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I attended Scintillation! Many events happened while I was there. I will recap some of them.
EN ROUTE (6/8)
I drove to Montreal on Wednesday, because I thought it would give me some time to explore the city. [Reader, I was wrong.]. It gave me time to eat a Montreal Bagel, browse two bookstores, meet some other Scintillators, and eat delicious noodles across from the hotel. But I am already breaking chronological order. Because the journey began in Buffalo, and then I picked up another Scintillator en route, and we had a very nice drive. We had basically only met each other briefly online, but our drive went well and was, as is ideal for this sort of drive, largely uneventful. There was traffic when we got near to Montreal, and also a lot of French. I thought there was a lot of French in the cities nearby to me in Ontario, but this is not actually a lot of French, in comparison to Montreal. The discord was giving evidence that people were already starting to arrive, which meant my plan of spending a couple of pre-con days going off and doing my own thing was obviously not going to happen because I was clearly going to spend those days instead meeting the people I had spent the last couple of years talking to on a discord server and who knew all about my dog and random ups and downs of my day-to-day life, and vice-versa.
We got delicious noodles for dinner.
THE STORM BEFORE THE CON (6/9)
Part 1: BagelQuest
Many years ago, a friend of mine played a game where she would travel somewhere, and then post hints about where she was, and one time the hints she gave were "North America", and "bagels" and I said "New York City" and she said "no" and I said "okay, there is no other place that those clues apply to [Reader, I was wrong.]. At any rate, that is when I learned about Montreal Bagels. And I did not hear the end of this for some time. But please recall that it was my friend, not I, who was in Montreal, so I was not able to partake of them, and compare them to New York Bagels, and take a stance in the Great Bagel Opinions debate. Fast forward to now. This was my first trip to Montreal. So, of course, on my list of things to do is eat the signature carbohydrates (fear not; poutine will enter the story later). I woke up on Thursday and took the bus with another Scintillator (Eve) down to St. Viateur so that I could try a fresh sesame bagel straight from the oven. You may not know about me that I am very attentive to—some might say sensitive/reactive to—surprising textures in foods. And this bagel was a jarringly unexpected texture. So I determined myself not to judge Montreal bagels on this experience, and return to give them another try later. The morning and much of the day, it was raining. I had a rain coat, but my shoes were not rain-resistant. So, soggy-shoed, I decided I was still going to explore this neighborhood, which contained a used book store. And since it was not raining inside the used bookstore, I got to browse in a very thorough manner, I wound up buying a used copy of "Adrift in the Stratosphere" (1937) by A.M. Low, based mainly on it standing out on the shelf and the author having been a working scientist and inventor. I don't have particular reason to expect it to be an especially good book, but I will see! The owner of the used bookstore recommended a bookstore a street over as also worth looking at, so we went there, where I picked up Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. The latter was recommended to me by a very helpful clerk who had to deal with the request "I really like Saga, can you recommend something that has a similar feel to it, without being redundant, and also, ideally is complete, rather than still in progress." Also, this is probably a good time to stress that I speak no French, and everyone I met in Montreal was very forgiving (or at least piteous) of my monolingual state of being. I had not yet learned the subtle art of "Bonjour Hi", and so, was primarily signaling this with a panicked look on my face and "I am so sorry; I don't speak French, I am an American."
Part 2: In which I do not wish to be soggy.
This had been a day built into my plans to explore Montreal, however, the rain persisted. So, I returned to the hotel, went to my room, retrieved my bag of board games, and went to a large table in the lobby, where I told people that I would be happy to play board games if anyone was around. I then read books for a while until Tracey showed up and taught me how to play Backgammon! I won! But with-an-asterisk! Because for half of my plays if not more, she gave me strategic advice for how to beat her, so really Tracey beat herself at Backgammon while I learned the rules, but for purposes of humor, I am currently undefeated at Backgammon and have a perfect record. Other Scintillators were arriving. You probably thought when you read the headline of this post that you might get to read about the convention at some point, but you underestimated how prolix I could be! There is a trip to a grocery store at which we bought the (apparently) superior Canadian version of sensodyne, failed to locate the (known to be) superior Canadian version of me lots of beverages, mistook "batonnets au fromage" for "cheese bayonnets" and were very confused about how to to exit the building. This fact will come back in the finale. Don't worry, we actually start the convention tomorrow. Eventually. Very exciting for me was that I got to take a picture of four scintillators who knew each other (Caroline, Riley, Joseph, and Anthony), and post the picture to the discord to celebrate that they had all arrived safe and well and were together—in front of the Journey to the West relief—before we ate dinner together.
