Elly and the Enchanter

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A hotel lobby doesn’t really seem like the best place to pass your time, but on the first day of a fan convention, it is the best place.
“Pyramid Head!” Elly called, pointing at a guy lugging a huge costume across the room.
“Another one?” asked Lissy. “Why is that even a popular character?”
“You’ve never played Silent Hill?” Lissy shuddered, but Elly grinned. “I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave,” she teased.
“Being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble,” Lissy quoted. “Or that you should play horror games just because everyone else does.”
“A Browncoat!” gasped Autumn, looking up from her phone suddenly as though she had fellow-Firefly-fan radar. She looked toward a businesswoman walking across the lobby to the front door.
“You don’t know that,” Lissy protested. “That lady could just have a brown coat. She could just like the color.”
“Well, I guess we’ll see if she hangs out in any Alliance-friendly bars come U-Day,” Autumn replied sagely, returning to her texting.
Elly let out a sigh of enjoyment. “This really is the best. I’m so glad I can go back to the dorm tonight and sleep, instead of having to pack up all my stuff and haul it here, inevitably forget some of it and have to do without. If I forgot my Sonic Screwdriver, I could just go back to my room and get it.
“Pff,” Lissy interjected, “like you’d forget your Sonic Screwdriver.”
Elly tossed her a grin and reached into her back pocket, where she located the tool and waved it at her friend. “The point is, I could go home and get it. I don’t have to deal with the mess and hassle of actually staying at the hotel through all the con craziness.”
“That’s true,” Lissy agreed. “One time I was cosplaying Hermione, and I totally forgot my tie! I just wore a scarf instead, though, so everything was okay.”
“You wore a scarf? What a sacrifice!” Elly laughed, eyeing the Gryffindor colors which permanently adorned Lissy’s neck.
Lissy laughed and rolled her eyes. “Nobody noticed, but I was pretty upset for about fifteen minutes.”
“It’s definitely better being able to get out of the hotel when you need to.”
“Yeah, I totally agree,” Lissy echoed, watching a guy with long red hair (Just like Rupert Grint in Goblet of Fire, she thought) as he struggled with four large suitcases.
“What’s that Shakespeare quote with the ‘protestheth...’” Autumn chimed in, mispronouncing The Bard’s 16th century English.
“‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’?” Elly provided, with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s not ‘pros...thetic’?” Autumn asked.
“Are you trying to say that you think we actually do want to stay at the hotel this weekend?” Lissy asked, translating for her roommate.
“I didn’t say it,” she replied, then reimmersed herself in her phone.
Elly and Lissy exchanged a look.
“I… kind of do want to,” Lissy admitted.
“Me too,” Elly agreed.
“There probably aren’t many rooms left,” Autumn remarked.
“Go up now and see,” Lissy advised. “We can split the cost, but don’t, like, get a presidential suite or anything.”
Elly laughed, already out of her seat and walking toward the front desk. “You mean you don’t want to throw the most amazing The Doctor Takes Hogwarts crossover party that this hotel has ever seen?” she called back.
“That wouldn’t be hard,” Autumn muttered.
“Do you have any cosplay planned?” Lissy asked her roommate politely. She still hadn’t quite forgiven Autumn for stranding her in a back hallway of the hotel the day before.
“Yeah,” Autumn said. “I’m going to be a plucky space cowboy on a job that has an elaborate plan... that involves me dressing like a hotel employee for most of the day.”
Lissy nodded. “That sounds nice.”

