Dragon*Con!
So I've been home for a week, which means it's high time I actually post a con recap or I'm going to forget everything that happened.
Thursday: wonderlandchick and jengeorge arrived just in time for dinner and a selection of Cory movies which we mostly didn't pay attention to. Though we did pause the conversation long enough to admire Cory's running technique in "Hybrid". ::snort:: ♥ Cory ♥
Friday: We got up, ate more delicious food, and drove to Atlanta. After we checked in at our hotel (which was a total dive in Marietta, but the staff was super nice, and there were waffles at the continental breakfast, which made us think of Puck, of course) we headed into the city to pick up our badges and meet up with ophelias_heart. Then Jen and I tagged along to a panel Sarah wanted to go to; one of the artists from the Buffy comics or something. I was busy making notes on my iPhone and mostly didn't pay attention, though I do remember that he tried to start a shipper war between the Spuffy and Angel/Buffy (what are they called? Bangel?) shippers. Not cool, comic guy! I don't need to be caught in shipper war crossfire.
Anyway, after that we were starving, since we forgot to eat lunch, so we went to the Benihana for a nice, leisurely dinner. Halfway through Mark Sheppard came in, which was exciting. (I did not shout, "Badger!", though I kind of wanted to. Instead I texted ophelias_heart and writingpathways to gloat.) Then it was back to the hotel for drinks and slumber party brownies and more fangirling with ophelias_heart and her friend Rachel.
At some point on Friday Sarah said the words 'Will' and 'elbow patches', which is pretty much all it takes to inspire me to yet ANOTHER giant, sprawling AU which may or may not ever see the light of day. But I did spend most of the weekend making notes about it on my phone, so one never knows. Basically it's the story of bitter and jaded Spanish teacher Will Schuester and the young, idealistic new music teacher that Will wants to hate, but just can't. Because no one can resist Finn Hudson, let's face it.
Saturday:Parade. Jen took pictures with my camera because I'm too short to be of any use to anyone:
Someone dressed as Jayne's hat! Awesome. There was tons of Firefly cosplay all weekend, but this was the most imaginative of them all.
I also enjoyed the B-Boy Stormtrooper.
That kid blocking the view of the Aliens was taking pictures with a really nice Canon while his dad filmed with his video camera. Nice teamwork, particularly since that kid is like four. My niece and nephew can barely work the toy digital cameras they got for Christmas last year. How embarrassing.
Anyway, we ditched the parade early to go to the Tom Felton panel. He was just as gracious and lovely as possible, and also hilarious and charming. Someone asked him what he thought of the fact that Draco was played by a girl in A Very Potter Musical and he couldn't remember Darren Criss' name. He referred to him as "the block from Glee". Sorry, Darren. Sucks for you.
So adorable.
After that we got some lunch and then headed to the Ghost Hunters panel. Sarah was going to go try to get into the Guild panel instead, but the line was so long it was outside, so she just tagged along with us. Standing outside in Atlanta on Labor Day weekend...well, I'd do it for Cory, but there aren't a whole lot of other people I'd do that for.
Anyway, we were right up front for Ghost Hunters, which was cool, mainly because it meant we got to see Steve and Tango flirting unobstructed. My flash kept making everything dark, so the pictures I took without it are blurry, but I managed to get a couple not completely terrible ones:
I was sitting next to a very nice young man who was there on his own and super excited about his autograph collection. Jen kept whispering to me about the super kinky Steve/Tango porn I wrote that one time, until I told her to shut up before we scarred the poor fanboy for life. Poor fanboy. He just wanted some BSG autographs that didn't cost 50 bucks each.
At one point Steve was taking pictures of the crowd and pointed his camera right at us. I was wearing my Every Citizen A Soldier shirt at the time, so at least I was representing for Kurt/Puck.
Also during the panel, I noticed someone sitting at the table behind the little curtain where the talent waits to go up on stage, and what do you know, it's Mark Sheppard. He was just looking for someplace quiet, I think, because it looked like he was texting someone, then he got up and left again. The Dr. Who panel was in the room next, but we chose to believe that that was a coincidence and Mark was, in fact, stalking us.
What did we do for dinner on Saturday? I can't even remember. Oh, wait, now I remember. We went to that great Mediterranean place and I had fantastic moussaka. Wow, that was good. Anyway, then we went back to the hotel and didn't drink nearly as much as we said we were going to, because we're old and useless. Mostly we talked about fandom some more and I kept insisting that I am retiring from Glee fandom to finish my novel. Someday I will actually follow through on that threat, I swear.
