Back from Potlatch (at least for now)

I came back to the house earlier than I had planned, but I may go back to the hotel in a couple of hours to see if there's still any life in the consuite.

Potlatch 15 was a pretty lowkey convention for me. It was great to see various friends, including some like Rich Coad and the Steffans who don't normally attend Potlatch, plus hordes of the regulars, including spacecrab, R. Twidner, voidampersand, and spikeiowa. I'm not sure if maryread counts as a regular, but it was great to see her nonetheless. Why, I hadn't seen her since the Glasgow Worldcon last summer!

I want to say that I didn't go to much of the programming, and I guess it's even true. I saw parts of a couple of panels and all of the one on Avram Davidson, whose Treasury was the Book of Honor. I also went to the Clarion West auction, which was very entertaining as usual, with Ellen Klages and Tom Whitmore providing the comedy and commentary in between actually auctioning stuff. I also went to jackwilliambell's single malt tasting, which introduced me to the word "phenolic."

Other than that, I went on two dinner expeditions that also included Stu Shiffman. We worried that people would start to talk. I heard a Tuvan throat-singing version of "Inna gadda da vida" by a band called Yat-Kha. There was far too much talk of blogs. I saw OS 10 running on a PC. n6tqs showed me a website dedicated to different methods of lacing your shoes. I was in bed before 2am both nights. I felt vaguely uneasy throughout, despite the calm and aplomb of our Chair and leader, akirlu.

This morning the news that Octavia Butler has died dropped on the convention like a bomb. That's part of why I came home early, in fact. I didn't even know her well, but she was part of this community and in many ways an exemplar of what Potlatch strives to celebrate. It suddenly felt like we had been wounded. But anitar suggested that we turn the dead dog party into a wake, and so I may return. I really didn't properly say goodbye to anyone before I left.