Standing in line didn’t provide the view that her previous vantage point had. Within the first five minutes, Elly was convinced that she’d missed seeing several of her geeky brethren, and in fact only managed to spot one: a girl who had painted her rolling suitcase to resemble the TARDIS. She didn’t mind the sacrifice, however, and bounced on the balls of her feet, knowing that soon she’d be able to partake of the entire CON experience, with the added bonus of being close enough to go home whenever she needed to.
When the couple in front of her moved forward to speak to the pretty concierge, Elly was first in line. She bounced faster, but she didn’t have long to wait. A person in a DragonBallZ t-shirt grabbed their bag and walked toward the elevators, and the guy behind the counter beckoned her forward.
“I know you might think I’m crazy for asking this,” she gushed out, “But are there any rooms left?”
“I think there are a few,” he replied, tapping at the computer in front of him.
“Are any of them… not the presidential suite?”
He laughed. It was a nice laugh. Elly looked at him. Before, she’d glanced at him like he were a piece of the background, like he was playing Extra #6 in the movie of her life. But when he laughed, it made her want to know what that movie would be like if he were one of the stars.
“It looks like you’re in luck; we’ve got one with two queen beds that I’m reasonably certain no president has ever stayed in.” He looked up and smiled at her. “No Secret Service, foreign dignitaries, or even the president of a neighborhood association, or anything.”
“We’ll take it,” she replied, and waved at her friends to signal her success. Lucky Lissy strikes again! she thought.
He fished out a keycard and began to get her checked her in. “Any big plans while you’re in town?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah! We’re gonna high five some people, stay up way too late every night, and probably marathon a bunch of movies! It’s gonna be awesome!”
He smiled again as he glanced up at her. “Wow, that was a real response. I do this pretend ‘small talk’ thing with pretty much everyone, but you must be the most excited guest I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to.”
“You’re welcome!”
He laughed.
“Your weekend is probably gonna be pretty awesome too, with CON stuff to keep an eye on.”
“It’ll definitely be interesting,” he agreed. “You’re here for the CON? You didn’t bring much luggage with you.”
“Uh, yeah!” Elly stepped back a little from the counter and pointed at her shirt. “Did you expect something different from the girl in the Union Jack?”
He squinted through his glasses to read her red, white, and blue top, which was emblazoned with the words: “ASK ME ABOUT MY DOCTOR WHO OBSESSION”.
“Doctor Who… that’s the guy with the scarf, right?”
Another poor soul, just waiting to be converted, Elly thought, and nodded. “Yes. For the purposes of our conversation, yes. He’s the guy with the scarf.”
“Is that what you’re going to watch all weekend?”
Elly laughed. “I wouldn’t mind, but my friends probably want something else for a change. I’m not sure what else we’ll have, but at some point we’re definitely watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
“‘There are some who call me… Tim?’”
Elly’s momentarily startled eyes swept across his face and took in his nametag, pinned to the front of his suit jacket, which read: “Timothy Gray, MANAGER”. Then she laughed. And laughed. She got a few weird looks from the other concierge and the people standing in line behind her, but she didn’t care.
“You,” she gasped out when she caught her breath, “are my favorite. You’re totally invited to our The Doctor Takes Hogwarts party. If we decide to have it.”
He looked amused as he gave her credit card back and passed her the keycards for her room. “As long as you don’t mind someone from Middle Earth showing up,” he replied. “I’m more of a Lord of the Rings fan, myself.”
Elly grinned, collecting all of her stuff. “Well, thanks for all your help, and your small talk. I guess I’ll see you around!”
“Sure,” the manager replied with a smile. “Enjoy your stay.”
“I will!” Elly turned to walk away, but felt compelled pass on a warning. On her way past the line of people, she pointed at the manager and informed them, “I wouldn’t try to mess with that guy if I were you; he’s an enchanter.”

Joy and Sorrow

We pulled into the parking lot and both glanced around for a space. There wasn’t one. Nick said, “Don’t worry, we have two minutes to spare.”

“Uh, no we don’t,” I replied, pointing at the door to the church, “It must have started at 4 and not 4:30; look.” Well-wishers crowded around the door, making use of bubbles even though the bride and groom were still inside receiving hugs and congratulations from guests. We joined the throng and waited. Soon, Emily, who had not been busy setting up a system for a DJ or a photo booth and had actually made it to the ceremony, came out of the church and I waved her over. She handed me a vial of bubbles and told me how wonderful the ceremony had been, about the vows and how to tell which of the guys standing around were groomsmen: “They have a Power Ranger figurine pinned to their jackets.”

“This is going to be an awesome time,” I said.

“Oh, yeah!” Emily agreed.

A girl came out of the church and joined some of her friends who were standing behind us. Emily discovered some relatives standing on the other side of the sidewalk, and while she was occupied I had nothing to do but listen to the conversations taking place around me (I couldn’t enjoy the bubbles yet; the wind was blowing toward me, and I was already dodging bubbles headed for my face.)

They were talking about her shoes.

“Why did you wear those?” one of her friends asked.

“They’re brand new!” she declared, then admitted, “I’ll probably take them off soon.”

I glanced behind me at the footwear in question: the shiny, six inch taupe heels were definitely not made for dancing. The girl was already uncomfortable, shifting her weight quickly from one foot to the other.

It wasn’t long before all the guests were outside waiting, and the bride and groom made their grand exit. Andrew stopped to kiss his beautiful wife, and the wind had changed directions, so I blew as many bubbles as I could manage.

Nick loitered near his vehicle, clearly waiting for me while I said hello to my friend Li Hui from Chinese class (that’s not really her name, but I called her that for so long that it seems weird to call her anything else; she calls me Pa Li Sha). I wanted to talk more, but we had to get back to the reception venue to make sure everything was ready. “I really hope we have time to catch up later but right now I really have to go!” I told her, smiling at the little one she held.

