Con+Alt+Delete 2018
Con+Alt+Delete is the early-winter companion to Anime Midwest,, and shares a number of its facilities. This year it was held over the weekend of December 14-16, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Rosemont, Illinois, one of the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
Because we didn't want to have to worry about forcing our way through rush-hour traffic to get up there barely in time to load in, we drove up on Wednesday. At that point, it had been just a month since my husband had total knee replacement surgery, and he was still very much in recovery mode. As a result, we had to stop at every rest stop on the way up so that he could get out and walk around to prevent blood clots.
Our biggest problem was getting through the Chicago area. We stopped to get gas in Merrillville, at a gas station we knew to have good gas prices, and he got out to do some walking. After that, there would not be any good place to stop until we actually arrived at the hotel. We had to hope it wouldn't be too long, since it would be roughly an hour in good traffic, but if there was a backup, it could become much longer.
As it turned out, we arrived in good time and were able to get checked in with little trouble. We'd decided to redeem some points to stay at a Comfort Suites, rather than go back to the Quality Inn where we'd stayed the previous year. We had a really nice mini suite with a king-size bed and a little sitting area with a sofa, as well as a desk to work on. The biggest annoyance for getting in was the tiny little bell carts, which seemed to be designed on the assumption that everyone would be flying in and arriving by taxi or rental car with at most two bags. It must have taken a dozen trips to get everything hauled up to our suite piecemeal.
Once we finally got in, we could take it easy for the rest of the evening. I heated up supper, and then we got on our computers and did stuff on the Internet. I also did a little writing before we turned in for the night.
On Thursday morning we had the hotel's complimentary breakfast, which was held in their sports bar. They had some really nice stuff, which made me think it was too bad we probably wouldn't be able to come back in future years, since it would be too expensive to pay rather than using points.
After that we had a fair amount of time to kill before we'd head over to the main hotel to set up. Since we wanted to make sure the maids had an opportunity to make up our room, we headed down to the lobby with our critical belongings on our luggage cart. While we were sitting there, one of the kitchen people came by with a case of bananas and gave us each a banana to eat.
In the afternoon we went over to the main hotel, figuring that we'd probably end up having to wait for quite some time. Instead, we were able to get in early for a change, so we moved the van over to the little lot by the roll-up door and started hauling stuff in.
That quickly turned into a slow, toilsome slog, thanks to the rain that was coming through, and to the thick carpet I had to push each cartload over. By the time I got the last cartload in, it was almost time to go, so I decided not to even bother to move the van to regular parking unless they actually yelled at us about it. I just went back inside and started building our structures.
After we were shooed out for the night, we went back to the hotel and got supper. I did a little bit more done on my writing before we turned in for the night, very tired from our exertions.
On Friday I woke up so stiff and sore that I could barely move. I was very glad for a hot shower, but I really would've liked a hot tub to soak in until the aches and pains started going down. Going through the breakfast line wasn't nearly as fun as it had been the day before, but I managed it.
However, I really noticed how hard it was to walk all the way through the hotel from the regular parking lot. With sore feet and stiff muscles, it seemed to take me forever -- and then I had to get to work on setting things up. My husband was admitting that he'd overdone it the night before, and now he was reduced to sitting with his leg propped up and ice on his knee, doing what little he could accomplish while seated. We were so far behind that I didn't even have all our structures built when the doors opened for sales, and by the time the dealers' room closed for the night, we still had several boxes of merchandise that needed to be put out. It was not at all surprising that we made almost no sales at all.
We went back to the hotel and I managed to get the van parked in a now very crowded lot and to walk back to our suite. I was hurting so badly I could barely move, but I still had supper to get ready and stuff to catch up on. I managed to get a little writing scribbled before bedtime, but I doubt it was overly coherent.
As we got ready for bed, we discovered one big downside to that hotel -- its conference rooms are used as party rooms on the weekend, and some parties last very late. Worse, the soundproofing wasn't very good, and the rowdiness from someone's birthday party was coming right up into our room. All we could do was turn up the white noise app on my phone as loud as it would go, set it on something that would resonate, and hope for the best.
Saturday seemed to come way too early, and even a hot shower couldn't completely loosen up my sore muscles. My feet were so sore I could hardly hobble, which really slowed me down getting from the parking lot at the main hotel to the dealers' room to get the last few things set up. Once we finally had everything presenting a finished appearance, the sales started coming in -- but there was no recovering the lost time in which we could've been making better sales.
On the other hand, I could finally slip away to get us some ramen from the con suite. There was something about that hot, delicious broth and noodles that made the misery of setup endurable.
By the time the dealers' room closed for the night, it was clear we were way behind the curve in terms of sales, and it was unlikely we would be able to catch up on Sunday. Unless we had really great help, we were going to have to start packing way early, effectively losing most of the day.
I got us back to our hotel safely, and discovered that yet again there was a party going on in the conference room, this time apparently a wedding reception. We got through the crowds and upstairs to our suite, where we had supper. I managed a little writing before going to bed, but it was mostly mindless scribbling.
On Sunday we had to not only get ready for the day, but also get our personal belongings out of the hotel so we could check out. We didn't want to fight rush-hour traffic on Monday, so we were going down to a hotel in Merrillville that we'd had a good experience with.
Just as I was about to take our suitcases out, my husband suddenly got profoundly sick. Apparently something he'd eaten had disagreed with him, and suddenly he had to clean up and change clothes, when we were already running tight on time. By the time we got everything out and checked out of the hotel, it was the time we should've already been there. As a result, I ended up dropping him off outside the dealers' room right as they were opening, and then getting parked and arriving way late.
Sales remained stubbornly slow all morning, so I started packing right after lunch. I asked a staffer about getting help for load out, but was told that they were strictly forbidden to touch any dealer's merchandise for liability reasons. So we had to find our own helpers.
At first a group of young people were helping us, and we were making great progress getting everything boxed up and our structures taken down. But right at six they all downed tools and headed off, leaving us to our own devices with about half the t-shirts still in their hutches. For a moment I was just standing there helplessly staring at their receding backs and all the stuff yet to be done. I was so exhausted that I was about ready to collapse in a heap and start bawling.
But I knew that would only get me accusations of trying to manipulate people's sympathies, so somehow I managed to force my way through the rest of the packing, even when my feet felt like they were ready to fall right off. We did get some help from some hotel people and from an off-duty staffer who told us not to let the con know they'd helped us. Still, by the time we had everything in the van and were ready to take off, it was almost midnight.
Driving down to Merrillville was a misery, with my feet so sore I could barely manage to push the pedals. While we were on the freeway, I kept the van on cruise control as much as possible to spare my feet, but when we arrived, I had to get into the hotel, and then to get our personal belongings in. I was so slow that it was after 2AM before we were in bed with lights out.
Monday we tried to allow ourselves a little extra sleep, but we were so exhausted that we could barely move at all. We did manage to get to the breakfast before it ended, but I ended up needing some rest before I could retrieve the van and start lugging our possessions back out to it. Even with a late checkout, we barely made it before the deadline.
The drive back home might not have been as physically painful as the previous night's drive, but I was still working on too little sleep. By the time we approached Indianapolis, it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I was very glad to pull into the driveway and shut down, and very glad another family member had stayed around to drive us down to the free community meal, especially since it was the Christmas dinner with no take-outs.
Copyright 2019 by Leigh Kimmel
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Last updated June 24, 2019.