I had a pretty good time at Shore Leave despite being sick and alone. First, a rundown of who I interpreted for this weekend. I had William Schallert and Antoinette Bower on Friday night, and on Saturday I interpreted for Amanda Tapping, Carmen Argenziano, Corin Nemec, and Connor Trinneer. Today I had all of them again, plus Kent McCord and Jamie Bamber.

Yesterday night was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I didn’t find anybody to help me with my corset; the one person who had the time to help started doing something weird. When I asked her about it, the answer was quite discouraging, so I went back to my room and did it myself after all. I thought I did a pretty good job anyway, and I was pleased with my appearance. The first part of the Masquerade was pretty typical; the kids all went first (one had hearing aids in both ears) and received their awards before the adults began. There were a few major productions but the really good parts for me were the Giant Assimilated Tribble, the Purple Menace (Barney the Dinosaur done Star Wars style), and the woman who beautifully replicated Amanda Grayson’s costume from Star Trek IV. Once the presentations were over, the halftime show began. I knew it was going to be the Boogie Knights, and I elected to stand because interpreting peppy music while wearing a corset is not an easy thing to do while seated. Because I was standing, I was more prominent than usual, so I made sure to keep my hands moving even if I was just making up the signs. I had a fabulous time! When the judges returned, the MC thanked the singers…and the judges’ clerk stood up and yelled “and thanks to the interpreter, too!” That was the first of many, many compliments I received during the rest of the con…apparently a lot of people were watching me and liked me! One of the con chairs told me somebody sitting beside her during the halftime show had gotten her attention and said she should watch me for a while! Several people asked me “how did you do that?!” I told all of them at least part of the truth, which I will now collect here. First, having the set list helped (thanks, kradical!) because I not only knew what was coming next, but how close we were to being done! It also helps tremendously if I know the song they’re parodying (is “filking” an alternative word, filkerdave and vixyish?). I also do a little bit of lipreading when I’m having trouble understanding - if you see me peering at the performers, that’s why. And finally, if I’m completely lost…I make stuff up that fits the general message/theme of the song! But anyway, I received tons of praise for my performance. (Several people said my outfit was pretty, too!)

Today started out awful. I was still sick, of course, but while I was packing up I realized…I’d thrown away the stipend envelope they gave me. They gave it to me while I was eating lunch; during lunch I had to relocate and I put the envelope into the lunch bag to carry it along. I forgot about it and threw away my lunch bag when I was done. After I carried some stuff out to my car this morning, I went to ask if that had been cash or a check…and it was cash, unfortunately. They said to find one of the con chairs and they’d see what they could do for me. I was crying, of course (and I’m sick, so it was messy), and I went back to my room. I stopped briefly at the front desk to ask what happens to trash, and of course it was irretrievable. I called A and cried at her, and she said not to worry about it…I don’t need the money, really, and I don’t do it for the money anyway, and this kind of thing happens to everybody at least once. So I agreed that I would just let it go, and I went downstairs to interpret. (I also bought an IDIC pin to put on the vest I wear to leather events, just to see if any Trekkies notice it! It’s more subtle than a communicator, and I like the meaning…the idea to get one came during the one panel I attended during the con, which was about gay fandom.)

After interpreting for a bit, I went to the registration desk to see if the staff photos had been returned. If you’re working during the con, you don’t usually have time to wait in the autograph line, so you hand in whatever you want autographed and the stars sign them at night or before their first appearance in the morning. The pictures weren’t there, but the treasurer still was, and she asked if I’d worked anything out with the con chair. I told her I wasn’t going to worry about it, but it turned out the con chair was standing nearby and the treasurer called her over! They discussed it while I chatted with some kids who were interested in my job, and then the con chair came over to me and told me not to worry…they were going to replace it. She said that with all I do for them, and especially after all the compliments SHE had heard about my performance last night, it was no trouble to replace it. As the treasurer was writing out the check, she told me she was glad they could replace it because losing something when you’re sick and exhausted (I had mentioned while explaining earlier that I’ve been sick all weekend) is understandable. So I got the money after all, which made me feel really good…though not as good as all the compliments I got for interpreting!

I did eventually get the photographs; Connor Trinneer just put his name on it but Amanda Tapping put my name, “with love” (that was on all of them), and she put “thank you!” too, probably because I’d slipped in a note saying I was the interpreter. I interpreted for a bit longer before leaving for home. I am taking tomorrow off as a sick day, because I still feel like crap and my voice sounds weird which is no fun when your voice is an essential part of your job. I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the staff meeting in Silver Spring tomorrow night…we earn three hours of vacation by going (because it’s after working hours), and I want to see a few people, but I don’t know that I’ll feel like going. I can always say “I didn’t want to infect the entire staff” if I don’t end up going - and hey, that’s true too.