We booked it back to the banquet hall.

Guests arrived and made use of the photo booth while waiting for the wedding party (who, instead of stopping at a bar for some shots, had gone to a local comic book store for some quick purchases). Among the first to dig into the props was the girl with the new shoes. I was paying attention to some other guests, so I didn’t notice her or her friend until I heard them talking about her feet again.

“Are you sure about those shoes?” he was asking her.

“It’s the first time I’ve worn them!” she said.

“Well, they’re really cute,” I told her.

“Thanks!” she said, bouncing a little. “I’ll probably need to take them off to dance later.”

“You can borrow mine if you want,” I offered, holding out a flip-flopped foot.

“That’s okay,” she laughed, “I’ll be all right, but thanks anyway.”

The wedding party arrived with all the pomp and circumstance that a cheering crowd can give, in addition to a saber arch provided by the groomsmen and bridesmaids (though the swords were slightly mismatched. The best man held a replica of The Sword of Omens from ThunderCats, while the rest held Japanese katana or other replicas).

The night only got more awesome and nerdy from there. After dancing their first dance (to a song from an anime soundtrack which was particularly close to their hearts), Andrew and Vanessa danced Gangnam Style with their friends all in a line facing the tables, as though the dance floor were a stage, and those who had chosen not to dance, the audience. This "stage show" trend continued the whole night, through two Pokémon and a Power Rangers theme song (not to mention Bohemian Rhapsody), and only dissolved during the Cha Cha Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.

Any lull in the music, and, instead of clinking their glasses, people were rolling a big inflatable d20 to determine how the bride and groom would kiss. A Dungeons and Dragons-style roll/action chart was on every table, letting everyone know what to expect. There was an action for every number: a 10 (the “average”) was an Eskimo kiss, while a 20 (the best) was “a kiss to rival the end of The Princess Bride.” Lower rolls had the newlyweds high fiving, fist bumping, or hugging. A few times they had to give each other an awkward sibling hug (lean in, but not too close, one hand on the back, and “pat pat”). On a 1, the person rolling had to go kiss someone else (guess who rolled a 1? Yeah, me. Emily was surprised, and a reply text from Lionsby showed that he didn’t believe us, demanding, “pics or it didn’t happen”).

The guests fresh from Anime NebrasKon were best able to appreciate the movie, anime, and video game references on the signs had I made for the photo booth. I saw several people I knew by sight from the couple of times I attended the anime club when I was in college. And though I didn’t get actually get to talk to them much, Li Hui came over with her family to get in the booth. The girl with the brand new shoes joined them, and I looked at the scrapbook after they went back to sit down, and saw that her name was Jaci. I puzzled for a while over whether it was pronounced like “JC” or like “Jackie,” and thought that it would be cool to get back into the anime crowd, since a lot of them looked like they would be totally awesome people to hang out with.

After such an fun, energetic night, I’m sure everybody needed some time to rest and recuperate. I took a nap in the afternoon and was sleepy the rest of the day, but that didn’t stop me from hopping online and leaving a message for Li Hui on facebook, since she and her husband took their girls home (understandably) early.

I enjoyed looking at pictures that Andrew and Vanessa’s friends and family had already uploaded to facebook. Among them were shots of the pre-wedding 3DS session, several of people dancing, and some even of the pictures that were taken in the photo booth. It made me smile to see that Li Hui’s friend Jaci had snapped a shot of a couple she had taken and put them up, and even made one of them her profile picture.

Right before I went to bed, Emily posted a news article on facebook, along with something about the NebrasKon family “losing another member.” The headline of the article was “Car vs Motorcycle Fatality.” The video on channel 8 hadn’t released the name of the victim, but after some more glancing around on facebook, I found a mutual friend who had linked to her page.

It was Jaci.

I stared at the screen.

“But she was dancing yesterday,” I told it. “She was wearing her brand new shoes and making faces in the photo booth.”

She was 24.

Life is wonderful, amazing, and fun. It’s full of joy and sorrow. I didn’t know her, but Jaci seemed like a great person and a fantastic friend. For those who knew and loved her, I’m sorry for your loss. I hope that soon you forget your pain and remember Jaci laughing, smiling, and taking off her shoes to dance Gangnam Style at Andrew and Vanessa’s wedding.

Napday

Emulate the tiny otter: nap!

Sometimes, after a busy but awesome weekend, all you can do is nap. Get up late, go to bed early, and don’t forget the extra naps in the middle of the day. I don’t recommend it every week, but it’s occasionally quite nice to have a napday.

