Dragon Con 2007 - Part Two

This is my trip report from my very first Dragon Con, originally posted on my livejournal. For Part One, Click Here!

Saturday we got up rather early again, since one of my friends was had to be out and about early because he was in the parade. I got into my costume, which was my Summoner Yuna costume, and I needed some help as well. 

Another friend and I headed down to get a good spot and watch the parade.After the parade we got food and headed back to the Hyatt for the panel with Ellen Muth (who starred as George in Dead Like Me). Lunch was yummy and the panel was very interesting. 

Unfortunately, by this time, I was starting to feel badly, as the pain in my head started to grow. I didn't really want to put a cold pack on, mostly because that would detract from my costume. Eventually I did have to put one on because the pain was pretty bad.

We did some wandering, went to the Walk of Fame (it was crazy in there!), and then made our way to Peter S. Beagle's reading. He read the prologue and a few chapters of his new book, "I'm Afraid

You've Got Dragons" which was very interesting, the book doesn't come out until next year, but I really want to get it when it does come out. 

I separted from my friends and ended up in the room with a migraine that was about a 7 or 8 on the scale of 1 to 10. I spent a good portion of the afternoon/early evening in the room laying down.

I did drag myself out of bed because the showing of "The Last Unicorn" with Peter S. Beagle doing commentary was that night. We there about an hour early and it was a good thing because the room they were showing the movie in was tiny! We did get in, and we got seats. They turned lots of people away, which was sad. 

The movie was great, and it was very interesting to hear the commentary from Peter.

After that, we headed back to the room - I was still feeling pretty crappy. We did get some food and then watched the Dawn costume contest that was on Dragon*ConTV, as we ate, and then crashed not long after that.

Sunday we actually got to sleep in a little. And I had thankfully slept off my migrain! 

I went to the Stars of Harry Potter panel, and I just managed to snag a seat. Unfortunately, I was too far away to get any good pictures. It had the actors that played the Weasley twins and the actor that played Neville. It was very interesting.

After that, I ran into my friends and we all watched Tom Smith, who does Filk, play a short show in the lobby of the Hyatt. I knew what Filk was, but this was my first time really listening to it. It was very amusing. 

I went to the art show for a bit and then met up with another friend because we both wanted to go to the Star Trek: The Next Generation panel. We did food runs and as my friend had returned with her food, the line started moving. The panel was in the biggest panel room, and it still got filled to the brim. The panel had the actors who played Data, Dr. Crusher and Riker. Brent Spiner, who played Data, seemed very bitter, and none of them really wanted to talk about Star Trek that much. It was an okay panel, but I had been to better ones.

The actor who played Riker did come out into the audience before he came on stage. He was really close to us. 

After that, we went to another panel, I think it was one in the writing track - I don't really remember it that much and then we came back to get in line for the Ron Glass panel. 

This line was the worst of all weekend. We ended up standing in line in the outside area where all the smokers came to smoke. I'm really allergic to smoke, so this was not fun. Plus, the line didn't move, and didn't move, even though most lines started moving about 15-20 minutes before the panel started. My friend went to ask at one point why the line wasn't moving, and she was angrily told that they were trying to clear the room and get the people in wheelchairs in. The line didn't move until 15 minutes after the panel started.

The panel itself was good - Ron Glass didn't sit down once!! 

Afterwards, I went to the Walk of Fame which was much emptier than it had been. There was only one person in front of me when I was getting Ron Glass's autograph. He was very nice, and I got a couple of pictures.

I then saw that James Marsters, who played Spike on Buffy, was there, so I got in line - there was only one person in front of me there too. I got my picture signed and we talked for a minute. He was really nice too. Alas, no pictures of that.

I went back up to the room to put my newly autographed things away, and headed to the dealer's room. I mostly wandered for a while, and the only thing I really bought was a Harley Quinn print for Todd. We had gone to the dealer's room on Saturday I think, and I had gotten the "Done the Impossible" DVD, which is about Browncoats, and something I had wanted to see for a while. And I got a Browncoat lanyard as well. I honestly did not spend hardly any money on stuff at Dragon*Con.

After that, I went back to the room and found my friends vegging out before their big dinner with Peter S. Beagle. I had been wishy-washy on if I wanted to tag along or not, because I knew it would be expensive, but I also knew it would be a cool experience. So, I ended up deciding to go.

It was a very cool experience, and the food was expensive, but really, really good. I didn't have that much to add, but still had a good time. 

