Okay, so this was my first time really running a masquerade. Yes, I ran the masquerade at ConClave In October 2006, but that all happened so fast (Literally I pulled it together in 40 minutes!) that it’s all kind of a frenzied blur now. However, I did learn a few things at ConClave that I took with me to ConFusion.
With Masquerade de Nocturne, I had the heads-up, and was able to make plans ahead of time. However, there was a lot of information I had to assume, or completely go without - until the very last minute - because the process of handing the position over to me was a little … shall I say, drawn-out. I kept running into questions that had no answers, or sketchy answers at best.
The first appointment I made to my staff was my best decision for the event. freon accepted the position as my Stage Director / Chief of Staff. Just as the time came to really buckle down and start working on the Masquerade I had to move. Normally, moves are a long, drawn out, messy, stressful process. Well, this was not a normal move. The kitchen at the place I was moving to needed to be completely renovated, and much painting and cleaning needed to be done to the rest of the house. While all of this was happening, I was staying with a friend, living out of a suitcase for a month. During that time, I was cut-off to the outside world, I didn’t have internet access, I didn’t have my own phone (I think I’m the only person in the world who does not have a cell phone), and I had very few of my own belongings around me. So, this move was even longer, more drawn-out, and even messier than a “normal” move.
That’s when freon stepped in! And, like he has been known to do for others before me, and will continue to do until his dying day, and helped me out. He contacted people to help out with the masquerade, found documents that had become lost in cyberspace, and pulled strings I didn’t know existed. Being a bit of a newbee to fandom, it was nice to be working with freon who is a veteran at this sort of thing. I learned a lot. Thank you, freon… accept it!
So, after many staff appointments, and a few dis-appointments, the Masquerade de Nocturne staff was finally a cohesive unit. I feel like I can safely say that we all worked well together.
One week before the convention, one of my judges, Megan Bouchard, e-mailed freon and I and offered to make buttons for the staff, stating their name, nickname, and position on staff. That was so cool! And they looked really good too! Thank you SO much, Megan and Al!
Like most things I do, there were items left to the very last minute. I had this great idea of awarding the winners at the masquerade with sashes - you get it, Miss America-style! - something that would show off the fact that they won, and would be a little more memorable than a piece of paper. So, I went about making my sashes. However, I began to run out of time. I had 3 more sashes that I needed to paint, and I had to pack up for the con. freon’s idea; take the materials with me! I could find a quiet, out-of-the-way place at the con on Friday night to finish them. Okay, that sounded logical… so I did that. And it worked! If you were at the convention on Friday night, wanted to see me and didn’t, that’s because I had set up shop in the lower floor of the Mediterranean room, and was frantically painting long strips of fabric. However, because I’m me, and I never am able to finish a project in the correct amount of time, there was still work that needed to be done on Saturday morning… and afternoon, for that fact.
BUT! All of the awards were finished in time for the show! That’s what really matters, right? Thought so! 
Okay, so onto the backstage horrors of the actual show. The ones I hope to God no one knew about until now!
The Junk Pile Wars workshop was all kinds of a mess! I think I have decided that the Mediterranean Room is not the best location for this event. Why? There are not enough electrical outlets! Seriously, what is it with hotel rooms not having electrical outlets? Anyway, that’s a rant for another time. We started setting up for Junk Pile Wars at 5:00. At last count (4:00pm) there were only 4 people singed up to participate. Okay, so we set up 4 workstations. No problem! I checked back later, there were 7 contestants working away! How could this be possible, where did they find the space, the plugs, the… everything!?!? My fantastic J.P.W. Referees; Mia and Shark, are ever the masters of ingenuity. They had people sharing space, and tools! So, everything was under control there - cool. However, when the contestants were brought to the masquerade muster, no one ever mentioned which door to enter through… so in the middle of muster there was this onslaught of contestants and that made everything just a little bit nuttier!
So, somewhere in all of the pre-show craziness I lost my script! The script that I had diligently filled out that afternoon with individualized introductions that I had collected from each of my judges. It was fabulous; I had done a great job on it… I put it down someplace, and lost it! 
Good thing I had read over it a few times, I was kind of able to remember what I had written. So, while muster was happening, I visited each one of my judges… again, and reconstructed their introductions. All in all it ended up sounding pretty good.
If I ever do this again, I have to coordinate with someone backstage about the awards. The order they are going to be presented. What item each person receives when they win. How to present the award to the person, and so on, and so forth. Once the tabulation was done, and the lightning rounds were finished, my comically articulate Master of Ceremonies, Davroz and I began announcing the awards. So, I would announce a winner, that costumer would come on stage, and there wouldn’t be an award for them… right away. So, there was much scurrying, and frantic-ness, but everyone who was announced got their prize.
For our final debacle of the evening, Davroz and I gave out door prizes to 4 lucky ticket holders. One of our winners in particular - Xaina - was overjoyed to receive her version of what freon had dubbed “Moonbase ConFusion, the Home Game”. Leave it to freon to find not-exactly-vintage sci-fi model kits, and pass them off as door prizes. But then again, a prize is a prize, and free is free. So, who wouldn’t want to attend an event where you could walk away a winner even if you didn’t compete?
I want to send out a BIG thank you to everyone who helped me out so much by just agreeing to work for and with me. If I’m crazy enough to do this again (and I think I might just be that crazy), I hope you all would be willing to play this game again.