Crafting Awesome

“And is there anything specific, props-wise, that you want me to get for you?” I ask every single client, after talking about what time they want the photo booth to start, how much space I need, and the extra table that’s great to have to help their guests find the props they want to use.

“Uh, no, I think just the basic stuff will be fine,” they answer, because their wedding is approaching faster than they thought it would and this is just one more decision that they never dreamed they’d have to make. “As long as you’ve got, like, silly hats and glasses, and some mustaches, I think that would be okay.”

The Princess Bride signs that Vanessa
& Andrew's guests will love

I always try to make sure my clients know that their day is special to me, and that if there is anything I can do to make it even more awesome, all they have to do is let me know. “If you or your fiance can think of anything you’d like, some kind of inside joke or reference that I can put on a sign, just give me a call or text and I’ll make sure to have it, okay?”

Then we hang up, and I know I’m not going to get a call or text. Probably the bride or groom I just talked to isn’t even going to remember to ask their spouse-to-be about it, because their main feeling of the moment is relief that they don’t have to worry about any more planning for the photo booth, since it’s taken care of.

And that’s okay. Planning a wedding is so stressful, even if you have an awesome mom, cousin, personal attendant, or hired wedding planner (or even all of the above) to take some of the weight off your own shoulders.

BEARDS for Drew & Kate's
outdoorsy-themed reception

Guests will have fun with a photo booth no matter what, props or no props (at a wedding a couple of months ago, there was nothing on the props table except a few mustaches, and the guests still had a blast). That being said, I love it when a client gets as excited about the photo booth as I do.

This weekend, I have the privilege to make two amazing weddings more awesome. The greatest part is, I know my clients are really excited about the photo booth! I’ve never had a busier prop-making week before; what a great problem to have!

Back to Normal?

Ahh. Time to get back to normal after a busy weekend.

But “normal” isn’t the same for everyone. For me, it’s an organized mess. A disorganized mess is intolerable. If it’s messy, but I can find everything, I’m good. If there are boxes of old baby clothes next to my desk and I don’t know where the air mattress is, I’ll go crazy.

Among many other things that happened this weekend, all of the furniture in the two most furniture-laden rooms in our house had to be moved so that the floors could be refinished. The results vary depending on how you look at it: if you’re into gorgeous hardwood floors, then you’d say that the work was a success, while if you’re one of those people who is into meticulously clean households, you’d shake your head in disappointment.

The floors do look great. And eventually I’ll find everything and put it in a place that I can find it again. But for now, I think I’ll relax.

Maybe I’ll look for the air mattress later.

The Long Weekend

Holidays are wonderful. You get to see all your relatives that you don’t get to see during the year. You get to give your family things that you think they’ll love. You get to eat food that you wouldn’t other times in the year: eggnog, candy canes, and those awesome peanut butter cookies with the chocolate stars in the middle.

The other thing you get is time off from work. This year it just happened that my husband had a whole week off. It was great to get to just hang out around the house, playing with our kids and talking. But a couple of days after Christmas, we both started to itch for something to do that wasn’t picking up all the new toys. My husband got out his work laptop. I cleaned the kitchen and did laundry. As wonderful as it was to have a week and a half to relax, nine days was too much.

I propose, in addition to the weekends that we already have, that every three months or so, everyone should get a nice, solid, four day weekend. Two days is okay if you don’t have anything going on, but if you do, you may not be able to de-stress after a long week and be able to take a big breath before plunging into the next one. Four days allows you to toss off whatever lingering work problems you brought home, relax, and even maybe do something with your friends or family. Plus, it’s short enough that you won’t get bored playing video games and go scrub the stove.

Humans need work. Having a day or four off is nice, but having a week and a half off is a bit much. Four days is perfect. Now I just have to figure out who exactly is in charge of this sort of thing and get to work making the quarterly break a reality.

Tabletop: Say Anything

Every family has their own brand of humor. I noticed this over the Thanksgiving holiday when we got the chance to play our newly purchased table top game, Say Anything. My husband describes it as “Apples to Apples, only without a handful of useless cards that you just have to waste.”

Say Anything comes with eight whiteboards and pens, sixteen chips for bidding, and question cards that have five question options. The judge picks and asks a question, and the other players write down the answer they think the judge will choose. When everyone is finished writing, the answers are revealed and the judge locks in their vote. Then, the players place their chips on the answer(s) they think that the judge is most likely to pick. When the judge reveals what answer was chosen, the writer gets a point, and any other players who placed chips on the answer get a point as well.

