LACon IV - Anaheim, CA - 23-27 Aug 2006

Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 12:02:07 -0700
From: "Jacqueline Lichtenberg" <jlists@simegen.com>
Subject: Re: [Simegen-L] WorldCon Reports
To: <simegen-l@simegen.com>

I usually write up a con report right away, bursting with a zillion things to say about a wild and wonderful time.

Now this WorldCon in Anaheim 2006 I did have a wild and wonderful time! But my schedule was so overloaded that it's all a blur.

I keenly remember Torun Almer re-wrapping and re-re-re-wrapping my ace bandages morning and night. I remember Jean fussing and doing chores I couldn't reach. I remember the deep concern everyone had that I shouldn't slip in the shower -- but as the con went on, I was actually getting better, with less pain from both the broken ankle and the sprained one.

Wondering what happened? Read the
first message on [SimeGen-L] about
JL's Accident for some background.

Jean actually noted how much better I hobbled after a few days. I think my stride is now up to about 3 inches! (I tell you, this both feet out of commission at once thing is a bear! Everyone says get crutches, but my doctor said no. The "good" foot is badly damaged enough it should also be in a boot, but he didn't want me to have boots on both feet.)

I remember the scooter I rented actually was waiting for me when I got to the hotel. I remember the bellman riding it out to the curb and showing me how to use it. I remember how ridiculous he looked because he was way too tall for it! But he had fun scooting (and got a tip too). I remember learning to drive the thing -- scaring myself half to death for a couple days, then scooting at a windy clip down the wide walkway of the convention center, one hand in the air yelling HI HO SILVER! and getting some good smiles.

I remember hatching a scheme to put two scooters in the dark together -- and come back the next morning and get the new little one for Jean who couldn't keep up when I scooted fast.

See erudite comments concerning 
Mating Habits of Mobility Scooters
on science pages in [SimeGen-L]

It didn't work, but some other people in scooters thought it was a good idea.

I remember sitting alone in my room the first few minutes staring at the scooter and trying to figure out how I could possibly transport all my flyers. They'd SAID the thing had a basket -- but it was about 9 inches wide tapering to about 7 and barely held my purse. Then my husband who had the adjoining room opened the door and brought me my yellow dispatch case with the Sime Girl on it, and I remembered KAREN!!!

I hitched it onto the back of the scooter chair and it hung perfectly and I was able to reach behind me and produce just the right flyer by feel, if I packed it right each morning.

I remember everyone telling me I'd be doing wheelies by the end of the con -- it only took 3/4 of the con and I had gained confidence. I remember my first trip out of the hotel with Jean one morning, and going out into an actual city street with the thing because a truck was parked where the curb was flattened. And I remember going along a driveway that tilted a lot thinking I'd fall off the thing.

I remember all the help necessary to get doors into restrooms opened to get in and out of the handicapped access restroom! Yeah, right -- but then I'd been warned about that and noticed it before. I remember the restrooms Jean found where you could scoot straight into the stall and straight out again -- and how Jean taught me to get in and out of an elevator. Hanging out with Karen has paid off BIG TIME at this convention even though she wasn't there -- she was there in technique after technique she taught me.

I remember how the nice extra-wide door on the bathroom in our room opened out and hit the corridor door with a crash I couldn't prevent while hobbling. I couldn't see how to get the scooter in and out of the bathroom though the door was wide enough, the turn was way too sharp and the hall too narrow -- but you can't do that anyway because the directions say NO WATER by the battery driven scooter. Oh, and the whirr the charger makes while you're thinking to go to sleep.

I remember how in the airports total strangers would come give me a push when I hijacked the wheelchair (that lacked handle-rims on the wheels so you had to propel it by the tires) to go to the restroom.

Oh, and after all the bizarre trials of traveling unable to walk, I remember arriving at John Wayne Airport to find my favorite suitcase which I paid extra for because it's made of indestructible top grade ballistic nylon had been ripped to shreds and the frame bent. The airline routinely replaced it with one of a totally different design -- cheap looking, too -- which is totally unusable for either me or my husband (darn thing is almost as tall as he is!). Finally, yesterday I got a call that they're sending a new one from the company I use ( tutto.com ) which is for bad backs and the best luggage I've ever had.

