Random Acts of Kindness
Apr. 28th, 2013 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anthimeriaFinal day of Nova Albion=as awesome or awesomer than the first two days! (It's been a long day, okay? Critique my grammar when I'm getting paid for it.)
The last day of a convention is always my BUY SHINY THINGS day, both because I will have had adequate time to peruse the vendor tables and because I'll have a good guess of what the con is costing me (there are always last-minute costs--or sometimes, surprising savings) and thus whether the money I have set aside is too much or, rarely, if I have more than budgeted. I probably circuited the vendor halls two or three times before making any purchases; a few vendors to whom I returned several times obviously recognized me and my very fine hat. Generally I try to buy from those vendors whom I've returned to again and again--both because hey, I've been ogling their wears and not purchasing!, and also because it's usually a good indication that I really do want whatever I've been eying, and will not regret the price tag.
So, morning vendor hall circuit and first purchase of the day, then three panels, including a fun writing-and-publishing-steampunk panel that nicely got down the business brass tacks and in which Gail Carriger (in her, I believe, third steampunk outfit of the weekend) kinda-accidently took over mod duties. Notes and other fun-for-writer-me things resulted!
Then the panels I was interested in ended, and I was faced with decision time: last round through the vendor halls. I made a pass through one and rejected two things I thought I wanted and ended up with another I didn't know I wanted. At the last vendor hall, I got to chatting with a vendor from whom I bought new decorations for my hat (it is not finished yet; there is not enough stuff on it) and a fellow congoer at her booth.
Said fellow congoer was enthusiastic about my hat and my outfit. We were chatting and discussing maker stuff and buying things at cons and I mentioned that I longed for a particular unique costume piece, but needed to save up because I work retail and costuming is not cheap. He sympathized, having just made a large costuming purchase himself, and then proceeded to whisk me off to the proper booth and finance my purchase, including customization, of said costume piece.
!!!
I was stuttery and flabbergasted and probably red the whole time. Said piece was not terribly expensive, as costuming goes, but well beyond my budget. He was blithe and kind and very much a people person; upon hearing I was at the con alone, grabbed the next passing person he knew and introduced us, with a remarkable lack of awkwardness. They in turn convinced me to go to Maker Faire, which is in ~two weeks, and which I've never attended. We exchanged e-mail addresses, he asked after my DSF story, and with, again, a remarkable lack of awkwardness of any kind, finished the transaction and left to join his friends.
. . . I'm still in shock, a bit.
It's definintely proof than humans can't be taken in generalizations; we exist in all parts of whatever spectrum you can come up with, and probably off it, also. For no reason at all beyond a passing acquaintance, he gave me a wonderful gift.
Not just the costume piece (though OMG), but a great story and a reminder to always pay forward that which we can't pay back. I can't repay the experience. One day, I trust, the universe will drop a similar situation in my lap, and I'll get to pay it forward.
Cons, for all their potential faults, have as many or more potential rewards. They are remarkable in that they create an instant community, with incredibly strong bonds given the incredibly limited time, and at the best cons, people in that community take care of each other.
For every time I've gotten side-eyed as a girl/feminist/queer, for every guy who makes suggestive comments about women's costumes, for every panel that gets derailed, there are fellow activists, there are men who shoot those comments down, there are panels that do meaningful work and reach new conclusions and new people.
And apparently there are fairy godpeople out there, too, for the fan who dares to voice a wish.
Glasses raised to Maker Faire, WisCon, and the hope of a Nova Albion 2014.
PS: If you see this (you know who you are), thank you.
The last day of a convention is always my BUY SHINY THINGS day, both because I will have had adequate time to peruse the vendor tables and because I'll have a good guess of what the con is costing me (there are always last-minute costs--or sometimes, surprising savings) and thus whether the money I have set aside is too much or, rarely, if I have more than budgeted. I probably circuited the vendor halls two or three times before making any purchases; a few vendors to whom I returned several times obviously recognized me and my very fine hat. Generally I try to buy from those vendors whom I've returned to again and again--both because hey, I've been ogling their wears and not purchasing!, and also because it's usually a good indication that I really do want whatever I've been eying, and will not regret the price tag.
So, morning vendor hall circuit and first purchase of the day, then three panels, including a fun writing-and-publishing-steampunk panel that nicely got down the business brass tacks and in which Gail Carriger (in her, I believe, third steampunk outfit of the weekend) kinda-accidently took over mod duties. Notes and other fun-for-writer-me things resulted!
Then the panels I was interested in ended, and I was faced with decision time: last round through the vendor halls. I made a pass through one and rejected two things I thought I wanted and ended up with another I didn't know I wanted. At the last vendor hall, I got to chatting with a vendor from whom I bought new decorations for my hat (it is not finished yet; there is not enough stuff on it) and a fellow congoer at her booth.
Said fellow congoer was enthusiastic about my hat and my outfit. We were chatting and discussing maker stuff and buying things at cons and I mentioned that I longed for a particular unique costume piece, but needed to save up because I work retail and costuming is not cheap. He sympathized, having just made a large costuming purchase himself, and then proceeded to whisk me off to the proper booth and finance my purchase, including customization, of said costume piece.
!!!
I was stuttery and flabbergasted and probably red the whole time. Said piece was not terribly expensive, as costuming goes, but well beyond my budget. He was blithe and kind and very much a people person; upon hearing I was at the con alone, grabbed the next passing person he knew and introduced us, with a remarkable lack of awkwardness. They in turn convinced me to go to Maker Faire, which is in ~two weeks, and which I've never attended. We exchanged e-mail addresses, he asked after my DSF story, and with, again, a remarkable lack of awkwardness of any kind, finished the transaction and left to join his friends.
. . . I'm still in shock, a bit.
It's definintely proof than humans can't be taken in generalizations; we exist in all parts of whatever spectrum you can come up with, and probably off it, also. For no reason at all beyond a passing acquaintance, he gave me a wonderful gift.
Not just the costume piece (though OMG), but a great story and a reminder to always pay forward that which we can't pay back. I can't repay the experience. One day, I trust, the universe will drop a similar situation in my lap, and I'll get to pay it forward.
Cons, for all their potential faults, have as many or more potential rewards. They are remarkable in that they create an instant community, with incredibly strong bonds given the incredibly limited time, and at the best cons, people in that community take care of each other.
For every time I've gotten side-eyed as a girl/feminist/queer, for every guy who makes suggestive comments about women's costumes, for every panel that gets derailed, there are fellow activists, there are men who shoot those comments down, there are panels that do meaningful work and reach new conclusions and new people.
And apparently there are fairy godpeople out there, too, for the fan who dares to voice a wish.
Glasses raised to Maker Faire, WisCon, and the hope of a Nova Albion 2014.
PS: If you see this (you know who you are), thank you.