And so the Story continues ...

Back for another year of convention fun 2003 highlights.

"And so the story begins" 

Star-e eyed expression takes on a completely new meaning when the lights go out. In a city of darkness at a table lit by candlelight I told God “I didn’t work seven days straight for nothing, is there any reason in particular you decided to turn the power off tonight of all nights.” His silence said it all. We are pioneers, survivors, and we can do anything we set our hearts too, and my heart was already in Pennsylvania. It was just a matter of getting the rest of me there.

As wrilly and I lit more candles in the house, we could see the light. Finding the items that we wanted to pack was a whole other story. By ten p.m. we were packed, still without hydro. At times like this, you wonder why exactly you threw out that old transistor radio that ran on batteries. We were in fact stranded in our own city merely because we didn’t make it to the gas pumps before the power outage. In the parking lot was a car that not only had a radio, but it ran on a battery, what clever designs those car manufacturers thought of. As we listened to the latest broadcast there was in fact two twenty-four hour gas stations in the area of the city that actually had power. The reporter was quick to mention that the line-up was extreme. At this point in time, a line up meant nothing, if at the end I could fill my tank with gas.

By two a.m. Wrilly and I were on the road dark as it was listening to report after report on the lack of progress that was being made. So many were out of power, and quite a few of them were supposed to be at the convention. Just before we reached the border, it was announced that the border crossings were once again open. It was sure to be clear sailing from here.

As dawn broke we were in the state of Pennsylvania, and the tiredness was replaced with excitement. At noon, we pulled into the Sheraton Park Ridge Hotel with a sigh of relief. As Wrilly and I peaked our heads through the doorway of the hospitality room, we saw The StoryMaster , The StoryMistress and catwoman buzzing about. There was another woman who sat diligently writing things down. Suddenly we were spotted and broad smiles emerged. None to soon it was announced the woman was rickysgranny. With hugs and so glad you made it passed around in abundance.

Lunch was served and as we sat eating, a tiny woman with long hair and sunglasses walked through the door announcing that she was gailey . Another round of hugs broke out. yesnomaybe arrived shortly thereafter and we marveled at the resemblance between Gailey and Tidbit, for sure they could have been related. It was soon after this that the pool beckoned to us and it was back to our room to retrieve our swimsuits. So many had arrived during the interim, and more were cooling in the pool. Also during this time we found out a few were still stranded in their hometowns due to the power outage.

The afternoon was filled with hugs of delight from those that attended last year to welcome hugs for the newbies. Soon it was time to return to our rooms and get ready for the Welcome dinner and Birthday party. Standing at the doorway of the Washington room was the StoryMaster and the StoryMistress welcoming all their guests to the convention of 2003. Just inside the room stood a table with decorated party hats with our names on them, and inside the hat revealed the table at which we would sit for the night. My table included Wrilly Wenston and Gailey, the rest of our guests were unfortunately not going to arrive in time for this year. Dinner was served, with desert extraordinaire. Party favours were broken and noisemakers and candy poured across each table. It did not take long for everyone to get into the spirit of the party.

The D.J. started to play his music, and while a few got up to dance, most were still mellow at this point exhausted from their travels. Little did we know that the D.J. would have a few surprises of his own? Traveling light as most of us did, his surprise of a scavenger hunt was most entertaining as members pulled just about anything out for the items he announced. But it did not end there for as the hunt continued the D.J. was developing a whole other surprise for later on. Somewhere it was discovered that RickyGranny was a biker mama, and auric the condom man, and Wannabe as the porn queen, I’m not sure exactly what (the StoryMaster’s future brother-inlaw) Craig M. had done, but he got into the mix as well. With the four of us standing on the dance floor in anticipation, we knew we were in for something that would make the other members experiences an enjoyable one. As the D.J. placed a cassette tape in front of each of us, we had visions of pushing it across the floor on our hands and knees with our noses. No such luck enters the D.J. assistant who presented us with a banana on a ribbon.

They were quick to advice us this ribbon was to be attached to the back of our pants and with only the aid of the banana were we to get the tape across the floor. Laughter in the crowd broke out, and the photographers got in line to take action shots. I really didn’t see much as my concentration was getting that banana across the floor, and in one full sweep I did manage to get three quarters of the way, when good ole’ Granny decided she would not be left in the dust by a Mod. You know those Sr. Mod’s they do have a reputation to keep up. LOL …now as for our illustrious men Mark and Craig, well let’s just say they were no competition for us Ladies. Dancing continued as more members arrived. A huge birthday cake was brought out for the celebration as we marked yet another year in the existence of Writing.Com.

