Morning came all too early for me, and seeing as I'd slept with Lise outside on Kielle's porch wrapped up in only a blanket, I decided that I'd had enough of the outdoors. Zil was safely ensconced near the dining table and after putzing about for the morning, people started to wake up (I also had a Harley Quinn pounce angrily on my shoulder). There was the usual grumblings of waking up and the usual ballet of bathroom excursions (no coffee today) and then Lise, WONDERFUL Lise, put an episode of "Queer as Folk" in the VCR. There were strippers, and toplessness and... words cannot describe the bliss in my heart, nor the embarassed look on Hex's face. Once I'd finished watching, we started getting folks together for the trek down. I wrote directions down for those who forgot them, and we tooled off towards Oceanside. Here are some pictures of the morning crowd at Kielle's:
We got to the beach in one piece.... okay, I admit that maybe driving 80+ MPH down the freeway wasn't such a good idea when I had people trying to follow me, but I could have sworn that they'd be able to keep up! Anyway, we got there, and it was amusing to watch the reactions on people's faces when they slowly realized that Dex was in California. It was overcast all day, making Farli comment that if she wanted cloudy weather, she should have just stayed in England. It was too cold to swim, or so I thought at first, but eventually, I gave in and swam in the ocean, first by myself, then with Kael later on in the day. bum didn't have her swimsuit, but it didn't stop her from going into the ocean fully clothed, with glasses. People made sand castles, sand men, sand women, sand trenches. Folks trickled in throughout the day, with Kielle and Laersyn being some of the last arrivals. They did make an announcement; Kielle and Laersyn will be married this year on Halloween.
- Approaching the beach from above. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- It's hard to tell, but there are people from Subrealicon in this picture. Damned if I know who they are, though. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- The D-Day Invasion's got nothing on us. Subrealizens at the beach. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- Maelstrom, Dyce and Farli on the beach.
- The Subrealicon 2001 Canadian Contingency: Dex (foreground), Chandri, Lise and Zil (with her towel on!)
- Now I'm not sure if she just forgot, or if she didn't care, because once bum saw the beach, she hit it full force, with her glasses on, and didn't look back. She was the first of us to go into the chilly water (chilly compared to normal California weather), and her antics led me into the water, and before you know it, Subrealicon got wet. Well, some of us, anyway. Here's bum and a mystery Subrealiconner in the water. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- JB and her little sister Chelsea, having a sibling's spat.
- But they made up. Here's Chelsea, Maelstrom and JB. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- There were a lot of people being made slaves via massage this weekend. Maelstrom captures JB, while Dex looks on. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- No Subrealicon can be complete without the JB Pinup Shot.
- On the way to the beach, we stopped off for supplies, and right by the cash register at the gas station, there were these water pistols for $3.99. I looked at them, grinned, and bought them. One of the first people I squirted was JB, who chased me down the beach. I tripped, and fell, bruising my knee and scraping it on the sand. So, when people say that the McDragon is not fierce, do not listen to them. She makes people fall in the sand when they're trying to get away from her. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- One of many group conversations this weekend. One thing I'll say about the lot of us: we can't shut up. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- Falstaff and Dyce, being mooky.
- Kymscrazy, Chandri, Alestar and bum play in the water. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- I'll give you three guesses as to what Dia, Dex and Polly Mel were talking about... oh heck you'll never get it. I happened to wander by at one point, and got an earful of discourse about World War I. I'm to understand that in this picture, they're delineating trench lines with their feet in the sand. This makes some sort of sense when you talk about warfare.
- No, Chelsea! Stay good! Don't listen to this man! [Picture by David Amaya.]
- A nifty digital photo collage of JB and Dex, dancing. Or tickling. Or... use your imagination. ^_^ [Pictures by David Amaya.]
- The finished pose. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- Sand is for building things (and getting into your swim suit). JB, Chelsea, Maelstrom and bum are building a castle. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- What's it going to be, JB? [Picture by David Amaya.]
