Surprise Genre-Adjacent Encounter
Mar. 11th, 2020 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeI was feeling alert enough this afternoon so that after I finished with Day Jobbe, Lisa and I went into Reno for a few errands. First we collected a part we'd ordered from Summit Racing (they have a large warehouse/retail store in Sparks), then went to Lowe's to buy some things the Fernley store did not have. We were going to go get groceries next, but Lisa was hungry so we went to the Peppermill buffet for dinner, getting there just after they opened. Things were pretty quiet. Lisa asked the manager about how traffic had been, and she said, "You probably want to finish up by 6:30, because that's when the gamers will arrive." We didn't understand what she meant until we went for our usual post-dinner walk around the upstairs function space.
We hadn't noticed until we went to the function space that the Game Manufactures Association Expo was here. This is the prefunction lobby in front of the ballroom, which GAMA Expo is using for its exhibit hall but that the 2011 Worldcon used for its Masquerade and Hugo Awards. Things were pretty quiet by the time we came through because it was after the Exhibit Hall closed and the attendees had headed off for other things (like filling up the restaurant).
We didn't actually run across anyone we know, but it's likely that there are people here who we know from Worldcon, especially given that Off World Designs has a booth in the exhibit hall. I saw one person wearing an OWD t-shirt as well.
The registration area had both hand sanitizer in the large economy size, but also, to my amusement, badge ribbons of various sorts as handouts.
We talked with a few people, and it quickly became clear that the people we met knew "our" fandom. I could talk about "Worldcon" without having to explain what it was, for example. We could have hung around longer, but I have to work tomorrow, and we still had grocery shopping to do, so we had to move on to WinCo Foods. We saw a few signs of panic buying, particularly in the toilet paper aisle. (We bought one package ourselves, but that was on our regularly scheduled shopping list.) They were limiting purchases of bottled water, hand sanitizer, and other things. We weren't panic buying; this was just our normal grocery shopping, which we completed without incident. As my day was drawing to a close, Lisa drove us home.
We hadn't noticed until we went to the function space that the Game Manufactures Association Expo was here. This is the prefunction lobby in front of the ballroom, which GAMA Expo is using for its exhibit hall but that the 2011 Worldcon used for its Masquerade and Hugo Awards. Things were pretty quiet by the time we came through because it was after the Exhibit Hall closed and the attendees had headed off for other things (like filling up the restaurant).
We didn't actually run across anyone we know, but it's likely that there are people here who we know from Worldcon, especially given that Off World Designs has a booth in the exhibit hall. I saw one person wearing an OWD t-shirt as well.
The registration area had both hand sanitizer in the large economy size, but also, to my amusement, badge ribbons of various sorts as handouts.
We talked with a few people, and it quickly became clear that the people we met knew "our" fandom. I could talk about "Worldcon" without having to explain what it was, for example. We could have hung around longer, but I have to work tomorrow, and we still had grocery shopping to do, so we had to move on to WinCo Foods. We saw a few signs of panic buying, particularly in the toilet paper aisle. (We bought one package ourselves, but that was on our regularly scheduled shopping list.) They were limiting purchases of bottled water, hand sanitizer, and other things. We weren't panic buying; this was just our normal grocery shopping, which we completed without incident. As my day was drawing to a close, Lisa drove us home.