Sunday: More breakfast waffles, in honor of Noah Puckerman, then back to the con to explore the dealer area and the artist galleries. I picked up what was likely the only Glee-related bit of merch at the entire con; bottlecap pendants of Finn and Will. The only other Glee character she had was Sue, so we decided it was destiny and I definitely had to get them. They are sharing a chain on my necklace tree as I type.
Jen and I also donated blood, which was a ridiculous ordeal, thanks to my strange, rolling veins. It took twice as long as it needed to, and by the time I left I had bandages on both arms and I looked a bit like the walking wounded, but I have, and I quote, "the good blood" (universal donor) so it was worth the hassle.
In the artist gallery I impulse purchased a piece of Dirk Strangely art which I'm not even sure I can describe. It's not really much like the stuff on his website; it's an original black and white piece, and he told us the story of the dream that inspired it as well as the companion piece which he has hanging on his own wall, which is kind of cool. I will get my mom to frame it when she's in town and then take a picture.
Jen and Sarah both bought prints as well, because we're all cultured and shit and go to Dragon*Con to buy art. True story!
After stopping by the Laurel K. Hamilton line to say goodbye to ophelias_heart and co., we headed by to Knoxville in the rain. We never did find the big bar, strangely enough. We just didn't drink that much, for all my big talk. There was that point on Saturday afternoon when Jen and I had a couple beers while we waited for Lisa and Sarah to get Felicia Day's autograph, but that was pretty much it. Sad!
There were stupid party favors made by yours truly, and nice party favors made by Jen, and way too many carbs and a good time was had by all. Then on Monday, after a leisurely breakfast, Jen and Sarah headed back to the wilds of northern Ohio, and I remained useless for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday I came back to a huge clusterfuck at work (of course) as well as the news that not only had my refinance fallen through, but my mortgage broker didn't bother to call and tell me on Friday because she "didn't want to ruin my weekend". Well thanks, but I probably wouldn't have been so free with the cash flow over the weekend if I hadn't been counting on money that's now going to pay my October mortgage payment, so essentially thanks for nothing.
Also probably off is the trip to NYC I was planning in my head for next summer, because I was counting on the money from escrow covering that, and now that money will remain in escrow and I will remain in Knoxville. All because some jerk down the street sold his house way under market value because it was paid off and he only paid like $70,000 for it twenty-five years ago, so fuck everyone else in the neighborhood. Thanks, dude!
Homeownership, kids. It's not for the timid.
But it's all good, because it's not like I don't know how to be poor. I've been doing it my whole life, after all. Plus I am already plotting to head to the wilds of Ohio to further stalk Jen and Sarah, because the best part of stuff like Dragon*Con is hanging out with other fangirls in person.
Jen is the best beta of all time, of course, but she is also a super cool person, and it is awesome to drink wine and talk fandom instead of just talking about drinking wine while we talk about fandom. Sarah and I are technically related by marriage, so we are practically family, which is kind of crazy but also awesome (the kids loved their birthday cards, btw, Sarah) so she's stuck with me. Still, it's nice to hang out in RL. I wish we could do it more often.
This week has sucked a lot for mostly work-related reasons, and ophelias_heart has been on vacation, which made it even worse because I miss her when she's not around, as it turns out? Go figure. Lisa, I resisted texting you to whine ALL WEEK. It was really hard. But I'm glad you had a good time on vacation never leave again.
And that's d*con in a nutshell. tl;dr version: I am officially Too Old for drunken reveling. Boo!
If you slogged through all that...well, you don't win any fabulous prizes, because I am a) broke, and b) braindead, so I can't even promise to write you anything. But hey, someday that stupid AU wonderlandchick inspired might come to fruition. Every time I swear off fic it seems I end up writing another 100,000 word AU, so stranger things have actually happened. I think that might be how Home Is came to be, actually. To be honest I barely remember anything about that entire month.
I don't have any pictures of the actual fangirls in attendance. Lisa has a couple, I think, so I'll have to get them off her. Then not post them because I'm sure I will feel that I look too fat and won't want anyone to see. (I should have taken a picture of us in our matching Fin shirts. That was kind of awesome. And yes, mavilous, mine does say 'Can't Dance' on the back.)
ETA: I told jengeorge and wonderlandchick I'd send them this song and I keep forgetting. I think a couple of you might also be interested, ophelias_heart specifically, so in case anyone else wants Girlyman's cover of "My Sweet Lord", it's here on box.net.