- JB: Moat building is hard work! [Picture by David Amaya.]
- Eh, I had a feeling Chelsea would turn to the dark side. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- Melodist, Kymscrazy and an unknown ficcer work on the sandman. No, not Dream... oh, fer goodness sakes... [Picture by David Amaya.]
- ...and some finishing touches... hey! This is a family webpage... [Picture by David Amaya.]
- ...Falstaff can't believe what he's seeing... [Picture by David Amaya.]
- And when he's done... [Picture by David Amaya.]
- ...his creators pose around him: Kymscrazy, Maelstrom, Chandri, Melodist and bum. [Picture by David Amaya.]
- And then they made him a friend. [Picture by David Amaya.]
We ate, we talked, and eventually, we got hungry. JB went to get firewood, and then she, Chandri and I went to buy food for grilling. Through her natual JB charms, she managed to acquire coat hangers for hot dogs, and I came up with the idea of buying a skillet to grill quesadillas over open flame for our vegetarian guests. We returned to the camp site where Dex had built the fire, and we were off and grilling. It's more difficult to cook quesadillas on an open flame than you would think, but I did it. However, I was so busy cooking that I didn't eat. This would factor into one of the events later on.
The Beach Photo: Back row, left to right: Ashlan, Lise (hugging Ashlan), Diamonde, Farli, Dex, Icewing, Kitarra, Laersyn (behind Kitarra), Dyce, Falstaff, Polly Mel, Melodist, Sparks. Second row: Maelstrom, bum, Chelsea, JB, Kielle, Pebbs, Alestar. Seated: Kael, girlyskin, Kymscrazy, Chandri, Zil (with her towel, yay!), Hex, David Amaya. Sprawled in front: Trisha Lynn.
We had originally planned on being at the beach late, but folks were getting tired and cold, so we decided to go to the hotel. After a long drive through the mountains, we got to the Best Western Country Inn, where our reservations were made. Most everyone had gotten there at the same time, so I checked in with Icewing, Hex and Falstaff (KP got there earlier, and Kielle, Kit and Laersyn showed up later). There was this bit of amusement concerning the number of beds in Falstaff's room and the number of keys he wanted, but other than that, everything was good. People wanted to relax and wash sand off, but then we noticed that there was a hot tub and it closed at 10pm... and it was almost 10pm... so some of us shucked off our clothing and jumped in the tub.
DexCon is known for its drinking, and there was quite the amount of alcohol at SouthernCon, PubCon and AussieCon, but we decided to make this year's Subrealicon a dry con because of the number of minors at the hotel and JB didn't want anyone to get in trouble. The ground rules were we couldn't drink at JB's house or at the hotel, but if we wanted to go out and drink, we could. So we did. We went to TGI Friday's, where we were waited upon by the cutest host, Josh, and some wonderful waitresses. They asked me how many people, I said about 20. Folks kept trickling in, KayJay finally showed up, as did Mice and everyone else, and we passed the evening rather cozily at the restaurant until they kicked us out.
Now, anyone who reads my anime con report pages knows that I like to drink. At Friday's, I ordered some kamikaze shots for me, Icewing and GirlySkin, and in the midst of the subsequent rounds (and after he got 2 margaritas, she had 2 daquiris and I had a mudslide), we had discovered that we shared a lot of things in common. We were going to toast our similarities with a tequlia shot, but I found out that the bartender had cut us off. It was after that revelation that we decided to take this picture, commemorating the moment. I give to you: The Drunken Sluts Club. If I'd eater earlier, maybe I wouldn't have been so rambunctious.
And here's a little about Icewing. He's evil, he's got an accent from Arkansas, and I found myself picking up his accent. Then, others started to pick up on it, too, leading Kitarra to make the comment: "The Southern accent is like a social disease." He's one of the people I met this weekend who I'd never met before, and who I am not very glad and proud to know. THAT's what a fanfic con is all about, folks!
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