Lexington Comic Con 2018 - Saturday!

This is the 2nd post in this series, click here to start at the beginning!

We got up bright and early on Saturday because we wanted to be to the con before the doors opened. There was already a line just to get into the convention areas so we got in line. Sadly none of the food places were open so we didn't get breakfast.

Once the doors opened, we got in pretty fast. We did have to go through metal detectors, which slowed things down a little. We booked it over to the autograph room and got in line for Chuck Norris.

His was a prepaid, so we just had to show the ticket from when Todd paid for the autograph online. The line was long but it moved fast. Chuck Norris was super nice, shook our hands and talked to us for a minute. He was sweet to Emily which is always a plus in my book.

From there, we got more autographs. We met Ric Flair who was also super nice. It was great to see Dragon Con last year for health issues. We saw Pauly Shore but opted not to get his autograph.

him after he had to cancel his appearance at

We met Lou Diamond Phillips and got a picture with him which was awesome. The same for Rey Mysterio who is only a tiny bit taller than I am. It was starting to get really crowded so Emily and I went off to go see the Powerpuff Girls panel.

Before we went to the panel though, we stopped and got some snack food because Emily spent the entire time we were in the autograph section complaining she was dying of hunger. We took our food and found seats in the back and ate while we waited for the panel to start.

It had the voice actors for the original three Powerpuff Girls plus the voice actor who played the Professor. It was a great panel especially since they would launch into different voices they did as they talked about it.

After that, we met up with Todd and got the heck out of there. It was starting to be beyond crowded and we were all hungry. Todd had found a BBQ place online when he was looking at things in Lexington, so we headed there.

It was called Red State BBQ and it was a hole in the wall kind of place. But the food was so good. Emily got BBQ nachos and it was huge so we ended up having to take it back to the hotel with us. We were all stuffed when we got done.

We headed back to the hotel and went swimming for a long time. Todd joined us this time which made Emily very happy. Once we were done, we went to the nearby convenience store for some snacks.

The rest of the evening we just vegged in our room watching "Ghost Adventures" on TV while Emily played with her toys. I read all the complaints about the overcrowding at the con and the insanity with the crowds that had happened after we left.

All in all, we had a great day, partly because we left the con before the crowds reached their peak.

Up Next - Sunday and Final Thoughts!

ConCarolinas and Me

ConCarolinas is a mid-sized con that takes place outside of Charlotte every year at the beginning of June. It's a great con because a lot of my friends go to it and it's like a mini Dragon Con without the massive crowds.

It's been a few years since I've been able to go to ConCarolinas, but on Saturday Emily and I are heading there for the day. I'm very excited to go for a lot of reasons. Emily's excited to show off her Kairi costume and go to Mommy's friend's concert (Mikey Mason!).

Emily was about 8 months old whens she went to her first ConCarolinas. It was her first con ever! But more important than that, ConCarolinas was instrumental in me realizing that I had Post Partum Depression. I wasn't excited for the con and I knew I ought to be. This caused me to finally get help and get back on a good track.

We went back the next year. I did some gaming while Todd chased around a mobile Emily. It was at this con that Emily had her first picture with a celebrity. Claudia Christian who played Susan Ivanova on Babylon Five thought Emily was so cute that she wanted a picture with her. Claudia Christian's husband sent Todd a copy of that picture. It's the first one in Emily's Hall of Fame Scrapbook.

I've had other great experiences at ConCarolinas and I'm sure this coming Saturday will be no exception. It's a great convention and everyone in the Carolinas should check it out!

Mourning Celebrities

Image: www.fanpop.com 

It's been a rough week for fans of pop culture. Earlier this week, David Bowie passed away after a battle with cancer. I open Facebook this morning and find that Alan Rickman has also died of cancer.

Fuck cancer.

The morning after Bowie had died, my Facebook feed was filled with remembrances and grief for him. I honestly wasn't as sad as some people, though I was sad. I wasn't a big fan of his music but his performance as the Goblin King really had a big impact on young adult me.

Seeing that Alan Rickman died on Facebook this morning was much more of a gut punch. I'm honestly gutted because I loved his work. So many great roles over the years. I'm sure as I write this, my social media feed is filling up with tributes.

My husband thinks it's odd that I get sad when celebrities die. But music, film, television, books can play a huge role in our lives. At least in mine. So it feels like I know celebrities, even though I really don't. And it's a loss either way.

I will continue to mourn my favorite celebrities as they shuffle off this earthly plane. I just hope that the universe gives us a break for a bit and there are no more celebrity deaths this week.

Forced to Age Gracefully

There has been a whole hubbub the last few days over Renee Zellweger and her new look. I think she looks different but fine - it's not my face or body so it doesn't really matter to me what she looks like. But it got me thinking about the different standards when it comes to aging.

Women aren't suppose to age. Ridiculous, yes, but it's true. Have you ever seen those commercials for anti-aging creme? Have you ever seen a man hawking such a product? Of course not! Men are allowed to age normally whereas women are expected to look as youthful as possible.

It's all bullshit of course but it doesn't stop us from feeding into it. Premature greying runs in my family. Supposedly my grandmother on my dad's side went completely grey by age 16. Of course she started dying her hair.

My sister started finding grey hairs around the same age and she was horrified. She would yank out any she would find. On the other hand, my dad has been grey for as long as I can remember. While some men might feel the need to dye their hair, my dad didn't. It hasn't hurt his career or his dating life after my mom passed.

I've always had a lax attitude towards beauty products. I've always looked younger than I am - once someone thought I was 13 when I was actually over 21. I don't wear makeup and I only color my hair for fun. Lately I've noticed that I'm starting to go grey myself but I'm not going to do anything about it because it's just a part of aging.

In part it's laziness. Putting on make-up takes time and I just don't care. In part it's money because I'd rather spend mine on other things rather than make-up. I am who I am, and that hasn't stopped me from landing a husband, so I'm good.

But I'm just a normal person so I can get away with that. Celebrities, especially women, seem to be pressured into staying as young as possible for their career. That's why so many celebrities get plastic surgery - to stay youthful looking. It doesn't always work.

One of my favorite book series touched on this. The Belgariad by David Eddings is a wonderful sword and sorcery series. In it, there are several magic users who are several thousand years old. Belgarath looks the part as an old man with wrinkles and grey hair, but his daughter Polgara looks to be mid-30's with black hair. When the young boy Garion asks Belgarath why Polgara doesn't look old, he replies that none would take a women who looks old seriously. Sadly this can be true even in our world.

I don't really have a solution to this issue but it's a real one. Hopefully I will still love myself as I continue to age and hopefully that will give at least my daughter a good role model for aging gracefully.