HOWEVER they no longer make the suitcase that was destroyed -- I have one of the replacements and it's shorter and thicker even though it may hold the same volume or more. The one that was destroyed was thin and flat and large enough to carry one of those large posters we sometimes take to cons, or other demo materials I generally carry.

So I will now have two of the thicker pullman cases.

I remember long conversations with Torun -- what a fabulous woman!

I remember the Sime~Gen party, the heartfelt tribute to Shirley Maiewski, long time head of the Star Trek Welcommittee. Everyone loved the bubbly apple juice we toasted with, and Kaires brought around a berry drink she'd made that she'll tell you about (RECIPE PLEASE!) which was marvelous and non-alcoholic.

I had a long conversation with Ed Wilson, and a whole bunch of people dropped by to say hello -- coming to the hotel just for the Sime~Gen party, but not buying a membership to the con. I had several long conversations with them that I'll let them tell you about in their con reports.

Meanwhile, Jean was popping up every once in a while to run the door-prize drawing. I had brought some books for prizes, and our co-hosts EPIC and BROAD UNIVERSE brought items -- Joel Davis brought a whole lot of stuff about Welcommittee and Shirley, and gave me a set of photos to die for.

Kaires engineered this extravaganza -- there was food galore, Welcommittee and Sime~Gen decorations, and I didn't even see everything! Cherri Muñoz, who now lives in Mexico temporarily, turned up and helped set up the food for everyone. She was a delight throughout the whole con even though she was favoring an arm she wrecked moving to Mexico.

I heard the next morning that when he left our party to go party-hopping, Joel fell and broke HIS ankle and got himself booted in an emergency room. He's in worse shape than me because he's living alone in a walk-up, and I have a flat house. I also have my husband who has been doing everything for me. So my greatest sympathies go out to Joel!!!

I remember Saturday afternoon, after I'd had a chance to read the printouts Ed Wilson brought me, Ed came up to my room where I was seated with my feet above my shoulders hoping the swelling would subside (which it did and does, but then comes back) and we had a marvelous conversation about what he's been writing lately while Jean nibbled nuts and got ready for her next panel. I think Torun turned up shortly after that -- I basically had an all-day con in my room while I kept my feet up and hoped I'd last through the trip home on Monday (hopes fulfilled; I lasted but I'm still in crash-mode, with no energy and no stamina at all.)

I remember my husband brought me new ACE bandages almost every day -- searching for some variety that would work better.

And believe it or not, I remember a few of the panels -- at least flashes of comments here and there. But it's sort of a blur which comments were discussed under which topics. I had a blast on each of the panels -- would get so involved in the topics that I actually and really totally forgot how much my ankles hurt. I just didn't feel any pain during those hours -- but I paid for that at the end of the day!

I must have done something right though because after each panel people came and scarfed up bunches of flyers. Maybe some of them are lurking on this List now and we might hear from them eventually.

Sunday night Jean, Katie Steinhoff and I took some time to go out to dinner together. Even though the con was officially over, it felt like playing hooky!

Monday morning, Jean left first as she had a very long trip home, then my husband and I left, and Torun moved to a room on the other side of the hotel where she could see the Disneyland fireworks the next night -- then fly back to Hawaii. We might have had a view room the whole con if it hadn't been for me needing a handicap access shower (which turned out to be really neat, a depression in the floor with a curtain around it, a wand for the shower water and a bench to sit on -- I wasn't looking forward to coming home to my shower!). So Torun finally got her Disneyland view which was one of her reasons for making the trip.

Katie Steinhoff drove us to the airport and waited very patiently while the wheelchair that was supposed to be waiting for us was produced -- I think it was 20 minutes or more in a no-parking zone. Nobody challenged us for just sitting there but I had a sweet answer ready just in case.

The trip home was nominal and I even got some pages of a book read during the waits.

But it took 3 days to even get the suitcase opened, and all that's been accomplished so far is to do the laundry. I get farther behind on everything every day -- either I'm way too slow, or I've been super-way-far overloaded.

So I can't write a con report -- because the con itself really didn't engrave itself on my memory except for the long PAINLESS hours of happiness and hilarity during panels and the adventure of conquering the scooter.

JL