GABIT attendees thread

[MidwifeOnBoard]

It was a great evening! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Jumble and Sara again and meeting everyone else for the first time. It was a wonderful evening. I also had fun riding the train to and from. The ride back to London with Dee, Sylvia and Jenn was a blast.

That was a fun train ride. I love when geeks get together.

[Chelle DB]

Haha, of course! You really have limited options in the way of eating. Ren food, McDonalds, Three Magpies and the other pub about three long blocks down the street. Think it was the Pheasant...?
Six days!!!

Yes!! So I'm not the only one counting down the days to the date announcement....sweet!!
IIRC, it was cheaper to have a pizza at the Ren if you shared it...and 1 pizza can feed at least 3...but the pub was fun and I look forward to going there again.

[EH-T]

Don't remember seeing that one! Can you send it to me?

Mumsey

Will do. I will dig it out and send it this week.

i think not a con goes by that there's not at least one meal there

or six!



Here's my oops moment. At AT5 I was heading to my room. I always prefer to take the stairs but have a bit of a problem with that at the Ren (often ending up outside instead of the lobby). I took the stairs to what I thought was my floor and started heading down the hall. Saw two young women sitting on the floor and didn't think much of it. As I got closer I realised it was Becka and Jenn and they appeared to be sitting opposite my room. As I approached I joked about them guarding my door but then I realised it wasn't my door. It finally dawned on me that they were guarding the tea with Amanda. After bribing them with chocolate (my beloved Fazer mints) so they would not call security, I slowly backed away.

Neep, I also was on the elevator with AT last year (with pants). As I recall, we discussed curling.

[XFchemist]

That was a fun train ride. I love when geeks get together.

I loved it too! Though I was so tired that sometimes my brain wanted to speak in French instead of English (...and I'm Italian )
AT5 was my first Con ever and I was glad that Julia introduced me to Amanda during the photo session
I loved everything about this weekend, really a blast!!! In the end I was totally overwhelmed ...you maybe noticed that I cried a little

and...-6 days

[Devilish Me]

I loved.... gosh so many things about AT5, but I was so out of it most of the time that I only realized how good of time I had was when I got home

I have to say that my all time fav moment of that weekend was meeting the Wooohooos. First time ever I met anyone I've spent time with online. It was unreal.

I'm generally very shy so I didn't really go out of my comfort zone (which were the Woohoos) so I'm hoping to meet a lot of you guys at AT6. And you know, actually talk to you.

And about the train ride! What I remember from it was that MoB loves her work and that penjab traveled A LOT! ... I was so tired. But also, the feeling of, hmm, I don't know how to put it... safeness?
I don't know how to explain this, but it's like... I don't get drunk with people I don't know, or trust, because, well, things can happen. And on that train ride, I was so tired I might as well been drinking, but I didn't worry about a thing.

You might wonder how I spotter MoB in the SEA OF PEOPLE... Every time I would see someone resembling her, I would look at the boots to confirm if it's her or not! It was the Magnus boots!!! *giggles*

Also, one of the fav moments was when people started bidding for Dave, the nubbins best friend Just showed a great moment of giving. I was very moved after that, because at that point I realized that people aren't there to buy the stuff, but to give the money to charity. Very awesome feeling.

[llp]

Great pub...anyone up for dinner there at AT6?

Oh yeah! Party at the Magpies!

[llp]

It was a great evening! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Jumble and Sara again and meeting everyone else for the first time. It was a wonderful evening. I also had fun riding the train to and from. The ride back to London with Dee, Sylvia and Jenn was a blast.

Are you talking about Stuart Anderson's = yum!

[llp]

EH-T Oh yes, and the time I rode down she was surrounded by those body guards who turned out to be teddybears!

[Trindajae]

Very true Trin ... and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing how you explain this one!! LOL

Just remind me. I sometimes forget that I have that story, but it's actually more fun than the one I remember immediately. Also, unlike my other entertaining work-related story (The Unicorn and the Severed Goat Head), I can tell the story in public without getting stared at too much by strangers because apparently the phrase "severed goat head" draws attention. But mostly I forget to tell work stories at gabit events because I'm too busy bouncing off the walls, running up to random friends, and asking newly-met friends nit-picky questions like whether "dinner was quite good" is a compliment or a veiled insult. (I can't help it. I have a degree in sociology. If I wasn't weird before, that by itself would have made me distinctly odd.)

And yes, your memories did prompt some of my own:

*being voluntold I was now in charge of the blue jello -- look what amazing fun (and fundraising!) bluey goodness sharing has turned into!

I still have an absurd amount of the stuff in my cupboards, especially considering I only eat jello at Gabit events.

*finding after I went home from AT3 that I could now hear people's accents when I read their posts

In posts and in fan fic. I discovered I can now "hear" the difference between different flavors of English even when the author has gone to great lengths to fix the obvious terminology differences (center/centre, flashlight/torch, tire/tyre, etc.). It's made me reluctant to write Doctor Who fic because I realize that I can't get the characters' voices right. Even if I manage the terminology well enough, I tank it on the grammar.