We got done with dinner just in time to head to the Hyatt for Tom Smith's concert. The room was packed but it was a very good show!

After that, we tried to peek into the Pirate Party, but it was full, so we just went back to the room, and watched some of the costume contest before going to sleep.

Monday was most just packing up and driving home. That was the first and last time I was at Dragon Con until Monday. That first Dragon Con has sparked a decade of memories and fun times!

Dragon Con 2007 - Part One

I realized that this year was going to be my 10th Dragon Con. So I'm a little nostalgic on how it all started. We moved to North Carolina in 2005, but after Dragon Con had already happened. In 2006, I didn't go because of going to Michigan for my wedding. But finally 2007 I got to go for the first time.

I stayed with friends and Todd didn't go because he didn't have the time off because that was the year we took our honeymoon. I wrote about the experience in my LJ. Here are some of the highlights!

The drive was fairly uneventful, and we arrived about 5-ish to the Marriott. We tried to check in, but had to wait for my friend Kathleen to arrive. We filled up the time by hanging out with another friend, Nicole and her husband - they were fun to hang out with. We also grabbed dinner, and got our badges. Oddly enough, the line didn't seem that bad to me.

After we got our badges, Kathleen had arrived, and we were able to get into the room. It was a fairly standard hotel room with two double beds (which I think we were lucky to get, because we had been told earlier that only king rooms were left), and it had enough room for me to set up my blow up bed (I brought this because I'm an odd sleeper and that way Kathleen and I could each have our own bed.)

We were on the 41st floor which was very cool, though the elevator rides did make me dizzy almost every time.

Friday dawned very, very early - mostly because the alarm went off at 7:30. I was awake quickly, mostly because I'm used to getting up this early, and I quickly got into my costume, which was my Hogwarts costume.

It was a very hot costume, and I didn't wear it all day. Everyone else got ready and we went downstairs to find out where open gaming was since friends I was staying with were running a one-shot sword and socery Hero game set in Via, which is a world we play in every other Sunday.

Apparently open gaming was not available at that time, so we just took over a table in one of the gaming rooms, expecting to be kicked out. We must have been truly early birds because we weren't bothered at all.

After the game, we headed over to see the stars of Buffy (which included James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Elisabeth Rohm and some random guy who played a demon on the show).

Before the panel though, my friend Alic walked with me to the Hilton to try and find Trader Vic's, where the Bpal meet & sniff was going to be later that night. I thought I had a fairly good grip on how to find it, but alas I was wrong. More on that later

I parted ways with everyone, and went to the Andromeda panel that had Kevin Sorbo and Gordon Michael Woolvett. Gordon Michael Woolvett had a prop from the show and he passed it around. It was neat and I got a fairly good picture of that.

Next up was the Firefly panel - I got in line, waited and managed to get a very good seat because I was alone. Though as the room filled up, I noticed my friend Carmen looking for a seat, and I happened to have one next to me, so we got to sit next to each other.

Unfortunately, Ron Glass was late, so the panel was just Mark Sheppard. It was still a very good panel, and the closest I was for any panel all weekend.

After that, Carmen and I went on the search for Trader Vic's. We got some conflicting directions, and the fact that it was just confusing to find didn't help. We did manage to find it.

We also stopped at both our hotel rooms. I was dying because my costume was so warm, and I had planned on changing before the meet & sniff anyway. So I was very glad to get out of that costume.

Directly before the meet & sniff, Carmen and I went to a Harry Potter panel called "Mourning Potter". It was about the characters who had died and the end of the series in general. It was a very interesting panel.

We then went to the meet & sniff, which was fun - though I have no clue who any of the people were except a couple.

Now, I had had a donut in the room before we left for the game, and we had stopped in the con suite right after the Buffy panel, but I hadn't eaten anything else all day, and everything I had eaten was not good food. I had planned on getting something from Trader Vic's but nothing on their menu looked good, and it was expensive. Carmen got a chicken caeser salad that was very small for what they charged. And she had to get it to go, since the service was slow, and we had wanted to go to the Buffy Horror Picture Show at 10 pm. I had planned on stopping at the con suite after the Buffy show.

We left the Hilton at a little before 10, but managed to make it to the Hyatt just after 10 when we came across a huge line. We asked what it was for, and we were told it was for the 11:30 pm show of Buffy. The line was already really long, so we joined.

This was the longest time I stood in line all weekend - since we had an hour and a half before the show started. It was okay, we talked to some of the people in line. The strangest thing was two cups, at different times, came soaring out of the sky. Luckily they didn't hit anything but the ground.

