Dragon Con 2017 - Saturday!

This is the 3rd post in my Dragon Con 2017 recap! To start from the beginning, click here!

Dragon Con Saturdays always start out the same for me, heading to the parade staging area. I always love the parade but I was especially excited because I was a Disney Princess. Anna from Frozen, to be exact.

I talked with some people and got ready to go. We were on the underside of the parking area where the parade is staged so it was nice and cool. Finally it was time to go, and I had the parade of my life! Being a Disney Princess in the parade is beyond awesome! I got to high five a bunch of kids and see the wonder in their faces as they saw us come down the street. I even got a sweet hug from a tiny little girl. It was quite the experience!

After the parade was over, I headed to the Walk of Fame and got to get my picture with John Cusack! He is one of my favorite actors and one of the bigger names Dragon Con has gotten over the years. It was awesome!

Usually, we leave right after the parade but there was an early afternoon Matt Smith panel I wanted to see. So after a trip to the con suite for food, I got in line for the panel. Because of my chronic migraines, I get a sticker that lets me sit in line and then get an end of the row seat when we get in there. Being able to do this makes my con much more manageable!

I always pick an end of the row seat like I'm suppose to. We honestly all get decent seats since disability people are the first in the room, but some people like to try to get right up front when that isn't what is marked on their pass. During the load in of everyone else, a lady who was suppose to have found an end of the row seat and tried to get up closer was in tears while cursing out the con staff because they had made her move. I'm glad they did because there is no reason to abuse the pass. It says right on there 'end of row'. Some people need different seating, depending on their disability but most are end of row peeps like me.

The panel was great and I was glad I stayed to see it because I wasn't going to pay the expensive prices to actually get a picture with Matt Smith. After it was done, I went to the food court and met Todd. The con was really crowded so we headed out.

We went to a mall that is nearby to my aunt and uncle's house and as we got to the car, I realized that I hadn't brought a change of clothes. So I was Anna in the mall, which is a little funny.

The people at the Disney store loved my costume though! It was kind of cool to be in costume in the mall not on Halloween. We had lunch at Steak and Shake which was a place neither of us had ate at in a long time. Then we headed back to my aunt and uncle's house to hang out with my family since my dad was in town.

Up Next - Dragon Con - Sunday!

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 2016 - Saturday

This is the second post of my Dragon Con 2016 recap - you can read the previous post here!

We got up bright and early on Saturday to head down to the con. I was going to march in the parade and Todd was going to the Walk of Fame once it opened. I had realized that I completely forgot to bring my parasol for my Tightrope Girl costume, but decided to wear it anyway.

I, sadly, didn't double side tape the ribbon on my left foot as well as my right one. So once I got to the staging area, I was fighting against my stupid ribbon. It didn't stay up for the parade but hopefully it didn't look too dumb.

The parade itself was fine. It was a little different because it was being broadcast on the local CW channel. We got to a point where it said "Keep Walking!" so we did. The Disney

group got pretty spread out.

Once we got done, I headed to the food court to get something to eat. Todd was still in the Walk of Fame, waiting in line to get an autograph. Once he met up with me, we left the con for the day. It was already starting to become way too crowded.

We did what we have done the last few years and headed to a really cool mall that is near to my aunt and uncle's house. We walked around the mall a bit and of course, went into the Disney Store. We got Emily a toy set and some Star Wars pants - both were on clearance. And I got to geek out with the cashier about my upcoming Disney trip.

After that, we went and saw Suicide Squad in IMax. We had both seen it before but there wasn't anything else out that we really wanted to see. It was really good in IMax and it's been a while since I've seen anything in IMax.

From there, we did a little more shopping. There was a store called "Fandom" which was really cool. We got Emily some blind boxes there. And after, we got some food at the mall's food court.

We got back to my aunt and uncle's house pretty early. In fact, no-one was home when we got there. After a while, they came home. My aunt and uncle had taken Emily swimming and my cousin and his daughter had gone too. Emily did a lot of swimming over the course of the weekend.

At 8 pm, we all sat down and watched the parade on TV. Emily really wanted to see me on there. The broadcast of the parade got annoying from the beginning. There was five or six commercial breaks during the one hour broadcast. And if that wasn't bad enough, the same few commercials were shown over and over again.

I did get shown on TV briefly but the rest of the Disney group didn't because of commercials. It was sad because there were some really great costumes in the group. From the Jack costume whose picture is at the beginning of this post, to a whole group of Little Mermaid cosplayers.

Later I read that whole groups didn't make it on the broadcast. Also the live stream started late (and I know the parade didn't start late) and the 8 o'clock broadcast was suppose to show more of the parade. Instead, it was just what they had done earlier in the day.

But it was the first year it was live on the CW so it wasn't going to be perfect. And my kid was geeked out to see me on TV so that was good!

All in all, it was a good Saturday of Dragon Con!

Dragon Con 2015 - Saturday

This is the 2nd post in my series of recaps of Dragon Con. You can click to read the posts for Friday and Sunday.

