Eight Years of Wedded Bliss!

Eight years ago today, I promised to love, honor and cherish my wonderful husband, Todd. We were married on a rainy day, but it never rained on me. But while we were saying our vows we could hear the pouring rain beat down on the roof the church.

We got married in the same church my parents were married in. I hope this will be a good omen since my parents were married until death parted them.

Todd and I have been through a lot in our short eight years as a married couple. Lots of illness - chronic pain for me, and recently MS for him. We've had some job issues and the recession back in 2008 was rough. But we've stayed strong throughout it all.

We are happy to be the parents of a wonderful little girl and right now, despite our illnesses, our life is pretty great.

I think we have a strong marriage because we know how to communicate well. And we have so many similar interests as well!

Happy Anniversary Todd! I love you more and more every day.

BPAL and Me

Ten years ago today I did something that changed my life forever. I didn't know it was going to change my life, it was a simple thing that I did. Ten years ago today I joined the forums at bpal.org.

The BPAL forums are a fan run site for fan of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - a company that makes the most glorious perfume oils. I had never been a perfume wearer until a few weeks before I joined the forum. But the perfume oils didn't smell like anything else I had every smelled before with perfume. I was hooked right away.

Back in those days, forums were one of the most popular ways to chat with people online. Facebook was still in it's infancy, Twitter didn't exist yet and while there was still MySpace and Livejournal, forums were there too for individual topics. These days, the BPAL forum is the only one I visit on a regular basis. Most of my other interaction is via Facebook groups.

Now you may be wondering how a fan run forum could change my life. It wasn't the forum, per say, it was and is the people there. The people on the forum are awesome and kind and honestly my best friends. Not 15,000 of them, but a few.

The forum-ites have been there for me when I was getting married, when I was pregnant, on my low days and on my good days. I've met a few in person, at meet and sniffs and Dragon Con, but most of my dear BPAL friends I've never met outside of cyberspace.

One of those friends is actually the owner and genius behind Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab - Beth.

Beth, me and Emily at Dragon Con 2012

She's been a member of the forum since I joined and it's been great getting to know her through the years. I got to meet her in person at Dragon Con a few years ago and I see her every year there now. She is a wonderful person and her creations are wonderful.

I feel another bond with Beth because our daughters are about the same age. I get to see her daughter through Beth's Facebook posts and I'd love if Emily and Lilith were able to meet someday.

My collection of the actual perfume has gotten smaller over the years. My body has turned against it - whenever I put any on my skin, it morphs into an awful floral and gives me a migraine. I have to use solely scent lockets now because my skin hates me. But Emily has her own small collection of smellies - she loves putting it on, though she kind of over does it because she's five.

This summer the forum went down for several months and it was hard on all of us. There are several BPAL Facebook groups, but it wasn't the same. Someone actually created a temporary, bare bones forum for the interim, but it wasn't the same either. Once the actual forum reopened, it was like coming home.

That action I did ten years ago today was a simple one but it really changed my life. I'm so thankful for all the great friends I've made. Here's to another ten years!

Five Reasons You Should Attend the Browncoat Ball

October starts next week and while many people's thoughts are on pumpkins and ghosts, my thoughts turn to shiny things. That's because there is only a few weeks left before the Browncoat Ball!

The Browncoat Ball started ten years ago by the Chicagoland Browncoats with a goal of bringing Browncoats together to share their love of the show Firefly. The Ball has moved from city to city every year ever since then.

This year, the Browncoat group that I'm a part of is bring the Ball to Greenville, SC. It's going to be a very fun weekend and I'd thought I'd share some reasons why you should attend the Browncoat Ball.

1) Murder Mystery! 

For the first time in Browncoat Ball history, the Ball is going to host a murder mystery! From the Browncoat Ball website:

After the death of Rance Burgess, life changed a lot on Lowther. With no leader, Rance’s gang of thugs disbanded and that desolate moon became a better place. Better, but still no place Petaline Andrews wanted to be. After taking over the bordello and re-naming it Nandi’s, she was ready to leave this moon behind her. She took the girls, her son and an unexpected business partner, Belinda Burgess, to town of Missed Fortune on Planet Deadwood to start over. The women pooled their money and bought the Leland Hotel and Saloon which serves as the new home for Nandi’s. As is the way of the ’Verse, trouble tends to follow them that don’t deserve it. It wasn’t long after their arrival that trouble found them by way of a murder.

