Boskone report

Overall rating: it was a horrible weekend

Caveat: Exclusively because I was ill and, therefore, no fault can be placed upon the con committee.

Wednesday morning, 24 hours before my flight, I came down with some variant of a cold. It didn't seem too bad, and it would have had to have been horrendous for me to have canceled the weekend. Looking back, the smart thing would have been to cancel, but I'm still glad I went.

Thursday: early flight out of Houston, arriving in Boston before 1 p.m. I think I managed to get into the Art Show area around 4 to help them set up. I put in around 4 hours of work before it seemed that my skill set was not of tremendous use.

I went back to my room and attempted to plan out my Friday. My goal was to get to Kane's Donuts in Saugus, Ma in the morning and to an aikido dojo in Salem, Ma in the evening.

After doing a search of MBTA, it was apparent that the donut shop was a journey that just would not happen. There was just going to be too much walking.

Searching for routes to Salem, Ma turned up a different route each time I searched. I settled on one to shoot for, if I felt up to it.

To bed.

Up in the morning and off to the restaurant. In what was to be a recurring theme all weekend, nothing tasted good. The cold was making it's presence known: affecting my balance and taking away flavors of food.

I did manage to get back into the Art Show area and do some more work setting up, but I looked an awful lot like a lump on a log. I did some stapling of pocket programs and then went up to my room.

I made a decision, after starting the journey to Salem, that the journey wasn't a wise thing to do. I wasn't terribly steady on my feet and the stress of the travel was probably going to result in my getting lost while not in the best of health. So, I returned to the hotel room, and canceled the meeting with an on-line friend that was supposed to occur in Salem.

I went to bed and slept for 15 hours.

Saturday I got up and only really remember the Zelazny Book Launch party. I'm pretty sure I ate breakfast and dinner and they were both forgettable.

Sunday I made it to the Zelazny discussion panel and then to the airport. The flight home was the longest flight I can remember. I couldn't sleep. I wasn't sure if my ears were going to pop when they were supposed to or not.

Thankfully, my dear spouse was waiting for me at the airport and she drove me home. I don't think I could have managed it myself.