Chernobog in Minneapolis

Piano Concerto in E flat, 3rd movement – W.A. Mozart
Wednesday
A truly wonderful fan, Joe Agee, picked me up at the airport and that went very smoothly despite my nervousness about traveling. Let us skim past Joe & Andrew's House, pizza, and a coffeehouse to arrive at Larry Sanderson's doorstep. He is the much-honored co-chair of Minicon and so I expected the work party at his house to be similar to one for MileHiCon - five people working in Linda Nelson's basement. Instead, there were twenty people in various states of working, chatting, and eating. Larry puts out a very nice spread and this combined with the presence of our fan guest of honor, Sue Mason, may have had something to do with the surplus of labor available.

It seemed like most of the work was already done when I got there, but I took a few rounds collating the program book. Eventually there were too many of us going around the table and the process slowed down, so I bowed out to go bother Alison Scott and Sue Mason[1]. They are very fun people to be around, rather like my friend Rose Beetem. They have cheerful dispositions; they are kind to silly fans like me, and have interesting views on nearly everything.

In the blur I also met a number of people I've only known online, including Marilee J. Layman, David Dyer-Bennet, and Geri Sullivan[2]. But my head was spinning from meeting so many new people all at once and I did not talk that much with them. Instead I anxiously wandered about snacking, helping here and there, and generally behaving like an awestruck fanboy.

Andrew Bertke (Joe’s husband and President of Minn-StF) showed up a bit later and we struck out for their house and bed around midnight. Joe said I could sleep in the next day and he would pick me up at noon to take me over to the hotel. (Very nice of him.)

[1] Alison, Catherine Crockett, Sue with the back of my head. Photo by DDB
[2] Me talking to David Dyer-Bennet, photo by Larry
Sandra, Geri, and the Scott/Cain clan