I am going to Shore Leave alone for the first time. Toadstool is still too weak to be left alone for the weekend, and the only other option would have been to put her to sleep before tonight. If she’d been in this state for a month, I would assume she wouldn’t get better, but it’s only been a few days so I can’t put her to sleep yet because she might still bounce back. So A is staying home with Toadstool, and I am driving up to Hunt Valley by myself.

I’ll be okay. It really won’t be much different from normal, because I am so busy during these conventions that I really hardly ever get to see A when I’m awake! But I like knowing she’s there, and I like going to sleep with her when I’m done for the day, so this is going to be a big change. I am bringing my laptop and a couple of DVDs that she won’t be interested in, so I’ll watch movies, I guess. Hopefully I’ll be able to afford the hotel’s net access, but if not I will hopefully at least be in a room where my Sidekick gets a good signal. I’ll have to get into this outfit by myself on Saturday night before the Masquerade, but I’m looking forward to showing it off and wearing it to interpret.

I finally bit the bullet and went pro on Flickr. Poof! I got 100 photos back, and a couple of sets I had deleted magically reappeared. I uploaded this picture of me at Shore Leave:

Now that I’m a pro member of Flickr, I get all kinds of new features. Not only are all of my pictures there, but I can also do batch actions, view my archives in new ways, and so forth. I haven’t explored all of the new features yet.

Another picture that I took earlier today is in hello_grumpy’s journal…check it out for a laugh!

Wow, I’m tired! I had a good time today at Shore Leave; I interpreted for pretty much the same people as yesterday. I also interpreted a “Terrorism in Trek” discussion that was pretty weird, because the moderators couldn’t come up with any examples of the subject matter! The masquerade contest last night was pretty good; I got several compliments on my dress. Unfortunately the deaf woman who was going to participate decided to drop out at the last minute, but she did win a workmanship award (”best first costume”) because those are decided beforehand by judges who scrutinize every aspect of the costume. The joke I was going to play on Steve Bacic backfired - I’d been planning to sneak up onstage and then follow him around the stage, but he didn’t move off the stool! Yesterday he was all over the place, but today he was just parked on that chair - oh well. I did buy a picture ($6 from a dealer upstairs) of him and I got it autographed. The two deaf women and the other interpreter and I all presented him with a copy of a packet with some sex-related signs, because he’d been trying to get me to sign them on Saturday! (That’s not the only thing he did to me, but I’ll have to write about that when I’m not so tired.) He thought they were just hilarious, and Jeffrey Willerth overheard the laughter from the next table and he wanted a copy too! So while another copy was made, he signed my copy. We then went over to share with Alexis Cruz, and I wanted him to sign the same paper…but his handler said he won’t sign anything for less than $15. Jeez! So I bought one of his photographs for $20 (good grief) and he signed it. Then we went to show Danny Strong, and one of the deaf women bought a picture of him for me (also $20) and he signed that. I think there is probably lots more I could tell but I’m pretty tired, so I will call it a night and tell more tomorrow!

It’s nice to be among my own people - I’ve been surrounded by geeks like myself for almost 24 hours. There’s a surprising amount of body odor as I walk through various parts of the hotel, but everybody is suitably nerdy. There was a great Kosh costume from Babylon 5 - the guy who played Kosh is here, and says it was almost as good as the one he wore on the show! There are many Klingons who go all out for their costume; one woman was in a Brute Force Leather corset. And somebody built a radio-controlled R2D2 that rolls, has blinking lights, and can play both the Star Wars theme and R2D2’s electronic beeping…and it’s pink! A girl R2D2, how cool is that?!

The major guests I have interpreted for so far are Alexis Cruz (Stargate), Patricia Tallman and Jeffrey Willerth (Babylon 5), Danny Strong (Buffy), and Steve Bacic (Stargate etc). The last one was truly evil and yet hilarious - I took some major abuse from him! It turned out that a hearing audience member was apparently offended, and went to the security desk to demand that the con director tell him to stop abusing the interpreters! Fortunately the director did nothing of the kind, and later the actor told me that if he had seen that I looked uncomfortable he would have stopped, but I was laughing so hard that he figured he was doing okay (which he was!).

I am on a very short break now, then I will try out my dress for the costume contest. I’m not competing, I’m interpreting, but it’s a good opportunity to wear a gothy funky dress so I will.