Wiscon 32 Day 1

[oyceter]

It doesn't feel like day 1 at all, largely since I usually get in halfway through Friday. And yet! I have had "breakfast" with coffeeandink at a diner, in which I discovered eggs over medium are still not the way I like my eggs, and Mely and I both clearly were not thinking, as it was nearly 11 when we had breakfast and we had scheduled lunch with Yoon. After finding Yoon and daidoji_gisei, we headed over to an East African restaurant, which had some Ethiopian food but sadly not kitfo, and Yoon and I split chicken peanut stew (jinian, I think it was the one we went to two years ago?). After that was the gathering, in which I said hi to a ton of people, including but not limited to littlebutfierce, ladyjax, loligo, heresluck, coniraya, badger2305, ktempest, and helen_keeble, and I got myself a henna tattoo.

I have wings on my back! I have wanted wings on my back since I was fourteen and saw the Crow sequel, which was in all respects dreadful, but the heroine had an awesome tattoo, and I have been dying to get wings on my shoulderblades no matter how cliched or horrifyingly twee it is. And now I have them! In henna, granted, but I am too indecisive and afraid of pain for the real thing.

I then sat and knit with Yoon and h.l., and then had Vietnamese/Laotian/Thai with Yoon (I am not quite sure of the precise cuisine, since the sign said all three). The two of us made it to the restaurant by some miracle: "Mely said there was a Vietnamese place on this street. Well, I think it was this street. Well, I am not certain. Well, maybe we can walk down a few blocks and see." We passed a chili dog place, and I heroically restrained myself from going in (chili dogs are AWESOME. They are almost as good as hot dogs dipped in batter and deep friend ON STICKS). Eventually, we encountered ellen_fremedon, who was nice enough to tell us the restaurant was just around the corner. Two steps later, I turned to Yoon and asked, "Uh. Do we know which corner she was talking about?" Thankfully, we then looked up to realize we were standing right beneath the sign.

I have also survived the Not-Japan Asian SF/F panel and hopefully not looked too stupid, gotten a CPop CD from jiawen (eeee!), and me and Mely pulled off the first of the spontaneous panels! And amazingly, people who we did not know showed up! People who weren't on LJ even showed up! And talked! It was quite excellent, and I will hopefully write it up when I get home. I also went to It's Not About Identity, which was an interesting look at identity politics, feminism, and intersectionality, but I am also too tired and lazy to write anything up.

And tomorrow, I wake up at an ungodly hour to go to the farmers' market with h.l. and Yoon.

Eeeeeee! Wiscon! Exclamation point!

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Did the panel discuss the Mahabharata at all?

[oyceter]

We didn't get to go into specifics that much, which made me sad, but Vandana Singh definitely talked about it and the Ramayana as being religious works that nevertheless influence fantastic retellings and/or reworkings! I also talked about Bride a little, though again, not in detail.

Next year, I want a panel on Chinese fantasy movies now that I've watched more!

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

Oooh! It sounds like you went to Vientianne Palace (not quite sure if my spelling is correct), which is pretty much my favorite restaurant ever. My boyfriend and I go there al lthe time.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Wah! Now that I know in my head what it all looks like, I can imagine myself there even more strongly.

(Yay spontaneous panel worked! I... was going to browbeat one of you to patch me in via cell phone, but then I realized it was scheduled for a time I generally know as "bedtime" and realized how silly it is to try to participate in a panel via cell phone.)

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Oh, yum, I remember that chicken peanut stew. Yay State Street!

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Will we get to see pictures of the wings? *pleeeeze face*

I have so much Wiscon envy, and I still have a bunch more entries on it to read. *sigh* (I realise this could sound like a dose of guilt to get you to post pics; it isn't.)

[oyceter]

Yes! It'll probably be with the next big picture post, especially now that I have finished my first lace shawl and want to show it off ;).