Those that were tired retired to their rooms, and the remainder continued to party well into the morning. Quite a few were in the bar discussing a variety of topics. Rumour has it that Zoo - Salted and Roasted arrived sometime around one a.m. and after checking in with his roommate The Milkman ; they decided to invade the quarters of RickyGranny and Tidbit. The rumour continues to add apparently, there was quite the pool party that followed. After being awake for thirty-seven and a half hours, I retired to my room for some much need rest.

This sweet person from the hotel called at eight-thirty a.m. to wake me up, but alas, I just couldn’t bring myself to get out of the comfy bed and fell back asleep. From what I understand, breakfast was served and some creative sessions had taken place. Joining the crew in the Coppermill Harvest restaurant for lunch was relaxing and from there, we headed to the Jefferson/Lafayette banquet room for the afternoon creative sessions. Being one of the last to arrive I had the pleasure of joining the table of Catwoman, RickysGranny, TibBit, Beyond the Cloud9 , Rick Dean , Rhyssa , and Diane . I was presented with a Writing.Com clipboard and pen with a sheet of paper with nine words listed at the top. The object was to create a campfire using those words, as your sheet was passed around the table for everyone to add their entry. Since I did not attend the morning session, I was not quite clear on the rules of play. We were given 5 minutes to create the first chapter of which I used every word in the list only to find out that I was only to have used one word. Always a Wannabe, one day I will get it right. Now the table itself had already had their first laugh courtesy of me, but still overall, they would have seemed the mind mannered bunch. Yeah right! Catwoman and her bag of tricks and treats soon had me in stitches, blushing, and unable to write not to mention speechless.

With one more session to go, we did a table switch where I met the likes of Rhyssa, ercole, Wrilly, John~Ashen , RickysGranny, richards, and The StoryMistress. While there were no surprising bouncing artifacts running across the pages of anyone there we did have some good laughs as the stories progressed around the table. With the sessions complete, we had some free time until dinner.

Most ventured off to their rooms, while a few of us made a liquor run. This gave me an opportunity to spend some time with GoCartCherub- St Louis U and Gregory S Willis as we mastered the streets of King of Prussia with directions given by hotel staff. We returned just in time for dinner in the Coppermill Harvest restaurant and then proceeded to the Jefferson/Lafayette banquet room for Open Mic Night.

As we entered into a darkened room a table sat with black ceramic coffee mugs filled with wafers and chocolate mint sticks for each of us. The stage was set with a soundman off to the side. Bright lights shone on the stage ready for the first act. One by one, the members stood upon the stage and marveled us with their talent. A story read by The HighRoller showed expression, and voice tones in a story cleverly written and masterly read allowed to us all. phil1861 literally fell onto the stage in costume and then proceeded to enact a civil war saga, again masterfully done. winklett , Rhyssa , Mark, and lonewolf2567 showed their vocal talents in a variety of songs. Write-fully Loti , slydogg, The Milkman entertained us with some readings from their port. Marie got the whole room to participate in a thunderstorm through snapping of fingers stomping of feet and patting of legs. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it was awesome to hear.

The final act of the evening was presented by our very own StoryMaster, who was quick to explain that he had been working on this magic act for the last two months and without further adieu, he requested an assistant to help him with the trick. A puzzled StoryMistress sat on a chair in the center of the stage, not having a clue what was happening. Well for that matter most of us didn’t either. StoryMaster placed a black hat into her hands and asked her to verify that it was indeed empty. With a wave of his wand and a few mumble-jumbled words, he then asked her if anything appeared. StoryMistress waved the hat showing nothing was there. With this, the StoryMaster told her to look the other way as he again mumbled some words. Again, when the StoryMistress looked the hat was still empty.