*befriending a pair of newbies at AT4, who then were so excited to see me again and share their travel adventures at the next event

I made a comment on the Gabit board several months before AT5 saying that some shy newbies should come join whatever group I was with if they were feeling too shy to introduce themselves to others. I had completely forgotten about it by the time the convention came around until one of my new friends told me on Sunday that she'd joined my group because of it. I felt all warm and fuzzy because I am actually very shy (yes, I am, now stop laughing; a person can be both shy *and* loud!) and it was the first time in recent memory that someone had sought me out to be friends instead of the other way around.

*having my travel companions recognise where we were not by the Ren sign, but by the 3 Magpies pub going by! (The bus driver found it amusing as well )

There are people who don't do this? I absolutely did. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one saying it on the bus though, so there must be others...

*The Great Nubbins Hunt of AT4

Turning around in one of the Q&A sessions to find out it was my turn to take Holden home. Apparently my facial expression was entertaining because everyone promptly started laughing. Good times.

I always prefer to take the stairs but have a bit of a problem with that at the Ren (often ending up outside instead of the lobby).

Eh-T, I'm impressed you took the stairs. I was afraid they were the exit-only stairs that lock behind you and then you can't get out of the stairwell except by going out the fire door to outside, so I never ventured there.

As I approached I joked about them guarding my door but then I realised it wasn't my door.

I'm pretty good at not getting lost, but even after repeatedly checking the emergency exit maps, I still had to keep a sharp eye on the signs on the wall to keep from going down the wrong hallways. The Ren is a bit too symmetrical to make for easy navigation.


As for the date announcement... which timezone are we counting and can we use the one that makes it the least number of days until it arrives?

[Chelle DB]

5 days til we get the date....yay!!!!!!!

[penjab]

I loved.... gosh so many things about AT5, but I was so out of it most of the time that I only realized how good of time I had was when I got home

I have to say that my all time fav moment of that weekend was meeting the Wooohooos. First time ever I met anyone I've spent time with online. It was unreal.

I'm generally very shy so I didn't really go out of my comfort zone (which were the Woohoos) so I'm hoping to meet a lot of you guys at AT6. And you know, actually talk to you.

And about the train ride! What I remember from it was that MoB loves her work and that penjab traveled A LOT! ... I was so tired. But also, the feeling of, hmm, I don't know how to put it... safeness?
I don't know how to explain this, but it's like... I don't get drunk with people I don't know, or trust, because, well, things can happen. And on that train ride, I was so tired I might as well been drinking, but I didn't worry about a thing.

You might wonder how I spotter MoB in the SEA OF PEOPLE... Every time I would see someone resembling her, I would look at the boots to confirm if it's her or not! It was the Magnus boots!!! *giggles*

Also, one of the fav moments was when people started bidding for Dave, the nubbins best friend Just showed a great moment of giving. I was very moved after that, because at that point I realized that people aren't there to buy the stuff, but to give the money to charity. Very awesome feeling.

You weren't the only out of it. Even now I can't believe I was able to carry on coherent conversations....I felt like I was wrapped in cotton wool I was so tired. It did feel safe though and it was nice to just visit. It made the train ride seem much shorter. It was just a great evening, dinner, whoohoos, new and old friends...for me, that's what it's about.

[EH-T]

Seen a lot of Irish dancing lately (at Folkorama and at the Fair) which reminds me that the first person I met at my first AT event was antoa, doing some Irish dance in the hallway by the elevator.

Another fun memory is the whole bitterness at the auction thing. Loved the reaction from AT to my comment that I was still bitter. That (and llp's question) lead to the lawyer joke she told. I actually tell that joke sometimes when I give public talks, always gets a good laugh.

[Trindajae]

That was a good joke. I don't have very many formal jokes I tell (I make so many mistakes that are funny afterward that I mostly tell stories instead), but that's one of the two jokes and the only lawyer joke I tell. And yes, Eh-T, I generally like lawyers. I've met you, so how could I categorically dislike them when the group includes you?

[Chelle DB]

4 days til we get the date....yay!!!

I'll be at home for the announcement...my shoulder injury looks to be a lot worse than first thought so I'm off work indefinitely at this stage...lucky I filled out an incident report so it's covered by workcover. Bugger is that I really didn't want more time off work. Good things is I have some wicked kick a$$ pain killers now...yay!!

[ames]

I feel like a bad fan ... I remember Amanda talking about her friend, the lawyer, and I very much remember the bitter thing ... but what was the lawyer joke again? *too tired to attempt wracking of brain atm*

Chelle - hope you get better soon hon!!! *gentle hugs* Killer pain meds can be fun, just watch that they're not also addictive. I didn't understand how someone could get addicted to prescription pain meds until the ER doc put me on hydromorphone (which is in the heroin family, I later discovered) -- I started on them Monday night, and by the time my family doc confiscated them from me on Thurs am, I was already hooked. Believe me, I was not a happy camper on the replacement meds, and I don't relish the thought of doing that rollercoaster again any time soon!

Talked to my new boss about booking time off for AT6. He said I'd have to wait and submit my request with everyone else at the end of April ... so I won't find out if I get the desired time off until the beginning of May. Sigh ... I'm still planning on buying my ticket straight away, of course, but won't be able to firmly plan excursions and/or pick up flights until then - just in case I need to make it into just a weekend adventure instead!