SoonerCon 2012, a trip report

The days of June 14-17, I was traveling for SoonerCon in Oklahoma City, Ok. I had some stuff in the Art Show and was also a panelist.

Thursday

Up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport, dropped off by my darling wife. The flight was relatively uneventful, but had far more clear air turbulence than usual.

Landed and caught the airport shuttle to the Sheraton hotel downtown. Where the NBA had made its headquarters for the Finals between Oklahoma City and Miami. This was going to alter the convention's ability to get their function space and some of the guests' ability to get their rooms. So, I stored my luggage at the front desk until my room was ready. I walked around downtown for a bit as I'd arrived with too much spare time.

I then caught a cab to go to Nick Lowery's aikido dojo. Google said it should take about 15 minutes by cab, so I caught the cab with 30 minutes to spare, just to be safe. I gave the driver the address and off we went. And we drove around, and around, and around the city. The driver knew not where she was going. I finally got out my iPhone and brought up a map for her. We arrived at my destination shortly thereafter, but it'd taken us 40 minutes to get there, so class had already been in session for 10 minutes or so.

I joined in on the class where we worked on releases for the entire class. It appears that they are something this dojo does not spend a lot of time on as the black belt I worked with was not terribly familiar with them. I hung around a bit after class to chat, and then caught a cab back into town. This trip went much better.

I got to the hotel and checked into the room.

I'd hoped to help the con set up the Art show that evening, but we weren't to get the space until Friday morning, so I just idled around until the pre-con dinner in the Con Suite where we ate bar-b-q and watched the NBA Finals.

Friday

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then off to help set up the Art Show. Sometime during set-up, I got my packet and checked my panel schedule: no panels on Friday, 4 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. So, I was able to spend all day helping with the Art Show.

Dinner time came around and I went off to a restaurant I tried last year that had a wide variety of beers available. I tried the Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and the Duchesse de Bourgogne while having the fish and chips and cheesecake.

Saturday

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then off to the Con Suite for my first panel: a Kaffeeklatsch. Back to the Art Show until time for my 3 panels. One was the annual "Monster in an Hour" which was a bunch of fun, even if I'm a horrible artist. Another was "Why We Love Joss" where I moderated on a panel about all things Joss Whedon. My third panel was "The State of the Art" with Peri Charlifu moderating. I felt most comfortable on the "The State of the Art" panel, the Monster panel was an opportunity to goof around, and the Whedon panel I just hope people enjoyed. I felt out of my depth on that one.

I helped set up and runner the Art Auction, but could not make it through the charity auction as I was too hungry. Dinner on Saturday was back to the same restaurant. This time I had Trappiste Rochefort 10, another good beer. I don't remember what my meal was.

Sunday

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant and back to the Art Show to help tear down. I had another panel, but did not want to leave Matthew Alfred alone, so I skipped it with one of the ConCom's permission.

I ended up selling two pieces in the Art Show, not much at all.

Off to the airport, a Schlotzky sandwich for dinner, and then home.

A fun, frantic weekend. Maybe my schedule will let me do it again next year.