Monday, July 27, 2009

RWA Conference 2009: Tuesday

All right, so Tuesday wasn't an actual conference day. But I flew in a day early and I'm damned glad I did, because if I'd had to do any of the stuff I did on Wednesday when I was feeling so massively exhausted, I'd have been totally useless. For someone who usually needs about ten hours sleep a night, functioning for 22 hours on four hours sleep doesn't make for a huge amount of wakefulness. Poor Jen must have wondered if she'd picked up a zombie from the airport.

In total contrast to the RNA conference, which has about 130 delegates, the Romance Writers of America usually welcomes about 2,000 members to its annual conference. That's quite a difference in scale, and is the reason why the RWA holds its conferences not in cosy college campuses, but in large city centre hotels. This year's was the Marriott Wardman Park in downtown Washington DC, a rather handsome, if unbelievably large and complex building. Rather than make a booking for Tuesday night, just so I could sleep off my jetlag, I stayed with my roommate-to-be, Jen, at her rather gorgeous house in northern Virginia. She and her husband Mike were very welcoming, and have a lovely English Setter called Ashley who reminded me that I do actually quite like dogs. Hmm, perhaps I could swap her for the Demon Puppy...


Tuesday evening, we went for a meal with my other roommate, Stacia, her husband Nick and their son, who was generally referred to as Munchkin (I do hope this is not his real name. Stacia and Nick seemed much more sensible than that). I'd love to tell you what the meal was like and even where it was, but by this point I was so tired I felt quite drunk, and was beginning to lose motor control. I do remember that it took me two tries to pick up my glass of Coke, and even then I needed both hands. Happily, all parties (except I think for Munchkin) had travelled across the Atlantic, and so knew what its effects were. I don't think any of them thought I was very drunk. At least, not so far as they let on.

5 comments:

  1. You were a very fashionable zombie. :)

    Ashley was excited to have her photo on your site. She says "hi." Well, actually she said, "bark." But Mike said that I speak "bitch" very well, so I could translate easily.

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  2. Ashley is gorgeous!

    And I still have difficulty believing you did the RNA conf and then went to RWA! I had difficulty finding the kettle, let alone another country.

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  3. *dies laughing at JT* Only Mike, you know, only Mike.

    Pup appreciates the changing of his name too ;) We had a blast and are definitely going to have to do it again next year! I was actually just submitting the workshop again for Nashville.

    And I agree with JT, you were a very fashionable and witty zombie ;)

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  4. America's easy to find. You just turn left at Greenland.

    I speak Bitch too, but all Pepper has to say is concerned with food.

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  5. I fear that on Tuesday I was a slurring and stumbling zombie, but it's nice to know I looked good ;-)

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