Terminus, Entry Seven. Summaries: Thursday.

[valis2]

*dives right in*

So marginaliana and I went to the Eleven City Diner for breakfast, and I had the most luscious and delightful breakfast ever, which was French toast made from challah with strawberries and bananas. Very ripe strawberries and bananas. And toasted coconut. And warm syrup.

After our fantastic breakfast, we dashed off in entirely the wrong direction toward the Art Institute of Chicago. Eventually we discovered our error and walked the rest of the way back (and then some).

They had enormous lions guarding the front doors! Clearly a sign that I was intended to go there.

The AIC ended up being very constructionary and a lot of the exhibits were hidden away, so we weren't able to see everything, but we did have a lot of fun anyway. The Ancient Egyptian/Greek/Roman gallery (combined for our convenience) was fun. There was a carved portrait of a man with a three horned hat, which, from the description on the placard, meant that he was a holy fool or a divine genius. I (of course) tortured Marginaliana by continually saying things like, "I'm a genius! Can't you tell? Look at my hat!"

I was telling her something about faience, and when I finished, the guy next to us asked me to repeat it. Only I screwed it up, but hopefully he'll never know, and I can continue to be Faience Expert Genius in his mind, even though I was not wearing a hat.

There was a fabulous gallery of architectural details taken from buildings in Chicago that were going to be destroyed, and I drooled everywhere. I would have taken eleventy hundred pics had I brought my camera, but I had assumed that photography was Strictly Forbidden, especially by rabid picture-takers like myself.

On our way back we were accosted by crazy slashers--er, djin7, aliciamasters, midnitemaraud_r (who gave me a squeeful button!), and more.

On the elevator I was told by one of the gospel conventioneers that the hotel was "a great place for Harry Potter people--it looks like a funeral parlor!" Smile and nod. Smile and nod. I have no idea what he was talking about. Or perhaps that was an unsubtle jab at DH...

Gmonkey and I worked on our presentation while overlooking a lobby, and that was fun. I was supposed to be presenting it as I would at the presentation, but I couldn't stop interrupting myself. And her. And this is not unexpected.

I put on my Stella Amethyst (drummer for Stubby Boardman and the Hobgoblins) costume, which has been upgraded from last time--I think I have about 2500 safety pins on it now, and I took off the electrical tape at the bottom and colored it all black. I also cinched the waist a little. I have no pics of this, so if anyone has any, please send them my way, thank you very much.

I went down to the lobby and wandered around a little bit, and a Muggle took a picture with me. Makes sense--blue hair, witch's hat, and with my boots, I'm six feet tall (she was barely five feet tall). I'm sure I looked like quite the freak, and she'll be showing it to everyone for days.

So then we went to the Welcoming Feast. But first we had to go through the hotel labyrinth. And we didn't even have a ball of twine. It was a seriously confusing hotel, y'all.

We started a House Rebellion and sat wherever we wanted. So Gmonkey and Loudmeggaphone and Marginaliana and I all sat together and I think only one of us belonged to the house whose table it was. Minerva and Alex from the Lupinesque Remuses sat in front of me. People started singing some sort of chant that I couldn't quite make out, and it traveled from table to table. When it got to our table, Alex encouraged us to just say, "Blah blah blah blah" in time, and I couldn't agree more. It wasn't like anybody could understand what they were saying.

He also said he hadn't heard of the Hobgoblins and I couldn't think of a comeback fast enough. He thought I was a real Wrock band. This does make me want to start wearing a Valismort t-shirt...

We were told that we were too loud (in a rather shrill and unkindly manner) and then the tables started doing the wave instead. Spirit fingers, too. The feast was buffet style, but they did not call tables, so there was a huge and gnarled line for each set of food, and anarchy was the rule of the evening. The food was okay, and not really worth braving anarchy for.

Oh, and we were very near mijan, who was dressed as Harry and, during the meal, someone ran in with a broomstick-shaped package and presented it. Mijan: "Oh, what could it be?"

I went to the Severus wake with Marginaliana, and yet again the pub was infested with folk singers. But then I ran into ac1d6urn and sinick and raventbear (I am probably the only person on LJ who knows who that is, lol)!! Sinick was dressed as Snape and Ac1d was dressed as Harry and she had an awesome Snitch purse.

Eventually we moved out into the hallway and talked with unsymbolic, who had leis. So then Unsymbolic laid lei'd Snape, and then Snape lei'd Harry, much to the delight of all those assembled. Raventbear has it on video somewhere.

Then Marginaliana and I went to hang out with bronze_ribbons, who was volunteering at Registration because she is a kindly soul. The table across from us was giving out free audiobook versions of OotP...however, to get one, you had to perform for them. We witnessed a highly energetic duel involving many shouts of Protego!

We talked about the state of fandom post DH, the growing Wrock phenomenon, and how people have been wandering out of HP fandom and into other fandoms like SGA, Supernatural, and Doctor Who. According to Ribbons I made some sort of joke about Hermione bringing the endless purse o' fun on the camping trip but not thinking to put any bagels in it.

And then I went to bed.