It's going to be a lot of fun. One of the first events I ever attended with the Greenville Browncoats was a LARP - it was an awesome weekend of Firefly fun and I made some great friends. I'm looking very forward to playing in the mystery over the weekend!

2) Carnival and Vendors 

I have to plug this part because it's the section that I'm in charge of for the Ball. We are going to have several vendors, including myself, as well as Firefly themed carnival games! It will be happening on Friday so everyone can have something fun to start the Ball with!

3) Mikey Mason

This is one of the things I'm looking forward to most. Mikey Mason, a geeky comedy rock star, is going to emcee the whole weekend as well as perform. I've missed him performing live a bunch of times, so finally I'll get to see him perform.

4) Adventures and Entertainment

Beyond the Ball and the Murder Mystery, there is going to be loads of entertainment. Fire dancers, musicians, belly dancers and more will be performing. There will be zip lines, gaming, fencing classes and more. It's going to be a weekend of non-stop Firefly fun!

5) Meeting Fellow Browncoats

One of the best parts of the Browncoat Ball is hanging out with other Browncoats. People come from all of the country and beyond to attend this yearly gathering of Firefly fans. I've only been to one other Ball - the 2010 one in Charlotte, NC, but I still have friends that I met at that Ball. 

All of these reasons and more are why you should consider coming to this year's Browncoat Ball. Check us out at Facebook and come to the Shiny-est Murder Mystery of them all! Also check out the video teaser at YouTube!

Old TV and Gender Roles

Image: jimhalterman.com

Autumn is here! It's the time of year for cooler weather, changing leaves and watching my favorite Halloween themed shows.

Every year, I bring out my DVD of Roseanne Halloween episodes. I watched the show when it was on the air, but I don't really watch it anymore expect the Halloween episodes. I decided to watch a few of the first episodes the other night.

In the episode Trick or Treat, there are two different story lines. In one, Dan is very concerned that his son DJ wants to be a witch for Halloween because witches are girls. He struggles a lot with letting DJ dress how he wants.

In the other story line, Roseanne and Jackie's car breaks down on the way to the Haunted House put on by Dan's lodge. Roseanne is dressed up as a burly mountain man and the costume is good enough that even her friend thinks she's a man. She buddies up to the other men in the bar to see what men talk about when they are alone - it ends up being sex, sex and more sex.

Now Trick or Treat aired in 1990 and the world was not as enlightened as it is now. Roseanne being a sitcom usually doesn't get very heavy but it's nice to see them tackling gender stereotypes a bit.

The sex-crazed man bit got old quickly especially since they implied all men care about it getting laid. But the part about DJ wanting to wear a 'girl's' costume was much more interesting and has become more so since I became a parent.

Eventually Dan gets the advise that it's just a phase that DJ is going through. It's a bit of a cop out, but not surprising for the time period.

This year, Emily wants to be a Ninja for Halloween. She also wants a Ninja birthday party for her 6th birthday. A lot of her interests are 'boy' stuff - it makes me crazy with gender descriptions on toys because she likes what she likes. I don't think her interests are just a phase, though they may change as she grows.

Not having do to with gender roles, I do find it odd to see Jackie and Roseanne having to use a payphone to call Dan after their car breaks down. Even though it's only been 24 years, it's hard to imagine a world without cell phones. At least if my daughter ever wants to watch these episodes with me, I can teach her something about the past!

Texting Groot

You may have seen around the last few days that Groot is able to text. If you haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy, he is the character that looks like a tree. Also if you haven't seen it, go and see it! It's awesome!

I texted Groot yesterday and got a reply back really fast. I told Emily about it and she immediately wanted to text Groot. He got a bunch of smiley faces and hearts from her. She was very excited when he texted back. If you have any kids, I highly recommend texting Groot because it's very fun!

Just text (866) 740-4531 and you too can have in depth conversations with Groot!

Fletcher Family Festival

Last Saturday, our local park had a festival. It was in honor of the town of Fletcher's 25th birthday. Since I had seen that they were going to have bounce houses and games, I decided to take Emily.

