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!

Dragon Con 2013 - Sunday

This is the 3rd installment of my Dragon Con Trip Report. Click the links for Friday's post and Saturday's post!

The Sunday of Dragon Con is always the last day for us because we like to get home as early as possible on Monday since we have a three and a half hour drive. Plus I had to work the next day so I like to rest and recover on Labor Day.

Sunday we slept in a little. I slept as long as Emily would let me, but I let Todd sleep for a while after that. Emily and I played the Dino Hunt Dice that I had gotten her the day before. I won the first two games, but she stomped me on the third game.

We got Todd up and I got dressed. I wore my American McGee’s Alice dress and it was really comfortable. We got down to the con and went to the Sheraton for another ghost investigation panel. It was just as interesting as the first one we went to, but there was a jerk in the audience. They did a q&a session after they did their presentation, and this guy started basically attacking them. Saying that that must not think that their research wasn't good or true if they hadn't entered some contest where if you prove the existence of life after death you’d win a million dollars. The spirit hunters didn't know what he was talking about and he was just really being a dick. After he said his piece, he just left.

I know that people are skeptics but there is no reason to be a dick about it, especially at a panel on the paranormal track. Dragon Con even has a whole skeptics track for those who don’t believe. It was just rude.

But from there, we went to get in line to see a paranormal illusionist. Neither Todd nor I knew what to expect but it sounded cool and we were already in the Sheraton. It ended up being awesome! It was creepy and interesting and his tricks were top notch. He had a lot of audience participation and it was one of the highlights of the con.

From there, we were going to head back to the food court, but it had started pouring and we didn’t have an umbrella. We waited a few minutes but when it looked like it wasn't going to let up anytime soon, I broke down and bought an expensive umbrella from the gift shop.

I huddled next to Todd and we made it back to the Peachtree Center without getting too soaked. My feet were wet though because I was wearing my crocs. Since it was pouring, everyone had come inside so it was suddenly very crowded. We had to wait in line just to get into the food court. We got food and then went back to the Marriott (and had to wait in line again) to wait for the last panel I was going to be on.

We had about an hour before the panel started and ended up being first in line. We ate our lunch and had fun

Phineas and Ferb cosplayers!

people watching as we waited for the panel. Since I was a panelist, I got to go in early which was cool. The panel was on Phineas and Ferb and it was a lot of fun. We had a pretty full room and a few Phineas and Ferb cosplayers!

Once the panel was over, so was Dragon Con for us. I was beat and there wasn't really anything else that I wanted to do so we headed out.

It was an interesting Dragon Con. I didn't go to any of the huge panels this year and found that I had more fun going to the smaller panels. It was crowded but I still had a lot of fun and will be back next year!

Dragon Con 2013 - Saturday

This is the 2nd installment of my Dragon Con Trip Report. Click the link for Friday's post!

I got Todd up bright and early on Saturday morning so we could head back down to the con. I have marched in the parade the last few years and I had signed up to march with the WhedonVerse folks again. Because of a trolley being put in downtown, the parade route and the staging area had to be moved. So I was a little neurotic about trying to find the new staging area.

Without too much difficulty, we found it. I gave Todd my bag and told him I’d call him when I was done. It was about an hour wait before the parade started. It’s always fun to watch all the other people in their great costumes. I think my favorite this year was the Steampunk Tigger that walked by.

The parade was awesome to be in as usual. I twirled my parasol and waved as I walked with the other Firefly folks. The crowds watching seemed massive, even more than last year. But everyone seemed to enjoy the parade.

Once the parade was over, I went to meet Todd. I was supposed to meet him in the area outside the Walk of Fame. I walked all the way around there twice and didn't see him. So I started calling and texting. I have anxiety issues normally so when I couldn't find him and he wasn't answering his phone, I felt a panic attack creeping up.

Finally he texted me that he was in the food court and had no signal. I told him where I was at and waited, trying to push back the panic. He showed up, with food and we ate. From there, we decided to go back to the dealer’s room o’ doom. Emily had pleaded for an Artemis stuffy to go with the Luna one we bought her. I stopped by the BPAL booth to sniff a little and talk to Beth. I got my picture with Beth too.

Then we went deeper into the 2nd floor of the dealer’s room. We started out by a food vendor and I got some yummy lemonade. I went over to the Steve Jackson Games booth to look for a dice game for Emily. One of the vendors took a long time to help me out and recommended Dino Hunt Dice. I got that for Emily. She loves it because it’s easy to play and she gets to roll dice. From there, we circled around looking for the vendor we got Luna from. We got turned around quickly but finally found another vendor who had an Artemis kitty. I got it and we got the heck out of the dealer’s room o’ doom.

There was a panel I wanted to go to in the Sheraton about a ghost investigation in NC. Todd grumbled about having to walk all the way to the Sheraton, but since he didn't have anything else to do, he came with me. We were about an hour early for the panel. We sat on the floor across from the room, by a power outlet. We changed our phones up a little and I read on my Kindle since there was no signal at all. Once the room was open, we got great seats right up front.

The panel was really interesting. Both Todd and I like watching ghost shows on TV and we live in a haunted house. The hour flew by and we left the Sheraton to hustle over to the Hyatt so I could meet the Fraggles.

Fraggle Rock was one of my favorite shows as a kid, so I wanted to get my picture with Red and Mokey. We made it just in time and were able to get into the room. We waited about 45 minutes so I could get my picture. And we each got a free autographed mini poster which Todd was geeked about.

I had planned on going back to the Marriott to see the Phineas and Ferb panel, but the crowds were making me feel a little claustrophobic. So we opted to go back to my aunt and uncle’s house. It was a long day of battling the crowds, but I had a lot of fun.