This year was my first time as co-chair for Shore Leave (or any other convention). All in all, it was a great weekend with no major problems that I had to deal with. (There were a few minor glitches, but nothing huge.) This is also going to be my last time chairing a convention for the foreseeable future, but that’s more to do with setting some priorities for my time rather than any particular hassles.
One of the highlights of the weekend involved attending my first ever “Klingon Banquet.” Having no desire to dress up in any other sort of costume (let alone the incredibly warm and heavy Klingon garb), I opted to dress as my usual self. To my surprise, I wound up seated next to Gwynyth Walsh – the guest of honor – and during the course of the evening, several people somehow reached the conclusion that I was her spouse. I’m not entirely certain how that happened, though I didn’t particularly object. My only request was that they not tell her husband!


Late Friday evening, the convention suffered a “fatality.” The dealers’ area (a sort of science fiction merchandise bazaar) is closed off every evening but people don’t always understand that they should stay out. This year the security folks used tape to mark off the outline of a dead alien on the floor (complete with antennae). This was surrounded by crime scene tape. The next evening, a second outline was added. After that, nobody tried to enter the area when it was closed.

Friday night’s “crime scene”

The first warning.

This one ignored the first warning.

Saturday afternoon I fulfilled a minor fantasy and met Claudia Christian in person. I’ve had a slight crush on her Babylon 5 character for several years and was kind of excited when Claudia was added to the guest line up. (Yeah, I know Susan Ivanova isn’t a real person; I liked the character anyhow.) When I received her picture for the web site, it turned out to be a fairly large image and when I opened it, all that was visible was her eyes. She has quite lovely eyes, so I printed out a cropped version with just her eyes and asked her to sign it. She signed it “Love, ‘Eyes’ Claudia”. 🙂

Claudia has the first set of “Eyes of the Storm“.
Can you identify the others?

Saturday evening was the “Ten Forward” party (essentially, a big dance) which I managed to attend for the first time in a few years. I ended up hanging out with some friends and left the party around 2:30am and didn’t get to bed until shortly before 4am. (Not much of a stretch from the usual routine I suppose, but even so, I had only minor difficulty getting up the next morning.)
Sunday was something of a let down as it always is. I saw a few guests’ presentations and then wound up the event with the “Dead Dog” party. Monday morning we took all equipment out of the hotel and in a few months I suppose the planning will start for next year.
In the meantime, I need some sleep.