This past weekend I took a trip out to Oklahoma City to be a part of SoonerCon 22. I had a great time, ran into some old friends, and go to do some aikido.
Thursday:
Up at 4:15 a.m. to catch a 6:25 a.m. flight to OKC. No real issues. My bag did get hand-checked because of the bottle-stoppers I was bringing for the art show. Did some reading of Poppy Brite's "The Devil You Know".
Landed in OKC, got my rental, a Dodge Charger, and zipped off to the hotel. My room was not ready, no real surprise, and they weren't setting up the con yet, so I went out for breakfast. I ended up at "The Hungry Frog" over on North Penn. A small, neighborhood diner with a regular crowd. Good food. I did not order enough.
Back to the hotel to do some more reading until time to head to the Windsong Dojo for an aikido class. Nick Lowry's dojo has a bunch of classes through the week, and this has become a tradition. It's great working with folks from the same lineage with a slightly different approach. It was a great class. We spent some time working on hiki-taoshi variants and reactions.
Back from class to the hotel, to wait on my room and read some more. I finally got the room and went to help set up the art show. They'd already set up most of it. I suppose I should have been reading in the convention center.
Dinner was with some of the convention crew at Mr Spriggs BBQ. Pretty awful stuff: dry, tough, and flavorless.
Friday:
Up at a reasonable hour. Breakfast at "Dan's Alley", another neighborhood diner with a bunch of regulars.
Did some email reading and then in to the convention. Friday's panels were: "Effective Storytelling in Illustration" crowd of one or two, "The Importance of Classic Figure Drawing", another small crowd.
Dinner was at "All-American Dixie Diner" on N.W. 23rd. (Yes, it was a diner weekend.) I'd wanted to try "Classic 50's Diner" on the same street, but they closed each day at 2 p.m. They had a good chicken fried chicken and a good banana pudding cake.
Saturday:
Up at 5:30 a.m. to make it to an early morning aikido class at 6:30 a.m. I got lost on the way to the dojo this time, but I still managed to make it in time for class.
Breakfast at Ray's Cafe, just a few blocks from the dojo.
Panels: "Monster in an Hour", "But Is It Art". Decent crowds Art Auction/Charity Auction. Good fun and we brought in some good money.
Dinner: S & B's Burger Joint. Good burger. Best restaurant Pecan Pie I've had in quite some time.
Sunday:
Up at a normal hour. Tried to have breakfast at Classic 50's Diner, but they are not open on Sunday's, so it was back to "All-American Dixie Diner". Major detour on the way there due to a fire of some sorts.
Panels: "Digital Art as the New Norm", "Leia is NOW a Disney Princess". The Leia panel had the biggest crowd for teh weekend, and I felt outmatched on the panel. Owen Stephenson has had a lot of contact with the Star Wars 'verse while working on games and he had a lot of inside knowledge.
Stuck around and helped shut down the Art Show. Got to the airport, read, waited for a delayed flight and managed to make it home, just a bit early.
