Start Time = Estimated start time + (half an hour * number of goths)
Duration of drive = (Number of km / top speed of slowest car) + (number of bathroom breaks * time taken to get all goths back in cars)
With 13 people and three cars, it took forever to get to Boston, but coming back, with one car and three people, even with a stop in Montreal, it went much more smoothly.
Mark was waiting for us as we pulled into the parking lot at the station, and Dave/Midnight soon arrived with Nancy/Delirium. Ryan and Sara showed up soon after, but we had a bit of a wait for Matt, Siani, Jen, Chris and Thea. They had to pop off and get gas before we headed out, delaying our departure even more. I'd sort of added in extra time for getting ourselves organised, but it was still hard to wait around before getting on the road. We were going to drive through the night and get to Boston in time to take a nap before the festivities officially started on Friday night. We headed out to Hamilton to pick up the last of the crowd, Kevin. We took over a Tim Horton's, briefly losing Dave as he peeled off to put some air in his tires. We managed to get all three cars (Sio's, Dave's and the van that Siani borrowed from her parents which held the bulk of us) across the border to New York state at Queenston with no problems. We hopped on the I90 and took the toll road all the way across. I drove for about 4 hours, and took a 2 hour nap at one point, and we stopped at various rest areas for food and bathroom breaks. Herding everyone back into the cars got harder and harder as the trip wore on and body parts became numb from sitting around. The van couldn't go over 110kph or it would start shaking, so we zipped across NY at a relatively sedate pace.
Siobhan, Dave, Kiernan and I shared a room, as did Nancy, Ryan and Sara, and Mark was across the hall. The van inhabitants lucked out and got a suite on the first floor since there were no rooms left of the size they requested. I took a shower and changed into clothes for a nap, but then I made the mistake of finding Nancy and going down to the lobby to get maps and such. The staff were very helpful and I got a colour coded T map to guide me around the public transit system in Boston. I found Cossak and Lisa/Opalexian and bounced around with her or a while. We ran into Amy/moses and Danielle/NoPulse23 who had driven 18 hours from Michigan and were in a room just down the hall from ours. I spotted Charles and Natalia checking in and Melody and Zach were in the room across from ours. I tracked down EdVamp and eventually found Kit, who I knew from my trip to New York the year before. I met Jihad and Thad in the lobby, and Althea also arrived around then. I amused myself by reading the signs on the room doors, as everyone had a personalised one telling the world who was staying where.
I never did get that nap, and Lisa and I went around waking people up at around 5pm. I changed into my version of a tuxedo and we waited in the lobby for Lisa to get ready and join us on the T for the ride to Man Ray for 7. Nexus arrived then, her flight having been delayed. We eventually accumulated a large crowd and headed out, passing Petro and Barb on the way to Alewife station. We dropped some people off at the Liberty Cafe and headed over to Man Ray, where I was told to go to Man Ray, went back, found Cusraque and got my ticket. It hadn't been mailed out to me since a pile of ones got mislaid in the shuffle, so at this point I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I stopped for a bit and chatted with Gabriel/V.Endure. Polly (in a pink prom dress) and Nexus arrived as we were talking, and Gabriel introduced me to Mike Heish who would be coming to Toronto at the end of August for a visit. I also talked with Thad for a bit, and we went back over to Man Ray for 8, but the doors weren't open yet. I got carded (no surprise there), but got in and had my ticket punched in short order. There were some lovely plums, bread and strawberries on offer in the vending area, and I picked up an official t-shirt for my SO who hadn't been able to come. I'm still kicking myself over not getting one for myself, but I was on a budget that trip. *sigh* I bounced onto the dance floor in the industrial room and danced to a long mix of an FLA tune, but after that I wandered throughout the space over the course of the evening, alternative between the vendor, industrial and gothic rooms.
I ended up leaving relatively early with Siobhan, Nancy and Sara, but despite a severe shortage of sleep on my part, I let them crash and wandered into the Tex.goth room since it was a non smoking area. Gabriel introduced me to a couple of people, one being Lex, a blonde that looked vaguely familiar. There was a very friendly atmosphere to the room parties, though the hotel staff wanted us well in the rooms and out of the hallways. When Gabriel took off to her local acommodations, I finally sought out my bed, getting to sleep at around 6am.
