   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.
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I like room parties, myself. I’ve run one room party, and it was the most fun I had during that con (the rest of it was kinda “meh”). It’s a chance to just chill with people, chat a bit, and maybe play video games or watch movies.
This is more of a “Wisconsin Con” issue — none of the hotels hosting cons are really conducive to room parties (a few are outright hostile) so the parties that do happen tend to be sort of lame (which is why things like con hosted raves now go pretty late to pick up the slack). Con sponsored parties don’t do a lot to promote events at these cons, and so (from a promotions perspective) are a waste of funds if Ambassador tables are available.
Room parties in the Twin Cities are a totally different situation, and ain’t no party floor like the MarsCon party floor.
Room parties were Awesome and then as the years gone by they started to disappoint. So yea the Ambassador tables are more practical and you can shut them down.
I meant to say shut then down at night
Personally, I’ve always been concerned when we haven’t had a room party.
Although, and I think others may agree with me, a lot of us like using said rooms for ‘sleep’ more than ‘party times’ anyway. I’m not a huge fan of the party block, unless I’m in a really good mood, which means Drunken Schneider stories follow.
Wow, room parties being expected, let alone run by conventions, really must be a regional thing. My area doesn’t allow room parties (at least at major and/or decent conventions), as per hotel policies.
Room parties run by other cons and clubs are pretty normal in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But these are the same places that didn’t start exchanging ambassador tables until five or six years ago, so running a party was the easiest way to cross promote for a long time
Varies by convention, too. Locally you see everything from “party floor” where anybody throwing an open party takes a room on that floor, prearranged with the hotel, to no open parties at all. Sometimes using the same hotel (though of course not at the same time).
I staff a couple of cons on the east coast, and I’ve never heard of any con out here doing a room party. I always find it odd when you mention them in the comic.
I never realized this was a regional thing. Around here, at least half the parties (if not more so) are being run by visiting cons. This is boggling my mind that this doesn’t happen other places.
What cons on the east coast? I am a participant at about 8 of them on the east coast (most in the northeast)and they all have room parties. I have been to a few others outside that area and they all have room parties too. It would be weird to me to be at a hotel con and NOT have room parties.
Calling fan tables ‘ambassador’ tables is whats weird to me 🙂