Since I was on the organizing team, RushCon actually began for me on Thursday, May 17, when ChainLit (the big bosslady) picked me up at my house and we headed down to the airport to pick up TheRealDan. After about 5 or 6 guys that all looked like Dan came off the plane, we finally found the REAL Dan ;-) We took him to the hostel where he was staying, and passed the beautiful RushCon billboard on the way there...
Upon returning to the Toronto Colony Hotel, where I was crashing with ChainLit for the night, we hooked up with our pal Jillian and went out for a late lunch. After some yummy grilled cheese sandwiches, ChainLit and I left to pick up Open Secret and Dockie at the airport. Or at least, we tried. Thanks to rush hour traffic, we, uh.... we kinda missed them. Hee hee hee, oops! Sorry guys! :-) I mean, we did find them eventually.... um, on Friday...
After a long day of driving back and forth and back and forth, we made our way down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We met up with Ian from England and ended up having dinner with him. I think we freaked out the patrons and staff -- with me in my My Favourite Headache shirt and Ian and ChainLit in Rush shirts, we didn't quite fit in with the rest of the clientele.... They did have really good burgers there, though...
After dinner, ChainLit and I went back to the hotel room so that she could get ready for her pre-Con meeting that evening with Terry Brown. As she was getting ready, the phone rang. I answered it, and a voice asked for ChainLit. To my tired and weary ears, the voice sounded like TheRealDan (despite that the two sound nothing alike), so I made a silly comment about where she was. To which the response was, "....... oh..... well, it's Terry Brown, I'm down in the bar...." (smacks forehead in a Neil-like manner) So I got to talk to Terry Brown on the phone. I made an ass of myself in the process, but I talked to Terry Brown.... LOL :-) That night, ChainLit and I both hit the sack pretty quickly. We were TIRED. And it was only Thursday!
* * * * *
Friday, the 18th, started early. Very early. ChainLit had an interview on CBC radio at 6:30 a.m., so she was going to get up at 5:30. I figured I might as well get up then, too, so that I could listen to the interview. That might have been a tolerable plan had I not woken up at 4:30 and been unable to go back to sleep. This was after falling asleep at 1:30. Aaaaarrrrgh.... The interview was good; the host seemed shocked that people were coming from Japan and Brazil for this. ChainLit even got to quote Rush lyrics and intro Fly By Night live on the air! :-)
The rest of the morning was spent moving tables around at the National Trade Centre, where the Con was being held, and moving all of my stuff into Jillian's room, where I was staying for the rest of the weekend. While CL went to run errands, Jillian and I decided to go find some food, and as we walked into the lobby of the hotel, we found.... a big group of Rush fans! What a shock! :-) Dan, Open Secret, Dockie and Rob were there, and then Jillian spotted a guy checking in, wearing a Rush hat. It was Spicketeric! With PrimeMolly! WOO HOO! So we all ran over to them and they passed out the awesome TRI-NET icon laminates that they'd made for everybody who'd asked for one. They were sooooo cool! I love mine. We all hung out in the lobby for a little while, and then Jillian, Rob and I went out for pizza. We talked about various Rush things and had a good time, and then Jillian and Rob went elsewhere while I headed back to the hotel to try and rest up a bit. With only three hours of sleep in me, I was feeling a little drowsy! I managed to nap for about an hour, waking up around 6:00. Jillian returned shortly after that, and we began to get ready for the In The Mood Mixer, the inaugural event of RushCon, which was less than two hours away. I started freaking out a little bit at that point, which was.... interesting. LOL. I always get a little nervous before parties, but this was a really important party! ARGH!
A little after 7:30, Jillian and I went to head up to the dining room at the top of the hotel, where the Mixer was taking place. We got to the elevators just as one was closing. There was a bunch of guys in it, and as they looked out and saw the Rush shirts we were wearing, they started hooting and hollering and yelling "RUSSSSHHH!!!!" LMAO!!! We ended up missing that elevator, but a few seconds later another one came up.... also full of Rush fans. And who was standing in the middle of it but... Martin from The Hemispheres Mailing List! Woo hoo! Jillian and I had met him back in November at the Orbit Room's 6th anniversary party, and we'd been hunting for him over the course of the day, so of course I jumped right into the elevator and hugged him :-)
We all went upstairs and entered the dining room, which was supposed to rotate but never actually did (?). At first people were wondering if there was going to be any music playing, but within 10 minutes no one cared about that anymore, because we were all too busy going "YOU!!!! I know you!!!! (runs to person, hugs them)" A few minutes into the evening I met up with TheRealDan, and then a couple minutes after that, I heard, "RushGoddess?" and turned around. Who was standing there but Ricky and Romilly! We ended up hitting it off really well, and the three of us hung out and had a blast throughout the Mixer. I also met up with Ganjagal and WherezMyThing (both of whom I'd met back in November), as well as Kenetic Dreamer, SpeedofLove, GeddyRulz, Mary Jo, RushNRoulette, Vecsus, Athene2112, LonelyHiker, and a bunch of other people who I can't for the life of me remember (sorry!). People were calling my name so often that I think I got whiplash from turning my head so much! In fact, I was so busy talking to people that I only managed to take one picture all night!
The Mixer ended up going waaaay past the appointed time of 9:12 p.m. People finally started leaving at 10:30, when the hotel decided to close the bar! A group of people had already left to go to the Orbit Room, but the rest of us decided that it would probably be packed by that point and we wouldn't have been able to get inside. So Dockie and Open Secret announced that they were having a party at the hostel, and a group of us (myself, Ricky, Romilly, TheRealDan, RushNRoulette, Jillian and Ian) decided to go over there.
When we got to the hostel, we walked in, and there was this guy sitting at a table. He saw my name tag and exclaimed, "RushGoddess!", at which point I looked at him funny. Then he pointed at himself and said, "Pipsey!" to which chants of "Oh! Pipsey!" were heard echoing down the line of people :-) More introductions were made, and then we all hung out on this balcony that connected two of the hostellers' rooms, singing and chatting and having a grand old time. Jillian and I called a cab back to the hotel at 1:30 a.m., and I think I finally got to bed around 3:30. Aaaaarrrrgh again.... Aside from the sleep deprivation, however, Friday was a lot of fun! :-)