We got up and going early on Saturday morning since I was going to march in the Disney section of the parade. They had to change the parade route and the staging area because of streetcars that were put in downtown. It took me a bit but I found the staging area which actually worked better than the old one.

There were only a few Disney cosplayers when I got there, but they started coming in. We were near the front so I got to see a lot of cool costumes. The parade got started pretty much on time, and it was the long walk. Even though the parade route was only .1 of a mile longer, it felt much longer.

But the best part of being in the Disney group is watching the kids along the parade route get so excited to see their favorite princesses march by. There was also a great Gaston cosplayer who marched next to me who was really hamming it up for the crowd.

Once the parade was over, I went to find Todd who was in the food court. He had gotten a bunch of autographs with little wait because so many people were at the parade. I was near the front of the parade so it wasn't very crowded outside of the parade yet. We headed over to the Hyatt to go to the Artist Alley.

There, I quickly found Peter David's table and finally got to meet him. He's been one of my favorite authors since I was in high school and I've been meaning to get his autograph for the last couple of Dragon Cons but I never make it over to the artist alley. But it finally happened this year!

Todd and I looked around the Artist Alley a bit and peeked in the Art Show. By this time, it was starting to get crowded. We had decided before we even got to GA that we were only going to stay a short time at the con on Saturday. It just gets too crowded.

So we headed out, and I changed out of my costume once we got to the car. From there, we went to a big mall that isn't far from my Aunt and Uncle's house. We shopped a bit - they have a Disney Store and a LEGO store and then went to the movies. We saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which was a fun movie.

We got back fairly early to my aunt and uncle's house and turned in early.

Up Next - Dragon Con Sunday

The Good and Bad of Dragon Con 2015

I've been attending Dragon Con for a long time. I've seen it grow and change quite a bit over that time. Both last year and the year before, I've done posts about the bad of Dragon Con. While I'm going to touch on the things that I think still need to be fixed, I'm also going to address old complaints that have been fixed for this year.

The crowds were massive again this year and while I didn't have as many issues with them in the past, it's something that the con is going to have to address at some point. I saw lots of badge checks to keep the hotels free of anyone besides con goers and hotel guests. We also didn't stay very late most of the con because of my health issues, so we may have missed some crowds.

Vaping was a bad for me. We were in line for the Walk of Fame on Friday for a while and one of the people nearby was vaping indoors. I'm very sensitive to that sort of thing but thankfully I didn't get too sick. Someone asked her to stop and she got very defensive saying that it was just vapor. Well, it is vapor and other things. I had thought that vaping was not allowed in the convention, but I saw a lot of it.

This isn't necessary a bad, but I wish that either the dealer's room or the Walk of Fame were open earlier than 1 pm on Friday. There are some panels going on before but Friday should honestly be a full day like Saturday and Sunday, especially with some official Dragon Con stuff starting to happen on Thursday.

The worst bad of Dragon Con was not something I experienced myself, but heard about afterwards. Apparently there was more than one sexual assault at the con this year. As a not so strong female, this makes me very uncomfortable. I am usually with my husband most of the con and we don't stay late, but it's not a good thing.

But on that depressing note, onto the good things that have been fixed in previous years!

We didn't get down to the con until Friday morning because we didn't want Emily to miss two days of school. Thankfully the badge pickup process is still great. It took us longer to walk to the Sheraton and inside the building than it did to get our badges.

The main issue we had last year was the bottleneck in the Marriott where you could head back to the blood drive and some track rooms, take the path to the Hyatt one way and take the path to the food court another way. It was a massive mess last year. What they did was put a divider and routed the traffic each way - it worked extremely well so no traffic jams happened.

I've marched in the parade for four or five years. This year the route was changed because of a new street car system they put in. The new staging area seemed to work a lot better than the old one - it was really easy for me to find my group. Plus longer parade makes more room for people to see it.

That's just an overview of the good and bad from Dragon Con - I'll be doing reports of each day over the next week or so!

The "War" on Christmas

This past weekend was Asheville’s Holiday parade. On the local news’ Facebook page, there is always a ton of posts complaining that the parade is a Holiday parade and not a Christmas parade. I’m a Christian and I celebrate Christmas, but I never understood the whole war on Christmas thing.

There are tons of Christians out there celebrating Christmas every year, but there are lots of other people too that celebrate other winter holidays. I’m not a big fan of trying to push my religion down people’s throats. I’ll talk about it if people want – my former best friend was agnostic and she had a lot of questions about my religion and what I believe. I answered them all honestly, and I think it gave her a lot to think about.

But I like the use of ‘holiday’ because it’s inclusive. I may say Merry Christmas, since that’s what I celebrate, but I wouldn’t mind if someone said Happy Hanukkah or Blessed Yule if that’s what they celebrate. This country is supposed to have a freedom of religion, so lots of people celebrate different things (or in some cases, don’t celebrate at all).

I wish all Christians would try to be more Christ-like and inclusive to people who aren’t just like themselves. I have plenty of non-Christian friends who I care for dearly and I hope all my friends have a great holiday season.

