Convention Postmortem: Chattacon XXXVI

Last Thursday when I took my first break at work around 12:50PM, I glanced outside to find huge white flakes pouring down on our parking lot. All around me, my coworkers were freaking out.

"We'll be trapped here!"

"I have to drive home tonight!"

"I live in the next town over on a big hill and will more than likely lose control of my car and slide to the edge of a cliff where I shall plummet hundreds of feet to my doom."

Okay, I might have made up that last one. However, with so much chaos going on, I couldn't help but throw in my two cents. "I'm driving to Chattanooga tomorrow," I added to the mix with a big grin on my face. I spent the rest of the day deflecting concerns that I might be out of my mind for volunteering to travel under such conditions.

I'll admit, I was more excited to be getting down to Chattacon than I have been for a convention in a long time. Largely, that was because it came at high recommendation from my friends in the 501st. The other portion of that was because I was exposing my boyfriend to the world of non-anime, non-gaming conventions. Now, when I set out for the con I was under the very mistaken impression that it was a sci-fi convention. I was partially wrong.

Chattacon is, by all technicality, a literary convention. It was started because of a love for books, and gained a sci-fi edge when that genre got its big push in the eighties. This actually appeals to me even more than your standard sci-fi con. I have more books than anything else littering every surface my roommate won't yell at me for stacking them on in our apartment.

The trip down was long and arduous thanks to the snow. Despite my goal to get back into video blogging on this trip, I was not as adamant as I'd hoped. Joey and I only recorded two blogs and a bit of the Arc Attack concert.

The rest of the videos can be found here. Now, you'll notice in that video that I mention the "ice storm hell" from Ohayocon 2009. That ordeal was also blogged and is on YouTube here.

As for the convention itself...it was alright. There is a severe lack of programming for panels, events, etc. For a literary convention, I really expected a lot more workshops and the like for writers, which definitely would have been a big plus for me. As it turned out, we visited the Dealer's Room once and only attended the Arc Attack concert.

The rest of the time was spent doing what my friends had recommended to us: partying. The entirety of Building 3 in the Chattanooga Choo Choo is open to room parties for anyone that has a room there and wishes to host. On top of that, the con suite, which is included with every badge, provides free beer in four different varieties. I drank a lot of Killian's over the weekend.

Overall, it was a great weekend. Not quite what I was expecting, but I had a wonderful time. Now, of course, it's back to work preparing for Ohayocon this weekend.