Ah, cons. How I’ve missed thee. With World Fantasy being my most recent convention appearance (at the beginning of November), it had been quite a while since I’d immersed myself in the realm of fandom, and it was good to get back to it at Lunacon this weekend.

Lunacon was once again held at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye, New York, otherwise known as "the Escher Hilton" due to its funky floor plan that makes you feel as if you’re trapped in an M.C. Escher painting. For example, if you step off the elevator on the fourth floor and walk down a certain hallway (which slopes downward at a slight angle), you end up on the seventh floor; so in fact instead of going down a bit as you might imagine from the slight decline, you in fact somehow climb three floors with nary a slope in sight. In other words, the perfect place for an SF convention.

I drove up a day early to hang out with pal Rob Bland. We had dinner and chatted enough that I got a bit hoarse before the con even started, and then hung out in the room playing Guitar Hero, which I brought with me despite the Rye Town Hilton telling me over the phone that doing so was forbidden (because, one presumes, they have their $10/hour video game rental service). I figured there was no way they’d actually know I brought my illicit PS2 into the hotel so long as I hid it from the maid, so I went for it. And it worked. In case it didn’t, and since I was driving to the con, I brought a small TV with me so shredding would not be denied. Yes, I realize that’s a pretty geeky thing to do. But so is going to an SF convention.

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