We got there right at 4:30, and Emily bee lined to the bounce houses. She loves to bounce and go down the big slide. We did go to the games after a while, and she liked getting treats and little prizes.

They had treats of snow cones and popcorn for free. And they had some tents with locals vendors / organizations. Emily got to play lacrosse and we got more goodies. I had luckily thought to bring a big bag with me to stash all our stuff in.

There was a booth that a church had setup and they had a drawing for several prize packs. I signed up and shockingly, I got a call after the bounce houses and games were done that I had won one!

Emily were still at the park because she wanted to see the fireworks. The prize pack we got was perfect for her - it had play dough, coloring book, crayons, a game and a ball. We listened to the live music and played with the ball until it was time for the fireworks to start.

Even though we went to Disney World last year, Emily got tuckered out well before the fireworks started. The only fireworks I saw were at the Halloween party I went to by myself. 

She was nervous because she knew it was going to be loud but she was excited too. I had to hold my hands on her ears through most the show, but she loved it. It was pretty good and it was fun to see the mountains as a backdrop for the fireworks.

It was a great time and hopefully they will do it again next year!

Memories of Epcot's Maelstrom

If you are a fan of Walt Disney World and follow any Disney accounts on social media you have probably seen that Frozen is getting it's own ride in Epcot. It will be taking the place of Norway's Maelstrom and should be opening in 2016.

There has been a lot of negativity about this move, and I have mixed feelings about it. I know that Emily will love to be able to go onto the Frozen ride when we got back to Disney World in 2016. But the Maelstrom was a magical experience on our honeymoon.

Todd and I went to Disney in the fall of 2007 for our honeymoon. We had decided to wait a year after our wedding to take our honeymoon because most of our vacation time in 2006 went to going back to Michigan for our wedding.

On our 1st wedding anniversary, we spent the whole day in Epcot. It was during the Year of A Million Dreams promotion and that day was the most dream-filled of our whole honeymoon. One of the special things that happened to us was that we got a boat all to ourselves on Maelstrom.

It was lovely and romantic, and super nice of the cast members to give us special treatment like that. The ride was fun, but no means my favorite. But I'll always have this special memory from my honeymoon.

September 11 Memories

Image: http://heatherlcorner.blogspot.com/

I was looking around both this blog and my old one, and I apparently have never blogged about my September 11th memories. Either that or my searches have failed me. Either way, here's a short post about my experiences on that day 13 years ago.

I was in my last year of college, living with a couple of friends. That morning I hadn't been online because I had been playing a video game in my room because I didn't need to go to school until later.

One of my roommates came up to my open door and told me that something had happened in New York. We turned on the TV and watched the 2nd tower fall. Our apartment was a bit of a gathering place of our friends and that day it become crowded. Crowded but quiet because we were all in shock.

I called my mom, because that's what you do when a national tragedy is unfolding before your eyes on CNN. And she told me that I should go fill up my car with gas. I went out by myself and it was eerie. No-one was out except at the gas stations which were all packed.

After waiting to get gas, I headed back to my apartment and still watched the TV. I ended up going back out with some friends to get gas in their car, and it was still eerie but less so because I was with other people.

September 11th defined my generation and changed the world. 13 years ago, that whole week sucked. Later that week, my grandmother passed away. So my personal grief was mingled with the national grief as it was.

I'll never forget that September day as long as I live. It was horrible, in part because we watched it happen on TV.

Dragon Con 2014 - Sunday

Me and Katie Cassidy (Laurel from Arrow)

This is the last post of my Dragon Con recaps - you can click the links to read about Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Sunday I planned on sleeping in but that didn't happen. About 6:30 in the morning, I was woken up by Emily losing her tooth. This was the first tooth she lost normally and not in the dentist's office.

We made sure to find the tooth and I put it in a small box I had been using for safety pins. I was awake at this point so we just hung out in the back bedroom for a bit to let Todd sleep.

Once everyone else was up, I got Emily dressed to go to church and I donned my Tightrope Girl costume again. We got downtown right around the time everything was opening up.

