Mad Monster Party 2018

Originally we weren't planning on going to Mad Monster Party at all. The guest list was ok, but we had met a lot of the people there. But then a few weeks before the con, they added a guest we had to meet. Mick Foley!

Mick Foley is a former WWE wrestler and one of Todd and I's favorites. Todd grew up watching him wrestle and he's quite the character from what we've seen.

So we decided to go for a day on Sunday. We got up, I donned my American McGee's Alice costume and Emily was in her new Pikachu costume. The hotel that Mad Monster Party was in this year is the same one as ConCarolinas.

We got there, got parked and headed inside. Got our wristbands and headed downstairs where the con would be happening. We were herded into a line and noticed that it was unusually dark. Since there were some lights (emergency ones) it took us a few minutes to realize that the power was out. Going to the bathroom by the light of my cell phone was interesting!

Apparently something had caused the substation to go down and we were standing in the dark for about an hour because there were no lights in the rooms. But finally the lights came on and we were let in.

Mad Monster Party is set up kind of weird - there are a couple of big rooms with guests on the walls and dealers in the middle. This isn't a great way to control crowds so I'm not sure why they do it this way. But we went through both rooms to try and find where Mick Foley would be. He wasn't down yet so we did some looking.

Emily bought a cat purse she saw right away because she is unable to save her money at all. It was cute though. We got some pocky and other japanese snacks from a vendor who was doing deals because he wanted to get rid of his stuff. Todd got a couple of autographs from people in horror movies - one played Jason, I think, and he was really tall. The other, I'm not sure who he was exactly.

Finally we saw Mick Foley and we hurried over to his table so we were first in line! We actually got to chat with him and his assistant while they were setting things up so we got extra time. He thought Em was pretty cute!

We got an autograph with him and then a picture. He let Todd hold his championship belt, which Todd said was quite heavy! It was really a great experience to meet him because he was super nice and well worth the drive.

After that, we did another circle around the rooms and then headed out. We went to lunch at PF Chang's and then went home! Thankfully our next convention won't be so fast - we are heading to Kentucky this weekend to spend three days at the Lexington Comic Con!

Michigan Trip 2017 - Travel and Horror Con

It's been a long, long time since we've been up to Michigan to visit family so over 4th of July this year we make the very long trek to the state of our birth (at least for Todd and I).

My dear husband is always coming up with interesting ideas and he got one related to the drive up to Michigan. The drive sucks, it's long and mostly boring. But Todd found a horror convention, Days of the Dead, that was happening in Indianapolis the day we were driving up. It only added on like a half hour to our trip and there was some interesting guests there so we decided to get ticket.

I tried to sleep before we left and so did Todd, even though he got home from work at 11 pm and we left at 2 am. Neither of us got any sleep. I managed to sleep a little in the car but Todd was just high on caffeine.

Once the sun came up, Emily woke up and so did I. We stopped at a rest area and I changed into my Alice costume. I'm unable to go to a convention without a costume. Emily also was wearing her Chewbacca costume which is just pj's anyway.

Sadly the main person we wanted to see had canceled. That was George Romero and he canceled for health reasons. Once we got in and got our wrist bands, we found Matthew Lillard who was in Scream and Hackers, as well as being Shaggy in Scooby-Doo (both the live action movies and in recent cartoons).

His line wasn't too long so we got in line. Emily was a bit shy but she was very geeked that he pulled her aside and talked her in the Shaggy voice. The lady who had my phone to take a picture with us and him actually got a video of it put a couple of really cute pictures. We all got hugs from him (even Todd!) and got our picture taken.

We wandered around the halls. It was a mixture of dealers tables and celebrities doing autographs.

Being a horror convention, there was a lot of somewhat scary stuff but Emily was doing fine. We found the other person we wanted to meet, Lita, who is one of my all time favorite wrestlers. She was really nice and we got a picture taken with her too.

Todd had told Emily she could have $20 to spend at the convention. My kid found the table that was selling Pokemon stuffed animals in the middle of all that horror stuff and had to get one. I got some stickers for our car.

We were only at the convention maybe an hour but it was fun. It was nice to get out of the car and walk around for a while. I did nearly scar my child for life. They had a haunted house set up and I had Emily take a picture with it. Next to it was a giant pumpkin with Michael Myers standing there. I didn't realize that it was a cosplayer and not a statue. Freaked Emily right out! I felt so bad!!

After we got to the car, we went to White Castle for lunch which was yummy and then got back on the road. I was going to drive but Todd decided he was fine and actually drove the rest of the way to my dad's house.

It was supper time once we got there and my dad took us to this pizza buffet called Pizza Ranch. They had fried chicken and a great salad bar in addition to the pizza. It was really good!

Once we got back to my dad's house, I was exhausted and so was Todd. Emily, who had gotten the most sleep, was not so we let her stay up with my dad and they watched the first Harry Potter movie. Both Todd and I passed out as soon as our heads hit our pillows. It was a really long day.

Up Next - Beach Day!