   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
![Nerd & Tie[dot]Social Forums](https://www.nerdandtie.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/natsocial-nicepreview-square-300x300.png)
Why do I find it awesome yet somehow disturbing that Veronica is cosplaying Attack on Titan?
because she’s obviously Potato girl
I’m from New Jersey and I’ve been going to cons since 2009; literally the only mention of room parties I’ve heard was from your comic series.
Same here.
Jesus. Didn’t we have this discussion…oh a few months ago, Trae?
I think we’ve got a soft spot for the ol’ room party at NebKon, otherwise we wouldn’t have started a room party block…
Either way, agreed its a dying art. Part of it has to do with several cons adapting late night programming…part of it. The rest of it I think just stems from some conventions just not wanting to deal with it anymore. I know Naka in KC has greater difficulty with room parties due to Kansas laws (Kansas laws suck donkey balls btw).
A few months ago? More like a year or two ago. 😛
bah, it hasn’t been that long
I also think the interest has died too. One year my brother and I had bought food like Doritos, Ramen cups, and yes even marshmallows as a way to barter at room parties because we knew food might be an issue at the parties.
However that year there was a huge lack of parties. I also think behavior has also contributed like 2 years in a row at No Brand Con, some drunks have shattered glass bottles in the pool area prompting the staff to drain the pool.
Overall the room party is a dying art but overall i feel it has to do with a lot of different factors.
I don’t even want to think about where that poor hairbrush had been…
No, just… no
Anime cons in the NE region of the US doesn’t have room parties like the ones in the strip. It’s usually just a friends thing. Sci Fi cons however are Saturday night dens of nerdy debauchery that Baccus would love themselves. Comic cons and other cons has there’s too.
So. Many. Stories.
Room parties are still huge at SciFi cons here too — they were a thing at Wisconsin Anime cons for a long time, I think, because most of the early Anime cons there grew out of people who had planned SciFi cons previously… so we promoted Room Parties.
Because that’s a thing you do.
(hey look, I’ve caught up!)
Tables are far more productive, so we’ve been leaning towards those.
I’ve noticed a decline in the notion of the room party at furry cons, but the room party hasn’t been something other cons use to promote themselves. It’s just “Hey, let’s hang out, maybe with some modest theme.” FurFright was the big Room Party con during its Waterbury years, due to half the rooms facing a central atrium.