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Tag: Gally 2022

Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day Three

Thankfully Sunday got off to a smoother start, and I didn’t feel even slightly rushed as I had on Saturday. As is often the case, with extras like autographs out of the way, my final day of Gally was slated to be a day of panels, spent mostly in Program A.

We began with “Remembering Elisabeth Sladen,” where moderator Steven Schapansky interviewed guests Gary Russell, Sadie Miller (Lis Sladen’s daughter), and Tommy Knight. I figured beforehand that I was going to cry a lot in this one, but it never really drifted into the maudlin at all. At worst, there was a vague sense of sadness at the thought that she’d never really believed she deserved to have the success she’d had as Sarah Jane. It is simultaneously encouraging and heartbreaking to realize that even those we look up to suffer from the kind of imposter syndrome that plagues all of us.

Speaking of imposter syndrome, the next thing on my agenda was the panel about the Master, which I moderated. I swear when I first looked at “You Will Obey Me!” there were five panelists and I was not the mod, so I’m really glad I decided to look over the schedule and make some panel notes on Thursday morning! At any rate, there were three of us on the day, and I feel like I did a serviceable job. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and nothing ever went completely off the rails. Maybe I’ll put my name in the hat to moderate again another year.

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Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day Two

Saturday got off to a bit of a rough start, as I slept about two hours later than I had anticipated. Things worked out in the end, though, as (aside from getting my blog post up on time), I still managed to do everything I’d hoped to do before I needed to be anywhere in particular.

Before I was quite ready to move on my own, though, ConBuddy texted to say he’d already gotten in the autograph line we’d agreed to meet at, because it got long really fast. So I saddled up and headed down to the patio to wait together.

In fact, waiting in autograph lines took up pretty much the entire morning. Things thankfully ran more smoothly than they had on Friday morning (I think the con staff was finally up to speed on what did and didn’t work well), but there were still just a lot of folks who wanted these big-name autographs. There were a couple of panels I’d considered going to, but neither was compelling enough that I felt sad to miss them in order to get the autographs I really, really wanted.

Similarly, there was an early afternoon panel I’d been considering, but lunch ran well into that time slot, and I wasn’t feeling any urgency to get to the panel. So my friend group decided to have a little down time before meeting up again later.

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Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day One

After two years of essentially holing up inside my house, it feels weird to travel, and I’m suffering some serious cognitive dissonance on this trip. On the one hand, it’s a freaky step outside my COVID comfort zone (people? setting foot in buildings that aren’t my house for more than a couple of hours? madness!). On the other, it feels familiar and joyous.

From waiting at the gate to get on my outbound plane, where I came across a local(ish) Doctor Who friend, it’s felt almost like a regular Gally. The roommate situation is a little sparser than usual, but after I arrived on Wednesday, I got in my visit with my SoCal-based friend whom I only ever get to see when I come for Gally, and the Lobby already had that good ol’ LobbyCon feel.

Thursday my primary ConBuddy arrived, and as he is one of only two close friends who are attending this year (the other didn’t arrive until Friday), and there are no official con events until the opening social on Thursday evening, it was a pretty low-key day of hanging with ConBuddy in between stretches of chilling in my hotel room. We even managed the now-traditional visit to Aliki’s Greek Taverna! Then it was time for the Social.

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Confession #151: I’m Going for It

It’s February again, which means it’s the season for Gallifrey One. When I last blogged about the possibility of going to Gally this year, I don’t think anyone had even heard of the omicron variant yet, but I was still nervous and dubious about the advisability of going to an in-person con by February. I think I was equal parts hoping that things would be vastly better by now and that force majeure would kick in and the con would get canceled again.

But here we are beginning the downward slope of the omicron surge, no force majeure in sight, and just about as much uncertainty about the further spread (and mutation) of COVID as ever. The decision about how to proceed has plagued me for weeks, with some of my best friends deciding definitely to go, and others deciding definitely to stay home. In the end, I’ve decided to go for it.

I think one of the turning points was reading something about how one end of the American political spectrum tends to underestimate the risks involved in the COVID pandemic, and the other tends to overestimate them. As I’m clearly in the latter political camp, that statement made me sit back and think, “Am I being overcautious?”

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