Finally the line started moving, and we did get in. Though tons of people were turned away from what I heard.

The show itself was great - the audience, including me, sang along with the songs, and a good time was had by nearly all. The only annoying thing was the guys behind us kept talking, and one of the guys behind us was very drunk and got up at one point to find a bathroom to get sick in.

After the Buffy show, Carmen and I parted ways (and I didn't see her the rest of the weekend, which was sad), and I found my way back to the Mariott. I pretty much went to bed because I was exhausted. I didn't ever even eat anything else.

Up Next - Part Two!

Concert Memories - Barry Manilow

Image: www.tennessean.com

This is the 3rd post in my Concert Memories series! To start at the beginning, click here!

The next few entries of this series may be out of order. My memory for dates hasn't ever been very good but it's gotten worse since my seizures happened a few years ago. Plus with Barry Manilow being in the news, I wanted to write about him first.

I'm pretty sure I was in college when I got to see Barry Manilow live in concert. If I remember correctly, I went with my mom and my sister. I can't remember if my dad was there or not. The concert took place in Grand Rapids.

Barry Manilow was one of the musicians that I listened to a lot as a child. His songs were fun and sometimes really beautiful, in the case of I Write The Songs. His stuff is very 70's and of course my favorite of all his songs is Mandy. 

Seeing him in concert was awesome. He played all of his hits and put on a great show. I believe he had a bunch of dancers and lights for Copacabana. I sang, danced in my seat and was highly entertained. If I had the chance to see him again, I would!

Up Next - Huey Lewis and the News!

Concert Memories - The Beach Boys

Image: www.musicstack.com

This is the 2nd post in my Concert Memories series! To start at the beginning, click here!

My parents were born in the early 1950's so they were teenagers in the 1960's. A lot of the music they listened to as teenagers was the soundtrack of my childhood.

One of my parent's favorites was The Beach Boys. Their music was a staple in my house when I was young. Though my mom, whose name was Barbara Ann, wasn't always fond of the song that had her name. It came out when she was in middle school and she got teased about it.

But one summer in my childhood, we got tickets to see the Beach Boys in concert. I honestly don't remember a ton about this concert. I do remember that one of the original members was missing - probably Brian Wilson.

It was an outdoor, daytime concert. They played all their hits, and it was fun! Though of all the concerts I've been to, it would have probably been near the bottom. Not that it was bad, but I've seen a lot of better concerts since then.

Up next - Barry Manilow!

Mourning Memories Lost

A lost memory

As I've talked about before, I was very sick last November. I lost five days and woke up in the hospital the day before Thanksgiving in the ICU after having a series of seizures. Those five days are completely gone, though I'm not missing much - according to my husband, I mostly slept.

My brain is weird. That's pretty much the only diagnosis I've ever gotten. This is the 2nd time I've lost time, but this case was different. For a while, I didn't remember much of everything from last year. A lot of those memories did come back, but I knew the closer we got to November, I would get to a dead zone where I didn't remember much.

Memories are very important to me, probably in part because my mom is passed away and I don't have a ton of pictures of her. She is suppose to live on in my memory and she does - thankfully my long term memory was not affected.

For a while after I got home from the hospital, it seemed like every day I was finding something that I had forgotten. I was so excited to watch the movie Divergent again because I did remember that I had loved it in the theater, but when I started the movie I didn't remember any of it.

It's been months since I've experienced finding out something I forgot until last week. I saw on Facebook that one of my online friends had passed away, and thanks to the Timehop app a few days after that, I saw that I did know that he had died, but I had forgot.

We weren't close friends. Mostly online friends who met a few times at local Browncoat events but I felt extremely guilty that I had completely forgotten that he was gone. It's silly I know, but that's how I felt.

It also means that I'm in the dead zone now. From now until the day before Thanksgiving, my memories of last year are fuzzy at best. And a lot happened in October of last year that I wish that I could remember.

The only thing I can really remember about Emily's birthday is running to the dollar store near our house, but I don't remember why. The only things I remember from the Browncoat Ball is playing Cards Against Humanity with lots of people including Mikey Mason and then feeling sick to my stomach during the dance itself. Halloween I don't remember anything.

Because I had gone through the memory merry-go-round earlier, I didn't think it would be a big deal when I got to this point. But I realize now, that I'm still mourning for the lost memories. Thankfully I'm a big fan of social media and taking lots of pictures, so I've pieced together some of what happened. But I just don't remember it.

