Report is late because yes, I came back from the con and promptly came down with Covid.

Progression so far: felt blah Sunday night, normal postcon tiredness. Monday developed a putrid sore throat & congestion but tested negative. Fever & aches started Monday overnight, tested weakly positive Tuesday afternoon. Constant sinus drainage joined the party Tuesday & Wednesday, shifting on Thursday to sinus congestion & disgusting-phlegmy chest cough. Today I have more energy and my chest is fairly clear, but my head is a solid block of congestion and my sense of smell went completely AWOL overnight.

Which, anosmia has happened to me twice before with respiratory viruses, so it's not unexpected, but I still hate it. It's so WEIRD. Especially since I've been hypersensitive to scents the last few weeks, as is typical in autumn once the pollen counts drop.

Anyway. I'm on day 2 fever-free & only minorly gurgly-chested, so it's back to the brar (masked) next week per work protocols. When will food get interesting again? Dunno.

But due to the being sick and all, I've done exactly NOTHING since getting home except laundry and a lot of sleeping & reading. Which means I have a long list of postcon to-dos to get to next week instead of this one. But all that's for later.

So. About the con. Windycon was fun kinda in spite of itself. The hotel was a trainwreck worthy of its own post, the programming was, um, <redacted for diplomatic reasons> and the dealers room flow was wonky, split across two rooms with a cramped gauntlet of an entryway.

But it was still fun. My expectations were rock-bottom, so my weekend was made the first afternoon when someone came by specifically looking for whatever I had that was new (and because they hadn't done Capricon & I didn't vend last year at Windy, they went away with a copy of Sharp Edge. Joy!)

Other highlights:

I did critiques for the Windycon Writers Workshop again, and it was fun, informative and enjoyable again. Only two submissions to ur group, but they were enjoyable reads. I really like how I keep getting lucky & meeting cool people through it.

Had conversations with many librarian/library employees--so many that we started joking about the Secret Librarians Of Fandom (as opposed to the old Secret Masters of Fandom joke that runs around fan cons) So now I seriously may have to make up S.L.O.F. ribbons to hand out at Capricon.

Saw so SO many confriends I haven't seen since Capricon or even last Windycon, including Tavis & Weston from ConConction, and Helen (a librarian) who always drops by to see if I have anything new. Lisa from Dreamhaven Books came by and collected cool ideas from Dex & Rhiannon for porential programming at Minicon, so I might be doing MInicon next spring? I dunno.

Made new friends, including someone who runs a library SF book group that actually meets on SATURDAYS so I might be able to join. And someone who's planning to try & get my ebooks into the Milwaukee library system, which would be another pin on the "books in every library system" mapt that so far only exists in my imagination.

And, finally, I sold enough books to justify buying an awesome glow in the dark 3D printed dragon from the cool vendors across the aisle from us. (whose companyname I have of course completely forgotten, I must look it up for later)

If I start on all the shortcomings of the hotel I'll be here for another couple thousand words...it mostly falls under the "old building in need of major retrofitting being lovingly cared for by dedicated staff" umbrella.

I heard the last day of the con that a lot of things were being left unfixed because major renovations, including a complete lobby revamp & new elevator bank, are due to start immediately after the con.

Which, okay, but, still? Oh, well. At least they aren't tearing the building down next month. (Why yes, I have stayed in hotels that were demolished almost immediately after I stayed in them. It's happened multiple times, in fact. Last I checked, the count stood at 4, plus one that changed brands & got basically gutted & reworked.)

Anyway. On that cheerful note, a Pippin pic, and it's off to bed for me.