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Ray arrived sometime around sunrise. I mostly slept through his arrival.
Saturday morning we presented ourselves in the lobby where most of the attendees who'd arrived assembled. The most impressive part of this assembly was the fact that so many of the people I thoroughly expected to be hungover to oblivion were up and various degrees of chipper. Our huge gaggle walked a few blocks through downtown following little cardboard Serenities held at the ends of yardsticks, and eventually descended into a subway station.
Did you know in Chicago you can rent an El train? I say again: you can rent and El train! We had our very own train take us all about Chicago, stopping to see the sites and somehow not disrupting commuter traffic in a major metropolitan area for the afternoon (at least, as far as I know). Our hosts even managed to decorate the train cars in old western style before the rest of us got on. I don't know how they did that. The train arrived, and it was decorated. Amazing!
After this we had a few hours off for ourselves, so while Ray went off with some new friends to explore the pier, Ammy, Karen and I wandered down to the big public park. Lots of skyscrapers and brick, glass and back alleys, American gothic and modern. For some reason all day I'd been put in mind of Batman, wondering how much of his mythic Gotham was based on Chicago.
By sheer coincidence, there was a huge Celtic festival that weekend (the headlining act was Mary Black, which should make my Plough friends chuckle). We listened to fine music, gazed a overpriced Celtic crafts, and stopped in at the ceili tent (where, I'm happy to inform my dancing readership, we participated in the Siege of Ennis -- I wonder if the organizers wondered who the heck we were before we dashed off).
After a quick nap back at the hotel, it was time for the Browncoat Ball proper. What can I say? Well, the food was much better, for starters. Western and blues played in the background while we ate, and everyone showed up in their finery. Many wore regular eveningwear, and some wore Medieval or Renaissance-inspired gear. There were some of us in the most appropriate period, Victorian. But the absolute hands-down best costume was a near-perfect replica of Kaylee's dress from the episode Shindig. Hand-made by its wearer, of course.
After dinner, us Californians stood up and demonstrated the Congress of Vienna. Then Ammy taught the whole room a series of simple dances, including the Grand March, Sellinger's Round, and the Spanish Waltz. These were a huge, huge hit -- Ammy seemed to instantly become the most beloved guest at the event, and everyone had a great time learning them. They enjoyed them so much that, in the awards ceremony that followed the dance lessons, Ammy was awarded the Ms. Persephone award (kind of a Firefly prom queen) and Ray won Mr. Persephone.
Next the dj spun up a long set of hits from the 80s and early 90s. The guy was bang-on perfect. Infectious song after song kept rolling out, and we couldn't stop dancing. Around this point Karen and I started consuming our wine....
Then it was upstairs for more episodes of Firefly in the Blue Sun room (around which point Karen and I started consuming our port...) and finally down to an even more rockin' night in the Bordello (around which point Karen and I finished our port, and were verrrrrrrrry happy). We crawled into bed around 5AM. Ray never did make it back to the room.........
Next exciting episode: The Tale of Sunday, in which our heroes eat breakfast and avail themselves of public transport.
Saturday morning we presented ourselves in the lobby where most of the attendees who'd arrived assembled. The most impressive part of this assembly was the fact that so many of the people I thoroughly expected to be hungover to oblivion were up and various degrees of chipper. Our huge gaggle walked a few blocks through downtown following little cardboard Serenities held at the ends of yardsticks, and eventually descended into a subway station.
Did you know in Chicago you can rent an El train? I say again: you can rent and El train! We had our very own train take us all about Chicago, stopping to see the sites and somehow not disrupting commuter traffic in a major metropolitan area for the afternoon (at least, as far as I know). Our hosts even managed to decorate the train cars in old western style before the rest of us got on. I don't know how they did that. The train arrived, and it was decorated. Amazing!
After this we had a few hours off for ourselves, so while Ray went off with some new friends to explore the pier, Ammy, Karen and I wandered down to the big public park. Lots of skyscrapers and brick, glass and back alleys, American gothic and modern. For some reason all day I'd been put in mind of Batman, wondering how much of his mythic Gotham was based on Chicago.
By sheer coincidence, there was a huge Celtic festival that weekend (the headlining act was Mary Black, which should make my Plough friends chuckle). We listened to fine music, gazed a overpriced Celtic crafts, and stopped in at the ceili tent (where, I'm happy to inform my dancing readership, we participated in the Siege of Ennis -- I wonder if the organizers wondered who the heck we were before we dashed off).
After a quick nap back at the hotel, it was time for the Browncoat Ball proper. What can I say? Well, the food was much better, for starters. Western and blues played in the background while we ate, and everyone showed up in their finery. Many wore regular eveningwear, and some wore Medieval or Renaissance-inspired gear. There were some of us in the most appropriate period, Victorian. But the absolute hands-down best costume was a near-perfect replica of Kaylee's dress from the episode Shindig. Hand-made by its wearer, of course.
After dinner, us Californians stood up and demonstrated the Congress of Vienna. Then Ammy taught the whole room a series of simple dances, including the Grand March, Sellinger's Round, and the Spanish Waltz. These were a huge, huge hit -- Ammy seemed to instantly become the most beloved guest at the event, and everyone had a great time learning them. They enjoyed them so much that, in the awards ceremony that followed the dance lessons, Ammy was awarded the Ms. Persephone award (kind of a Firefly prom queen) and Ray won Mr. Persephone.
Next the dj spun up a long set of hits from the 80s and early 90s. The guy was bang-on perfect. Infectious song after song kept rolling out, and we couldn't stop dancing. Around this point Karen and I started consuming our wine....
Then it was upstairs for more episodes of Firefly in the Blue Sun room (around which point Karen and I started consuming our port...) and finally down to an even more rockin' night in the Bordello (around which point Karen and I finished our port, and were verrrrrrrrry happy). We crawled into bed around 5AM. Ray never did make it back to the room.........
Next exciting episode: The Tale of Sunday, in which our heroes eat breakfast and avail themselves of public transport.