We went to the Walk of Fame first. We got autographs from the one Arrow guest we needed and John Ratzenberger (had him sign a Toy Story poster for Emily since he's the voice of Hamm). Bill Farmer, the voice of Goofy and other Disney characters, wasn't there yet so we headed off to the dealer's room.

At this point in the day, I had a migraine. I didn't really think much of it because of my chronic pain, but we soldiered on. Our first stop was at the BPAL booth. Beth and I talked about loosing teeth because I told her about Emily. It was fun! And I got another bottle of BPAL.

We found an Applejack that Emily requested and I bought some mystery box figures as well. It was time to meet Goofy Bill, so we headed back to the Walk of Fame.

Bill Farmer was awesome! I got his autograph and we talked to him for a bit and he even did the Goofy voice for us. It was one of the best meetings we had all con.

But at this point, my migraine was really bad and I was feeling woozy. We headed to the food court to get some food. Even after eating, I felt horrible. Even though I was suppose to be on a Kaleidoscope panel later that afternoon, I opted to email the track director and head back to my aunt and uncle's house.

It was a sucky way to end the con. I knew I had overdid it but I had hoped I could push through to make it through my last panel. I ended up passing out and sleeping for several hours once we got back. And it kicked off a couple of weeks of illness - I ended up at the doctor's last Friday because I wasn't getting any better and it was the flu.

Next year, I think I may either skip the Geek Girls Run fun run or wait until Sunday to give blood. Either way, despite how it ended, I had a great Dragon Con this year!

Dragon Con 2014 - Saturday

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30130379@N07/15122087795

This is the 3rd post of my Dragon Con 2014 recap series. Click the links to read about Thursday and Friday!

Saturday was another early day for us. I donned my newest costume, The Haunted Mansion's Tightrope Girl, and we headed downtown. Usually Todd will walk me to the parade staging area, but he had a panel he wanted to go to so I walked myself.

It was really easy to find the Disney group and I talked to several people as we waited to go. As we started to march, I decided to take off my glasses and slip them in my purse. My eyes are really bad but I could see where I was going. It made the parade a unique experience.

Once I was done with the parade, I donned my glasses again and went to the Kaleidoscope track room because I was on a panel at 11:30. It was the Disney Princesses & Heroes Panel and I had a lot of fun talking Disney with the other panelists and the audience for an hour.

After that, I hustled over to the Sheraton to meet up with Todd. We did a panel on the Paranormal track that showcased psychic fraud. The panelist were Aiden Sinclair, a paranormal magician, and Patrick Doyle, one of the paranormal investigators from the show Ghost Mine. It made for an interesting mix.

Once our panel was over, we went back to the Marriott to get to the food court. And that's where we got stuck. Below is an illustration I made to show the worst traffic jam in Dragon Con.

The big red X is where the jam ends up being. It's a junction to get to a lot of places so tons of people end up there. We were stuck there probably 10 minutes trying to get to the food court. At this point in time, someone brilliant decided to route a line through the hallway that leads to the food court into the Marriott. 

Finally we got out of the jam, grabbed the first two open seats we saw and got some lunch. After a long lunch, we headed back to the Sheraton.

We were planning on doing more panels at the paranormal track later in the day but we fled to the Sheraton to escape some of the madness and crowds.

The first panel we did that after was the ESP one. This was the least interesting panel to me the whole weekend - mostly because I have no ESP abilities. We left a little before the end of the panel to get in line for the next panel.

Next up was the real story behind the Exorcism of Emily Rose which was extremely interesting because it ended up not being a real case of possession but mental illness on the part of the girl and a crazy ass priest who really wanted to exorcism someone.

We left that panel early too so we could get in line for Aiden Sinclair's show. We had gone to his show in 2013 and it was excellent. This  year's show had some similar things but some differences as well. I was picked to participate for his first trick. It was a lot of fun! 

I had a panel right afterwards in the Marriott and the show ended a little late. So Todd and I ran the several blocks in between. The crowds were still heavy even though it was now 8 pm but we didn't run into issues until we got to the big red X from my map above.

This time, two ladies were sitting side by side in wheelchairs. I'm all for people in wheelchairs to be able to come and enjoy the con, but they were in an area that has traffic jams regularly and isn't very wide. They were basically blocking the entire way and going slow.

