Dragon Con 2017 - Friday!

This is the 2nd post in my Dragon Con 2017 recap! To start from the beginning, click here!

Friday dawned very rainy but I still put on my very white Princess Leia costume because I had a photoshoot. Todd and I headed down to Atlanta fairly early and got some breakfast at the food court.

While we were eating, I saw from several people I know on social media that the dealer's room was doing a soft opening several hours early. We headed over there, and we got soaked! Thankfully, I had some clothes underneath my costume so I wasn't indecent. Plus my dress dried quickly.

There was a soft opening of the dealer's room and we were let in not long after we got there. The place was so empty it was great! I found the BPAL booth and got all the things I had promised to pick up for people. It was a good thing I did because one of the Dragon Con exclusive hair glosses actually sold out within an hour of the scheduled opening of the dealer's room.

After shopping a bit more, I left Todd and headed over to the Westin for the Princess Leia photo shoot. Someone had the idea to have this photo shoot the day Carrie Fisher died, and it was a

wonderful time. I didn't end up staying the whole time though - the pictures ended up great!

I went back to the dealer's room for a bit and talked to some friends. Then I went to the Marriott  because I was on back to back panels for the Kaleidoscope Track. A massive panel was getting out the same time I was trying to get to my panel and it was wall to wall people. Finally I did make it to the Kaleidoscope Track room.

The first panel was Cut the Cable, which we did years ago. It was a fun panel! The 2nd was Beauty and the Beast - Animation vs. Live Action. The room was pretty full and we had a lot of audience participation too. I love doing panels for the Kaleidoscope Track - it's a lot of fun!

From there, I met up with Todd at the Walk of Fame. I got my picture with Josh Segarra who was the villain Prometheus who was super nice! After that, I waited for the Arrow panel, very thankful to have seat to wait in the disability section. The panel was great and I met with Todd at the food court once it was over.

We headed back to my aunt and uncle's house and my dad had arrived. He had come down for the weekend to spend it with Emily (mostly her, my aunt and uncle too since my uncle is his brother). We hung out for a bit before heading to bed.

Up Next - Dragon Con - Saturday!

Dragon Con 2015 - Sunday

Arrow panel

This is the last post in my series of recaps of Dragon Con. You can click to read the posts for Friday and Sunday.

We got up pretty early and back downtown on Sunday since I wanted to make sure I was able to get into the Arrow panel. I wasn't feeling too bad, but all the walking was taking its toll so I opted to wait in the handicapped area. 

The nice thing about the handicapped area is the chairs. I was there an hour early, and there was already a line of normal folks. There were a few people in the handicapped area too. I don't mind waiting but having a chair to sit on really helps me maintain spoons.

The panel was in the massive ballroom in the Marriott so it took some time to load everyone in. I enjoyed watching DragonConTV, my first time watching it all weekend since we hadn't done any panels and we don't stay in a host hotel.

Finally the panel started - it had all the Arrow guests there. Though Stephen Amell and John Barrowman totally stole the show. They were really funny!

Once the panel was done, I met Todd at the food court. After some lunch, we spent some time in the dealer's room. I got some stickers for my car / computer, but that was pretty much all I bought. I didn't want to be hauling a ton of stuff around. I did get to see my friend Elizabeth at the Austin Browncoats table - her daughter is even cuter in person!

From there, we headed to the Sheraton. We went to one paranormal panel, Historic Haunts Investigations, where author / ghost hunter Jamie Pierce answered questions about her experiences. It was really interested.

After that, we decided to go and wait for Aiden Sinclair's Paranormal Magic Show. His shows have been the highlight of our Cons the last few years and his show was different this year. We were the first in line, and we

Me and Aiden Sinclair!

sat in chairs that were outside the room. So we also started the disability area too. The line started forming behind us about five minutes after we sat down and we were about two hours early. 

Aiden Sinclair came probably an hour or so before the show and he was shocked to see all the people already lined up. I actually got a picture with him too which was pretty awesome!

The Dragon Con organizers has put a mini Maker's Fair in the room  that was suppose to go until right before the show was suppose to start. They actually had to end that early and then have a bunch of staffers come in to set up the room. Even with that, the show did start on time and we were in the front.

The show was titled Paranormal Illusions: The Haunted Circus. All the tricks told the story of a tragic circus fire that happened in 1944 that had a paranormal incident surrounding it. He had artifacts from the circus that he used. I actually got picked to help in one of the tricks.

It was an amazing show! Again the highlight of my con. Afterwards, we also were able to get Aiden Sinclair's autograph.

From there, it was after 9 pm. So we left the con, happy with how the weekend had gone. Honestly, it was one of the best Dragon Cons I've attended!

Dragon Con Goals and Worries

Image: dragoncon.com

Dragon Con is only a couple of weeks away so we are totally in Dragon Con mode. Todd and I have conversations about Dragon Con several times a week, sometimes several times a day. I'm really looking forward to my 8th Dragon Con but I do have some worries.

I've been really sick as of late. Lots of really bad migraines as well as balance issues. I'm planning on getting the disability sticker on my badge so I can sit down in a chair to wait for panels and I am not going to give blood this year.

Hopefully I'll be ok - I might add a sticker to the back of my badge with Todd's contact information, just in case. I'll be spending most of the con with him anyway. I am still looking forward to it a lot.

My main goal for this Dragon Con is to finally meet Peter David. He's been one of my favorite authors since I was in high school, and he's usually at Dragon Con, but I never seem to be able to find him. Probably because the last couple of years we having hit the Artist Alley at all, and I think that's where he usually is. But this year, I will meet him, get his autograph, buy new books!

This year I'm also pretty excited that I actually need to buy dice. Need may be a strong word, but we gave Emily dice from our own collections. After years of playing Hero System games, we have an abundance of  6 sized dice. But we all need some of the others, especially Emily. She has requested pink and multi-colored dice, and she especially needs some more 4 sized dice because that's what she uses most with her Magic Missile spell.

I'm not a panelist at all this year, and that is a good thing I think with my health issues. I'll be stalking the Walk of Fame with Todd. I really hope the Arrow guests and Big Bird will do table pictures. I really want pictures with all of them but I really don't want to use Froggy.

Other than that, I'm only bringing two costumes this year. I'll be the Tightrope Girl on Friday and Saturday and then Blue Jacket Kaylee for Sunday. We will probably leave fairly early on Saturday - maybe even right after the parade. Saturday is so crowded anymore it's hard to move a lot of times. Plus there is a really cool mall not far from my aunt and uncle's house with a Disney Store!

I think taking it easy on Saturday may be the key to making it through this Dragon Con without getting to sick or in too much pain. Hopefully, I'll have a great con, will be able to meet cool celebrities, meet Peter David finally, sniff some BPAL and hang out with 80,000 pretty awesome people!

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 - 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