Con^H^H^H Event report: Birka

[damont]

So there was this event in New Hampshire, and White Wolf and the Phoenix was going to be there as a merchant, but Megan had no family to go with her and help, so I went... some of you already know that I crashed in Bowie Wednesday night in order to make the start of the trip more efficient.

Thursday morning we were moving a bit slowly. We managed to finish getting the van loaded, and Megan and I headed north. She had arranged to visit with her parents in New Jersey that evening, so we were only in the van for about 3 hours that afternoon. We called it a night early, as we needed an early start the next morning, Early as in pre-sunrise early. We dressed and breakfasted, and actually got on the road just as the sun was emerging over the horizon. The reason for this was that Megan had planned a side trip to Webs in Morthampton MA, which was going to add time to Friday's journey, and we wanted to get to the event site as soon after 3 PM as we could (to maximize our setup time). We crossed the Hudson on the Tappan Zee bridge, but did run into some slow traffic in White Plains NY before splitting off towards Danbury CT and hitting for pit stop and coffee break. I-84 to I-91, arrived in Northampton around 1130, got what Megan was after, and took note of yarns called "Bunny Prints" and "Bunny Splash" for bunnyjadwiga's sake. Left Northampton about half past noon, grabbed lunch at a Mass Pike service area, checked in to the motel in Nashua a little before 3, and got to the Birka site about 1515. Unloaded the van, set up the shop, and we were just about done setting up at 1900 when the doors were opened to customers. We did all right for a Friday evening, saleswise.

After shutting down for the night we were socializing a bit with h3salthea, zaduzbina, loosecanon, aliwodehalle, fosveny and others. fabricdragon came in, looking about as sick as she actually was, with whouseknecht in tow; several of us went to help get her stuff out of her van and into the merchant area before they locked it up for the night. When that was done, everyone was either in the bar or had gone off to a room party. Went looking for folks at the bar, but the only person we actually found was amykb; we talked for a while, then Megan and I headed back to Nashua. That was perhaps my biggest regret of the weekend, that not staying at the "con hotel" meant I didn't have much chance to socialize on Friday night. (Which I expected to be the case before the trip started.)

Saturday the merchants were open from 1000-1800. I spent most of my time at or near the booth, interspersed with occasional forays out to see the other merchants. I picked up the one item I most needed, though it is still in need of decoration. ladypeyton was having a "Going Out of Business" sale, and we chatted for a while. I got to talk briefly with nazrynn and rocksryan, and to say a quick hello to liamstliam in passing. Several friends stopped by the booth, including Scholastica and her husband up from Pennsylvania. The most delightful surprise, though, was seeing xntryk -- I mean, she lives in *Arkansas* for heaven's sake, and I hadn't seen her in a year and a half! Turns out she and her sweetie were in Boston on business, and daytripped up to the event.

We started tearing down the booth a bit early. This was a good thing, as they ideally wanted all the merchants out in two hours. Puh-LEEZE... it took many merchants more than two hours to *set up*, and that was when merchants were getting to the site *gradually*, loading in and setting up a few at a time. With *everyone* trying to load out *AT THE SAME TIME*, there was no effin' way we could all get out in two hours. Once we'd loaded the van back up, Megan was kind enough to find a place to sit while I went to participate in the dancing. While I didn't know *anyone* present at the dance, I still had a good time. One highlight was the largest "Toss the Duchess" circle I've ever been in. For a couple of the dances I ended up teaching the steps to the others in my set. (Which reminds me -- aliwodehalle, if nobody else wants to teach Petit Vriens at Nova Schola, I might be interested...)

Sunday dawned with snow; there was an inch on the ground when we checked out of the motel and it was falling steadily. This made the first part of the trip south a bit more ... interesting ... than we'd have liked, including one pretty ugly looking accident on the other (northbound) side of US-3 -- overturned car missing at least one wheel. We traveled very carefully along US-3 and I-495. Fortunately, things kind of slacked off as we drove through Worcester, and by the time we got to western Connecticut the skies were clear and the sun was shining. We drove to Easton PA and had dinner with bunnyjadwiga, maziemaus, juergen, and Becka before heading south to Bowie. Monday was a slow day and I didn't get home until 1630 or so.

Sales-wise, WW&tP did all right. Not spectacular, but we more than covered the cost of goods sold plus the travel expenses. Socially, I'd gone into the trip with fairly low expectations; I knew that circumstances would not be conducive to anything more than floating around the outside of everything socially. So while I'd have liked to have had a better time, I didn't *expect* to, and I got to dance half a dozen or so dances including some of my favorites. So all in all, I had about as good a weekend as I expected. I am thinking, though, that next time I make this trip I'd want to be able to afford paying for half the hotel costs, so we could stay at the con hotel.