BC's Poly Page
alt.polycon VI

Friday, July 28th, 2000 - Sunday, July 30th, 2000 in Edmonton, Alberta.

Friday

Polycons

alt.polycon VI

Six AM Friday morning: Roxton Manor awoke to catch our ride to the airport by 6:45. There were five of us (BC, Ldot, Siobhan, astral alice and Richard) all crammed in to one limo. Toronto Pearson Airport was unusually packed that morning. The line-up for check-in was at least an hour long. That was fine for most of us, 'cause we went through the express check-in (I *heart* express check-in), but two of us were required to stand in the exceedingly long regular check-in line.

Two timezones and a four hour flight later, and we were in Edmonton. We were among the first to arrive at the con suite, and we met up with the first batch of friendly faces. I met Amanda, Dave, and Gordon for the first time. And then, while waiting for programming to begin, I went out to lunch with alice, Ldot, Iain and Richard. We went out to a restaurant that I visited last time I was in Edmonton; I picked it 'cause they had quesadillas, and I had a craving for them in a big way. The restaurant has gone way downhill since I was there last, and not only did they no longer serve quesadillas, but the rest of the meal was extremely mediocre. Thus began a trend for the weekend: one several occassions, my attempts to get quesadillas was frustrated.

After lunch, we wandered over to see Edmonton's local comic shop, and the nearby goth store. We got back to the con in time to start the first panel ("Welcome to alt.polycon!") We met up with Ryk, Louise and their other partner -- people we haven't seen since apc ii. Louise had one of her arms bundled into an impressive looking thermally-heated, velcro-encrusted James Bond-esque sling, and I was a bit hesitant about hugging her. But Louise had no hesitation. She launched into my arms with a big, friendly hug. Nice warm moment.

After this introduction, Elise got the con off and running by leading the panel "Who's in my T-Shirt Drawer?" -- a game of Quotus Interruptus, and then a bunch of us went out dinner at the all-you-can-eat Sushi place. I sat with Elise, RJ, Ruth Anne, betsy, Nate, Joe, James, Ldot and Siobhan, and we ate sooooo much sushi, we could barely move afterward.

Perhaps my favourite panel afterward was the "And so it begins..." panel, where RJ, betsy and Roger told stories about how they met their partners. I believe that this panel drew the first tears of the con. And then I listened to Elise reading funny, poignant writings.

That night, I hung out in the con suite. I remember talking to Ryk and Louise, who have a very cute married-people banter in real life, that I don't see online.

Saturday

The Varscona offered continental breakfast early on Saturday morning, and I sat around with Kylee, RJ, Jennie and Ruth Anne to talk about the Canadian versus US political landscape.

The first panel of the day was an introductions panel in which we introduced ourselves and told stories about the first polycon that we attended. I told my story about how I was originally reading alt.poly while alt.polycon i was being planned, but that I didn't make it. And I really regretted it when Gary Farber started a thread by asking a bunch of questions online. So I made a point of attending alt.polycon ii, and was delighted when Jennie reposted Gary's questions and I finally got to participate in this thread that had happened a year earlier.

I sat in on a few panels, and then went off for lunch. Lunch was scheduled from 11:15 to 12:30, and Ldot, Siobhan, Shaun, Nate and I went out to the mediocre Mexican food place so that I could finally have my quesadillas; unfortunately the Mexican food place didn't open until 12:00, and we decided to pop in to the French crepe place, where we ordered from their breakfast menu. For some reason this restuarant took forever to deliver our food, and when it finally arrived at 12:20, we wolfed it down, and sped back to the hotel for the first round of afternoon panels.

I attended the "Building/Buying a Poly House" panel, where Siobhan, Canadian Stef, and Louise told stories about new houses.

I went to hang out in the con suite for a while; I chatted with Ian and Elise, and then I decided to head upstairs to check my e-mail (first time of the weekend! The leash isn't as tight as I thought it was). After that, I popped back downstairs to catch more panels. "They Say Love is Blind; That Worries Me" was a really moving panel; people spoke very candidly and unguardedly about when they felt most easily hurt. I was supposed to continue a discussion about responsibility and communication with Joe at a later time, but it never happened. Maybe Joe will start that thread online :-)

We went out to dinner at a nearby Greek restaurant (which, oddly, didn't serve quesadillas) with Ian, Roger, Lisa, John, James, Gwynyth, and Gwynyth's sweetie (who, I don't believe, has been publically identified on alt.poly). Ian decided that he wasn't going to be monogamous about where he was sitting, and he pulled his chair around to the end of the table, and we started a conversation about suicide, gender and a notion of choice. It was a really cool conversation and, once again, I didn't get a chance to finish it, 'cause after spending a while in the con suite talking Shaun, Nate, James (who'd shown up for the "Fans of betsy" panel), RJ, alice, Richard and others, I became exhausted and headed back to my room to crash.

Sunday

By Sunday, I really didn't want to wake up. But the ultra decaden brunch beckoned. Food. Lots of food. I think I was still pretty much zonked for most of brunch. I gave Ian lots of money for alt.polycon vii memberships, and I had brief conversations with people at our table. People started to disappear right after brunch. Most of the Minnesota (including the honourary Minnesotan from Melbourne) folks left for the airport noonish. Boo-hoo.

Ryk took a lot of initive when we needed to start getting set up for the next panel. He started moving tables and empty serving dishes, and a crowd of people flooded in with chairs, all moving and working in synch like a single living organism. A circle was formed, and panels began. We spoke about families in which different family members have different degrees of outness. I liked this panel, although the room was practically in tears when Roger told the story of his parents.

I went up to the con suite, and ended up spending some time with Chris. We had a very good, and very meaningful conversation. I had to stop, 'cause I was on the last panel, and I wanted to resume the conversation later, but like my conversations with Joe and Ian, I just didn't find the time.

There was some final con suite hanging out, and then I went for a walk with Ldot. We got back in time to meet up with Roger, John, and Lisa to go out to dinner. We went to the mediocre Mexican place so that I could finally have quesadillas, but there would have been a 30 minute wait for a table, so we went to the Keg, instead. We had a cool dinner, and then wandered back to the coffee shop in the hotel for coffee and hot chocolate. We relocated to Erik's room when Erik and Elise joined us, and I sat back listening to the exchange of stories. Although the evening had fun femme-y bits (I now have sparkly toenails!), what I enjoyed the most was the kewl conversations about where people had been in their lives -- what they'd seen, who they'd loved, and what really mattered to them.

But even that had to come to an end. We parted ways late in the night, and Ldot and I went back to our room, to get a good night's sleep before flying back to Toronto.

Monday

Air Canada did not serve quesadillas on the flight home.

------- start of alt.polycon code ------
4 yellow stars, pink smiley face sticker, 
purple flower sticker, blue fish, green 
tree w/ blue eye, blue starburst, green 
heart sticker, three pair of red lips, 
half blue face/half pink face.
-------- end of alt.polycon code -------