Hugo Day!
Worldcon does this sneaky thing where for the first three days it stretches out before you, you are surrounded by wonders, there are days and days ahead of you, and the idea that it will be over at some point is intellectually real but emotionally impossible to grasp. And then you wake up and it is Sunday, the last full day of the convention. If you’re lucky enough to be a finalist, it’s the big night! There is loads to look forward to, but also the day whizzes past.
At the reception you got one drink ticket, and a really lovely spread of appetizers. The crowd was a wonderful mix of old friends and new, people I admire and recognize but hadn’t met yet, and folks I did not recognize but with whom, I had brief excited chats with over their outfits, hair accessories, the food, some person we both admired spotted across the room, etc. There was a ripple of excitment when the Murderbot crew, including David Dastmalchian, who seemed very sweet. Convention staff did their best to wrangle folks for photographs, I vaguely remember having one taken.
Eventually we took out seats, the Hugo, Girl! folks on my left, John on my right, and after that John Picacio, Tomas Ha, and other folks. Meaning that at one point or another most of our row was up on the stage collecting a trophy. Neither John nor I did, but it still made for a giddy atmosphere. Thursday. T. Kingfisher did a great job hosting, and things generally went smoothly (pre-recorded announcements are definitely the way to go, Worldcons), and there were some fantastic speeches by many, many excellent winners. The seats were just hard enough to make it feel like it was long though, and judging by the amount of phone scrolling I saw I don’t think it was just me (lots of people were excitedly text messaging, but I definitely saw a few more tiktok dances than I expected).
And then it was over to the after party, we admired the shiny HGG rockets on our way back over to the Hilton, where there was champagne and loads of little cakes – of which I ate far too many. I chatted some folks I hadn’t seen in the reception, mainly ones who’d had other duties before and during the ceremony, went over stats with Tammy Coxon, earning a WSFS Data Nerd Club ribbon in the process, and plotted some future fanac with Jean Martin until things started to thin out a bit and we decamped for the Lanai Deck. With a long ceremony, the risk of spending too long at the after party is that you miss out on the real parties – which of course is a real “my champagne is too delicious” thing to complain about, but it meant that there was really only one part left when we arrived. Thankfully it was a good one though, Minneapolis in 73, where GOH Geri Sullivan was keeping things going. I spotted old friends from Gally and Bay Area fandom, including Gregg Castro, and had a nice time catching up. Made some new friends, including a local LA area fan who was at their first ever convention. Being someone whose first convention was also a Worldcon, this warmed my heart. Jason and I chatted about our mutual love of Joe Vs. the Volcano, I witnessed what a suitcase entirely full of flight-sized scotch bottles looks like (impressive), and I achieved the perfect convention level of getting drunk and staying up too late. It was glorious.
