Atlanta Poly Weekend 2011
Apr. 4th, 2011 05:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kkscatnip
Such a blast. It's taken me a while to get the write-up done because I was without a computer for a week directly following the con, due to my computer being dead, dead, dead.
Atlanta Poly Weekend 2011 in a nutshell!
Friday:
Spent most of the day volunteering at registration and was impressed by how together they were, especially considering that they're a first-year con! (Actually, I spent a lot of the con being impressed by how much they had their shit together.)
(Tangent one: these were, indeed, the people that I met at Dragon*Con, by the way! They had thought that I was there for the poly meet-up, but I ended up explaining to them that I had happened upon the meet-up completely by accident!)
I went to two "panels" on Friday: Blues Dance and the Extraordinary Contraptions concert.
(Tangent two: that most of their "panels" were more like either group discussions or classes, and even in the classes there was very little lecture. It was a very, very participant-driven feel to everything that happened-- the presenters often spent more time on some things and less time on other things depending on the interest of the participants, which I thought was really cool! Like, they kept stopping and asking the audience if we had questions and stuff, so it was more of a dialogue, which was really cool)
The blues dance was really cool. I ended up getting partnered with a (hot) girl named Mai Li and it was a very, very sensual experience. She led, quite expertly, and I followed, a little clumsily, but as we got more on one another's wavelengths there was less clumsiness. It was very cool, and Em and I ended up getting some names of places in Atlanta that do this kind of blues dancing since both of us really, really enjoyed the class!
(Tangent three: one of Em's roommates fell in ove with Puffin, my dog, when I'd left Puffin there before, so she offered to watch Puff so Em and I wouldn't have to go back and forth from the top side of the ATL to the bottom side twice a day (it's a 45 min drive in good traffic)! It was very awesome of her and I offered her money and she wouldn't take it so I spent the money on a Atlanta Poly Weekend t-shirt instead.)
After the concert Mai Li invited the band, Em, & I up to her room and we proceeded to stay up until 2am talking with various band members and Mai Li and ... uhh, Jessica, I think her name was--Mai Li's roommate.
We (that is, Em & I) slept in the car because it was two in the fucking morning and we didn't want to have to go to my apartment & come back in the morning. We'd kind of planned for this, and had all kinds of blankets and whatnot in the car. It was surprisingly comfortable, though there was kind of a weird moment of watching a security guard patrol the parking lot and thinking up plausible stories we might be able to tell!
Randomly, at one point Mai Li and I got to talking about the connection between writers and musicians, and how those two creative types seem to often be found together. It was something I'd observed often while in Boston, so it felt very validating to have someone else agree that, yeah, I've totally noticed that too!
Saturday:
I woke up first (of course--I think if I ever have a relationship with anyone who wakes up before I do I'll drop dead of shock) and brushed my teeth with a bottle of water and ate grapes and a granola bar for breakfast (nom nom nom) and ended up getting back to the registration table at 10:30.
(Tangent four: I have to say, I was SO FRICKIN HAPPY that their programming did not start until 11am. I felt like it was so much more realistic than cons that started at fucking eight in the morning on Saturday. Like, really? Who's awake then??
It makes the participants happy, because they get more sleep; it makes the panelists happy, because they get more sleep; it makes the staff happy, because they get more sleep. So, yeah, was quite pleased by this, and I heard this echoed by several other people throughout the convention, so I think it was really such an awesome choice on their part.)
I volunteered at either Reg or Security until 3, when the Poly and Long Distance panel started. I didn't really learn much from it that I hadn't already known (although to hear it from people who've been in long distance relationships for years was very, very validating) but I did get some ideas, so that made me quite happy :3
At 4 was maymay's panel, and since he was the reason that I knew about the convention at all I felt like I should go to it. Also, I was interested in the subject matter! He was as usual a brilliant presenter and stopped often for questions, though the audience didn't have any questions/comments to make, probably because he covered the points very coherently. It was very cool!
After his panel I ended up getting talking with him & some other people and we talked about the possibility of Kink for All at Dragon*Con and stuff and blahblahblah but then it was time for Cunning Minx's panel on social media activism which I wasn't going to go to initially, but there was nothing else interesting going on (Poly speed dating was hetero-centric, according to Em) so I did and was pleasantly surprised and felt very well-informed by the end of it.
I feel like the panel was comprehensible and valuable to people who have any level of experience with social media, even if the experience was "My daughter has a twitter and I read it every so often" or "I can't live without twitter"--very easy to understand and just... really viable and valuable no matter who you are or what you're trying to do.