I'm sure I'll get over it, but the next few months may be harder than I anticipated. The healing just continues. I'm going to try and focus on making new memories as well.

September 11 Memories

Image: http://heatherlcorner.blogspot.com/

I was looking around both this blog and my old one, and I apparently have never blogged about my September 11th memories. Either that or my searches have failed me. Either way, here's a short post about my experiences on that day 13 years ago.

I was in my last year of college, living with a couple of friends. That morning I hadn't been online because I had been playing a video game in my room because I didn't need to go to school until later.

One of my roommates came up to my open door and told me that something had happened in New York. We turned on the TV and watched the 2nd tower fall. Our apartment was a bit of a gathering place of our friends and that day it become crowded. Crowded but quiet because we were all in shock.

I called my mom, because that's what you do when a national tragedy is unfolding before your eyes on CNN. And she told me that I should go fill up my car with gas. I went out by myself and it was eerie. No-one was out except at the gas stations which were all packed.

After waiting to get gas, I headed back to my apartment and still watched the TV. I ended up going back out with some friends to get gas in their car, and it was still eerie but less so because I was with other people.

September 11th defined my generation and changed the world. 13 years ago, that whole week sucked. Later that week, my grandmother passed away. So my personal grief was mingled with the national grief as it was.

I'll never forget that September day as long as I live. It was horrible, in part because we watched it happen on TV.

Weird Al

Image: www.facebook.com/weirdal/

I've been a Weird Al Yankovic fan for many years. Even before I was a filk fan, which came later. I loved Weird Al's song parodies, often more than the original song.

Like other Weird Al fans, I've been enjoying all the new videos from his new album. Eight videos in eight days, I think, was a great idea to get the stuff out there. My facebook and twitter feeds have been full of Weird Al all week.

It reminded me of the time that I saw him in concert - before I was a fan of his music.

When I was younger, the old Monkees tv show started doing re-runs. My sister and I became big fans so when the Monkees did their tour in the mid-80s my parents got us tickets. It was at the Allegan County Fair, I believe.

We waited excitedly for the Monkees to come on (sans Mike) when the opening act came on. It was Weird Al! This was the first time I heard of him and his music, but he was very popular at that time. A lot of people in the audience were there to just see him.

I didn't get a lot of it and was a bit confused by the parody of it all. When I got a bit older, I started to actually become a fan of his.

I look fondly back at the time when I saw him live. I know he sang "Like a Surgeon" but I don't remember any of the other songs. But if he toured again, I might go see Weird Al - as a fan this time.

My Very Own Empire Records

Image: Wikipedia.com

I love the movie Empire Records. If you aren't familiar with this wonderful example of the 90's, it's about a group of people working at a record store. The main conflict is that their store is about to be sold to a major chain, killing the indie vibe and the fun.

This morning I was thinking about how I'd like to watch it again. And then I realized that I had my own Empire Records when I was in college.

My favorite job in college was working at the local movie theater. Most of the time when I worked there, we had the Cinema Four, which obviously had four screens. We also had two one screen theaters downtown - the Ward and the Broadway. I usually worked at the Cinema Four or the Ward. I didn't like working at the Broadway - it was (is?) very haunted with no so nice spirits.

The head manager was an older guy who was a lot like Joe from Empire Records. He loved the theater and he loved movies. We had different people working there and we'd have a lot of time to talk while the movies were playing. It was an easy job and a ton of fun.

There was a Soul Calibur arcade machine along with other games. One of the other managers had rigged it so we could play games for free. My proudest moment at that job was when I actually beat one of the managers. I wasn't great but I had gotten good enough on one character to kick some butt.

Alas, our story didn't have a happy ending. A big 12 screen theater was built and the Cinema Four got knocked down. The last time I knew the Ward was a church and the Broadway was used by the community theater.

I worked at the big theater for a while. It wasn't the same at all and they didn't want to promote me because I was from the old crew. I ended up quitting out of frustration.

Real life is rarely like the movies. But for a short time, I had my own version of Empire Records and I'll always have fond memories of that time.

Camp Fire Girls

Emily wearing my Camp Fire vest

A few days ago a high school friend posted that her mom had passed away. I was a little startled and sad to see that I knew her mom. She had been my leader when I was in Camp Fire Girls and it brought back a lot of memories.