Cosplay and Snobs

An example of piss poor cosplay

So I have another Heroes of Cosplay rant. I love the show for the beautiful costumes, but sometimes the attitudes on the show annoy me to no end.

In this week’s episode we see Monika being uber bitchy at every turn. I’m not sure why and I’m not sure if they edited her to be that way, but her attitude really sucked. Especially when she was so mean to Becky who I think has made some wonderful costumes. Cosplay should be about wearing costumes and having fun, but Monika sucked all the fun out.  It was a shame too since Fushigi Yugi is one of my favorite animes.

Now I’m not a very good cosplayer. I buy costumes and I hobble other ones together. I hand sewed my Kaylee layer cake dress and it turned out ok, but it’s falling apart now. I've had people look down at me for even thinking about making the layer cake because it’s complicated. I was told that I shouldn't do it unless I can sew really well and I got a snotty attitude from another layer cake cosplayer when I marched in the Dragon Con parade a few years ago.

Yes, it was kind of crappy, but it turned out better than I thought. And I had fun wearing it, which is the point of cosplay. Now I wouldn't complete in any of the cosplay contests, especially at Dragon Con, because I know my costumes aren’t that great. But I cosplay to run around in a fun costume.

I wore three costumes at Dragon Con this year. Two of them I bought and one I put together. I didn't get a lot of people asking me to take my picture, but a few people did. I can’t imagine not wearing a costume to Dragon Con and I had fun wearing the ones that I did. Unfortunately, there will be those snobby people who look down at other cosplayers because their costumes might not be as great as theirs.

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.

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!

The Preschooler At Dragon Con

Beth, me and Emily at Dragon Con 2012

With Dragon Con fast approaching, I thought I'd share my experiences with bringing Emily to the con last year.

Dragon Con has tracks that appeals to all kinds types, but you may wonder if it is appropriate for little geeklings. After I became a parent, I started noticing the kids in strollers and babies in slings all over the con. But I always thought my daughter wouldn't have that great of a time when she was smaller. Last years when she was almost four, I thought it was time to try a partial day at the con.

My daughter had already started to have geeky interests, but one of the biggest is costumes, and not just on her. She loves seeing me dress up as well. When she was 11 months old, I took her to the con just to see the parade. She was okay for most of it, until the zombies came. Ack! That was a big mom failure for me! That incident lead to a lifelong fear of the undead, so she hasn't been back since.

But after seeing the pictures of me in the Dragon*Con parade last year, she asked me to make her a costume so we could march together. It took a while to figure out what costumes to wear. Originally I was going to make her a Kaylee Layer Cake dress from Firefly to match mine and then march with the Whedonverse track like I normally do. But because I decided to march with Kaleidoscope track, I decided to shift our costumes to fit the track a little bit better. My daughter asked to dressed up like Snow White. I was going to dress up like Belle from Beauty and the Beast but those costumes were very expensive. So I ended up being Snow White too since that was the least expensive Disney Princess costume I could find.

She did great on the train ride down to the con and she loved the Kaleidoscope track room since they had a station where she could color while we waited. But then we had to rush to the parade staging area, and that’s when she started to get a little tired.

The weather for the parade is usually mildly warm but this year it was very humid out even at 9:30 in the morning and that affected the day.

She liked seeing all the costumes that were staged around us such as the stormtroopers, the Powerpuff Girls and especially the life-sized My Little Ponies. At one point, Stan Lee was very close to us so I picked her up and pointed him out to her. She didn't really know who he was, so she didn't care. Being that close to a comic genius is lost on a four-year-old, apparently. Poor Stan.

Once the parade started, she didn't want to wave at the crowd and was overwhelmed by all the people. The group in front of us stopped often to conduct a a staged battle with boffer weapons and every time we stopped she would turn to look at the My Little Pony cosplayers that were behind us.

Many times, she asked me to pick her up but because of the heat, I was only able to carry her in short bursts.

We made it through the parade and got our free bottles of water. We headed to the autograph area to meet my husband. While we were waiting, I was able to find us a table to sit at. We drank our water and my daughter played on my phone. Once my husband met us, he carried her since she was tired. We did get an autograph from Rose McGowen, who thought my daughter was cute. Then we headed to the dealer’s room for one last stop.

I've been a fan of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab‘s perfumes for many years and my daughter loves sniffing smellies when I put perfume on. When we got there, my daughter wanted to get down and she asked in a very small voice if she could sniff smellies. The owner of BPAL, Beth Barrial, did even better than let her sniff. She gave my daughter her own little bag of samples and a little pad of paper to draw on.

This was the highlight of my daughter’s Dragon Con experience and the end of her time at the con too. My husband took her back to were we were staying so she could get a nap.

I think she did pretty good, but there were some things I would have done differently. I wish we would have had a stroller since she got tired much faster than I had anticipated. And I think she would have had a better time watching the parade than being in it. But afterwards, my daughter did said that she loved Dragon Con and that she wants to go back next year.

Because she did get so tired so fast, we've opted not to to bring her down to the con this year. We've told her that she needs to be a little older and will bring her back in a couple of years.