Todd darted in front of them and almost got ran over. He was annoyed, I was annoyed and the dumb people causing the jam were annoyed and yelled at him. He basically ignored them and we got to my panel in time.

The panel was on Theme Park Travel but it ended up being all about Disney. My fellow panelists and I had a great time talking with a smaller audience about Disney Parks. Todd even offered his two cents in every once in a while.

Once we were done, it was 9:30 pm and had been at the con over 13 hours. It was the longest day we'd ever done (not counting the first couple of years when we stayed at the Marriott before Emily was born). It was a great day but way too long.

Next up - Sunday and the Crud

Dragon Con 2014 - Friday

Paul Blackthorne (Det. Lance from Arrow) and I

This is my 2nd post about Dragon Con 2014. You can start here with the Thursday post!

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I'm a sucky runner. I've been working on Couch to 5K for a couple of years now. Chronic pain is a bitch and when I get a flare, I can't run. But I'm slowly but surely getting better. But I run inside on my treadmill because I have a five year old and my husband works 2nd shift.

I've been following Geek Girls Run on social media for a while. One of my friends, Janine, is one of the founders of the group. I had wanted to do the fun run they did last year at Dragon Con but we ended up not having enough time because we ended up in the reg line of doom.

But this year, I was determined to do the run. I cosplayed as Kaylee from Firefly because it's my best costume for running in. And I opted to go with the run/walkers. This was a big mistake. 

I was ok until we got to the park and I just started lagging behind. And the hills were so hard - mostly because I run on a treadmill. I thought I was going to pass out during one huge uphill hill.

But I made it! I was the 2nd to last but I made it. Very proud by that, even though I did it, I think, contribute to my illness later in the weekend.

I found Todd who had my bag and my jacket. Because the run was in the morning we had some time

Me and Stephen Collins

to kill before the Walk of Fame would be open. So we got some lunch and hung out in the food court doing some people watching.

We did go over to the Marriott about a half hour before the Walk of Fame open. We got in line and waited. Once the doors opened, there was a mad rush but there was plenty of room for everyone once we got in there.

Friday is one of the best days to get autographs because it's not super crowded. I got both the Hobbit Guests, and we got three of the four Arrow guests. I also met Stephen Collins who I like best as the dad from 7th Heaven. Since we don't need two autographs from each person, I usually get pictures with celebs that Todd is getting the autograph for who are doing table pictures.

The longest line we waited in on Friday was for Karl Urban. We were told one time, but he was over an hour late. He had a panel and went to lunch afterwards. Once he got there, the line moved quite quickly. He was super nice too though he did say he was a little drunk. He was even more handsome in person than he is in the movies.

After that, we went to the dealer's room. First stop was the BPAL booth to do some sniffing and to talk to Beth and Ted. It was crowded but I got some sniffing in. I got one of the Peach atmo sprays and a bottle of Coraline for Emily.

We walked around the maze that is the dealer's room. Todd found a poster from Hellboy with a bunch of signatures on it and it was half price. They had a certificate of authenticity. We already had one of the autographs on it (Doug Jones) and it looked the same so we knew it was real. It was a must buy!

After that, we got some supper and waited for it to be time for my panel. The Kaleidoscope Track was kind enough to have me as a panelist for several panels. On Friday night, the panel I was on was called The Young Nerd Life. All the panelists were parents of geeklings of varying ages and we talked about their geeky likes and dislikes as well as how it is to be a geek parent raising a geek child. It was a lot of fun!

It was getting late so we headed out to go back to my aunt and uncle's house to get some sleep. The next day was going to be a long day.

Up Next - The Very, Very Long Saturday

Dragon Con 2014 - Thursday

Image: https://www.facebook.com/lifesouth

Here is the first post of my Dragon Con recaps for 2014!

For the first time in two years, I've had the Thursday of Dragon Con off from work. Since the lines on Thursday for picking up pre-reg badges have been traditionally long, Todd wanted to get down to the con as soon as possible.

We packed up and were on the road early. I didn't wear a costume on Thursday but I did put my Rainbow Dash pony ear clips in my hair - my friend Jennie made them for her daughter's birthday party and I love them because they are super cute.

