The Post Con Blues

Definition

A sense of loss, sadness, malaise following a science fiction convention.
A condition not unsimilar to "Circus has just left town" syndrome.


Emotional Symptoms:-

A tendency to snap at the mundanes in your life who cannot possibly understand what you're going through.
Feeling bereft or unfulfilled, lonely or depressed.
Regrets (You may have slept with someone to save a night's hotel bill. It's alright. Just retire your badge name and never wear that hall costume again. You have plausible deniabilty as it'll be a year before you see that person again, probably.)

Physical Symptoms (Any or all are possible) :-

Hangover
Dicky tummy (Too much rich food and beer.)
A cold or the flu. (You've just been in a room with 1400 international people where the air-con keeps the circulating the air. You're bound to catch something.)
A cold sore. (Extremes of temperature can cause an out-break.)
Cramps (Lack of exercise.)
Tightness of clothing. (Over eating and drinking.)

Condition exacerbated by the following:-

Returning to a cold house, having been away for a long weekend.
Finding off-milk and rotten veg in the fridge.
Having no other food in the house and nothing to buy it with.
Plants dead due to forgetting to water them before you left in your excitement.
Dropping your new favourite badge in the bath and ruining it after it had been given to you by the artist herself. (It recovered when I put it on the radiator to dry out.)
Having to go back to work.
Having a massive washing to do.
Finding you've put on half a stone in four days and all your clothes are too tight.
Finding you have no money until the next pay day and for sometime after till your credit cards are paid off.

Condition can be relieved by:-

Go for a walk and eat a salad. (One of the reasons you feel so bad is that you've drunk too much, eaten too much and had no exercise for nearly a week. Give your brain some endorphins and work off the five cooked breakfasts you ate.)
Wear your con t-shirt. (You spent your hard earned money on it and you'll be paying for it for months so get some use out of it. It'll make you feel closer to your tribe. It also might drive the mundanes away for a bit. They're the last people you want to see right now.)
Put away all those books you bought. (The charity ones don't count towards feeding the bibliophilic addiction, do they?)
Get a washing on and give something in your house a bit of a clean. (So it's not a 5 star hotel, but it's all you've got. Besides you feel bad anyway, at least this way you won't feel any worse, but the house will be clean.)
Join another con. (If you didn't do it before you left, do it now. You've got all the forms somewhere in your bag. At least sign up for supporting membership of something. Give yourself something to look forward to.)
Re-read your comfort book. (In my case this is The Belgariad by David Eddings. It's like having a cuddle with your teddy bear.)
Watch some old SF film or TV show that you know it'll make you feel better.
Find a real life fan group or an LJ one. Join it. It'll help with the bereft feelings.
Have a cup of tea or two. (Your liver could probably do with a rest.)
If all this fails, then blog about it.

On Friday hubblegubble and I got to the hotel very early. Registration wasn't even open. He went for a nap and I went for breakfast. Then I explored the hotel, realised that it didn't conform to normal laws of geometry, and then registered. Met hirez and lapswood in the queue. Then I went to the dealers room to check out our fan table and hung out there most of the day. I enthusiastically handed out fliers by calling people by name. I could read their badges, and most people out of politeness came up to me just on the off chance that we'd met at previous conventions. Christine told me that she'd only brought 1000 fliers and I should try not to give them all away on the first day. Met ksimes and dalg.

On Saturday I manned my table. Employing some similar tactics from the previous day. I actually attended a program item today, Charlie Stross's GoH talk, and froze my expansive bum to the uncomfortable wooden chair. The hotel has pockets of intense heat like the dealers room which was unbearable today and intense cold like my bedroom where I shivered before dropping into a hypothermic coma. I went to the Art show to check out the work of psychochicken and hubblegubble. I also chatted with E.D. Buckley, Lisa Konrad, Frank Wu, Brianna Flint and the irrepressible SMS. In the evening it was masquerade and caberet which were hugely enjoyable. I'm still humming "Reevers, Malcolm, Reevers" occasionally.

On Sunday we shut our table for Neil Gaiman's talk. We also sold our largest number of memberships on this day. So altogether a very enjoyable day. I even went to another program item, Bad Physics in SF and drew attention to my Sunshine rant . After dinner and drinks I went to another program item, a panel talk based roughly round The Tough Guide to FantasyLand by Diana Wynn Jones. Tanith Lee turned up half an hour late complete with wine glass to that one, which was amusing enough in itself. dalg and I went to the Canada party and sampled maple syrup liqueur and tablet, which are, IMHO, just heroin disguised as sugar. psycho_machia came up to me and in very dramatic fashion which is typical of him, said he wanted to talk to me later, but I didn't see him again the whole rest of the time.

Monday was a fairly quiet day what with rhionnach and cuddles_batcave having left already and everyone was packing up. We didn't sell anymore memberships for satellite_2, but we had done quite well over the weekend anyway. We signed up for LX next year and collected fliers for other cons that we might just have to go to to promote satellite_2. Fortunately didn't go home without a kiss and cuddle from the_magician.

We flew back on the 3pm flight, got home safely, went to Kilmarnock to pick up Pog who fell asleep as soon as his wee head hit the pillow. I think his grandparents wore him out.

Satellite 1's guest, Ken McLeod, will be doing a thing at Aye Write with his good friend Iain M. Banks on Sunday 9th March at 6pm. It only costs £7 or £6 for a concession.

Not rubbing it in, but dalg and I have got free tickets. Whoopee.

There will be a Science Fiction Convention called Satellite 2 (A sequel to the successful Satellite 1) to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing on the 18&19th July 2009. Watch this space for progress and more details.