I ended up sitting with Ryan, Nancy, Dave, Sara and a cool New York goth who's name I never caught. I got there early, so I had some ice cream first. It was a bit of a crush, I only had one plateful before leaving to go back to the hotel to change with Siobhan and the T.O. peeps I'd been sitting with. Dave had driven so he braved the streets of Boston yet again to get them back to the hotel. I changed into my lace body suit and poufy lace skirt, with the newly acquired fishnets rounding off the outfit. I caught a ride with moses and got back to Man Ray around 8:10, but the bands had already started. I hung out with Cossak during Switchblade Symphony, I ended up standing around most of the evening, and signed up on a lot of mailing lists. I gathered my courage and introduced myself to Lady Bathory and chatted for a bit with her and Miss Jannette, then bought a Nightmare before Xmas key chain from her in the vendors market. During the Xtian Death set I sat and talked with Dan/Ph0ebus and Geneiqau from NYC. Apparently some pepper spray was released during the set, and Kristiina was very very allergic to it. My eyes and lungs were bad, but I managed to stay till the end. Matt/Xthlc, Bradley/Raphrat, and Will/TSM (part of the infamous cmu.edu's) arrived at one point in the evening, and I managed to corner them briefly to say hello.
The staff were a bit surly when the evening ended and everyone was milling about outside trying to figure out rides and find people, they kicked us off the sidewalk next to the club. I hung around, seeing if I could cadge a ride back to the hotel, but Dave had a full car. There were five of us trying to find a ride, four of them took a cab, and I hitched a ride with Jihad and Thad. I'd just changed back into runners to save my poor feet when someone pulled the fire alarm. I went outside, grabbing my purse, but then we decided to find an alternate venue, and Matt/Xthlc, Amy/moses, Paul (a local) and Danielle/NoPulse23 took off to Dunkin Donuts. It was freezing in there, so Amy and I huddled under her jacket while eating our icecream. Matt told us a long long joke, and Danielle told us a short version of a long long joke.
I staggered back to my room and slept for a whole two hours before getting up to go to the fade house party. At this point I think I decided that I was going to enter the "who can sleep the least all weekend" contest. I never said that I was all that smart, but I do hate to miss out on things. I made a small contribution to the Cauldron o Chaos gift swap that Columbine was orchestrating, and got a book of collected works by Poe in return. I owned it already, so I traded Eartha for a plaque, which turned out to be Siobhan's contribution. fade played, but it was loud and smokey in the basement so I wandered up to the roof. I had my first Altoid, courtesy of Kristiina. I had one of Evil Temptress's brownies to sustain me, then collected Purp (after some effort), EdVamp, and Siobhan to go to the Bile show. The doors weren't open at the Rat, so we went into IHOP and I had a Belgian waffle, but at that point I got tired of waiting around since Bile still wasn't on and I didn't want to miss any of the main event at Man Ray, so I took off.
I was there before the doors opened as it turned out, so I sat in line with some locals. James and others arrived and budded in. I made a paper iris and hung it on my laminate chain. Once they let us in, I browsed the vendors market, and bought a black leather and barbed wire rose. I collapsed on the couch in the gothic room for a while, and Dave found me there. Eventually JJ found me, and I found Dave for her. I watched the fashion show sitting up on the ledge with Nexus, Matt and Amy. Amy gave us glow in the dark stars and they somehow ended up on our foreheads. Ezrebet Transvestments was the best - the most fun too. The S&M show was hard to see, though Kalev explained it. The PVC was very shiney though. :) I talked with Jihad a bit, and caught Gabriel to say good bye just before they kicked us out. I snagged a ride back to the hotel with Amy and Matt. I hung out in EdVamp's room for a while with Lady B, Cusraque, Miss Jannette and others, but the room parties were quiet as the weekend wound down.
We got into Boomerangs this time, and I bought the dress off of one of the mannequins. We went to Newbury comics, and had a meal at TGIF where Siobhan and Mark both got carded and were duly flattered. We hit the Fluevog store, a candle store, Tower where Eartha was working and I picked up a Xtian Death CD for my SO. I was starting to feel a bit bad at this point, and dragged the two of them back to the hotel. Laudenum was gone, but we woke up TSM, Bradley and Matt, poured some tea and coffee into them and they headed off. I then made the mistake of lying down just for a second. I woke up 12 hours later, having missed the much anticipated trip to the candle-pin lanes next to the hotel.
Overall, it was an amazing weekend, though it was far too hard saying good
bye to everyone as they left. I ended up sleeping only 23 hours in 6 days,
which averaged out to 4 hours a night, skewed by that 12 hour power crash.