Sigh. I have so much to do, and I slept too long this morning. Cheerleading starts in full-force today (our first game!), classes at one of my schools start next week and I have a workshop to attend tomorrow. I need to do some laundry. Blah blah blah etc.

But I know that there are at least a handful of people who want some details from the weekend, so I wanted to at least get some highlights up (and maybe a few photos…we’ll see) today. 🙂

Over the weekend, Rand and I went to GAFilk in Atlanta. This was my second trip there. (For more on what in the heck “filk” is, please see Debbie’s explanation, as well as the FAQ she compiled.) I never would have attended one of these conventions if not for Rand (Ookla is filk’s own rock band, y’know…), but I’ve kept coming back because I enjoy myself. Filk is a warm, friendly, welcoming community, and I thank everyone there who has embraced me, not just as Rand’s girlfriend, but as me. 🙂

Anyway…we arrived in town late Thursday night and waited way too long for Rand’s guitar to come through baggage claim. Sigh. Then we couldn’t find the shuttle to the hotel because of construction at the airport. Double sigh. Then we arrived at the hotel to a very long line and almost had a reservation disaster. (Turns out they had just misspelled Rand’s last name. Disaster narrowly averted.)

Then directly to bed. Sweet, sweet sleep! Until, at approximately 6:30 am:

bangbangbang

SleepyErin: Is someone knocking on our door? Nah, that’s ridiculous.

bangbangbang

bangbangbang

Then, the door OPENS, and is stopped by the little latchy thing.

Hotel Guy: You missed your wakeup call!

Sleepy Rand: Zzzz? What?

Sleepy Erin: WTF?

Hotel Guy: You missed your morning wakeup call!

Sleepy Rand: We didn’t get a wakeup call.

Hotel Guy: Yeah. You missed your wakeup call.

(repeat a couple more times)

Sleepy (and grumpy) Erin: WE DIDN’T ORDER A WAKEUP CALL.

Hotel Guy: Oops.

Sleepy (and grumpy) Erin: I hate everyone.

Luckily for us, things improved much after that! We met Urban Tapestry for breakfast, and went to the Waffle House. It was Allison’s first trip, and my second. Waffle House is very much a southern phenomenon, so us northerners don’t experience it all that frequently. 🙂 We squeezed into a tiny little booth (which was fine until they brought our food…!) and very much enjoyed the breakfast and conversation.

We had a lazy afternoon, and then met up with the UT ladies again for an early dinner–which was incredibly lucky. You see, Debbie’s husband Jeff and their friend Walter had asked us to conspire with them in their plot to surprise UT by attending the convention. The ideal plan was to get them out for an early dinner, but because of being guests of the convention, they didn’t want to commit to anything. And since we couldn’t exactly insist, for fear of raising suspicion, we had to play it by ear. Luckily, all turned out well. I have a wonderful photo of Debbie’s shocked face when Jeff and Walter appeared at the restaurant, which I will post soon. 🙂

When we got back to the hotel after dinner, I got to what was probably my second highlight of the con…meeting Jam! You see, Rand wasn’t my first contact with the term “filk”. Years ago, I had “met” Jam online when we were at the eVil writing community (this is where the snarkers formed, and how Toasted Cheese came to be!), and she had talked about writing filk, and I was all “huh?” But then I met Rand and went to a convention, and went, “Oh! Now I get it.”

So now I’ve met TWO of the snarkers IRL. How cool is that? And they’re both awesomely cool people. Not that I doubted they would be. 😉

Other highlights:

• Becca and Graham’s Friday evening concert, which they opened with a lovely cover of Ookla the Mok’s “Home”. They also, among other things, performed Michele Dockrey’s “Girl That’s Never Been” with Graham performing the part of the Cheshire Cat, and Daniel Glasser’s “Close Your Eyes”. Very well-selected covers. 🙂
• Urban Tapestry’s Guest of Honor concert. They performed a number of new songs (some of which I’d already been fortunate enough to hear in Debbie’s living room). They’re all great, but I especially enjoyed “Hey JK”, a plea to JK Rowling to spare Harry’s life in the final book. 🙂
• Summer and Fall, featuring the lovely and talented ladies Eva and Crystal from Germany. We got to spend some time with them (as well as Eva’s husband Rafael) at dinner on Friday, which was fabulous. As was their concert. 🙂
• Sunday evening dinner with Paul Kwinn. I’d met Paul before, of course, but we got quite a bit of time to just hang out and talk. Rand also asked him to play “God Bless the Artists” for me, which is a lovely song Paul wrote for his wife, Beckett. I’m glad I got to hear it!
• Having my hair cut by France!

And now, the part many of you have been wondering about…as you may or may not know, it’s become the mission of many, many people to get me to sing in public. Jam made it her personal mission to get me to sing with her over the weekend. She even wrote a literary-themed filk on the plane on the way down, with me in mind. Well, how could I say no to that?

Here are the lyrics:

Over One Billion Sold, by Amanda Marlowe
TTTO One (Singular Sensation)

One evil thing of power
Every little Dark Lord makes
One damp and dismal tower
With dungeons for a hero’s escape
One sweet, exotic gal–elven will do
You know she has to be captured by chapter two
One thrilling final battle
And you’ve got your standard plot
Original I know it’s not–(been) overdone some
Ooh! Sigh! (as) cliche it’s got no equal
Ooh! My! Does it have a sequel?
It’s got One!
(spoken) no, two! three! fifteen! Best seller’s list, here I come!

It was late (around 2 am) and we were in a very small room. Rand was there. Randy Hoffman was there. France was cutting hair in the back of the room. There were a handful of other people in the circle, so there were a few witnesses. We sang together, so I wasn’t actually singing by myself, but I did it! Baby steps…

I’m sure there are a million other things that I’m forgetting, but that’ll do for now. Photos to come soon!