Mai Li and maymay and Em and I were getting hungry as fuck at that point (the con's one big failing: no buffer time between panels for people to go grab bites to eat!) and were wanting to go eat, but the one panel that maymay had really, really wanted to attend was happening next so Em and I tagged along with him to it: Poly and D/S.
It was more like a discussion than a class, which was really fucking neat. Noel, the presenter, did a really good job at having a light touch on the reins but not too light of a touch. I learned a lot about D&S as it relates to poly, and just... a lot. It was really neat! (I keep saying that, don't I? But it was!)
After the panel Noel, Art, maymay, Ms E, Em, and I went out to the Italian place. I just felt soooo blown away the entire time by being surrounded by these wonderfully intelligent, eloquent people-- I felt like I had found my people! They were here! And it was fabulous to be among them. I was reminded again and again how little I actually read in comparison to a lot of other people, and it makes me feel like I should start reading more often, rather than just before bed.
By the time we got back, we missed the Extraordinary Contraptions electric set but we were there in time to watch the burlesque show. I'd never seen one before and enjoyed the hell out of myself! :D There was even a Victor/Victoria dance which was nnngh and one dancer danced to "Queer Things Are Happening to Me" which was nice.
(Tangent five: There was an over-representation of heterosexual people and an under-representation of queer people, I felt like. I brought it up during the closing ceremonies, at the suggestions bit, and they were like YES. We are going to Outlanta con and going to have a table at Gay Pride next year. We WILL fix this. So, yeah, once again: very validating!)
Over dinner Noel and Art heard that Em and I were sleeping in the car and were like, um, no, you guys are going to stay at our house tonight-- a ten minute drive! So, Em and I slept there and nngh it felt so nice to sleep in a bed and take a nice hot shower in the morning and stuff. It was just really lovely, and we're going to be sending them a thank-you card in the mail.
Sunday:
Noel and Art fed us tea and croussants (oh spelling, no spell check on HTML only did you know that?) and we hung out there until noonish at which point the four of us returned to the con. We ended up going out to brunch with s'more people after that-- Noel, Art, maymay, Mai Li, Rion and his gf, Abby, Em, and I. I had the same feelings that I had at dinner all over again: these are my people. This is where I belong. I love it here!
We moseyed back to the hotel in time for closing ceremonies and... that was it!
Amazing weekend overall, wonderfully validating and I just felt so much joy at being with these people that I had so much in common with, not just habit-wise but on an intellectual level as well.
Atlanta Poly Weekend 2011 in a nutshell!
Friday:
Spent most of the day volunteering at registration and was impressed by how together they were, especially considering that they're a first-year con! (Actually, I spent a lot of the con being impressed by how much they had their shit together.)
(Tangent one: these were, indeed, the people that I met at Dragon*Con, by the way! They had thought that I was there for the poly meet-up, but I ended up explaining to them that I had happened upon the meet-up completely by accident!)
I went to two "panels" on Friday: Blues Dance and the Extraordinary Contraptions concert.
(Tangent two: that most of their "panels" were more like either group discussions or classes, and even in the classes there was very little lecture. It was a very, very participant-driven feel to everything that happened-- the presenters often spent more time on some things and less time on other things depending on the interest of the participants, which I thought was really cool! Like, they kept stopping and asking the audience if we had questions and stuff, so it was more of a dialogue, which was really cool)
The blues dance was really cool. I ended up getting partnered with a (hot) girl named Mai Li and it was a very, very sensual experience. She led, quite expertly, and I followed, a little clumsily, but as we got more on one another's wavelengths there was less clumsiness. It was very cool, and Em and I ended up getting some names of places in Atlanta that do this kind of blues dancing since both of us really, really enjoyed the class!
(Tangent three: one of Em's roommates fell in ove with Puffin, my dog, when I'd left Puffin there before, so she offered to watch Puff so Em and I wouldn't have to go back and forth from the top side of the ATL to the bottom side twice a day (it's a 45 min drive in good traffic)! It was very awesome of her and I offered her money and she wouldn't take it so I spent the money on a Atlanta Poly Weekend t-shirt instead.)
After the concert Mai Li invited the band, Em, & I up to her room and we proceeded to stay up until 2am talking with various band members and Mai Li and ... uhh, Jessica, I think her name was--Mai Li's roommate.
We (that is, Em & I) slept in the car because it was two in the fucking morning and we didn't want to have to go to my apartment & come back in the morning. We'd kind of planned for this, and had all kinds of blankets and whatnot in the car. It was surprisingly comfortable, though there was kind of a weird moment of watching a security guard patrol the parking lot and thinking up plausible stories we might be able to tell!
