Fall down go boom.

I can't believe I'm still awake. Nor can I believe that it's actually Monday night already...

This past weekend was fantastic. I feel so lucky to be working with such a dedicated, talented group of people - and several of them have already come up to me to talk about how they want to change some of their departmental procedures for next year.

Let me catch up on my sleep first, willya? :P

Seriously, we scramble, we work our butts off, we worry, we lose sleep... and then it all turns out perfect, or so close to perfect as makes no difference.

I'm sure several things will occur to me to talk about once I'm rested (four days of four hours of sleep - or less - per night, along with being on one's feet for three days straight (ouch) will do that to one), but there are a few things that happened today that I'd like to share.

That's right, today. I wanted to sleep in my own bed last night (plus, my Mastercard is perilously close to its limit) so I left the Dead Dog Party around 1 and schlepped my luggage a couple of blocks to Martin Grove and Dixon (because there was no schedule on the bus stop right in front of the hotel, and I had no idea if the Malton bus was even still running, so I thought I'd walk over to Martin Grove and take the southbound bus to Eglinton instead). There was a schedule posted there, however, which said that there would be a bus along at 1:48 and another (the last one) at 2:07. Since, by this point it was about 1:30 and my luggage weighed a ton or two, I didn't feel like crossing the street to wait for the southbound bus so I just waited for the Malton bus. Problem was, the 1:48 bus doesn't exist. The 2:07 came along and I asked the driver - he said that the schedule must be out of date, since the bus previous to his was an hour earlier. So he told me to call the TTC and complain, both about the inaccurate schedule and the lack of a schedule at the stop in front of the hotel. Which I will, once I've slept.

Despite all of that, and having to change buses twice, I was home by 3. I didn't get to bed until 4, however... and then I had to be up around 8:45 this morning to get back to the hotel to return my headset to Security and help with cleanup. Hence my comment above about stuff that happened today.

Anyway, I was standing in the hallway talking to a couple of people when I noticed David Gerrold struggling with some of his luggage. I went to open the door for him, and he asked to borrow my umbrella as it was pouring out. When he came back, he asked me to come up to his hotel room to help him with the rest of his stuff, so I ended up carrying his laptop, a duffel bag and wheeling his suitcase out to his car. Fortunately it had stopped raining by then. Anyway, David was well pleased with his experience this weekend, and gave me a goodbye hug and kiss, along with a cheerful "See you at Worldcon!" I have to admit, I didn't expect that from one of our guests... though David was fantastic all weekend, at least when I was around. I'm told he was less than fantastic at other times, but I never saw it myself. summ3r_daze, Stephen and I had dinner with him Friday night (Subway, at 10:30 PM... big whoop), and then I spent some time chatting with him and cuteteenboy Saturday night in the con suite. I guess he figures we bonded? He actually offered to enrol me in one of his training courses to help me with my confidence (I'd been recounting the story of "Project Jarrod" to them), but since I'm planning to go to Dragon*Con immediately after Worldcon, it'll have to wait for another time.

Anyhow, about an hour after seeing David off, I decided to go up to our con suite to see if they needed any more helpers. I walked to the elevator with one of our Security volunteers, and just as the doors were closing someone jumped in. I was kind of zoned out by this point, and not paying attention. The Security volunteer made some small talk with the other occupant of the elevator, and then got off on the fourth floor, whereupon the other guy started talking to me...

"So, are you checking out?"
"No, I checked out last night. I had to come back to return my headset and help with cleanup."
"Oh, you worked on the convention?"
"Yes, I was one of the Co-Chairs."

It was at this point that I actually started to pay a little more attention to the conversation, and looked up and extended my hand, introducing myself...

"Hi, I'm Lance."

He returned the gesture.

"Pleased to meet you... I'm Garrett."

Yeah. I rode all the way up in the elevator with Garrett Wang (for any non-Trek fans reading this, he played Ensign Kim on Star Trek: Voyager) and I was completely out of it for most of the conversation. *headdesk*

Me, blushing furiously: "Um, yes, I know."

At the exact same moment, he looked down and waved his hand: "Oh, I guess you probably know that."

(No need to be bashful, Garrett, I was the idiot.)

Anyway, there was a band visiting Toronto from Kansas City who had been helping to clean out our con suite, so we all loaded up a dolly with garbage bags, took them down to the hopper in the bowels of the hotel and then went and sat in the lobby with whitesangria and Katherine, who were waiting for Garrett to come back downstairs to be taken to the airport. We all had quite a lively conversation, and they invited us to come to see them tomorrow (Tuesday) night, at 9:30 at a bar called "Reavers", wherever that may be. If I'm awake, I may very well go. The singer was cute. ;) They also gave whitesangria a copy of their CD.

So I ended up getting home around 6, having had to stop for groceries on the way, and have been studiously avoiding the computer for most of the night. I caught some of the media coverage of TT - we were on Entertainment Tonight Canada and the HypaSpace segment on the Space channel. I heard we were also on CP24 (a local all-news station) on the weekend, which is cool. The ET Canada coverage was pretty much just about George Takei's coming out last year, but the HypaSpace segment was good. They used a clip of gurudata and some footage of other people in and around the Dealers' Room and Model Show, and bits of George's and David Gerrold's press conferences. (Apparently, David thinks Canadian fans are "saner" than American fans...)

Among the other guests, I managed to get to meet Mira Furlan, saw Michael Shanks and Lexa Doig on stage and signing autographs (only briefly in both cases), and got autographs from Amber Benson and Adam Busch, who both said thank you for inviting them and doing such a good job running the con. (Well, you're welcome, but don't thank me, thank the rest of the committee who actually did all the hard work. :) ) Oh, and I did see George Takei walking the hallways, and he stopped to say hello to me. I've often found that the bright t-shirts, headsets and slightly glazed looks get the attention of the guests.

Oh, and there's a TT tradition where the committee all chip in and buy gifts for the Chairs, so at the Dead Dog party Sunday night I was presented with the DVD box sets of Doctor Who: In The Beginning (the William Hartnell episodes) and season 7 of Red Dwarf, and a card signed by everyone on the committee. Reading it actually brought tears to my eyes once or twice. (Now see what you've done?)

Oh, and kosst_amojan, if you're still reading your friendslist, I know you're too young for me. :P I swear, though, I'm going to have to add you to my roster of fairy godsons. Until this weekend, I didn't think you were quite that angsty. (Oh, and his name, in case you've forgotten in your complete and utter pessimism about the topic, was Jacob Wolf. ;) )

For a short entry, this has gotten long, and I really want to go to bed. More later, as it occurs to me.

Oh, one other thing, though: if any of you who are reading this are lucky enough to get to see Michael or Lexa at another con, I dare you to ask them if they knew that the human sphincter can be stretched to 25 centimetres. But you have to tell me about their reaction. (And no, that did not come from a conversation they had with me... despite my reputation as "Captain TMI," I would never say such a thing to a guest. It was actually from a question they got from the audience on Sunday during their Q&A. And it was relevant somehow. I'm just too tired to remember. But they kept bringing it up for the rest of their time on stage.)