Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Birthday Party Celebrations Report: San Francisco - Xoanon @ 13:16 PST
Rebecca writes:

Having recently moved back to the Bay Area from Los Angeles, I took advantage of Frodo's and Bilbo's birthday to meet other Bay Area Ringers.

Coming from San Jose, I arrived at the Marin Headlands Hostel around 11 AM. People were already taking advantage of the food and searching for answers for the trivia contest.

The weather was pleasant and the hostel was much nicer than I expected. The decorations were impressive, especially the huge German Lord of the Rings poster. I had not listened to the soundtrack in weeks and it was nice to hear it again although now I have Enya and Smashing Pumpkins simultaneously stuck in my head.

I had planned to participate in the trivia contest, but I ended up talking to fellow fans and by the time I really looked over my sheet and was ready to start checking for answers, it was late and I decided to just continue my conversations. There were a number of Ringers who did not participate or rarely participated in on-line discussions and some of them had a different perspective than most of the fans I have previously met. There were also several younger fans. It is nice to see the love of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings being passed on.

Several fans came in costumes. Quite a few fans had a background in costuming and sewing and took the opportunity to share suggestions about the best places for fabrics, patterns, and other resources. Having not had time to make a costume, I settled for wearing a copy of The One Ring on a chain. I tend to play with any jewelry I wear and I started to slip it on my finger a couple of times to other’s amusement.

I helped correct and tally the trivia contest. We were a bit rushed and I was glad that my years as a math teacher’s assistant made me comfortable adding scores quickly.

I found some fans of both Tolkien and Babylon 5 and was treated to some imitations of Londo Mollari and Pippin Took. I noticed that Took seems to be a popular adopted name among fans.

I am on an e-mail list with Nikki Took and it was nice to meet her. She is really nice and a devoted Samwise Gamgee fan. It was also nice to meet Yarrow, Robert, Stacy, Lorraine, Ivy Took, and the rest.

I was impressed by how well the event was organized and how willing everyone was to help, especially with the clean up at the end.

Having learned my lesson at the TORN Oscar Party, I started taking pictures early. I'm going to use up my film tomorrow and if the pictures turn out I will post them. [More]