Hey all! Sorry if I've missed you this past weekend - Friday was Dragon*Con day 1, Saturday was my mama's birthday, and Sunday was Dragon*Con day 2, aka Merlin meet up day of awesome awesomeness.
Day 1 was a boring, logistical fail, and mama's birthday was fun all around.
Day 2 was an adventure! Starting with the guy on the Atlanta public transit system who decided to jerk off in the bench next to me on the train. In all the years I've been riding MARTA, I've never experienced anything like this. The closest thing I can think of was the one time there was a frotteur moving along down the crowded car I was on until a large-lunged woman shouted him off of the train for being a 'filthy pervert.' The dude didn't seem terribly perturbed, and it was rather funny, looking back on it. But oh my god, the guy on the train on Sunday? WHIPPED HIS FUCKING DICK OUT OF HIS PANTS, I'M NOT EVEN EXAGGERATING. ALL WHILE ASKING ME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CON.
So I'm speaking the universal language of 'leave me the fuck alone, I'm texting/looking the opposite direction/completely ignoring you,' when the train stops and the dude gets up and walks to the door. His parting words are 'Have a nice day,' to which I say nothing but probably gape rather spectacularly. And when I look over at the seat the dude was occupying, the back of the bench in front of him was covered in jizz. Welcome to Atlanta where the players spray. JFC.
The day improved dramatically from there. I spent most of the afternoon walking around with the fabulous ladies of action and mystery,
ella_bane and
corilannam. We also met
gateslacker and
archaeologist_d and a couple other lovely people earlier in the afternoon whose names are escaping me right now, ack! (Sorry guys!) But they are all excellent folks and I was bouncing around on a cloud happily just to get the chance to meet them.
We had a little time between the two panels we visited to go to the dealer room, and I ended up buying the same shirt
corilannam did because she has incroyable taste. It's a picture of a bunch of deflated daleks draped across a Dali-esque landscape, and there's a small block of text at the bottom that says 'Salvador Dalek' and it is AMAZEBALLS. I couldn't not buy it! I had to have it for my very own.
Once buying things was over, we headed back to the Sheraton for our second panel. And I have discovered that I'm not much of one for panels, I don't think. I liked the ones we went to - the first being a panel on 'alternative sexuality in YA fiction' and the second, of course, being the Merlin panel. It's probably something to do with the ratio of panelists to audience members, if I had to try to put my finger on what doesn't appeal to me about the overall format. I like conversation, and it's just the nature of a panel to only have so much time to devote to any given question or comment, no matter how good or interesting it is. But again, the panels we went to were awesome, especially the Merlin panel! I really enjoyed the thoughts and insights of all the panelists excepting one (the Brit-track director, argh), who may as well have been audio looping all of the comments she'd made last year, with the exception of a few new details sprinkled throughout. And while she was funny at times and a good speaker in a general sense, she rather dominated the conversation and at some point it just got boring to hear her waffle on about her own feelings and not let even her other panel members get a word in edgewise without a fight.
But I digress! Overall the discussion was fun, and we met some incredible Merlin cosplayers who we subsequently invited to dinner: a note perfect S1 Merlin, Morgana and Nimueh trio! Unfortunately Nimueh had to go sleep for a bit, but the gals who dressed up as Merlin and Morgana joined us at the restaurant, where we met up with
sophinisba and
wanderhomeagain (who are both completely sweet and awesomesauce!).
While we waited for a table,
ella_bane and
sophinisba played
corilannam and me in pool, where
ella_bane cheated ruthlessly like the dirty pirate that she is! Don't let her fool you with her sweet and kind ways! She is a tricksy pool-shark!
Dinner was great, conversation was lovely - I only wish I'd had more time to talk to everyone! I absolutely adore meeting fandom folks, so if any of you are ever in the Atlanta area - please don't hesitate to let me know! I WANT TO MEET YOU AND HUG YOU, OKAY.
Fandom friends are ♥