Unique Dragon Con

Last Dragon Con :)

I admit it, I found myself comparing Wizard World Atlanta to Dragon Con last weekend. I know that there is no way that it would have been anything like Dragon Con but I did it anyway.

Dragon Con is such a unique experience and each con-goers can have a completely different experience than anyone else. But it's also very different from other cons as well.

First it's massive - 80,000 to 100,000 people attend Dragon Con every year. Now that's a guess because generally they don't publish the attendance numbers, but it's a huge amount of people. Now it is spread out over five host hotels and the dealer's room is now in a whole separate building.

Because of the hotels, the party never stops. I'm not a party sort of people generally but I like going to some of the track dances if I can stay awake long enough. Because there ain't no party like a Dragon Con party. And I'm pretty sure that Dragon Con is one of the few places that a normal person (as normal as your average geek is) that you can party with celebrities.

I remember Todd's first Dragon Con - he stayed up all night and ended up seeing someone famous really drunk at the bar at the Marriott. My only experience with hobnobbing with guests was the year that I had dinner with Peter Beagle - the friends I was staying with knew him and I got to tag along.

Wizard World was fun but it wasn't the awesome, crazy, exhausting high that Dragon Con is. We actually went and had lunch at the food court at the Peachtree Center after we left Wizard World. It was sad and really empty. But in a few months, it will be filled with geeks and cosplayers and friends!

Wizard World Atlanta

Me and Karen Gilliam

For many years, Todd has wanted to go to a Wizard World. Mostly because they get a lot of big name guests that other conventions don't get. But until this year, there wasn't one close enough for us to go to.

When it was announced that Wizard World was coming to Atlanta, Todd wanted to go. But it wasn't until Anthony Mackie was added to the guest list that we decided for go for sure. Unfortunately, he canceled, but other guests had been added that we wanted to meet.

Since Todd is new at his job, we decided to just go on Saturday. We got up very early Saturday morning and drove down. Luckily, my wonderful aunt and uncle were willing to let us stay and watch Emily. We hung with them for a while and I got changed into my costume.

Wizard World was at the World Congress Center which is only a few MARTA stops away from Dragon Con. We got on the train and it did something we'd never experience before - the train broke down!

We weren't stopped for long, but they did make us get out and put the train out of service at one of the next stops. The rest of the trip was fairly smooth and we got there a little after 10.

After getting our wristbands we walked in. It was much smaller than I expected. The majority of the con was in one big room. One end had the autographs and the photo ops and another end had the artist's alley. In the middle was the dealer's room. They also had food and a gaming area. And there were a few panel rooms outside of the main room.

There was already a line formed for Karen Gilliam's autograph. Since I had preordered that I got a card and got in line. It took longer to wait for her to arrive than it did to go through the line. Though while I was waiting there was a bunch of teenage girls running and screaming behind us. I think they were doing the VIP experience with Norman Reedus which gave them one on one time with him. Whatever they were so hyped up about, it got annoying after a while.

Todd met up with me right before I got Karen's autograph. I was a little surprised that she was taking table pictures for free, but I took advantage of it and got my picture with her.

After that, we  had some time to kill before Todd needed to get in line for the Big Show. While I was waiting for Karen, Todd had gotten another autograph from an actor who had been in the Boondock Saints 2.

We watched around the dealer's area. I found a Keyblade right away and since I love Kingdom Hearts I had to get it. Todd is going to mount it somewhere in my office. I got some stickers for my car and we got Emily a My Little Pony figure.

I was feeling kind of crappy, in part due to the screaming girls, so we went to the food area of the room and I got a BBQ sandwich. We did some more looking around and then got in line to meet the Big Show.

Todd had him autograph his WrestleMania poster from the year it was in Atlanta. He is a big man and was pretty nice. After that, we decided that there really wasn't anything else we wanted to do. Todd's not big into panels and neither of us had a ton of money to spend.

We opted inside to go see the new X-Men movie which was very good. We did have a good time at the convention - we both considered this year a scouting trip to see what it was like. If there is an actor or wrestler we want to meet next year, we'd definitely go back. If not, we'll probably skip it.

Tales of a Fat Cosplayer - Curves and Hotness

 Last year, I wrote a post about how even though I'm overweight I enjoying wearing costumes and cosplaying. It was in response some comments made on Heroes of Cosplay. But I found that I have more to say on the subject.

Ever since Todd was diagnosed with MS, we changed our diet as a family. Todd lost a ton - he actually lost about as much weight as Emily weighs. I lost too but not as much thanks to being a women. But I have been noticing my clothes have been fitting a lot looser.

I have a Kaylee costume that has a light blue Asian jacket. The jacket always fit a bit snug, especially tight in the arms. I went to a Browncoat picnic a couple of weeks ago and I Kaylee-fied myself because we were going to film spots for the Browncoat Ball.

The jacket wasn't tight at all! It fit great! 

We don't have any long mirrors in our house so when I want to get a look of most of me, I have to stand on the toilet. This was a little dangerous when I was pregnant, and one of the reasons there are very few pictures of me during that time.

I was curious though so I got up there and my shape is changing for the better! I still have a pudgy belly, but looking at me front on I'm just all curves, with a killer hourglass shape going on. My thought was, "I'd be hot... if I lived in another time period."

Never in my life have I thought I was hot or gorgeous. I'm short and round, which isn't super attractive in this day and age. But in years past people have wore huge hoop skirts to try and emulate what God gave me. Too bad I live in a time period where thin and tall is in vogue.

But I'll be rocking a costume this weekend at Atlanta's first Wizard World. I may be a fat cosplayer but at least I have some awesome curves to go with the fat.