising to return for a close encounter with the real thing, I departed.
After sending all the sleepy Amazons to their rooms I returned to the bar and ran into Jean, an avowed lurker who knew who I was... (this came up a lot over the weekend.. Apollena? I know who you are!) and Mesmerized who had gotten in late from Springfield, Mo. We had a nice visit, at a new location at the Bar not in the memorial wing and were joined by Starseeker who had finally arrived from Denver after an 8 hour delay. I was thrilled to finally meet the eclectic Lady I had become good friends with over the last few months. You will come to know her name more in the next while. She is writing and producing a movie and I am to be her assistant. This was our first actual, as opposed to virtual, meeting and she had wonderful news to impart about the production. I guess I'll be pretty busy all summer:) Ephany was kind enough to find and return to me my jacket, I'd left in the lobby, guess I wasn't dealing a full deck at this point;) I finally made it back to my room, waking up my understanding roomie Marit and chatting in the dark until my voice gave out totally, my eyes had given up long ago.
Saroj Selvan
Apollena
~~Queen of the Amazons~~
~~Keeper of the Entertainments~~
ROTFWKS ..... really!!!
Forum Amazons Absentee Hug Receptacle and Beneficiary
HerKulean Hair Flipping Team - Founding Member - Captain
Keeper of the Mazola
Sorbonne Lace n'Leatherette
KSSS and so on and so forth....
Apollena, Keeper of the
Entertainments
These pictures were taken by IRCmommy, Ceallach, MsMoo, Robinsnest and Apollena a far as I know.
Last Update: July 24, 2001
Web Author: Vel Selvan