Randomly, at one point Mai Li and I got to talking about the connection between writers and musicians, and how those two creative types seem to often be found together. It was something I'd observed often while in Boston, so it felt very validating to have someone else agree that, yeah, I've totally noticed that too!
Saturday:
I woke up first (of course--I think if I ever have a relationship with anyone who wakes up before I do I'll drop dead of shock) and brushed my teeth with a bottle of water and ate grapes and a granola bar for breakfast (nom nom nom) and ended up getting back to the registration table at 10:30.
(Tangent four: I have to say, I was SO FRICKIN HAPPY that their programming did not start until 11am. I felt like it was so much more realistic than cons that started at fucking eight in the morning on Saturday. Like, really? Who's awake then??
It makes the participants happy, because they get more sleep; it makes the panelists happy, because they get more sleep; it makes the staff happy, because they get more sleep. So, yeah, was quite pleased by this, and I heard this echoed by several other people throughout the convention, so I think it was really such an awesome choice on their part.)
I volunteered at either Reg or Security until 3, when the Poly and Long Distance panel started. I didn't really learn much from it that I hadn't already known (although to hear it from people who've been in long distance relationships for years was very, very validating) but I did get some ideas, so that made me quite happy :3
At 4 was maymay's panel, and since he was the reason that I knew about the convention at all I felt like I should go to it. Also, I was interested in the subject matter! He was as usual a brilliant presenter and stopped often for questions, though the audience didn't have any questions/comments to make, probably because he covered the points very coherently. It was very cool!
After his panel I ended up getting talking with him & some other people and we talked about the possibility of Kink for All at Dragon*Con and stuff and blahblahblah but then it was time for Cunning Minx's panel on social media activism which I wasn't going to go to initially, but there was nothing else interesting going on (Poly speed dating was hetero-centric, according to Em) so I did and was pleasantly surprised and felt very well-informed by the end of it.
I feel like the panel was comprehensible and valuable to people who have any level of experience with social media, even if the experience was "My daughter has a twitter and I read it every so often" or "I can't live without twitter"--very easy to understand and just... really viable and valuable no matter who you are or what you're trying to do.
Mai Li and maymay and Em and I were getting hungry as fuck at that point (the con's one big failing: no buffer time between panels for people to go grab bites to eat!) and were wanting to go eat, but the one panel that maymay had really, really wanted to attend was happening next so Em and I tagged along with him to it: Poly and D/S.
It was more like a discussion than a class, which was really fucking neat. Noel, the presenter, did a really good job at having a light touch on the reins but not too light of a touch. I learned a lot about D&S as it relates to poly, and just... a lot. It was really neat! (I keep saying that, don't I? But it was!)
After the panel Noel, Art, maymay, Ms E, Em, and I went out to the Italian place. I just felt soooo blown away the entire time by being surrounded by these wonderfully intelligent, eloquent people-- I felt like I had found my people! They were here! And it was fabulous to be among them. I was reminded again and again how little I actually read in comparison to a lot of other people, and it makes me feel like I should start reading more often, rather than just before bed.
By the time we got back, we missed the Extraordinary Contraptions electric set but we were there in time to watch the burlesque show. I'd never seen one before and enjoyed the hell out of myself! :D There was even a Victor/Victoria dance which was nnngh and one dancer danced to "Queer Things Are Happening to Me" which was nice.
(Tangent five: There was an over-representation of heterosexual people and an under-representation of queer people, I felt like. I brought it up during the closing ceremonies, at the suggestions bit, and they were like YES. We are going to Outlanta con and going to have a table at Gay Pride next year. We WILL fix this. So, yeah, once again: very validating!)
Over dinner Noel and Art heard that Em and I were sleeping in the car and were like, um, no, you guys are going to stay at our house tonight-- a ten minute drive! So, Em and I slept there and nngh it felt so nice to sleep in a bed and take a nice hot shower in the morning and stuff. It was just really lovely, and we're going to be sending them a thank-you card in the mail.
Sunday:
Noel and Art fed us tea and croussants (oh spelling, no spell check on HTML only did you know that?) and we hung out there until noonish at which point the four of us returned to the con. We ended up going out to brunch with s'more people after that-- Noel, Art, maymay, Mai Li, Rion and his gf, Abby, Em, and I. I had the same feelings that I had at dinner all over again: these are my people. This is where I belong. I love it here!
We moseyed back to the hotel in time for closing ceremonies and... that was it!
Amazing weekend overall, wonderfully validating and I just felt so much joy at being with these people that I had so much in common with, not just habit-wise but on an intellectual level as well.
