The FilKONtario Report: Day One

Covering the goings on a con takes way too many words for one post, so I'll break it down into different ones and try to be brief (ha ha ha ha!)

FRIDAY, APRIL 4
My driver (hi gary!) and I left in the rain about 9 am and headed west to Toronto. The drive was uneventful except for the rain that turned to snow and lots of it. Horizontal snow because of the 100 km winds whipping across the country. No fun. I felt especially bad because this was the day the Bedlam Bards were touring around Toronto with their local guide (hi dave!). They weren't too happy about it either, but hey, they came to Canada, we gave them winter!

We arrived at the Delta around 11 am and found my sister (hi marianne!) sitting in the lobby with some "hard core" filkers. It wasn't long before we found someone official looking with the con (turned out to be dave- another dave) and he got us a key to the dealers' room. I needed to stash the huge pile of stuff somewhere, as our room wasn't ready. We did that and then went for some lunch.

When we got back our room wasn't ready, but they gave us another one. This was good because Marianne had been up for 28 hours straight. We got in and did some napping. At 2:30 I reluctantly woke her up as we had a dealer table to set up at 3 pm. We got into the room and started unpacking. I brought WAY too much stuff again, but it all worked out okay as there was room for an extra table. They asked me if I wanted it and I'm no fool-- (keep your comments to yourselves!)

During unloading I heard familiar voices in the hall. I turned and saw Cedric and Joyce. Huge hugging ensued. I apologized to them for the weather. I told them I scheduled warmth and sunshine to come up from the States for the whole time they were here, but it got stuck in Customs and wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. Joyce looked so frozen! We talked briefly and then went back to our work (the Bards had a sound check soon and they needed to grab the instruments).

Found room for more of the stuff on the tables and remembered why Marianne is the schlepper extraordinaire! She had lots of cleaver ideas (and now says she's done for the year with them) and the booth really came together nicely. See:

So the booth was done and the sales started pretty much at an overlapping time. We stayed in the dealers' room until they closed for the wedding that was taking place that evening.

There was a lack of communication, so we missed having dinner with the Bards. :( But we were back in plenty of time for the opening ceremonies and the FKO 19 preview concerts. First up was Urban Tapestry- three women with great voices and a sense of fun. Following them was Heather Dale. After 2 songs, I was an official fan! She's amazing and sings of strong women and has such an eclectic source of musical base that I was drawn in instantly. They only reason I didn't come home with one of her cds this weekend was I took too long in deciding which one I wanted and she had to leave earlier than I and took her supply with her. This, my friends, is why I love the internet!

After the concert, we headed up to the con suite for the cd launch party of vixy and Tony's release "Thirteen". It was packed and the two of them were over in the corner surrounded. We ran into Hawke and talked to him for a good long time. It was well after midnight when we started drifting towards the door. We were going to hit some of the filk circles, but decided to hit the beds instead. Saturday, after all, was going to be a busy day.

Until next time:
"That there - exactly the kinda diversion we coulda used."