Extremely Earnest Digression: Friendship is wonderful, and there is an awkwardness when you first meet people in person that you have been interacting with online for around a year or so, especially if you have been socially isolated and socially isolating for much of that time. If you have been sharing your successes with them, and your frustrations, and your pictures of your dog, and your random thoughts, there can be a sort of intimacy and vulnerability. So, the first days, in anticipation, are abuzz with excitement and nervous energy. Tomorrow is a picnic, but tonight is just a handful of people getting dinner. Many of them know each other. I look back and want to retroactively calm myself down and tell myself that everything is going to be okay [Reader, it is!], but I can look back on the memories of that first night and viscerally feel the nervousness of hoping that people I've been talking to and sharing joys and sorrows with online will accept me in person.
The important part is that a con-wrap up post does not have to worry about spoilers, and I can tell you now, in this earnest digression, that the nervous worry was not necessary (though I cannot go back in time and undo it), because the people who seemed like friends, were, indeed, friends.
Part 3: Board Games!
After dinner, we played Fantasy Realms, which I describe as "sort of like fantasy gin rummy"—an explanation that has never helped anyone, to the best of my knowledge—and Shadow Hunters—a social deduction game and one of my favorite games, but which really needs at least 5 people to play well. Board games are great, and it was wonderful to get to play them. Fantasy Realms is pretty quick to teach (the goal is to have the hand with the highest value at the end, you draw and discard a card each turn and try to make the cards in your hand work well together to increase each other's values; they have a fantasy theme, so, for example if you have the Dragon card it is worth many points, but you have a penalty for having the dragon without also having a wizard card in your hand). It's a quick game and fairly easy to learn. Shadow hunters is a great game because it's a game where you don't know who is on your team, and you have to find out during the course of play, which is a great mixture of chaos and logic, This game was extra chaotic because Riley was given the one secret identity that is allowed to lie in response to the cards that help people puzzle out who is on which team, so many of us got very confused about who were each other's allies and enemies: the perfect game of shadow hunters!
I bet you thought I would get to the con itself at some point. Well, that's going to have to wait for part 2.
Next Time: Montreal does it's level best to deny tourists' access to breakfast . We shop for sandals and go to a picnic! And unless I say too much about those things: The Convention!
EN ROUTE (6/8)
I drove to Montreal on Wednesday, because I thought it would give me some time to explore the city. [Reader, I was wrong.]. It gave me time to eat a Montreal Bagel, browse two bookstores, meet some other Scintillators, and eat delicious noodles across from the hotel. But I am already breaking chronological order. Because the journey began in Buffalo, and then I picked up another Scintillator en route, and we had a very nice drive. We had basically only met each other briefly online, but our drive went well and was, as is ideal for this sort of drive, largely uneventful. There was traffic when we got near to Montreal, and also a lot of French. I thought there was a lot of French in the cities nearby to me in Ontario, but this is not actually a lot of French, in comparison to Montreal. The discord was giving evidence that people were already starting to arrive, which meant my plan of spending a couple of pre-con days going off and doing my own thing was obviously not going to happen because I was clearly going to spend those days instead meeting the people I had spent the last couple of years talking to on a discord server and who knew all about my dog and random ups and downs of my day-to-day life, and vice-versa.
We got delicious noodles for dinner.
THE STORM BEFORE THE CON (6/9)
Part 1: BagelQuest
Many years ago, a friend of mine played a game where she would travel somewhere, and then post hints about where she was, and one time the hints she gave were "North America", and "bagels" and I said "New York City" and she said "no" and I said "okay, there is no other place that those clues apply to [Reader, I was wrong.]. At any rate, that is when I learned about Montreal Bagels. And I did not hear the end of this for some time. But please recall that it was my friend, not I, who was in Montreal, so I was not able to partake of them, and compare them to New York Bagels, and take a stance in the Great Bagel Opinions debate. Fast forward to now. This was my first trip to Montreal. So, of course, on my list of things to do is eat the signature carbohydrates (fear not; poutine will enter the story later). I woke up on Thursday and took the bus with another Scintillator (Eve) down to St. Viateur so that I could try a fresh sesame bagel straight from the oven. You may not know about me that I am very attentive to—some might say sensitive/reactive to—surprising textures in foods. And this bagel was a jarringly unexpected texture. So I determined myself not to judge Montreal bagels on this experience, and return to give them another try later. The morning and much of the day, it was raining. I had a rain coat, but my shoes were not rain-resistant. So, soggy-shoed, I decided I was still going to explore this neighborhood, which contained a used book store. And since it was not raining inside the used bookstore, I got to browse in a very thorough manner, I wound up buying a used copy of "Adrift in the Stratosphere" (1937) by A.M. Low, based mainly on it standing out on the shelf and the author having been a working scientist and inventor. I don't have particular reason to expect it to be an especially good book, but I will see! The owner of the used bookstore recommended a bookstore a street over as also worth looking at, so we went there, where I picked up Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, and The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. The latter was recommended to me by a very helpful clerk who had to deal with the request "I really like Saga, can you recommend something that has a similar feel to it, without being redundant, and also, ideally is complete, rather than still in progress." Also, this is probably a good time to stress that I speak no French, and everyone I met in Montreal was very forgiving (or at least piteous) of my monolingual state of being. I had not yet learned the subtle art of "Bonjour Hi", and so, was primarily signaling this with a panicked look on my face and "I am so sorry; I don't speak French, I am an American."