I spent the entire time playing Say Anything in Colorado and New Mexico trailing behind everyone else in points. I think I tied for third place once, but that was only because second place was a three way tie. My husband’s family has their own brand of humor, and while my answers were funny, they weren’t as funny as my brother-in-law’s, at least, not to the other players.

When we got home, my parents brought along my nephew when they came over to hug my children, and my brother and sister-in-law came to pick up my nephew. And since it was dinner time, it turned into an impromptu party, so we got out Say Anything.

I won.

Since I’ve got my family’s style of humor, they were much more appreciative of my answers than my husband’s family was. We wrote a lot of the same answers, actually. For instance, my sister in law was judging the question: “What is an ostrich thinking when it sticks its head in the sand?” My husband won because his answer, “Ooh! Sand!” was the only one that was different: my mom, dad, brother and I all wrote an approximation of “No one can see me/I’m invisible.”

Say Anything is a really fun party game that you can have a good time playing even if you aren’t winning. I know from experience.

Writing Prompt: The Work Week

Monday

Monday is happy to see you. She is infuriatingly cheerful and seems to appear whenever she’s not wanted. She’s eager to get to work and get things done, but she’s easily distracted by all the other busywork that needs doing but isn’t immediately vital. She’s always disappointed by how little she ends up finishing, but is always optimistic about how much she’s going to do next week.

Tuesday

Tuesday is slightly annoyed. It’s probably because he’s so busy doing everything that Monday left that he’s never had any fun. He doesn’t seem particularly suited to doing all the work, but combines his “somebody’s got to do it” attitude with the one that projects his feelings that he would have had to do it if someone else already had. On the weeks that Monday actually does her share, he reads wikipedia articles all afternoon.

Wednesday

Wednesday is more responsible than Monday and less surly than Tuesday. He hangs out to chat by the water cooler, but still manages to finish his work and to set things up so it’s easier for the rest of the week. He also has time to play flash games near the end of the day. Wednesday is effortlessly efficient, but doesn’t ever seem like he’s working.

Thursday

Thursday finishes her work early and uses the rest of the day to plan her weekend. She consults co-workers about their plans and can’t wait for the end of the week. Sometimes in her rush to complete her tasks and focus on her upcoming free time, she forgets a few, only remembering them ten minutes before the end of the day. But at those times, she doesn’t worry much about it; she knows how reliable Friday is.

Friday

Friday is exasperated. He is always surprised how little the rest of the week gets done, even with Wednesday’s efforts. He is often pessimistic about being able to finish everything, but doesn’t spend much time dwelling on it, and so does finish a good deal. He never leaves for the weekend without feeling guilty about what he wasn’t able to finish, and usually half-threatens to come back in on the weekend to complete it, but never does. He knows that Monday will happily take it on, even if she’ll leave it unfinished herself.

Writing Prompt #199

Day Off

Did you know there’s two entire days in the weekend?

I love my job, but I've worked every Saturday for the last month. I didn't know what to do with myself on Saturday. It felt like Sunday. The combination of football and the fact that I wasn't at work made me automatically assume that it was. I found myself almost asking my husband what he was going to take to work for lunch the next day, but it turned into a, “...oh, it’s Saturday, isn't it?”

I got to hang out, play video games, marvel at how cute my kids are, watch a movie with my husband, read, and visit my parents and grandparents. It was wonderful to have enough time to de-stress from the week and get to do a bunch of stuff I wanted to.

Working is also fun, but every once in a while it’s nice to have a break.

Shorter Week = Busier Week

We usually don’t look at a three day weekend in any other way than a blissful extension of our ‘being at home instead of at work’ time. It’s not often that we look at that lost Monday or Friday and think “I could have gotten so much work done!”

The fact of the matter is, a week that’s shorter because of a nice three day weekend is a week you’re going to have to squish five days of work into four.

Thankfully, I did Monday’s work on Monday, but since I have extra work on Wednesday, I’m going to have to squish that day’s work into today. I should probably attempt to take on Thursday’s work as well, since my fabulously talented writing partner and I just started a new project, and the giggling/“ooh, ooh, what about this?!” phase is in full swing, so I know it’s going to distract me from whatever else needs to be done.

Friday is right out. Friday is when my fabulously talented writing parter and I update our completed story (which you should check out if fanfiction is your thing), when I update a completed story of my own, and when I have the normal work of this blog’s Friday Craft Diary, which usually consists of a twenty minute photo shoot followed by writing three or five sentences.

It might occur to my reader to bring to my attention that since I was able to get some kind of work done on Monday, that I might have used that day to complete other work. Well, I could have.

But that would defeat the purpose of a three day weekend.