Who I Saw, the Friends Page Version

[mrissa]

People from my friends page I saw in Boston:
buymeaclue, chance8088, columbina, cristalia, elisem, elizabethbear/matociquala, fairmer, katallen, mechaieh, msagara, msisolak, palinade, papersky, porphyrin, retrobabble, roane, sosostris2012, splash_the_cat, tanaise, timprov, yhlee, zellandyne.

That's a fair number. And I did not refuse to socialize with people who were not on my friends page. (Actually, three of the above are on my friends page as of yesterday.) So it is the merest fraction of people I saw. Very many people. Lots. Yes. Goodness.

People kept recognizing me from the back, so I really want you to tell me honestly: should I start using my backside for a lj icon? Is it my memorable side? It was a little weird, frankly. "We've never met, but I'd know her butt anywhere."

Also, people remembered me who didn't seem like they had any reason to do so. (This excludes friends-page people, since, y'know, there I am popping up on your reading list.) I did not narrow my eyes suspiciously at them and say, "Why do you remember me? I know why I remember you, but why vice versa?" But it was odd all the same. I like socializing with badges, though, because then if someone looks familiar, you don't have to stammer and hem and haw.

Also, um, I don't know how to say this, but...you people are shorter than I expected. I had a feeling this was coming when I found out tanaise isn't 5'9" and buymeaclue isn't either. But living in Minnesota skews my perception of how tall I'm going to be compared to the world around me.

Actual con report and pictures will go in my other journal (today for the con report, pictures...umm...when I can?), but I must confess that in addition to having a good time and seeing a bazillion and one people, I went to a Red Sox game, and it's a good thing, because otherwise it would have been the Girliest Con Evar. (Hmm. The Red Sox game could be classified as girly for some values of girly. Hmmmmmm.)

See, I spent the fall clothes budget in Boston. On clothes. Not in the dealer's room, either, so you will not see me attired in sloganed T-shirts and belly dancer's skirts for the rest of the year. It's just that...well, J. Jill was between my hotel and the convention center/the party hotel...and they put things on sale...and they had jeans that fit. Let me emphasize that: jeans. That fit. And were not -- as my last four pairs of jeans have been -- custom made for lots o' money. Half of J. Jill's size 4s are cut perfectly for me, and half are cut perfectly for me and a close friend to wear together. This year they made jeans in the former category, and I bought all the 4s they had in that style and many of their tops as well. Hurrah for jeans that fit. Last time I found jeans that fit, I waited to try to buy more, and they changed the cut. Fool me once etc. etc.

And the thing about the tops is that most of them go with one or another of my new necklaces. palinade made me a sparkly green one and porphyrin made me a shiny black one and elisem made one that turned out to be mine as well, though she didn't know it when she made it. And a Barrayar necklace. And some earrings. JewelryCon '04 for me, and I'm not a big jewelry person. I smiled fondly at porphyrin when she said her elisem necklace took her hand and wouldn't let go (porphyrin: "You laughed at me!"), but then my necklace took my hand and wouldn't let go, and her name is "Singing Them Back," and I already have the Artist's Challenge story outlined for her, and it's not my fault I own a gendered necklace, I didn't make her female. Also she likes petting. Also I have haiku earrings and also another pair of earrings for which I owe the elisem a story, and the earrings are called "'Oh, yeah?' said the rock sprite."

There will be pictures of my pretty new necklaces along with pictures of other people and their pretty new necklaces or just their smiling faces or whatever I managed to take a picture of at the time. Which was, as usual, not as much as it could have been, as I'm one of those people who enjoys an experience less rather than more when photographing it extensively. But I like having the pictures, so there's a balance to be had.

And there's a phrase to keep with me for the rest of the day or week or longer....

Comments

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I'm always surprised I'm not 5'9" as well.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

So that's who J. Jill designs pants for. It's certainly not me, not even in the size 4 petites. They keep expecting me to have a tiny waist just because I have size 4 everything else. Glad the con was fun, though.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I have the same problem with other people's height. I always tell Mechaieh she writes taller.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Have you tried more than one style of theirs? Because the waist is the thing that's most often way too big for me in the cut-wrong J. Jill pants, although some of their 4s are cut loose all over. But these have a small enough waist, so I now own four pair and may order a fifth online because, y'know, they fit. So the moral of the story is that their jeans this season are not the thing you should try, and I'm really not sure what else.

Huh. I don't think I've ever tried on pants where everything else fit and the waist is too small. I've had pants where the hips were too small or where the thighs were too small (ahhh, Norwegian genes), but never the waist. Still, they had some black brocade pants I should have written you about last winter if the 4s fit you in the hip and thigh, because they fit me there, too, but had a straighter waist than I needed, and they were awesome, and I would have been less mad that I couldn't have them if I'd known you were running around enjoying them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Actually, she was one of the taller ones.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Mechaieh writes *very* tall. I knew her before I read her, and I still read her as 5'11".

Go figure.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Always? Do you duck for things you can easily walk under? That would be too bad.

The universe owes me five more inches. All best indicators when I was 10-11 years old pointed to me ending up 5'11". Ah well. That would probably make it even harder to buy pants.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Watching the Olympics I noticed the majority of the women athletes had undefined waists and big thighs. (This all was particularly noticeable on the volleyball players since they were wearing tiny bikinis as uniforms and didn't have anything like a boat, a horse, or a pool hiding them.) Picture that shape only much shorter and, you know, without the bulging muscles and zero bodyfat and you have me. (Yes. Just the same only totally different, that's what I said.) So I attribute my problems with finding clothing that fits to my working out. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

yes, it certainly would... :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It may also be your type of working out (and theirs). Some activities require more muscle development down through the waist, and I would not be at all surprised if rowing was on that list, though I've never done it myself to know. Or it may be that that's a body type better suited for [insert sport here] than proportionately narrow waists. It's hard for me to tell where self-selection plays a bigger role and where training has the upper hand.

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that -- writes taller

Would explain why I thought palinade was 5'10".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You were only off by, what, a digit?

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

One of these days. One of these days!

[palinade.livejournal.com]

I must have a BIG aura or something. Or maybe in a past life I was taller. Or I have a spirit guide who hovers above me and thereby gives me an extra boost from the aether. *g*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I imagine you are not threatening me with bang, zoom, to the moon, but...?

Sorry. :)

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

One of these days I will actually make it to WorldCon.

I've been reading reports from WorldCons over the past two decades, but have yet to actually get to one. :(

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i didn't see you, but then i didn't know i'd be there until the last minute, alas.

i never buy pants from j.jill. i do like some of their skirts and jackets, but pants are either (a) jeans or (b) j. peterman.

and, for the record, i'm just about 5'9".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And you're 5'9" in my head, too, so for once that works out. (I estimate a lot of people are about 5'9", because it's how my brain reckons "noticeably taller than me but not really tall." Then a lot of those people are shorter than me. Not sure how that works.)

I didn't know you'd be there until I read your lj last night, or I'd have made some kind of an effort to say hi.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

oh, no big. i got in late sat afternoon and stuck around till sunday night. didn't do programming, etc. i did see todd and debby! that was unexpected and weird and nice.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

People always tell me I'm taller online.