Summation of Armadillocon

This year’s event was the first time I attended since 2004, and the first time I was a panelist. Conflicts with job-related events kept me from attending the past few years. I must say I was very impressed with the quality of both the panels and the guests. I was happy to buttonhole con chair Kurt Baty on Sunday and tell him that.
Considering that I’m not from Austin, and that I really work on the fringes of the genre, I am very satisfied with what I learned and what I took away from the event. Unfortunately, I probably walked on eggshells the whole time because of my bad experience last year when I attended the NASFIC in St. Louis and ended up in the ER Sunday afternoon. I have perennial problems now with allergies during the summer, and this is right at the time of the year when I get the sickest. Last year a combination of exhaustion and the unintentionally-bad idea of riding the train to St. Louis made my ear explode into a full-blown infection that took a month to beat down (I probably need to mention that when I have allergies, my ears get congested worse than my sinuses – probably a lingering side-effect of being a forceps baby).
This year I was afraid of getting sick again while out of town, but everything worked out for the best and I made it home safe and sound. Now onward to Fencon in October!