My own standards may require me to be even MORE prudish at Arisia in the future

[xiphias]

I've been thinking about how I do stuff at Arisia.

And I'm thinking that, well, I may well have to be a real prude.

Okay. I believe that, as a bartender, I have a responsibility to follow all alcohol-related laws and regulations, even though I don't have any responsibility to make other people do that if I'm not working.

All drinking at parties is apparently done in contravention of stated rules and negotiated agreements -- it's just tacitly accepted.

So, by my rules, I have no responsibility to prevent anyone else from drinking -- but I think I may not be able to drink myself.

I also realized that I don't flirt at Arisia. At all. I flirt other places, but because of what I do as a staff member, I don't think I can do anything flirty. I work in Massage Den, or, as it is officially known, Staff Support Services. I give massages to staff members to make them be able to, y'know, stand up and stuff.

Obviously, for therapeutic massage, there is no sexual energy. And rather than turn that part of me on and off depending on whether I'm working, it just stays off all weekend.

So -- apparently, my ethics require me to, well, be straight edge for the weekend. No drugs, tobacco, alcohol, sex -- not even flirting. I don't do coffee, either, although I do drink colas and tea, so I'm not COMPLETELY no-caffeine.

Comments

[redbird]

It seems to me that it would be acceptable by your rules to drink alcohol with friends at the hotel bar.

You seem to have more information than I've seen on those stated rules and negotiated agreements (not surprising, I haven't been to Arisia in a few years). That one group is having a technically-private party to evade rules on alcohol consumption does not mean that there are no genuinely private parties.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I was at some genuinely-private room parties with alcohol, AND I was at the party which served rocket fuel this year. Which was ALSO a "technically private" party which wasn't really.

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

There was a party that served rocket fuel? Where did they get the recipe? Who handled the hazardous materials?

AKAIK, only Cris, Crash & I are thus qualified.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Well, they served a variation. I believe his name was John, something like that. Big black man.

It HAD to be done. The REAL rocket fuel party wasn't held, as far as I know.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Yah, you may need/want to find a con for which you're mentally "off duty," at this rate.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Boskone. I only volunteer at Arisia.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Well, you'd be allowed to drink in the hotel bar, I suppose -- or something you brought with you. Just not whatever's being given out at the parties.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Just at the bar, actually.

[brooksmoses]

Heh. For the record, I suspect that my habits would make me more straight-edge at Arisia than your ethics make you. Although I theoretically would be fine with flirting at cons, in practice I'm far too shy and too much of an introvert (so I think there's been maybe one exception total, and at a very small con), and I don't drink colas and teas, and otherwise the lists of "no"s pretty much match up....

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Welcome to my life! Except for the coffee thing, that is. I do see one huge difference: I live this way because I'm happy this way (and allergic to alcohol). You live this way at the con out of moral conviction.

[phantom_wolfboy]

Rather than prudish, those strike me as sensible rules for the circumstances.

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

Ever so slightly off topic, but if it is ok with you, I will politely demand a delicious back massage when I am next in the greater Boston area (henceforth known as GBA). Back go splodyow.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Unlike everyone else in Massage Den, I have no actual certification in this, you understand, but I was grandfathered in on the "you've been doing this since the beginning and people think you do a good job" clause.

[redbird]

Also, I don't think you're a prude for not drinking coffee if you neither want coffee yourself, nor tell other people they shouldn't have it. That's just a taste preference, no more prudish than my not eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I LIKE coffee. I just can't handle the caffeine if I'm tired or likely to become so.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

This is *so* you. As is the fact that instead of one conrep to read I've spent an hour reading about your Arisia. *keeps reading fascinatedly*