I don't suffer from insanity,

Well, ReaperCon is over. Highlights:

1) Time spent with friends, both long-time and new-found.

2) The Fans. They're always so excited to be there that it is contagious.

3)The work. It's easy. I'm not in charge. All I do is run transactions, and as I usually work the "Boneyard" (all the individual pieces), it's pretty low traffic. Heh.

I do want to take a class one of these years, though. I mean, for crying out loud, I know all these world-class painters, have been to (ok, worked) FOUR ReaperCons and still I have yet to take a class! Oh, yeah. My entry didn't win anything this year. Competition was stiff in the Staff category, heh. No worries. I want to use the mini I painted for the contest as a character at some point or another and I already have my Sophie Trophy from last year, plus mine is unpainted. Yay! ^_~

Now we just have the rest of the week with the sculptors and painters here. They're all camped out across the stair way from me, and I can hear them visit while I work. It's kind of odd, but nice - I'm used to the silence of being the only one up stairs for most of the day. Plus I still have my solitude in my office.

( Artists across the way... )

Today was spent compiling orders and such, getting all kinds of paperwork ready for the two days missed last week while ReaperCon was in full swing. There were a TON of internet orders due to the ReaperCon Sophie being available during the length of the con (it is an exclusive, limited piece, so it's very very popular).

I'm almost caught up with the exception of a bajillion internet orders to enter into the accounting system. And today, in spite of the pile of work still to be finished, was mellow and generally cheerful. I think because everyone is so tired, but hey. Whatever it takes. ^_^

So much has been going on this past week and a half that I hardly know where to start. Since it all revolves around the one thing, my work's convention, I don't know that it will be of any interest, heh.

Lessee. Our convention is a little different than most conventions in the gaming industry. It is held at our facility. The main activities are not actually gaming, although there is quite a bit of that going on with the dungeon scenario and the two table-top war game tournaments.

The biggest draw are the small classes with our freelance sculptors and painters, where anyone can learn to paint or sculpt directly from the best in the industry. That is quite a draw, even for the dabbler.

Prepping for the con is definitely work. A lot of the heavy production equipment is moved around to make space for tables, chairs and lots of lighting. Then extra nights spent making terrain and cleaning the shop thoroughly. All this in addition to making sure, or at least trying to make sure, that production still flows and releases and restocks are still shipped. Whee!

The artists begin to arrive. One trickles in here, another there, then all the rest come on the same day. Heh. All the while, we clean and straighten and set up and still try to do some of our regular duties. Then the guests arrive and all regular duties that haven't been completed are postponed.

Thursday night we had our 'meet and greet' catered by a local barbe-que place (yum!!) and were able to just mingle and chat. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were a frenzy of classes and shopping.

I manned the 'Boneyard' purchasing station, where we did trades on an ounce for ounce basis. finari helped out all weekend, too. Yay! We allowed people to bring in all of our metal that they didn't want and pick up an equivalent amount of loose figures that they did want. We also let them purchase by the ounce. It wasn't necessarily a better deal than buying items in the blister so much as they could chose specific parts they wanted if they only wanted one or two things from a single pack.

What were some highlights? I didn't really get that many extra curricular activities in, but over all, I have to say that I love the people that come to our con. In general, everyone is so psyched to be there that it bleeds off and affects me in such a positive way that, in spite of working for over 14 hours per day (not counting after hours socializing), I am happy to be there, too.

The biggest highlight is seeing people I haven't seen since the last convention. I'm really coming to know some of the specific fans more as people and less as fans, and that's definitely fun. I need to do something nice for one or two specifically since they are so helpful and nifty. I think two of them will be at GenCon, so I need to get to planning.

Tomorrow night what's left of the sculptors and painters that are left will go dancing. It should be fun. One of the painters is also an accomplished seamstress, and she always has the coolest outfit. This year she made one for another of the painters, so there will be at least three of them looking particularly cool. In the past, I've dressed up but have found that when I'm dressed up, I'm less likely to dance. So this time, I'm just going as me and dancing a lot.

The last artists go home Friday morning and then it will all officially be over. I'll be sad and happy at the same time. Sad, because it was fun and the artists and fans are great. Happy because I'll be able to get some semblance of normal disarray back, rather than this total insanity. ^_^

I am going to miss Origins this year since the company isn't going. I have really come to like Columbus, especially as a convention town.

But I'll see everyone again at GenCon, plus my friend Ged.

I need to respond to the email she sent me like a month ago. Eep!

I'm such a slacker.

It's cold in my office. I'm in a huge metal building on the second floor and it's going to be over 98 degrees today outside (heat allegedly rises, right?). I am wearing my husband's fleece hoodie and there is no way to shut my vent. Boohiss.

Our convention this weekend went well. It made for a really long weekend, though. We started clean-up and set-up on Thursday, and all our artists arrived, so there was a lot of to-and-from the airport. They are here until Thursday and Friday of this week. I got a lot of my regular work done, then pitched in downstairs.

Friday our guests started arriving, but for the first half of the day, I hermited in my office. Then, I went downstairs and helped out at the concessions. The rest of the weekend was much the same, with highlights being visiting with finari and annawick, and playing with Lex.

In all honesty, it wasn't really an interesting week for me, just really busy. It involved a lot of work, and a lot of sitting around manning my station. Meh.

Thanks, finari, for your help and especially your company this weekend. And annawick, I'm glad really you and Dave came by, too. ^_^

I came upstairs to my office this morning (preceded by my dog, who was waiting at my office door patiently) to a turned off refrigerator. Yes, the cleaning crew turned off my fridge. Sheesh. So I cleaned up all the water from the defrosted freezer portion for the first twenty minutes or so, and got to work. Luckily, I'm not as swamped as I could have been since I got so much taken care of on Thursday and Friday. It's almost a normal Monday.

I think I am going to take Thursday off to get some stuff taken care of at home. Or maybe I should take Friday off, since I'm going dancing on Thursday evening with the girls and some of our artists...

As for Saturday and Scarborough, I can go, I just have to get there at 10am and leave by 2pm. It will be a short day at the faire for me.

I think I must get "stress" colds, or else I run myself ragged when it's convention time and lower my immune system. Needless to say, I'm struggling through a cold right now. And today, thinking about it, I get a cold or something along with every convention I run. So now that I'm aware of this fact, how can I prevent it from happening again once Origins rolls around?

I think I need to learn how to meditate. Or something.

Anyway, the con went nicely. It was pretty busy, but finari helped out, along with most of the staff, and over all went really smoothly. I think all the guests had a fun time, which was the important part.

This week we have the artists here still, both sculptors and painters. Next week we'll have a little breathing room right before A-Kon starts. We're doing a booth there, too, so it's going to be chaos after next week until the end of June.

I am so looking forward to convention season finishing...