It was another busy weekend I'll share with you.
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It started with manning a table at the local comic book store to hype the 2 major conventions in town: SoonerCon, the all-purpose science fiction and comic book convention, and OctopodiCon, the steampunk-specific convention. Between the 2 events, we handed out over 300 flyers in the 4 hours we were there. I also spent part of the time frantically stitching together my hat for the Day at the Derby function being held at Remington Park, and stitching the closures onto the bustle I made for a friend, and then a pair of spats I made for another friend.
Then we packed up and loaded the table and chairs and things into my trunk and it was off to the races!
I'd never been to Remington Park before. The racetrack has been here for 30 years? I think, and I'd never actually gone inside. I've done volunteer work there, and one year helped haul hay in for the horses, but I'd never been inside the actual race track before. They have a casino and several bars inside. Who knew?
I wasn't really there for the racing, either. I was there to see the hats.
Remington Park was sponsoring a Derby Hat and Tea, so I was there to see all the hats. Some of them were amazingly awful, and others were adorable. Mine, that I so diligently stitched while passing our convention flyers, was a lovely little country hat, plain, simple, and tastefully filled with flowers. Itzl's Derby hat was lost at the comic book store, so he had to have a back-sup Derby hat - which, for unhappy reasons got left in the car.
See, this rude young man decided he was in too much of a hurry to wait for the car in front of him to move out of his way, so he put his car in reverse, and floored it to get enough clearance to pull out and go around that car.
The only problem is I was right behind him. Even though there was enough clearance between us that had he looked and gone slower, he could have backed up and gone around the front car, because he went so fast, he ended up hitting my car so hard his bounced forward with a set of broken tail lights, a badly bent license plate, and a dented trunk. He jumps out of his car, looks at his, cusses, looks at mine and says, "You don't belong here." He gets back in his car and drives off. At speed. Like he couldn't be bothered with us mere mortals driving 15 year old cars.
I got out, looked at my car - yay for 15 year old solidly built cars - there was no damage, not even any paint chipped. Itzl wasn't hurt. I was a bit shaken - he was kind of rude. Security came along while I was still standing in front of my car, looking at it and told me to "move along". I told him that another driver had backed into me and then driven off. He shrugged and said I needed to move my car or he'd issue a ticket.
So I got back in my car, parked it, and went inside, totally forgetting Itzl's Derby Hat.
Once inside, I met up almost immediately with a friend, and we went in search of more friends - we had about 14 of us there as a group for OctopodiCon, all in steampunk hats of various sorts. We met a lot of lovely people, saw a lot of hats, and had a lot of fun.
She ended up being the Grand Prize winner of the Derby Hat contest.
These two people were helping run the Derby Hat and Tea. They were facing the camera when I started the picture, and thought it had already snapped the shot so were moving off when the camera finally fired - this Nikon CoolPic is very slow.
The lady with the black parasol was posing for me, and, again, thought hte amera had fired while it was still thinking about it - she won 2nd place. The lady in white (my friend), won best in show and 1st place.
This was the cutest little Derby hat there. I hope I see her back next year, she was a darling young lady.
These two lovely ladies posed for as long as my silly camera needed. They were delightful to talk to, and we shared some concerns over the political trend to disenfranchise women. And we talked about OctopodiCon. They were very excited about it.
This is the back of another friend's hat - the front was kind of blurry so I'm not posting it. Almost everywhere you turned was badly backlit.
The gentlemen also wore hats (some of them, anyway), and this was a member of our group there.
This hat was composed of Mardi Gras beads, tinsel, masks, and fabric. It won 2nd place for most creative.
These two ladies came together, the peacock hat won 1st place for most creative.
This hat didn't make it to the Derby, but she wanted to be there.
Most of the people who won were regulars at the race track, women who were prominent in the upper levels of the community, and well known to the judges. Some of them have won in previous years. As far as I know, all of them donated their winnings to some cause or another.
The event was one of good fun, silly hats, and getting to meet new people, kind of a nice break in all the stress and angst of being hit by a rude driver and desperately trying to raise $12,500 by the 14th to pay the first deposits on OctopodiCon.
And now, we plunge back into reality for you with some of these lovely comments from around DKos:
From Wee Mama:
A delightful thread started by lgmcp of just how horrible life will be when Obama is re-elected (at least if you believe Republicans)
From Angie in WA State:
This comment by Susan from 29 in TammyDuckworth's NFTT blogathon diary... the diary and the comment speak for themselves.
From brillig:
Joe Biden's has evolved, President Obama's "are evolving". Jed Lewison reports. Montreal Progressive explains what "my position is evolving" really means
From me:
Clio2 offered these name suggestions regarding women's corporations for sbdecker's diary on Uterus, Inc.
Susan from 29 offered this powerful suggestion to support our troops on TammyDuckworth's Diary Netroots for the Troops: Taking care of those who serve us
Top Mojo for yesterday, May 6th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic!
1) Can I say up front... by homogenius — 150
2) Let us know what you think of this week's by navajo — 96
3) luckily... by jbou — 90
4) He's my best friend by FrugalGranny — 89
5) One of our own Kossacks and a dear friend by SallyCat — 88
6) Well, here's the thing, HomoGee by KelleyRN2 — 85
7) Deepest thanks to everyone. by homogenius — 84
8) This has nothing to do with conscience by freelunch — 80
9) Sekrit Army is missing a member today......... by eastvan — 79
10) This is fodder for a campaign ad by fly — 78
11) Mittens is traveling the country saying by theKgirls — 73
12) I would like to see by Patriot4peace — 73
13) It means Merkel has lost a key ally by RFK Lives — 73
14) Yes by beltane — 67
15) Oh Hai Whoknu! Sekritarmy To The Rescue: by leonard145b — 67
16) Best. Acronym. Ever. by TX Freethinker — 66
17) A celebrity on the case!! This just in: by JanF — 65
18) Tipped, recced and republished to by ruleoflaw — 64
19) Ready had the potential to be the next... by markthshark — 64
20) Oh hai Bud! by KelleyRN2 — 63
21) No. by marykk — 63
22) Exactly Joe by Denise Oliver Velez — 62
23) Checking out every lead by kerflooey — 62
24) From the mouth of the founder of ALEC... by Glen The Plumber — 62
25) You capture it all quite well. by smileycreek — 62
26) I'll join that fine union, local 1848: by noise of rain — 60
27) The right wing is mocking Dems for "mandating" by theKgirls — 60
28) Absolutely by frankzappatista — 58
29) and even if he did by young voter — 58
30) Thanks, whoknu. by ursoklevar — 57
Top Pictures for yesterday, May 6th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!