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CONvergence Day 1
Jul. 4th, 2019 10:16 pmWe drove up to Minneapolis for CONvergence yesterday. And it took me until this morning as I was getting dressed to remember that I didn't pack any bras for the weekend. Now while this convention is VERY tolerant and people are extremely kind, I do not feel comfortable as a large woman, going without. So, I spent my morning searching for places I could order some and have them delivered by tomorrow or where in the city I could go to buy them in my size. Again, a difficult thing to do, given that most stores aren't going to just have my size on the rack. I don't know about any of you other bra-wearing folk, but for me, bras have to fit VERY specifically. I've managed to find some I like very well and I bought them in all the colors and have been wearing them for years. So having at the last minute to find some very quickly in a city I'm not familiar with, not an easy task.
I did check the devil site, Amazon, wondering if I could have them delivered overnight. Alas, the earliest I could get them would've been Monday and I'll be home by then. So I did some calling around to the few plus size stores I'm familiar with, got the car out of hotel hock and drove to try on clothes. Boy, what a way to spend the first day of a convention.
The good news, well two things: one, I was successful in my endeavor. So I can go out in public this weekend and feel supported AND comfortable. And two, Thursdays at CONvergence are pretty light days panel-wise, so I got back just in time for the first panel I'd really wanted to see: Ready, Set, Flash.
Ready, Set, Flash is like a writing game show. There's a host who gathers up suggestions from the audience, then gives the panelist five minutes to write a story using those suggestions. Then while the panelist write, the host splits the room into two teams and asks us trivia questions. The winning side gets to give suggestions for the next round of writing. At the end of the five minutes, the writers read their flash fiction and the audience judges which it likes best. It's a lot of fun, and there are some amazing little stories that come from that panel. Today, one of the panelist I wasn't familiar with just wrote all poetry for his entries and they were each amazing.
After that, I went to a Chuck Tingle panel called "Proving Love is Real". Chuck showed up in a gi, and a bag on his head stating of course that "love is real". He spoke to a Powerpoint presentation he'd created about how we can prove love in small ways, big ways and 'self' ways. It was hilarious. I have a small Twitter thread here with some screenshots of his presentation and a couple shots of him while he spoke. It's amusing the pains Chuck has taken to mask himself this weekend. We know that Chuck is a fan of the convention (a few years ago he wrote a short that was read live by Mark Oshiro during the convention and mentioned the convention in it) and many of us who have been going for a few years have theorized that Chuck is someone in the well-known writer's community up here, even if maybe he doesn't live here anymore. When he spoke, he definitely put on an affected accent, not just sort of Western-ish, but there's also a sing-song quality to it that reminds me of Emo Phillips. It's... strange. But, he was an enjoyable speaker and he's got another panel tomorrow called "Avoiding the Void" which if not full, I might try and attend.
I did check the devil site, Amazon, wondering if I could have them delivered overnight. Alas, the earliest I could get them would've been Monday and I'll be home by then. So I did some calling around to the few plus size stores I'm familiar with, got the car out of hotel hock and drove to try on clothes. Boy, what a way to spend the first day of a convention.
The good news, well two things: one, I was successful in my endeavor. So I can go out in public this weekend and feel supported AND comfortable. And two, Thursdays at CONvergence are pretty light days panel-wise, so I got back just in time for the first panel I'd really wanted to see: Ready, Set, Flash.
Ready, Set, Flash is like a writing game show. There's a host who gathers up suggestions from the audience, then gives the panelist five minutes to write a story using those suggestions. Then while the panelist write, the host splits the room into two teams and asks us trivia questions. The winning side gets to give suggestions for the next round of writing. At the end of the five minutes, the writers read their flash fiction and the audience judges which it likes best. It's a lot of fun, and there are some amazing little stories that come from that panel. Today, one of the panelist I wasn't familiar with just wrote all poetry for his entries and they were each amazing.
After that, I went to a Chuck Tingle panel called "Proving Love is Real". Chuck showed up in a gi, and a bag on his head stating of course that "love is real". He spoke to a Powerpoint presentation he'd created about how we can prove love in small ways, big ways and 'self' ways. It was hilarious. I have a small Twitter thread here with some screenshots of his presentation and a couple shots of him while he spoke. It's amusing the pains Chuck has taken to mask himself this weekend. We know that Chuck is a fan of the convention (a few years ago he wrote a short that was read live by Mark Oshiro during the convention and mentioned the convention in it) and many of us who have been going for a few years have theorized that Chuck is someone in the well-known writer's community up here, even if maybe he doesn't live here anymore. When he spoke, he definitely put on an affected accent, not just sort of Western-ish, but there's also a sing-song quality to it that reminds me of Emo Phillips. It's... strange. But, he was an enjoyable speaker and he's got another panel tomorrow called "Avoiding the Void" which if not full, I might try and attend.