It was at this moment that the StoryMaster reached into his jacket pocket as he got down on one knee. The members were already in hysterics as they suddenly realized what the trick was really about. The StoryMaster spoke I’m afraid I don’t remember exactly what he said but he made mention to being together for the last six years and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her. The StoryMistress had seen him kneel, seen the jewelry case, and I’m sure heard his words as she slowly went into shock. With her jaw quivering, and her eyes as wide as humanly allowable she sat there as tears released from her eyes. She spoke no words; she just wrapped her hands around The StoryMasters face and kissed him. At this point, the StoryMaster still had not heard if she would accept and made the comment about is that a yes, and the StoryMistress nodded her head in a definite yes. It was adorable to watch, and very emotional. The StoryMaster made reference to which finger the ring should go on. Well I never have seen anyone react as the StoryMistress did. In one fell swoop the ring on her finger was stripped and her hand was perfectly presented to the StoryMaster. With the ring in place, they embraced, and then the eagerly awaiting crowd invaded the stage in a mass of hugs, tears, laughter, and congratulations.

With the Open Mic Night complete, the majority of the members returned to the hospitality room were floods of conversation and games began. A table of card players had some fun determining if the other players were lying or not. And another table raced around a board with marbles seeing exactly whom they could aggravate. Eventually everyone floated off to various rooms for sleep or continuing parties.

Night fled into morning as members attended breakfast before entering the Jefferson/Lafayette room once again, but this time it was for the auction. Tables upon tables of items were neatly spread for viewing before the auction began. As each person took their seat and held their auction number in their hands. The Milkman and ZooDuck were to be our Vanna’s and oh such a fine job they did. I believe though at one point Zoo got just a little carried away as the members cheered him on. We are blaming that on lack of sleep, poor guy, not sure if he ever did find his bed during the convention. As a group we are quite creative, from framed poetry, to self-published books, photographs, and water colours, t-shirts, scrapbooks, writing sets, quilting, specialty dolls, and oh so much more. The StoryMaster rambled his tongue in an array of dollar amounts as bidding wars began. Catwoman and jerry took care of the financial and recording of all that was sold, and trust me everything go sold.

With the auction complete, everyone took to the Coppermill Harvest restaurant once more to have lunch and plan his or her free time activities. Some headed to the Mall, others went to Valley Forge, and a few went into Philly for the downtown scenery. The formal dinner was all that was left for the evening, and many returned to their rooms to prepare.

As we walked into the Freedom room yet again sat a table with gold sacks of chocolate each identified with a name. Your seating was listed on the back of the gold coloured tag. On this occasion, I had the pleasure of sitting with Go Cart, demor, jjim, Wrilly, and scribe1. Dinner was complete and the dancing began. Soon after, the StoryMaster delivered a speech from the inception of Stories.Com to the now Writing.Com. I sure do hope he places that speech into a static item for all to read. Ms Kimmie got up to do our opening toast as the hotel staff went from table to table delivering a champagne flute monogrammed with Writing.Com 2003 Convention on it, another keepsake for members to take home. The Milkman was next with an introduction for Elaine who sang a congratulatory Birthday/Engagement song for all of us, but especially to the StoryMaster and StoryMistress. It was now time for the awards, however this year they were merit badges framed on a black felt back in a gold frame. Each badge had a gold star with a red ring embroidered and an explanation of the award received. ZooDuck once again walked away with our oldest member award. Andrea received the furthest traveled as she came all the way from England. I’m having trouble remembering who else got badges, but no one was more surprised than I was for receiving the First Pre-Registered badge. The StoryMaster and StoryMistress concluded that the dancing should begin again, but the D.J. had a different idea in mind. It turns out he was watching us quite closely over the weekend and had a host of awards to give out himself. Our very own StoryMaster, StoryMistress received the Writer’s Block Award for their vision, inspiration, and outstanding work with the site and the convention. Of course, the dancing continued well into the night with a conclusion of three songs done with all the members on the dance floor in a circle formation.

After that, we all headed over to the Hospitality room for a cool treat of ice cream. Of course, the games started to play once more with a round of members. Others gathered round the pool for conversation. Those that were leaving in the morning’s early light said their good-byes, while many others partied well into the morning. With a handful of members, we had a final lunch and filled our survival guides with the missing autographs. Soon it was time to leave, and with hugs and well wishes, we returned to our on-line lives.

And so ends another Writing.Com convention, it was a blast to say the least. So many members that I spent time with that have not even been mentioned, but then of course I would be writing way to long to reveal all that took place in just four short days. And we know that reading about something is not half as great as being there. See you next year!

"Writing.Com Conventions"