I'm lucky enough to have an aunt and uncle who live outside of Atlanta. They let us stay with them and they watch Emily who is still too small to attend Dragon Con. We got to their house around noon and dropped Emily off. My aunt was watching one of my cousin's kids, so Emily had someone to play with it.

Todd and I headed downtown. After a quick train ride on Marta, we walked over to the Sheraton to get our badges. We were pretty shocked when it took all of five minutes to get our badge. After years and years of long pre-reg lines, Dragon Con finally got a system that works great.

After we got our badges, I went to give blood. I give blood every year at Dragon Con. Todd doesn't like needles, so he never gives blood. It took a long time to give this year. The longest wait was to do the physical to get cleared to give blood.

Once I was done, we were pretty hungry so we went to the food court to get some lunch. Then we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house. I wanted to make sure to get a good night's sleep because I was going to be running in the morning.

It was funny - even with the wait to give blood, we were done with all our Thursday stuff before we would usually even get down to GA. But this year we got back to my aunt and uncle's house at a decent time and got to hang out with them for a bit.

Next up - Friday and the Run of Death!

Todd the Psychic

I will get to the Dragon Con recaps in the next couple of days. The con crud has been really kicking my butt hard the last few days. But I thought I'd share a little story that happened at the con.

Todd and I did quite a few panels on the Paranormal track. Most we were interested in, but we were also trying to avoid the crowds that were in the Marriott and the surrounding area on Saturday. The Paranormal track is in the Sheraton which is a little removed from the chaos.

The panel that ended up being the biggest bust for us was the ESP panel. It ended being an interactive panel and I learned that I'm not psychic at all. We had to try and guess what the pictures were in envelopes. At first, the lady leading the panel just held them up. But then she asked for volunteers to project the picture out to the audience with their minds.

I got nothing right on any of them - usually I was so far off that it was funny. Todd got a few things right on some of them, but mostly he struck out as well.

The next day, I had bought some mystery mini figures in the dealer's room. As a joke, Todd decided that he was going to use his ESP 'powers' to guess what figure I was going to get. The first two he got completely wrong, but on the Nightmare Before Christmas box he was right!

We were surprised but apparently Todd is a little psychic after all!

The Bad of Dragon Con 2014

Last year, I did a post about all the bad things about Dragon Con and I thought I'd do that again. While my con experiences were mostly positive, there were some negatives. I'll cover the good stuff in my daily recaps that I'll be posting in the next couple of days.

The biggest bad was the crowds. Friday felt more crowded than usual but it was still pretty easy to move around, especially early in the morning. Sunday was fine, crowd-wise, but we left early on Sunday because I got sick.

Saturday was awful though. The crowds were extremely thick. Saturday crowds have always been heavy in the eight years I've been attending Dragon Con, but it has gotten worse and worse the last few years.

We got stuck a couple of times in the same place. In the Marriott there is a junction where you can go right to go to the Hyatt, left to go to the food court or the women's bathroom and straight to go to the blood drive and some track rooms. First time we got stuck was around lunch time and we were trying to get to the food court. A line was being routed through there for some reason and once we got past the doors out of the Marriott the crowds thinned out.

Later that night we were trying to go straight to get to the Kaleidoscope track room because there was a panel I was on. Todd is good about bobbing and weaving through the crowds but we got stuck behind a pair of women who were in wheelchairs side by side!

I don't mind seeing wheelchairs and I try to give them space, but these women were causing a traffic jam because they didn't have enough sense to go single file in a highly congested area. Todd darted in front of them to try and get around, and one nearly ran him over! Luckily they didn't and we made it with a few minutes to spare to my panel.

I also had more issues this year than any other with people stopped at the top of escalators. Escalators keep moving but several people stopped and gawked at the top of them, nearly causing a pile up. This happened to me many times over the course of the weekend.

Lastly, the dealer's room in the America's Mart was a bad as well. They had it in the same place this year and it was still a hugely confusing maze. It also got very crowded and we didn't even try to go there on Saturday. At least this bad is hopefully going to be fixed - from what I've heard, they are moving it to another building in the America's Mart where it should be less of a maze.

All in all, the good did outweigh the bad and I'll go over the good in depth with my recaps of each day. But the crowding issues is something that Dragon Con is going to have to address sooner than later.