#scarves!

SO. After all the mayhem of flying -- I got on a plane at 3:40pm on Thursday, and got into my hotel room at 7pm on Friday -- I ended up thinking to myself, “Oh, well, I’ve missed the first day of the con, but I can still go to the after-hours stuff.” (This was before I realized that the con was Sat-Sun-Mon, and not Fri-Sat-Sun, like other cons I’ve attended.)

On a lark, I stuff all six scarves in the backpack. Maybe I’ll bump into someone, and be able to give out the scarves. That would be nice.So, I figure out Bonn’s subway system (it’s called the Stadtbahn, or “city train”), I get to the con, and when I walk into the hotel, I think to myself, “Oh, hey, a silver fox. I won’t be all creepy and stare.”It takes me a few seconds to realize that I know this specific silver fox, because it’s Jed Brophy. (He really is very handsome, and I think he looks more handsome when his natural grey is present, instead of dying his hair.)Well, I give myself a chance to wander around, ask random people about when registration is in the morning, that kind of stuff. I think I didn’t really see anyone in the bar, except maybe William Kircher, but since he wasn’t one of the ones I was assigned to give a scarf to, I ended up backing away.Since I had already found Jed, and he was still talking in an armchair with a fan who looked like maaaaaybe he could’ve been one of Jed’s sons, I figured I would go ahead and give him first pick. He’s a Ri Brother, it’s totally allowed.So, I explain what’s going on, he’s incredibly touched, and I lay out the scarves on the table, and he picks the green-and-blue one, and then proceeds to wear it for the rest of the evening.I’m thinking to myself, “Sweet! I can find the rest of the guys, get this over and done with, and do the rest of the con!”

Alas, it was not to be.

Part of my trouble is the fact that I’m having trouble remembering what days I found people and told them about the scarves. I do remember talking to both Graham and Adam about the scarves, and both of them said that the best time for them to take them was during the autograph sessions (the first one was on Sunday), because they’d have the tables there, and they’d be able to take all of the presents they received up to their hotel rooms in one shot.

I ended up thinking of a plan to show them, “Hey, you can at least look over the ones that I’ve got, and pick one” (in Adam’s case) and “This is what it looks like” (in Graham’s case).

Now, somehow, I’d managed to track down Mark Hadlow at the beginning of one day -- I wish I could remember how. I think I just sort of bumped into him in the hallway, and “oh, hey, Mark, can I talk to you for a second?” or something like that. Anyway, Adam had already made his pick by that point (the grey with the diagonal stripes in the pattern), so I figured, “Good job on doing them in the correct order, self!”

Now, Mark and three others were about to do an interview with French press, but I ended up showing him the scarves, figuring that he could pick one, and I could just bring it to him at his autograph table, like the others. Mark picks out the blue one, and takes it right then and there. He wraps it around his neck, and I tell him about, “Hey, if you could take a twitter selfie, just so my friend knows which one you picked”, and Mark tells me, “I don’t do Twitter. I like keeping my breakfast to myself.” So, I say, “I’ve got my phone with me, and a Twitter. I can take a picture and post it?” and he insists on the two of us being in the shot. Click, and I leave him be, because the press is just about ready for the interview.

Later on, at his autograph table, he tells me that he wore the scarf during the videotaped interview with the French press. No idea who they were, or where the video will show up, but if you see Mark wearing a blue scarf in an interview at Hobbitcon, that’s your scarf.

So, it was at the autograph tables when I was able to give out the rest of the scarves, really, because I couldn’t pin down any of the others in order to talk to them. I had a hard time trying to pick whether Stephen or Peter should get the last scarf, but I ended up going with Stephen because his autograph line was shorter.

I was able to get my replica Orcrist autographed by the Company members at the same time, so it helped me keep track of who got scarves and so on. :D Adam got his scarf, and yay, he loved it. He and William had tables right next to each other, and that was pretty awesome. (Both Jed and Graham ended up testing the weight of the replica and nodding to themselves before autographing it, hee hee.)

Jed already had his, I gave Graham his, and I reminded him to twitter-selfie when he had a chance (I mentioned it to Adam too). Then I came across Ken’s table, explained the scarves, and he asked me which one he should take. I rather thought he might like the grey squishy one, so I suggested that, and since he didn’t have a Twitter, I took his picture as well. :D

Stephen and Peter’s tables were right next to each other, but Peter had this tremendous line for some reason, so I ducked into Stephen’s line and was like, “Do you wear scarves at all?” and he was like, “Oh, yeah. I meant to get one while I was here, but I keep forgetting.” “Awesome! Here you go!” and I explain the twitter-selfie thing, and yadda yadda.

And that was it, basically? Now that I think about it, I really should’ve taken pictures of the guys and just posted them on twitter with them tagged, because I don’t know if any of them are going to remember to take twitter-selfies. I tried a light poke to the guys, to which only Graham actually replied (and he didn’t post a picture), so if I have another present-giving assignment, I’ll remember for next time.