Hyperfocus of the Week: Squatchcon!

There’s nothing like looking through your closet a couple days before you are doing something where you must look like an adult and realizing that all your tops have large stains on the fronts. I’m a spiller. Thankfully we have a couple decent thrift stores in town and in a ten minute shopping spree I picked up a few options for Squatchcon. 

Most of the week was spend doing little things like that. Making sure my notes were printed out in a readable font (which allowed me to go over the presentations again, and do some editing as needed); checking times online, then emailing because I was supposed to be in two places at once, then checking the website fifty more times because I don’t trust my brain completely; and then laying awake at night rewriting and reediting things in my head trying to make sure I didn’t miss the one thing that might really matter to my workshop participants. 

I am a show up an hour early and bring my own cords sort of presenter. Most of this is anxiety, but there is a healthy dose of experience in there as well. If everything goes well I have some time to decompress and chat with folks as they come in, which is what happened this weekend. (Worse case scenario was my grad school senior craft talk requirement where the campus server went down, I had to do the first half of my talk without my powerpoint, and then the intercom started telling us to pack up and leave every five minutes through the last half.)

Friday evening, I had back to back slots on the schedule. First with my teen workshop, then a Dm’ing panel. Only two kiddos came to the 5 pm class, which didn’t surprise me. We had a delightful time regardless—or perhaps because of—the small number; I love giving one on one advice and getting to answer questions that matter to my participants. 

The DM’ing panel was a different story. We had a packed room, and although it was billed as “DM’ing 101” everyone there was fairly experienced. That allowed my panelists to delve into a lot of fun topics like how to keep a lone wolf in line, and how to craft your own campaigns. There was so much interest that next year I am going to suggest doing a couple different activities like a guided dungeon build, and perhaps something on NPC’s. My friends Daniel and Rob were kind enough to step in at the last minute as panelists and did a fantastic job, so they are first on my list for next year. 

I had a leisurely Saturday, hitting up the friends of the library book sale with Violet, then making some fantastic BLAT’s for lunch. The weather was awful which gave me a great excuse for an afternoon nap and some board gaming with Moss. 

Sunday was my Writing Relationships 101 class, which was for a more mature audience. I showed up early and sat in on a panel on “which form should your story be?” It was sparsely attended (there were two of us) which shocked me as the presenters were amazing and had so much information to share. I came away with a couple great recommendations and a couple titles on my to read list. 

The room was mine after the panel and my folks showed up right on time. In fact we were so busy chatting that we got started a few minutes late. I wasn’t sure how my relationships class was going to go over as it is chart heavy (basically a summation of February’s relationship series) and not everyone is a visual learner. My crew seemed to enjoy it, and lively discussion ensued. We were having such a lovely time that we went all the way through our time and then half an hour over until the next panel was coming through the door. 

I scooted out by 2 pm and spent the rest of the afternoon down at White Crane building dungeons with Daniel and the kid D&D group. It was a great way to get some creative energy out and decompress after a full week of buildup. 

Am I thinking already about next year? Yep. Always.