I joined Camp Fire Girls in elementary school. I had briefly been a Girl Scout but my parents switched me to Camp Fire for some reason. I really loved everything about Camp Fire. I learned all kinds of crafty things, made friends and got to go on camping trips.

Every summer, I'd go to day camp for a week and have an overnight stay at the end of the week. We'd cook out over fires and make crafts. I remember one year I made a really ugly clown doll that I named Fred. I still have him - he's in Emily's room in her sea of stuffed animals.

Like Girl Scouts sell cookies, we sold chocolate bars. I'm not a great salesperson even back then so I was never a top seller. But one year I really wanted to go to the special weekend camp out for the top sellers. My mom drove me all around town to sell in different neighborhoods. I still remember one of the streets was Elm Street. I got to my goal and got to go on the special camping trip - it was a lot of fun.

I loved Camp Fire so much that I stuck with it until my freshman year of high school. The only reason I stopped was because I wanted to do the school plays which had rehearsals that conflicted with the Camp Fire meetings.

I have a lot of fond memories and I'm a little sad that North Carolina has no Camp Fire councils so Emily will never be a Camp Fire girl herself.

College Memories - Li'L Chef

Image: www.flickr.com

I was always pretty much a homebody. I liked hanging out with my parents in high school and just being at home. I was never one to party.

But my mom wanted to help me spread my wings so she insisted that I got to a college out of town. I decided on Central Michigan University, in part because it was were my dad had gotten his Master's degree.

It took me seven years to finish my degree. I changed majors three times and had some issues with classes. But partly I just loved being in college and living in Mount Pleasant.

Mount Pleasant has a main road that runs right by the school. For the majority of my time at CMU I didn't have a car so I had to walk everywhere. There were fast food places that you could get to, but Li'l Chef was one of the restaurants you could go to without having to cross the massive street.

Li'l Chef also was the only 24 hour restaurant within walking distance to the campus. I had many meals in there, often on Saturday night after LARPing. We'd sit with kids coming from the bar and talk about what had happened in the game.

Yesterday I saw on Facebook that the Li'l Chef in Mount Pleasant was closing. It's sad because I have a lot of memories of that place, but it's been probably ten years since I've been there. I've moved on since college and I guess so has Mount Pleasant. But I'll have fond memories of that place that was a part of my experience.

The Great Tree Hunt

Every year, we try to find the perfect Christmas tree. We get a real tree because it reminds me of my childhood and because it’s a lot harder for the cats to knock over.

When I was younger, we would go to the same tree farm every year. We would stomp through the snow to find the perfect Blue Spruce tree. Usually we would do this on Black Friday instead of engaging in the shopping madness. Once we got the tree home, we always said we were going to wait a day to decorate it. Nearly every year, the tree was decked out by the time that Friday was done with.

We did this every year, including my mom’s last Christmas. It was a lot of fun. Once my mom passed and I moved away, I usually got a fake tree because it was cheaper. Once we moved to North Carolina, we tried to use the fake tree we had but our cats liked to climb the tree. Fake trees don’t hold a lot of weight, so we went back to real trees.

For the last few years, we’ve gone to the same tree stand. Their prices are reasonable and the trees last all season. We went over there yesterday to pick out our tree. It didn’t take too long to find a tree that was blue in color that had a nice shape. We brought it home and Todd got it in the house. Since we have three cats we never decorate the tree on the same day. This is so the cats get a little used to it before we deck it out. I also don’t put my breakable ornaments on the tree because I don’t want them to break. And I have an excess of ornaments anyway.

Our tree hunt is shorter than the ones I did when I was younger. But it’s still fun to go out in the cold and find that perfect Christmas tree.

Christmas Countdown Chain

When I was a kid, every year for Christmas we would make an advent countdown chain. My mom would carefully cut out strips of green and red construction paper to make rings while there was a topper colored by my sister and I for each of our chains.

As we got older, we still made the chains, but we did most of the work ourselves by looping the chains and stapling them together. I hadn’t done the countdown chain with Emily for Christmas yet, but she loved her Disney World countdown chain that I decided to do a Christmas one this year.

I cut out a Star for her top and she decorated it with stickers and crayon. I cut out the rings and looped them together. When it was all done, we hung it up in her room so she can take a ring off each night.

This Christmas countdown chain is a cheap and easy project to do. I bought a pack of construction paper for a couple bucks and just used tape I already had to attach the rings. Emily had a great time with it and was very excited to take off her first link at bedtime.

It was really great to be able to introduce a beloved tradition from my childhood to my daughter.

