ConCarolinas 2017

ConCarolinas is one of my favorite cons. It's small but has a lot of activities. And a lot of my friends attend which makes it a lot of fun. ConCarolinas was actually Emily's very first con when she was only 8 months old! But this year we did a few new things, including staying overnight at the hotel for the first time.

Emily and I got up early on that Saturday morning and make the trek to Charlotte. We made good time but when we pulled into the hotel, I noticed that there were no parking spots anywhere nearby. I pulled the car up to unload it and made the decision to pay for valet parking. That was a great decision because we left the hotel several times to get food.

The bellhop loaded our stuff onto a cart and took it to our room. It only took a minute for us to get our badges and we got down to the dealer's room just before it opened. We went around the room and Emily exercised great control until she saw Pokemon cards. She had to get some! The only thing I bought was some decals for my new car.

After that, we went back to the room so I could change into my Tightrope Girl costume then hurried down for the costume contest pre-judging. Thankfully I was first to be judged, because both Emily and I were pretty hungry at that time.

I changed again (this became a theme for the day) and we went to get lunch at McDonald's. We had a bit of time, so we went down to the pool for a bit. It was really relaxing and nice to cool down because it was hot out!

After that, I changed in my Princess Leia costume and we went to the gaming area to play D&D. We had a lot of fun, and Emily's character helped us a lot in the combat with her sleep spell! Next year, hopefully we can go down on Friday and play in more D&D games.

Once the game was done, it was time to change back into my Tightrope Girl costume and go down to my friend Mikey's concert. It was great, though I did have to run back up to the room because I had

forgotten my gloves. I had to leave early to get lined up for the contest. Thankfully it was in the same room so I just got Emily settled in a seat in the 3rd row and left my purse and glasses with her.

This was my first costume contest I've ever been in so I was in the novice category. There were some other great costumes there too. I had no idea what I was going to do on stage and I started to feel really nervous.

In the end, I pretended like I was walking a tightrope and then posed in my pose for a moment. It was really fast. Then it was time to go back to the waiting room to wait for everyone else to have their turn on the stage.

Once everyone was done, they had us all come out on stage. We stood there while they read off the winners of the film festival as the judges decided who won. The novice awards were read off first and to my great surprise, I won 3rd place!

The best part of the whole weekend was when they read my name off, a tiny blur in the 3rd row jumped to her feet, her hands thrust in the air as she cheered for her mommy. It was awesome!

The other winners had great costumes too. A Newt Scamander cosplayer won best in show and he deserved it - his costume was really great!

It was about 6:30 pm once we got done with the costume contest so I got changed again. We went and got Cookout for supper. We watched Disney Jr. on TV as we ate and then we headed back to the pool for some night swimming. I was pretty beat by that time so we didn't swim for too long. I let Emily watch some tv while I got things packed up to make things easier in the morning.

The next day we got up and went swimming again for a bit. Then we got everything packed up. I went to the valet / bell hop station to get some help. I figure if I'm paying for valet parking they can come up and get our stuff. 

I knew it may take a while, and so did the guy at the valet station. He told me he would send someone up as soon as possible. Sadly, I had to call down several times before someone came up. It took over an hour. By that time, Emily was convinced that we had to live there now.

We got our car which they did pack up for us, and went to get some lunch. After lunch, we went back inside to do one more spin around the dealer's room. There was a booth that had geek-inspired sweets so I got Emily a Pokemon sucker and a BB-8 cookie.

As we were leaving the dealer's room, I rounded a corner and realized that Emily was gone! I freaked out as I paced the hallway not wanting to go too far away. My friend Mikey happened upon me mid-freak out and he went to the dealer's room to look there. All of a sudden, Emily reappeared! She had gone into the bathroom and had thought I was following her. I had lost her but she didn't know she was lost.

We went and told Mikey that we had found her and then headed out. After stopping at 7-11 for slurpies, we headed on home. It was a very fun weekend (except for the losing Emily part) and I look forward to next year's ConCarolinas!

Pokemon Go!

If you've been on social media at all in the last few days, you've probably seen pictures and articles all about Pokemon Go. I was too old when Pokemon because a big thing to get into the cartoon but I did play several of the DS games. Pokemon Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance was my favorite and I still have that game.

Not long ago, Emily discovered the Pokemon cartoons on Netflix and got hooked. The Easter bunny brought her a Pikachu stuffed animal and she has a small collection of Pokemon cards. When this app came out, she was really excited to play.

With me armed with my phone and Emily with her tablet, we walked around our neighborhood a-hunting Pokemon. It took some getting used to but we started to catch them all. On Sunday, we went to three different parks because I was out of pokeballs and needed a pokestop.

Fletcher Park had a ton of pokestops and we caught quite a lot of pokemon. Kate's Park and Jake Rusher Park had a few pokestops and some pokemon too.

We didn't see anyone else playing the game but Emily and I had a lot of fun. I hate to admit it but Emily is much better at the game than I am. She's actually passed me by as she's on level 6 and I'm still on level 5.

I know some people are sick of hearing about Pokemon Go but I think it's refreshing to see my friends having fun with this game. This year has been terrible in a lot of ways, so it's nice to see something happy get some attention.

For now, both Emily and I will continue to try to catch them all!

The Problem With April 1st

I've never been a fan of April Fools Day. I don't like pranks because they can become cruel. I generally just lay low and wait for April 2nd to roll around.

The internet has put a spin on this holiday though. Some things, like today's Google Maps Pokemon Hunt is cute and fun. But the spoof news bits have kind of gotten out of control.

The rumor that Netflix is going to make new episodes of Firefly is making the rounds again. It's hard to believe anything that is announced today. Some of them are easy to spot, but others aren't. It gets annoying after a while.

It can also be hard on people - for instance some people will post that they are pregnant but just be joking. I've not had losses or infertility issues but people I'm close to have and I know it hurts them a lot.

I might be a scrooge but I'm just not into it. I'll be happier when it's tomorrow.