Arrived LA about 5 pm, plane late, not surprised. Any airline that routes you through Philadelphia to go from Toronto to LA can't be expected to do it on time. However, I can now say I've been in Philly. I found the place to catch the shuttle to the hotel and got on it, arriving at the Westin LAX about 5:25 or thereabouts. The less said about the flight itself, the better. There was a screaming infant immediately behind me and they showed a Jim Carey movie. Unfortunately, it was a bit impossible to walk out.
The first thing I saw as I arrived was a group of very Goth-looking young men unloading signs about fangs. This is how I knew I was at the right hotel. Inside, a huge banner in the lobby welcomed me to Dracula 1997. I joined a long line for registration and then saw my friend Lu approaching with her friend Elizabeth. I dropped my bags, shouted out "Wench!" at the top of my voice and grabbed Lu in a big bear hug. [And the scary thing was, given all the Goths wandering about, nobody really noticed! Good thing we had you skip the registration line. It would've taken hours, and you still wouldn't have shown up on the computer! I'd tell you about the reservation mix-up, and how at one point there were three rooms registered on my credit card, but I still don't understand it myself.]
They took me up to our room where I gladly dumped my bags and then I registered at the con, getting my little bag of goodies and my name tag. I was very glad for this, as up until then I wasn't certain what my name was and I was glad to have it written down for ready reference. The bag had the head of a very natty-looking Drac with goatee. It contained the program and other things, but not a booklet of the Count's Creative Writing Contest. This was my first experience of convention incompetence. A lot of people didn't get the writing contest booklet. But to not give one to one of the winners. . . yes, winners. When I had my bag in hand, Lu said "By the way, congratulations, you won third prize." Or words to that effect. [Actually, I said, "Should I tell you or do you want to wait until you see it yourself?" Anne couldn't wait. Surprise, surprise. . . ] She said the winners were published in the booklet, and that was when I discovered I didn't have one. Luckily, Elizabeth had two and gave me one. [Actually, I had two and Elizabeth ended up with one of mine, which then went to Anne. Don't ask. . . ] Actually, I knew in advance that I had won something, but I'd been sworn to secrecy, and I didn't know where I'd placed. I was, of course, hoping for first, but third's acceptable. :)
Having done that, we decided to go out for dinner and had our very first meal at Denny's. Our choices for dining out were limited, to say the least. We had a grand selection of Denny's, McDonald's, Subway, and Taco Bell. There was a restaurant in the hotel but only if you were willing to pawn your soul for a meal. [Yes--the other option was your first-born, but I decided I was pretty attached to little Demon Spawn after all.]
So off we went to Denny's, then we returned and I registered in the hotel itself--although I never did turn up as an occupant of the room in the computer. The waiter at Denny's was a hoot--we were all dressed for the convention and he wanted to know why there were vampires in daylight. I looked him in the eyes and said "Sunblock," cracking up the others. Upon returning to the hotel room, we found a message from one of Lu's friends that was most disturbing--Sandra Councilman had been hit by a car. Lu finally tracked her down to her hospital room and found that it was fortunately not serious, but poor Sandra had been struck while crossing Sunset Boulevard at a crosswalk, bounced off the first car and was thrown into a parked car. But for all this she sustained only bumps and grazes, the most serious being three bumps to the head that gave her a mild concussion. [And she delivered her paper on Saturday anyway, after staying in the hospital overnight. What a trouper.]
Elizabeth opted to sack out, and I went down to the opening ceremonies, where I listened to some Romanian music (they were great, but too much scraping fiddle and bagpipe music annoys my ears after a while), then Lu joined me after finding out about Sandra and we watched Elvira who came out and made some really, truly lame jokes. They ran some film clips narrated by her, and that was remarkably entertaining, and included a lot of clips I had never seen. But Elvira was wearing a dress slit all the way up, well past her thigh and even hips, and Maggie, sitting at a slightly different angle than we were later reported to us that she could see Elvira's bush. What a highlight to remember. :)
After the flim clips, they had an interview with Bela Lugosi Jr. Unfortunately, David Skal who did the interview isn't an interviewer, and Bela Jr. has no sense of humour whatsoever. [I don't know that I'd say that--he seemed perfectly charming, but didn't really have a chance since Skal kept asking straight "yes/no" questions. What can you do with that, other than smile and say "Yes" or "No"?] It was boring, both Lu and I snuck out and went back to the room and talked. We needed more towels and I needed foam pillows because of my allergies so we called maid service. Over three quarters of an hour later, there was still no sign. We called again. And again half an hour later, this time getting really angry, and the towels and pillows finally appeared, whereupon my head hit the latter and I lay listening to planes land and take off until the wee hours, totally unable to sleep.
Thus endeth the first day.