Thursday: wonderlandchick and jengeorge arrived just in time for dinner and a selection of Cory movies which we mostly didn't pay attention to. Though we did pause the conversation long enough to admire Cory's running technique in "Hybrid". ::snort:: ♥ Cory ♥
Friday: We got up, ate more delicious food, and drove to Atlanta. After we checked in at our hotel (which was a total dive in Marietta, but the staff was super nice, and there were waffles at the continental breakfast, which made us think of Puck, of course) we headed into the city to pick up our badges and meet up with ophelias_heart. Then Jen and I tagged along to a panel Sarah wanted to go to; one of the artists from the Buffy comics or something. I was busy making notes on my iPhone and mostly didn't pay attention, though I do remember that he tried to start a shipper war between the Spuffy and Angel/Buffy (what are they called? Bangel?) shippers. Not cool, comic guy! I don't need to be caught in shipper war crossfire.
Anyway, after that we were starving, since we forgot to eat lunch, so we went to the Benihana for a nice, leisurely dinner. Halfway through Mark Sheppard came in, which was exciting. (I did not shout, "Badger!", though I kind of wanted to. Instead I texted ophelias_heart and writingpathways to gloat.) Then it was back to the hotel for drinks and slumber party brownies and more fangirling with ophelias_heart and her friend Rachel.
At some point on Friday Sarah said the words 'Will' and 'elbow patches', which is pretty much all it takes to inspire me to yet ANOTHER giant, sprawling AU which may or may not ever see the light of day. But I did spend most of the weekend making notes about it on my phone, so one never knows. Basically it's the story of bitter and jaded Spanish teacher Will Schuester and the young, idealistic new music teacher that Will wants to hate, but just can't. Because no one can resist Finn Hudson, let's face it.
Saturday:Parade. Jen took pictures with my camera because I'm too short to be of any use to anyone:
Someone dressed as Jayne's hat! Awesome. There was tons of Firefly cosplay all weekend, but this was the most imaginative of them all.
I also enjoyed the B-Boy Stormtrooper.
That kid blocking the view of the Aliens was taking pictures with a really nice Canon while his dad filmed with his video camera. Nice teamwork, particularly since that kid is like four. My niece and nephew can barely work the toy digital cameras they got for Christmas last year. How embarrassing.
Anyway, we ditched the parade early to go to the Tom Felton panel. He was just as gracious and lovely as possible, and also hilarious and charming. Someone asked him what he thought of the fact that Draco was played by a girl in A Very Potter Musical and he couldn't remember Darren Criss' name. He referred to him as "the block from Glee". Sorry, Darren. Sucks for you.
So adorable.
After that we got some lunch and then headed to the Ghost Hunters panel. Sarah was going to go try to get into the Guild panel instead, but the line was so long it was outside, so she just tagged along with us. Standing outside in Atlanta on Labor Day weekend...well, I'd do it for Cory, but there aren't a whole lot of other people I'd do that for.
Anyway, we were right up front for Ghost Hunters, which was cool, mainly because it meant we got to see Steve and Tango flirting unobstructed. My flash kept making everything dark, so the pictures I took without it are blurry, but I managed to get a couple not completely terrible ones:
I was sitting next to a very nice young man who was there on his own and super excited about his autograph collection. Jen kept whispering to me about the super kinky Steve/Tango porn I wrote that one time, until I told her to shut up before we scarred the poor fanboy for life. Poor fanboy. He just wanted some BSG autographs that didn't cost 50 bucks each.
At one point Steve was taking pictures of the crowd and pointed his camera right at us. I was wearing my Every Citizen A Soldier shirt at the time, so at least I was representing for Kurt/Puck.
Also during the panel, I noticed someone sitting at the table behind the little curtain where the talent waits to go up on stage, and what do you know, it's Mark Sheppard. He was just looking for someplace quiet, I think, because it looked like he was texting someone, then he got up and left again. The Dr. Who panel was in the room next, but we chose to believe that that was a coincidence and Mark was, in fact, stalking us.
What did we do for dinner on Saturday? I can't even remember. Oh, wait, now I remember. We went to that great Mediterranean place and I had fantastic moussaka. Wow, that was good. Anyway, then we went back to the hotel and didn't drink nearly as much as we said we were going to, because we're old and useless. Mostly we talked about fandom some more and I kept insisting that I am retiring from Glee fandom to finish my novel. Someday I will actually follow through on that threat, I swear.
