Pre-Convention Report
Apr. 18th, 2025 12:12 pmI'm obviously not there yet. My first panel is tonight at 5:30 pm, which is an awkward time for me. I was shown my schedule several months ago, of course, but I didn't really fully consider the time slots. You maybe know how it is? I was more focused, at the time, on the subject matters and whether or not I thought I would be a good fit. I don't remember being asked if there were times and dates I couldn't do, but I also missed the first email that went out--it ended up in my spam box somehow. So, that's probably also on me.
At any rate, I could not have predicted that Shawn would be in the middle of performance review crunch time at work. She really wanted to be able to stay late and finish things up as today is her deadline for the last of them. And, since we are a one car family, I need to get her home and be on the road at LEAST by 5:00 pm and even that feels a little risky. (Highway 494 is under construction and 5:00 is rush hour.) So, I am already anxious about everything and wondering when the heck I'm going to get a chance to even eat. Again, Shawn and I are old ladies and so we eat at 4:30-5:00 pm most days. There's just not going to be time for that.
Currently, the plan for food involves stopping at Breadsmiths on the way to pick her up and eating a sandwich in the car on the way to the con. Shawn, at least, has leftover homemade pasties in the fridge. Maybe those would be okay cold? I think there is enough for both of us to have one. Maybe I'm saved. We'll see.
Anyway, tonight will be kind of a stressful mess (at least partly of my own making) even before I actually sit down to try to moderate the panel. At least we were able to shift our date night to Thursday (last night) thanks to my writers' group Pendragons canceling. So, this was fun. We always do dinner and a movie or if you prefer, Netflix and chill (wink, wink.) Last night, Shawn and I ended up watching The Electric State. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. Did anyone else see it? It's brand new, a 2025 release, and has that annoying dude, Star Lord, in it--one of the Marvel Chris-es. (I think this is the one that's actually Minnesotan, originally from Virginia. Yes, Chris Pratt.) Shawn and I talked about it afterwards, like you do, and for us the problem was that it was absolutely 100% NOT a "feel good" movie. A lot of people that you get very invested in die. And, ( SPOILER ) So, I mean.... it's kind of hard to cheer at the end? There were a lot of other things we both liked about it, but you get to the end feeling very "..." which is not the stuff blockbuster movies are made of, you know? Not ones starring Chris Pratt and which have a lot of jocular humor in them. The tone just wasn't right at the beginning for that downer of an ending. At last not for us. I'd love to hear what you thought of it, if you've seen it.
But, back to tonight, I really can't be late to the con tonight because not only am I the moderator, but also one of the guests of honor, Wesley Chu, is going to be on the panel. I absolutely do not want to start out with my foot in it, you know? Especially since I have a panel later, on Saturday, with him as well.
The subject matter of tonight's panel should be easy to moderate, I hope. It's "On Learning How to Write." The panel description itself gives a basic set of questions to start with and I have found that it's often not difficult to get writers to talk about their process and/or writing, in general. Of couse, now that I've said this, the panelists will all be taciturn and closed-mouthed and I'll have to break out a song and dance routine just to get through the hour or however long we have.
I think that's everything I'm pre-thinking about. I had a chance to look through the programming book, which is online as a .pdf at Minicon's main site: https://mnstf.org/minicon58/ There is a movie showing tonight in the Film Obscura room that actually interests me: "The New Mutants." I've long been a Marvel fan and I never made it to the theater to see this one, so I am vaguely tempted to hang around long enough tonight to catch it.
Oh, that's the other thing I failed to pay attention to in terms of my schedule, I am the OPPOSITE of a night owl (a morning lark!) and all my panels tomorrow go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY past my bedtime. Like, I have one that starts at 10 pm. With my CoCoRaHS volunteering, too, I am actually required to be up before 7 am every single day of the week. I'm usually up by 5:30-6:00 am so that's not a huge problem, but it is more difficult when I don't get to bed until after 11 pm. And, I will be honest with you, my friends, I am in bed, sound asleep many nights by 8:30 pm. So, even having a panel that starts at 7 pm feels really LATE to me.
I'm also likely going to one of very few people masking the entire time so that ought to be... interesting, as we say here in Minnesota. I know this makes me a Dolly Downer. But, y'all, no offense. It's not about your health status. I'm not judging you. My wife is immunocompromised. I'm sure you're bummed not to see my smiling face, but your momentary pleasure is not worth her life. Full stop. Sorry/not sorry. I had a very telling back and forth with someone in MNstF via text not that long ago, wherein it was patently clear that if I wanted to show up to the business meeting/party with a mask on, I wasn't welcome. So... that's extra fun.
I'm not really made for conventions any more, I am realizing. I used to be? But I was also thirty years younger back then.
Oh well. Bonus, just in time for people to be pulling back on all their virtual programming, too. Alack, alas, what do you do. I'm still expecting to have a great deal of fun this weekend. Maybe I'll see some of you all there!