Well, we got back to the greenroom. I had missed a few cues, but it was still great. We could still hear the crowd of 500 screaming.

We got together with Nancy and watched the succeeding entries. Jean Grey (I don't know if I ever got her real name) came off stage, next. "I would have to follow you..." she joked.

"Hey, that's the best Jean Grey costume we've ever seen. And your presentation was wonderful. Short, simple, effective." She had done a great walk-through, hitting a few superhero poses, to the X-Men cartoon theme music. It didn't hurt that she had a body appropriate to Jean and masses of curly red hair.

We all sat down to watch the last entry. Remember that inflatable Tyrannosaurus? The Rex people did a 3 part "Kirk vs. the Gorn" routine, with Rex (the Tyrannosaurus) as the Gorn. Their last part completed, it was time for intermission.

When intermission came, we did a quick run to the little girls room. We got all sorts of compliments on the way, and a few people asked us to stop for pictures.

Back at the green room, we got a chance to visit with our MC. Oh, I almost forgot. We had a substitute MC. Corvus Elrod disappeared, only to be replaced at the last moment by, of all people, Cruella DeVil.

Cru was an absolute darling. I'm pretty sure no puppies disappeared.

Awards time! We don't care anything about awards, right? we only do this for the joy of the work, right?

Wrong. we're just as vain and greedy as the next person.

Workmanship awards passed. We didn't get any. Then again, we didn't expect to. Remember, almost everything on these costumes had been started only days before the convention.

Presentation awards for novice class. We spent the time looking at the winners going "That was novice class!" There were some really splendid entries in the novice class.

Presentation awards for journeyman class. These are people who have won a major award in a previous masquerade (at a regional convention or Worldcon). Again, there were some gorgeous and well-presented entries.

Presentation awards for master class. Because Nancy has worked as a professional stage costumer, this was where we were competing. We didn't win anything.

That left the big awards. They gave Director's Choice. It wasn't us. That left Best of Show, right? There was no way in hell we were going to get best of show. There were enough other good entries that hadn't been recognized. Of course, we did have the audience screaming...

We got called up. It wasn't Best of Show, because Jean Grey and this chalk-white demon were getting called up behind us. Jean had been part of another entry, as a sorceress with her pet demon Even in spite of tech problems, their entry was incredible.

Then we heard...

"The award for Best Performance goes to entry number 20, 'The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Spacelanes.'" Minicon gives awards for "performance" rather than "presentation." I don't know if the distinction is intentional or not, but in any case, we deserved this award.

We went out to the lobby afterward, to greet our adoring fans. We had adoring fans. Cool!

Some time and many pictures (a popular one being Bernadette's unshaved back) later, we went back to the cabana, to get our baby bottles of booze (see the movie). Then, it was time for us to do "Minicon's main drag, in drag" (again, see the movie).

We did one walk through all the open parties poolside. We ran into a bunch of friends, most of whom realized they knew us, but had a particularly difficult time trying to figure out who precisely we were. Most (at least the people who aren't a part of our Stitch'n'Bitch, and who knew about this beforehand) plotzed when they finally figured it out.

Bernadette went back to the cabana and changed out of her drag, but Felicia and I stayed up 'til about 2:00am, Gambling at Qvarks (a bar owned by this Minnesotan Ferrengi), chatting up cute young men, and just generally carousing.

All in all, it was an absolutely splendid time.

And I'm still not sick of "I will Survive."