Sunday: More breakfast waffles, in honor of Noah Puckerman, then back to the con to explore the dealer area and the artist galleries. I picked up what was likely the only Glee-related bit of merch at the entire con; bottlecap pendants of Finn and Will. The only other Glee character she had was Sue, so we decided it was destiny and I definitely had to get them. They are sharing a chain on my necklace tree as I type.
Jen and I also donated blood, which was a ridiculous ordeal, thanks to my strange, rolling veins. It took twice as long as it needed to, and by the time I left I had bandages on both arms and I looked a bit like the walking wounded, but I have, and I quote, "the good blood" (universal donor) so it was worth the hassle.
In the artist gallery I impulse purchased a piece of Dirk Strangely art which I'm not even sure I can describe. It's not really much like the stuff on his website; it's an original black and white piece, and he told us the story of the dream that inspired it as well as the companion piece which he has hanging on his own wall, which is kind of cool. I will get my mom to frame it when she's in town and then take a picture.
Jen and Sarah both bought prints as well, because we're all cultured and shit and go to Dragon*Con to buy art. True story!
After stopping by the Laurel K. Hamilton line to say goodbye to ophelias_heart and co., we headed by to Knoxville in the rain. We never did find the big bar, strangely enough. We just didn't drink that much, for all my big talk. There was that point on Saturday afternoon when Jen and I had a couple beers while we waited for Lisa and Sarah to get Felicia Day's autograph, but that was pretty much it. Sad!
There were stupid party favors made by yours truly, and nice party favors made by Jen, and way too many carbs and a good time was had by all. Then on Monday, after a leisurely breakfast, Jen and Sarah headed back to the wilds of northern Ohio, and I remained useless for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday I came back to a huge clusterfuck at work (of course) as well as the news that not only had my refinance fallen through, but my mortgage broker didn't bother to call and tell me on Friday because she "didn't want to ruin my weekend". Well thanks, but I probably wouldn't have been so free with the cash flow over the weekend if I hadn't been counting on money that's now going to pay my October mortgage payment, so essentially thanks for nothing.
Also probably off is the trip to NYC I was planning in my head for next summer, because I was counting on the money from escrow covering that, and now that money will remain in escrow and I will remain in Knoxville. All because some jerk down the street sold his house way under market value because it was paid off and he only paid like $70,000 for it twenty-five years ago, so fuck everyone else in the neighborhood. Thanks, dude!
Homeownership, kids. It's not for the timid.
But it's all good, because it's not like I don't know how to be poor. I've been doing it my whole life, after all. Plus I am already plotting to head to the wilds of Ohio to further stalk Jen and Sarah, because the best part of stuff like Dragon*Con is hanging out with other fangirls in person.
Jen is the best beta of all time, of course, but she is also a super cool person, and it is awesome to drink wine and talk fandom instead of just talking about drinking wine while we talk about fandom. Sarah and I are technically related by marriage, so we are practically family, which is kind of crazy but also awesome (the kids loved their birthday cards, btw, Sarah) so she's stuck with me. Still, it's nice to hang out in RL. I wish we could do it more often.
This week has sucked a lot for mostly work-related reasons, and ophelias_heart has been on vacation, which made it even worse because I miss her when she's not around, as it turns out? Go figure. Lisa, I resisted texting you to whine ALL WEEK. It was really hard. But I'm glad you had a good time on vacation never leave again.
And that's d*con in a nutshell. tl;dr version: I am officially Too Old for drunken reveling. Boo!
If you slogged through all that...well, you don't win any fabulous prizes, because I am a) broke, and b) braindead, so I can't even promise to write you anything. But hey, someday that stupid AU wonderlandchick inspired might come to fruition. Every time I swear off fic it seems I end up writing another 100,000 word AU, so stranger things have actually happened. I think that might be how Home Is came to be, actually. To be honest I barely remember anything about that entire month.
I don't have any pictures of the actual fangirls in attendance. Lisa has a couple, I think, so I'll have to get them off her. Then not post them because I'm sure I will feel that I look too fat and won't want anyone to see. (I should have taken a picture of us in our matching Fin shirts. That was kind of awesome. And yes, mavilous, mine does say 'Can't Dance' on the back.)
ETA: I told jengeorge and wonderlandchick I'd send them this song and I keep forgetting. I think a couple of you might also be interested, ophelias_heart specifically, so in case anyone else wants Girlyman's cover of "My Sweet Lord", it's here on box.net.