kevin_standlee | Checking Out and Onward

Having secured a 2 PM check-out today, we were not rushed this morning, thank goodness. We gave Peggy Sue's a second chance, and things went much more smoothly. Kuma Bear and I set up the table while Lisa worked on packing her things. She then came down and sat at the table with Kuma while I packed my stuff.

Lisa took this photo yesterday afternoon, when crowd of fans gathered 'round the Westercon table and talked convention matters. Shortly after she took this photo was when I got the urgent e-mail from work, at which time I had to ask people to move along, much as I was enjoying the conversations.

Around 1 PM, I got a cart from the bellmen, loaded it full of our things, and stored it with them, then checked out of the hotel and went back to the table. About this time, Lisa picked up the print in the Art Show on which she'd placed a bid, and after a bit she came back and asked me to write out a check on her account for a second print that she'd decided to buy. (Lisa wonders if this might have been the entire sales of the tiny SorcerorCon Art show; at least, we didn't see any other bids on any other pieces, although we didn't examine all of them.)

Around 4 PM, we broke down the table, rolled away the posters, and made our farewells, claimed our stored luggage, retrieved the van from the valet, and headed off into the sunset — literally, as we were blinded by the sun as we drove into Santa Clara, stopping for a very late lunch at Chipotle.

Somewhat to our surprise for such a small convention, we actually sold one Westercon membership in addition to the t-shirts that we did expect to sell. And we did make a lot of contacts that we passed on to the various Westercon departments (most of whose department heads were at Loscon).

While checking out of the hotel, I mentioned in passing that if the rooms had microwave ovens, I might have just stayed the next four nights rather that have to check out and then check back in again on Thursday. The clerk said that there's an ordinance that prohibits high-rise hotels from having microwave ovens in ordinary sleeping rooms.

I was pleased to have a refrigerator in my room (and will make my plans for SMOFCon accordingly, since I can store milk and other small perishables during the convention), but a little less pleased with the energy-saving motion detector in the bathroom. It's meant to automatically turn off the lights in the bathroom if you leave the room empty; however, I discovered the hard way that under certain circumstances, it can decide when you're showering that you've left the room and it should turn off the lights, requiring you to reach out and wave a towel at the sensor or else be left showering in the dark.

Anyway, it's back to work at the office as opposed to at a convention fan table for the next three days. I still feel like I'm in the middle of an extended convention trip, though. This evening, I finally got a chance to upload the photos that Lisa and I took to Flickr and my SorcerorCon set. My plans to get to bed early (I have to be up at 6 AM the next three days due to work-schedule issues, especially accommodating conference calls with our European office) were foiled by the number of things Lisa and I had to do this evening. I think it's just as well we declined an invitation to the post-con dinner that was being organized as we headed for the van with our luggage.