Whew! What a journey we had to ConVocation 2015! Things started well enough through Wisconsin and Chicago.Then we heard a “fell voice on the wind,” just as we entered Indiana. A haze was on the horizon--kind of a fog across the highway. We went from 70 to 5 mph really quick. A glaze of ice coated the highway and fine powdery snow began to fall. It was slicker than ox slobber on a doorknob! If you've ever had an ox then you know of what we speak. Trucks and cars in the ditches...even one car packed under a semi trailer (no injuries thank the Goddess). We were tense!
Mrs. Moonyak floated the idea of dropping south to the toll road, thinking it may be more favorable weather farther from the lake. We adjusted course and it was a little better, but still a full blown winter squall. We were seat-weary and decided to pull off for a bite to eat. We exited the car to see a young gentleman filming the snow fall, on his face the mask of wonder common to those from snowless lands when they glimpse the magical white stuff. You know, the wonder that lasts exactly as long as they can still feel their toes. We went inside and decided quickly against reconstituted McCardboard. DQ it was, for chile dogs all around! We got our dogs and went back to the vehicle to consume them. We chatted and ate...then magic ensued as, Poof! I was done eating and she was only half finished.
"How did you eat that fast?" she wondered aloud.
“It's physics! They go down quicker when you don't talk,” I responded :-D
Two seconds of silence, then laughter! "Did you just tell me to shut up?"
I looked askance and innocently replied, “MOI?”
And we shared a good laugh every time it came up for hours after that.
All told, the snow, ice, and new route added 4 hours onto our trip. We pulled in, checked in, loaded ourselves up like burros to take our things to the fourth floor....whew! We changed and went downstairs to register for the convention, taking our first of many elevator rides down. As we checked in, a helpful lady sent us to the opening ceremony, which was already in progress, even though we hadn’t checked in yet. We had thought we missed it! It was so nice of her to help!
We managed to catch the last part of the opening ceremony, which centered on a brief history of ConVocation told in terms of the fool’s journey of the Tarot. Really cool! Then we were off to our very first class, a great talk on Indoeuropean Warrior Goddesses presented by ADF Druid, Leesa Kern. The presentation covered several different cultures and their contributions to the subject; Celtic, Greek and Norse cultures were represented. One fascinating goddess that we can’t wait to learn more about is Scathach [Ská-hak], a great warrior on an island off the coast of Scotland who is associated with the giving of weapons and the training of warrior heroes, like Cuchulain.
After that, we retired to our room and unwound from an eventful day. Sitting on the bed to chat, we noted that the comforter and pillows were down-filled. Or, as Mrs. Moonyak framed it, “feather-filled death sacks,” for these are most odious for her to rest on. We had brought some of our own pillows, and we tried to keep the down ones at the bottom. We made it through the night, but awakened with allergic reactions to the down nonetheless. The hotel staff was quite professional about it. They changed them out for regular pillows for us that day. Note for the future: request no down-filled items prior to arrival.
That wraps up our first day! Excitement, stress, hope, community, knowledge, and near death from pillows sums it up. Overall good and happy to be there and together :-). Tons more to come in future blogs, stay tuned!!
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