Part 2: In which I do not wish to be soggy.
This had been a day built into my plans to explore Montreal, however, the rain persisted. So, I returned to the hotel, went to my room, retrieved my bag of board games, and went to a large table in the lobby, where I told people that I would be happy to play board games if anyone was around. I then read books for a while until Tracey showed up and taught me how to play Backgammon! I won! But with-an-asterisk! Because for half of my plays if not more, she gave me strategic advice for how to beat her, so really Tracey beat herself at Backgammon while I learned the rules, but for purposes of humor, I am currently undefeated at Backgammon and have a perfect record. Other Scintillators were arriving. You probably thought when you read the headline of this post that you might get to read about the convention at some point, but you underestimated how prolix I could be! There is a trip to a grocery store at which we bought the (apparently) superior Canadian version of sensodyne, failed to locate the (known to be) superior Canadian version of me lots of beverages, mistook "batonnets au fromage" for "cheese bayonnets" and were very confused about how to to exit the building. This fact will come back in the finale. Don't worry, we actually start the convention tomorrow. Eventually. Very exciting for me was that I got to take a picture of four scintillators who knew each other (Caroline, Riley, Joseph, and Anthony), and post the picture to the discord to celebrate that they had all arrived safe and well and were together—in front of the Journey to the West relief—before we ate dinner together.
Extremely Earnest Digression: Friendship is wonderful, and there is an awkwardness when you first meet people in person that you have been interacting with online for around a year or so, especially if you have been socially isolated and socially isolating for much of that time. If you have been sharing your successes with them, and your frustrations, and your pictures of your dog, and your random thoughts, there can be a sort of intimacy and vulnerability. So, the first days, in anticipation, are abuzz with excitement and nervous energy. Tomorrow is a picnic, but tonight is just a handful of people getting dinner. Many of them know each other. I look back and want to retroactively calm myself down and tell myself that everything is going to be okay [Reader, it is!], but I can look back on the memories of that first night and viscerally feel the nervousness of hoping that people I've been talking to and sharing joys and sorrows with online will accept me in person.
The important part is that a con-wrap up post does not have to worry about spoilers, and I can tell you now, in this earnest digression, that the nervous worry was not necessary (though I cannot go back in time and undo it), because the people who seemed like friends, were, indeed, friends.
Part 3: Board Games!
After dinner, we played Fantasy Realms, which I describe as "sort of like fantasy gin rummy"—an explanation that has never helped anyone, to the best of my knowledge—and Shadow Hunters—a social deduction game and one of my favorite games, but which really needs at least 5 people to play well. Board games are great, and it was wonderful to get to play them. Fantasy Realms is pretty quick to teach (the goal is to have the hand with the highest value at the end, you draw and discard a card each turn and try to make the cards in your hand work well together to increase each other's values; they have a fantasy theme, so, for example if you have the Dragon card it is worth many points, but you have a penalty for having the dragon without also having a wizard card in your hand). It's a quick game and fairly easy to learn. Shadow hunters is a great game because it's a game where you don't know who is on your team, and you have to find out during the course of play, which is a great mixture of chaos and logic, This game was extra chaotic because Riley was given the one secret identity that is allowed to lie in response to the cards that help people puzzle out who is on which team, so many of us got very confused about who were each other's allies and enemies: the perfect game of shadow hunters!
I bet you thought I would get to the con itself at some point. Well, that's going to have to wait for part 2.
Next Time: Montreal does it's level best to deny tourists' access to breakfast . We shop for sandals and go to a picnic! And unless I say too much about those things: The Convention!
