• Music: Jethro Tull - Cold Wind To Valhalla

The OVFF overview

THURSDAY

I left Ames when I planned.

Ok, that is significant so I will repeat it with html even

I left Ames when I planned.

I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened that way. I have no idea how.

But, I pulled onto the freeway right at 10am for the drive to Chicago. This is a first, I never leave on time.

The trip to Chicago was uneventful. I got into Evanston around 4:30 to pick up alymid at 5.

I said hi to Tod and Lisa (much hugs and hair ties) and a couple of new folks. I have, of course, forgotten their names ... typical. And one of the themes for the weekend.

alymid and I headed off to a guitar store to pick up her Martin. This was extraordinarily mean of her, taking me to a really cool guitar store. This level of meanness was the theme for the weekend. Yes indeed she kept taking me cool places, introducing me to cool people and generally being ... well ... just mean. she'll get even with me for this

From there we went off to ...

insert fanfare here

PITA FRIGGIN INN !!!

Yeah, like that is a big surprise to anyone who knows me.

We were joined by polyfrog and greenmansgrove and it was ... well ... since it's Pita Inn and good friends ... lovely.

After Pita Inn we headed back up to alymid & greenmansgrove's place. We sat around and listened to music and I went to bed fairly early.

FRIDAY

We left Chicago when we planned

Ok, that is significant so ... I'll just ignore it ...

We headed south at around 5am. Oh geeze what is wrong with us?

After a hair raising trek through the wilds of the Chicago freeway system and a trip over the Skyway (which is my vote for the silliest highway addition ever) alymid decided that she was going to nap for a bit and leave me on my own with no one but Don Mclean to entertain me.

This is where things went wrong, and no, Don wasn't the problem.

You see I thought that I-80 and I-70 intersected at some point.

They don't. well they might, we were never quite sure, but if they did it would have meant another 600 or so miles of driving

So we went about the same distance, paid a lot in tolls and took 3 extra hours to get to Columbus.

Now admittedly we had a very nice breakfast and it was, for me anyway, very good company. I think I only offended her a couple of times.

We arrived at the hotel (after a couple of the obligitory "no the hotel is that way" moments) just in time to check in. We did so, wandered around and then I crashed. Or maybe we did dinner first, I don't really remember. (which is why I took my laptop, so I could keep notes ... yeah right).

Anyway, we went to the Pegasus Awards concert and it was a blast. Great songs, great performers and a wonderful time. I headed off to get my guitar a little before things were done. If I had known that they have folks play between in one-shots and two-shots and that you need to sign up I would have. Next year.

I met our roommates on a wander around. Matt and ... ahem ... ummm ... well ... I remember Matt since he is mentioned in the program as being up for a Pegasus ... expect more of this as this post goes along ... names ... sorry ... what was her name ... THIS IS DRIVING ME SANE

I have posted already about hosting the circle. I didn't play my best since I was very nervous but it was a good time. And the rest of the evening was a blast. The circle was fun until it went all chaos on us.

My problem with me in a chaos circle is that I never have a follower, and always feel like I am imposing by doing my silly stuff out of turn. That and the quiet folks don't get to play as much. It quickly becomes survival of the pushiest and I had some ... ahem ... issues with one filker (who shall go nameless) in particular with that a few years ago.

Of course now I can be as pushy if not moreso, but I prefer not to.

I talked about the rest of the night so let's end it with I went to bed.

SATURDAY

alymid and I got up early (9ish I think) for breakfast and I came back to get some more sleep. Which I did. To extremes. I was heading out from the room after my shower about the same time Alymid came looking for me, to haul me out of bed if I was still asleep.

I saw some of the concerts, Carla Ulbrich and Joe Giacoio's was the best. I bought two CDs this weekend (since that was about all I could afford) and one was Joe's.

We went to dinner with autographedcat and ... ahem ... ummm ... well ... you know the drill by now.

Sorry, it's nothing personal, I'm just a brainless gerbil sometimes.

It was a nice time marred only slightly by the onslaught of a bunch of teenage marching band kids. Yeah, fun, rah.

We got back in time to be just after the announcements for the Pegasus awards.

I wandered off for my guitar and ended up in another chaos circle. I gave up since it looked like things were about to start in the big room.

And Dandelion Wine were the hosts this time. And they only played ONE SONG. Geeze guys ... give us a little more next time. And then they did a house concert in Milwaukee on TUESDAY NIGHT ... grumble ...

Still, it was an exceptional circle. I've written already about the music. I do have one question.

Maybe almeda would know this. What is the name of the woman who instigated the cool background vocals when I did Masters Of War. Does she have a LJ ???

Daylight Savings saved me from less sleep, since suddenly it was an hour later. I stayed up and played for awhile and headed off to bed.

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY

Sorry, I thought I was a radio announcer there.

Did breakfast and went back to pack. Got the car loaded up and wandered around for the afternoon.

I've already talked about the final circle.

We headed back to Chicago around 4 and made good time (since this time we went the right way).

We got back to Alymid's house around 11:30 and went pretty much straight to bed.

Monday Monday

I slept restlessly and woke up early and laid there for an hour or so before Alymid told me to get up.

We headed out to ... wait for it ...

Pita Inn again and had a nice low key lunch. I dropped Alymid off at work and headed home. The drive was again unexceptional and I got home around 6:30.

It was nice trip. It was kind of stressful for a lot of reasons, none of which really apply to this journal so I won't talk about them here. I had a pretty good time. The music was amazing but in the end I feel that I didnt have much to add to it. Maybe next year.

Two more cons to go to make my goal of 12 in the space of a year. Windycon next weekend and hopefully Confusion in January. It depends on if I can find roommates so I can afford it. We'll see.