8:44 p.m. | 2003-10-22 On And On It Goes, When It�ll End No One Knows. Yes, I�m still talking about JournalCon because, well, I haven�t finished telling my story. Heh. So, Friday night. First, I wanted to back up and mention that I met Leebo Zeebo at the meet-n-greet in the Chambers Bar. Which is also where I first met Biensoul and a whole bunch of other people. I consider myself lucky as Leebo was doing a guest appearance thing and his presence was fleeting. I�m just glad I got a chance to meet him because he�s a cutie and one of the Cool Kids. But, back to the bar which, coincidentally, is where Trance and I decided to hang out for the evening. We mixed and mingled with other JournalCon folks. Later on, Mare, Sundry and Chauffi joined us after they returned from the Austin Bad Bar. We spent a bit of time talking and a whole lot of time laughing. Huge, loud laughter that echoed all the way up to the 20th Floor where I heard there was this creepy Diaryland guy sleeping on the roof. Eventually, Trance and I went up to our room and, well, collapsed. We slept in and then headed downstairs for lunch. As we were walking through the lobby we saw Sundry kick some weirdo in the balls and, of course, he fell flat on his face on the floor � which I found personally funny as it�s not unheard of for me to fall flat on my face. But, it�s usually not because I�ve been kicked, but falling is just funny, you know? Anyway, as we walked past this guy, he started talking to Trance but she shhh�d him. I was surprised she knew him, but whatever. He did look kind of familiar. Anyway, we had lunch at the Omni Restaurant with Biensoul. We were waited on by the young hottie Austin � who we called Austin Austin because we are so very cool. And extremely original. He was great and I think he really enjoyed Trance�s verbal abuse especially since he kept coming back for more. (Really, he was smitten.) After lunch, we talked about attending a panel but oddly, there was some strange magnetic force that pulled us straight back to the Omni Lounge. While we were talking, we were joined by the lovely Angeline and the lively Molly. Then, suddenly, mimosas appeared. Funny things happen like that at JournalCon. It�s magical, I tell you. I excused myself to go call Tuff to see how she was recovering from her surgery. The surgery went well but unfortunately, she wasn�t able to join us because she was in quite a bit of pain and whatnot. Frankly, if she�s not at next years JournalCon, I�m gonna hunt her down and beat the living shit out of her. Anyway, I went downstairs and settled back in time to witness the showdown between Weet and Ladee Leroy. I even got to meet the uber cool and fantastique Ladee. Then we attended a great panel but had to leave because Trance and I were both having some serious muscle spasms. But see, we did attend a panel. Go us! Eventually, Trance, Mare, Biensoul and I headed out for dinner. We didn�t have any idea where we were going so we wandered towards Congress. We walked a couple of blocks and pondered about where Congress Street might be. Trance, being all bold and stuff, walked up to a transient/crazy guy and asked him where Congress Street was. He looked quite confused and ran off because he was skeered. Well, Trance did have her cane and all, and let me tell you, she certainly knows how to hit people with it. Trust me on that one. Hell, she almost �accidentally� decapitated me a couple of times. Anyway, either Mare or Bien (I forget which one) asked a young lady who looked at us a little oddly before telling us that we were on Congress. Damn Austin and its lack of signage. We ended up at Louie�s where we enjoyed a dinner of very decadent Italian cuisine. When we headed in, we joined up with a couple of lovely journalers but, for the life of me, I can�t remember their diary names or their real names. They were cool though, so if either of you are reading this, drop me a line. Following dinner, we headed straight to The Hideout to watch Ladee Leroy and others perform. Let me just say, the Ladee rocked the house. Several of us very suddenly proclaimed that we wanted to marry her. She was followed by Kim who also provided a great performance complete with tall jokes. I love me some tall jokes because I mostly hear short jokes � of which I�m the butt. Short jokes don�t bother me at all, but I like fresh material, you know? Omar ended the program with his film shorts aptly titled Uncle Pepe�s Home Videos. I thought I was gonna die laughing. Seriously. The Hideout Show was followed by karaoke, of course. I sat with the other Diaryland cripples (Weetabix and Trance) and was happily entertained by those crazy karaoke folks, the great people at our tables and, of course, by Mare, Chauffi and the Ape. At one point, Chauffi was behind me and when he leaned over to talk to Weetabix, he accidentally spilled some of his drink down the back of my pants. But, I forgave him because he apologized and got me a glass of water. Well, and because he�s just so adorable. Believe it or not, I�ve never been to a karaoke bar, so it was all new to me. And, you guys have probably now ruined every future karaoke bar experience that I might have. There were many tremendous singers and several unique renditions of songs including Invincible Girl�s I�m Proud to be an American which was United States of Awesome, and Montykins� I Still Haven�t Found What I�m Looking For which made me laugh until I snorted. I got a chance to spend some time talking with the amazingly wonderful Lucky and had a lovely quick chat with the absolutely adorable Anna Beth. Then suddenly, this guy (the one Trance shhh�d) comes up to me and starts babbling on about some CDs he made me a couple of years ago and I realized that it was none other than Uncle Bob. I tried to brush him off, but he�s kind of clueless sometimes. I was gonna smack him with Trance�s cane but she was up singing so I grabbed the nearest steak knife, because, you know, the karaoke bar was full of steak knives, it being in Texas and all, and I brandished it threatening to cut Uncle Bob�s heart out right then and there. He finally got the message and wandered off to bother someone else. Geesh, you�d think he�d get a clue. Anyway, a good time was had by all, so it seemed. We stopped to grab some pizza after we shut the bar down and climbed our way back to the Omni. Eventually, it was lights out. Unfortunately, I had to leave pretty early Sunday so I wasn�t able to say goodbye to everyone. I also didn�t have a chance to hang out more with several people, and I didn�t meet some at all. I discovered that JournalCon is quite frenetic and it might behoove a person to have some sort of strategy worked out before you get there. But, JournalCon, yeah. It�s a wild and beautiful thing. When�s the next one? your thoughts? seed flower