Dragon Con 2016 - Sunday

N'Sync!

Click to read about Friday and Saturday at Dragon Con!

Usually Sunday is our longest day at Dragon Con but we also tend not to get to the con super early. I wanted to see the panel with two of the members of N'Sync so we actually got down to the con before 10 am.

I got a pretty good seat for the panel and I even got to sit next to my friend Sandy! And her wife, Kathleen, got into the panel too so I got to see her too. Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone seemingly had a very good time at Dragon Con and their panel was quite funny.

Once that let out, I headed to the America's Mart to see some of my friend, Mikey Mason's concourse show. It was great but I headed out early because I wanted to get to the Legends of Tomorrow panel.

It was a really great panel that had four of the actors from the show. I laughed a lot as they told stories and hinted about things to come in the next season. Since I was already in the Hyatt, I stopped by the con suite to get some food. Todd attempted to find the con suite but failed, so I ended up going to meet him at the food court.

It was about this time that Todd started to not feel so good. So we opted to head back to my aunt and uncle's early. In fact, we decided to head back for home on Sunday to give ourselves all of Monday to recover.

The ride home was uneventful and it was really nice to sleep in our own beds. Thankfully Todd felt better after a day of rest. All in all, Dragon Con 2016 was pretty fun!

Dragon Con 2016 - Saturday

This is the second post of my Dragon Con 2016 recap - you can read the previous post here!

We got up bright and early on Saturday to head down to the con. I was going to march in the parade and Todd was going to the Walk of Fame once it opened. I had realized that I completely forgot to bring my parasol for my Tightrope Girl costume, but decided to wear it anyway.

I, sadly, didn't double side tape the ribbon on my left foot as well as my right one. So once I got to the staging area, I was fighting against my stupid ribbon. It didn't stay up for the parade but hopefully it didn't look too dumb.

The parade itself was fine. It was a little different because it was being broadcast on the local CW channel. We got to a point where it said "Keep Walking!" so we did. The Disney

group got pretty spread out.

Once we got done, I headed to the food court to get something to eat. Todd was still in the Walk of Fame, waiting in line to get an autograph. Once he met up with me, we left the con for the day. It was already starting to become way too crowded.

We did what we have done the last few years and headed to a really cool mall that is near to my aunt and uncle's house. We walked around the mall a bit and of course, went into the Disney Store. We got Emily a toy set and some Star Wars pants - both were on clearance. And I got to geek out with the cashier about my upcoming Disney trip.

After that, we went and saw Suicide Squad in IMax. We had both seen it before but there wasn't anything else out that we really wanted to see. It was really good in IMax and it's been a while since I've seen anything in IMax.

From there, we did a little more shopping. There was a store called "Fandom" which was really cool. We got Emily some blind boxes there. And after, we got some food at the mall's food court.

We got back to my aunt and uncle's house pretty early. In fact, no-one was home when we got there. After a while, they came home. My aunt and uncle had taken Emily swimming and my cousin and his daughter had gone too. Emily did a lot of swimming over the course of the weekend.

At 8 pm, we all sat down and watched the parade on TV. Emily really wanted to see me on there. The broadcast of the parade got annoying from the beginning. There was five or six commercial breaks during the one hour broadcast. And if that wasn't bad enough, the same few commercials were shown over and over again.

I did get shown on TV briefly but the rest of the Disney group didn't because of commercials. It was sad because there were some really great costumes in the group. From the Jack costume whose picture is at the beginning of this post, to a whole group of Little Mermaid cosplayers.

Later I read that whole groups didn't make it on the broadcast. Also the live stream started late (and I know the parade didn't start late) and the 8 o'clock broadcast was suppose to show more of the parade. Instead, it was just what they had done earlier in the day.

But it was the first year it was live on the CW so it wasn't going to be perfect. And my kid was geeked out to see me on TV so that was good!

All in all, it was a good Saturday of Dragon Con!

Dragon Con 2016 - Friday

Like last year, we didn't get down to the con until Friday. We actually got to my aunt and uncle's house pretty late on Thursday, but thankfully we hadn't intended on going downtown on Thursday.

First thing we did was, of course, go get our badges. The streamlining for badge pickup is still working great so it only took a few minutes. We had gotten down to the con earlier than regular years so we went and got some food.

From there, we went back to the Sheraton for the Tarot Reading panel. Sadly, the room was packed and they didn't have enough people to do readings. So we ended up leaving early when it became clear we weren't going to get a reading.

We went to the Marriott to wait for the Walk of Fame to open. The line seemed shorter than it had been last year, and we did people watching while we waited. Once the Walk of Fame was open, we met a few people from Legends of Tomorrow.

At this point, I decided to head off to the dealer's room by myself. I did end up getting some pictures of cosplayers in the Marriott and even got a green screen picture of me thanks to the Xfinity booth that was set up there. It was very cool.

My first stop in the dealer's room was the BPAL booth because I was picking up some of the Peach scents for people who couldn't come to Dragon Con. Beth, who is the genius who creates BPAL's wonderful scents, and I had an interesting conversation for a while. I love getting to see friends who I only see at the con!

I wandered around the dealer's room, looking for blind boxes for Emily. Todd had headed to the dealer's room not long after I had and he told me that there were blind boxes on the 3rd floor of the Americas Mart.

I found some more friends when I got to the 3rd floor and then found my husband, who showed me the blind boxes he had found. He had already bought some for Emily but I bought one box for her and one box for me.

We split up again and I went to the Hyatt. First I went to the con suite for some food, and then I went to the bowels of the Hyatt for my friend Mikey Mason's concert. He did a whole set of non-comedy songs and it was heavy. It was a great show and I did get teary eyed a bit.

I met up with Todd again and we finished out our day by going to Aiden Sinclair's paranormal magic show. It was great as usual, though we did notice that even though he tells a different story every year some of the tricks he does are the same as year's past.

From there, we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house. Emily was very excited about the stuff we had gotten her. But it was time for bed because we had to be up early the next day for the parade!

To read about Saturday at Dragon Con, click here!

Stamina and Dragon Con

The last few years, I've done one post about the negative things I'd experienced during that year's Dragon Con. I didn't really have anything negative happen so I thought I'd talk about something different this year.

In November of 2014, I had a bunch of seizures and ended up in the hospital for ten days. It was horrible and when I got home, it took a long time to recover. I spent several months really weak and groggy until my neurologist got my meds sorted out.

I spent most of last year trying to get my strength and stamina back. I couldn't walk on our treadmill for more than five minutes without getting winded. I had some balance issues and overall was just really run down.

At the start of 2016, the first day in fact, Todd and I joined the Y. At first, I would just go swimming and use the walking track. It was hard because my body was so out of shape, but I kept at it. After a few months, I also started weight training.

I've only lost a few pounds but my stamina seemed to have come back for the most part. But it wasn't until this past weekend at Dragon Con that I realized how much my stamina had returned.

Dragon Con, for those who don't know, is a huge geek convention held in five hotels in the middle of downtown Atlanta. Most of the hotels are close together but there is always a ton of walking that happens.

Last year's Dragon Con was rough. I didn't have a lot of strength and the constant walking made my legs very sore. I tried not to push it too much but I ended up feeling very sick by the time the con was over.

This year was a different story. We got down to the con fairly early on Friday and even with a ton of walking during a very full day, my legs weren't sore at all. They got a little sore over the next few days, but nothing like years past. All that working out is paying off!

Not being sore and tired really helped me enjoy this year's Dragon Con that much more! And hopefully next year, I'll have even more stamina and strength.