tired
Here we are in full outfits. As we went by the SJ in 2018 bid table, a person (we don't remember who and don't want to remember) came over and insisted that the little bronze cannon on the Colonel's pith helmet was a "representation of a weapon" and thus prohibited by the hotel weapon's policy and that we would have to take the hat back to our room.
This is a close up of the hat in question. I said he was being silly and he said that he was on the committee and insisted that I get out of there. I said, pointing at my own ribbon set, "Well, I'm on the committee, too" and started to walk off. He followed me and I think he was about to try and detain me in some way. Lisa and I got pretty angry and went back to the room and changed out of our costumes. We were not in a good mood.
In a corner of my rational mind I was saying to myself that I was over-reacting and needed food, despite being not hungry due to being so angry. I did go get something to eat from the food trucks that the convention arranged to have parked out front. (We ate them out of food and they left early, but will be back tomorrow.) Meanwhile, the story of what happened to us made its way to numerous other committee members, including some who were in actual positions of responsibility. To skip through a lot of individual steps, Lisa and I were persuaded to get back into costume, and I was introduced to the hotel's head of security, who admired my hat and said that decorations like that were the least of his worries. Through committee channels, it appears that the loose cannon (ahem) was told to back off and stop doing freelance security enforcement.
(Understand that if the hotel were really concerned about that little brass model, I'd understand, albeit I'd be annoyed. I'm a responsible conrunner, and know that we don't want to break the hotel. But this was a case of a freelance member deciding to take absurd interpretations of rules into his hands because he had a committee ribbon.)
We went to a late lunch in the bar, which is expensive, but because the hotel refuses to serve any meals other than breakfast in the restaurant (despite ample evidence that they could make a lot of money by doing so), it was the only on-site choice available to us. We admired the many good costumes here at the convention.
It's Josie, looking for the rest of the Pussycats.
The family that costumes together....
She came by while we were having dinner and kindly stopped long enough for me to take her picture.
Later up in the Con Suite, Wolfcat posed for this picture. The shoes on this outfit are astounding.
Earlier in the day, I ran across
autopope and asked Charlie when his autograph session was. He said Sunday at Noon, but that he'd sign stuff now if I liked. I said, "I haven't paid for the books yet!" and headed over to the Dealer's Room to collect my purchases from Cargo Cult Books.
While I was paying off David W. Clark,
travelswithkuma was making new friends at the Tanstaafl Press table. Lisa says that Kuma insisted that we buy the book Tanstaafl was selling.This evening, the three of us (Lisa, Kuma, and I) made the rounds of the parties, although I got separated from Lisa early on as smoffing broke out around me. Thanks very much to Pablo Vazquez (chair of the San Juan in 2017 NASFiC bid) for providing me the joke that I milked throughout the evening.
Me [in Colonel Chinstrap voice]: "I just came from the San Jose in 2018 Worldcon bid party. They said they were doing a 'sixties' theme tonight. I didn't realize they meant nineteen sixties!" [looks disappointed]
I later found Lisa who had retreated downstairs where it was cooler, and we decided that 11 PM was our limit and we turned in for the night, grateful again that we laid in some groceries in the portable ice chest.
This afternoon, the Westercon newsletter reported that there were over 1400 members of Westercon so far, which makes it the biggest Westercon in years.