Thankgivings As A Child

With the holidays fast approaching, I’ve been thinking back to the holidays I had as a child. I grew up in Holland, MI and most of our family was on the other side of the state in Bay City. While most of my friends would travel to family on Thanksgiving, we would stay at home.

Nearly every year, we would do the same thing. We’d get up and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Usually I was the only one who watched it from beginning to end. My mom, with some help from my dad, would start working on our Thanksgiving feast while the parade was going on.

After Santa made his big entrance, we would turn the channel to football. Lunch was always cheese, crackers and summer sausage. It was enough to keep us from being hungry but not enough to make us too full before dinner.

Usually during the game, my sister and I would get out our room Christmas things and decorate. Though when I was in high school, I started following football so I would watch the game with my parents.

After the game, we’d have our turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We use my mom’s china and drink sparkling cider from wine glasses. We would have apple and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Our Thanksgiving continue on Black Friday. We never went shopping, except at this local craft type store that always had a 50% off coupon. What we did instead of shopping was we would go to cut our Christmas tree.

We had a Christmas Tree farm we went to every year. They would give us a saw and a sled, and we’d all tromp out into the farm to find the perfect tree. Some years it would be really cold and snowy, but there was always hot chocolate at the barn while our tree was measured and wrapped up.

We would spend the rest of the day decorating the house. My mom really loved Christmas so we had a lot of Christmas stuff. The whole house would be decked by the evening and we would always sit down to watch a Christmas movie – usually It’s A Wonderful Life.

This tradition continued pretty much until my mom passed away. She was really sick her last Christmas, but still came out to the Christmas Tree farm with us. My dad, sister and I tried to keep it going after she passed but it wasn’t the same.

Now I have a family of my own and we do our thing for Thanksgiving. But I still have fond memories of my childhood traditions.

Dragon Con Memories

Pregnant at Dragon Con

 Today after work I head down to Atlanta for my 7th Dragon Con. Because I can’t concentrate on anything but the con at this point, I thought I’d share some memories I have of past cons.

My first Dragon Con was in 2007 and this was the only Dragon Con I attended without my husband. I went with friends and had a great time. The highlight to this con was being able to have dinner with my friends and Peter S. Beagle, along with Peter’s agent and business partner, Conner. Peter S. Beagle is a really interesting guy who wrote one of my favorite books, The Last Unicorn. He had some stories to tell!

The next Dragon Con was a really interesting experience because I attended the con eight months pregnant with Emily. I tried to tough it out and stand in line like normal the first day, but I was very happy to sit with the disabled folks the rest of the con. I waited for the panels like everyone else, but got a chair and was able to go to the bathroom and stay hydrated better.

This Dragon Con was also where I had the best baby shower ever! We played games and then we had

Heil Pooh!

dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. My friends are funny and we played little party games while we had dinner. They also got cupcakes with Pooh on them, but Pooh looked like he was saluting a certain evil dictator. We all found this so funny. 

Emily was 10 months old at the next Dragon Con and I had the brilliant idea of bringing her to the con to watch the parade. I had seen the parade a few years before but I didn't remember there were so many scary things. She was okay for most of the parade, but flipped out when the zombies came by. Her fear of zombies started then, but now she likes pretending she is a zombie so she’s a little less afraid of them.

The next few Dragon Cons were pretty normal. Not anything out of the ordinary happened. Last year, I got to be on my first panel. It was a geeky parenting panel through the Kaleidoscope Track. We also brought Emily back down to the con, again for the parade but this time to march in it.

Two Snow Whites!

Emily had seen pictures of me in parade from years before and wanted to be in it. I got us both Snow White costumes and we marched with the Kaleidoscope Track. She did pretty well, but it was much more humid than usual. We made it through the parade and met up with Todd.

We had some lunch and then went to get Rose McGowen’s autograph. She thought Emily was adorable but she was starting to get very tired. We had one more stop though to the dealer’s room. Emily loves my smellies (Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab perfume oils). Since BPAL was vending at Dragon Con for the first time, I knew I had to take her to the booth.

I’ve known the owners of BPAL, Beth and Ted, online for years. They have a daughter who is a few months older than Emily, so I really wanted Emily to meet Beth especially. Emily really liked Beth, especially when she gave Emily a little goodie bag with free samples. Later that day, Emily drew Beth a picture in thanks.

Those are just some of the highlights of my past Dragon Con trips. I've enjoyed going immensely every year and I’m looking forward to having a great time again this year!