50 Days of Dragon Con Day 32

People of the Con

Every year there are an infinite number of different kinds of people that attend con.  You have those that are cosplayers, those that are professionals in other categories, sports fanatics, Trekkies, Quidich players, literary gurus, artists of every kind, gamers and anything and everything in between.  Everyone comes to con to have a good time.  What we do to have fun is as different from one another as we are as individuals.

I have always had to travel quite a distance to get to con.  In the airport you might not be able to pick out all of the folks going to con, but you sure can pick out a few on your plane.  I love sitting in the terminal watching to see who all on my plane I might bump into at con and who I might want to chat with.  It is kind of a game that I like to play, "Find the Con-ers".  Once we get to Atlanta, they city is all excited about having us there.  There are signs welcoming us to their fine city and also to Dragon Con.  Pretty cool!  It is pretty easy spotting the others like me once in Atlanta...we are EVERYWHERE!

One year I decided to take the Atlanta metro called MARTA to the con from the airport.  This was quite the adventure trying to navigate with all of my luggage.  Now, once on the train there was mishmash of VERY obvious con goers.  This was only my second year at con and I was still new and learning about everything.  Still, I could pick out my people from the other end of the train.  There was this one guy I saw in San Francisco.  In San Francisco he had a kindle with him and a shoulder dragon  No other luggage.  I did not think this was too odd because he could have checked it in.  HOWEVER, on MARTA he did not have any other luggage either.  UMMM, HMMM, he was on my plane and now on the same train so it is not like he lost his luggage.  If that had happened he would be dealing with that still and not be on this train with me.  This was soooo STRANGE.  Traveling with no luggage at all?  HMMMM.  I saw him at con a few days later and he was wearing the same clothes...ewwwwww.  He was not on the same plane home as I was...thank goodness.  I hope he did take a shower a few times while he was there.  Needless to say there are all sorts of folks that go to con. 

Pic courtesy of google and this is the kind of dragon he was wearing.

50 Days of Dragon Con Day 45

Mom

At my first Dragon Con I knew that this was the place for my Mom.  There were so many authors here and her passion is reading and writing.  When I got home from year one, I groveled, begged and called in any favor I could get so that she would come.  Finally after months of groveling she said she would come.  YAYAYAY!  Mom lived in Fort Worth, TX at the time and so it is a pretty quick flight.   Mom thought she should be prepared so she printed out the zillion page PDF of the schedule and attached it to a clipboard.  She was going to study what she wanted to do on the flight.  On her flight the person she was sitting next to was also going to Dragon Con and they chatted the whole way. 

I met Mom in the check-in line of the Hilton where she was once again talking to someone.  She is amazing.  I had already picked up her badge so we dropped her things off in her room and hit the ground running.  I wanted to make sure she was having a good time and not alone.  There were many things that we wanted to do together and others not so much so.  She did her thing and I did mine.  After check-in we encountered Mildred and then went and had lunch.  At one point Mom decided to take a nap.  Mom is not as spry as she used to be (bad knees).  Instead of napping I bumped into her sitting on the floor of the Westin.  I about fainted.  It had been probably 10 years since I saw my mother sit on a floor.  HOLY COW! 

The incident at the Westin was not the only time she 'fibbed'.  I bumped into her more than once in Peachtree Center when she said she was napping.  LOLOL She was so cute.
Mom met authors, actors and even paid a zillion dollars for some autographs on the Walk of Fame.  She bumped into William Shatner and thought he was a bit of a jerk.  She met Terry Brooks and was enchanted.  She bought a tee-shirt.  Mom, in a tee-shirt...now way...but she did it. 

Mom swears she had a great time and I truly hope she did.  I had a blast with her.  It was so good to be able to share this part of my life with her and I hope she will be able to come back again soon.

Dragon 2014

HOLY BANANAS FOLKS, DRAGON CON IS OVER. This year was amazing as always so here is my recount of what happened...sort of.

For those of you who are not familiar with Dragon Con, it is a four day gathering of all things nerdy in Atlanta, GA held over Labor day weekend every year.  This is in the loosest sense comparable to the more well known ComicCon.  The main difference between the two is that ComicCon is industry driven, DragonCon is fan driven.  This con is put on by the fans and for the fans of all things geeky.

At Dragon Con there are programming tracks that break up the different genres of fandom,  Currently there are over 40 tracks and it grows and changes every year.  Some of the tracks are: Alternate History- for the Steampunk crowd, Horror for all of the Cthulu lovers out there, Costuming-I think this one is self explanatory, Brit Track for all things Brit, Classics for those who like older sci-fi and oh so many more.

I check into the hotel Tuesday and watch as all of the con goers arrive.  I love to watch the before the con and how it organically grows as the furniture is moved out, signs moved in and people arrive.  Wednesday, I get the GoPro fired up and I do my pre-con walk-throughs.  I go to all of the hotels and look in all of the nooks and crannies.  I make sure I know where my favorite tracks have moved to and the fastest (at this time) ways in and out of that area.  I check out the two food courts and the vendors center (what I can get into).  I record it all and watch it later when I am jonesing for next year.  I do the obligatory pre-con dinner at Sear and love every bite.

Thursday I watch all of the people arrive and this year there were several tracks that had events going on so I went to a few.  There were lots of music groups this year and there were several new stages for them to show off their skill.  Kinda cool.

Friday the chaos begins.  The cosplayers come out in force.  There were so many great costumes this year.  Every year is great and maybe I just got lucky but this year seemed to be better for what I saw.  I saw a very plus size woman as Wonder Woman just own it.  She was amazing.  So were the guys dressed as the "Wet Bandits" a.k.a. Daniel Stern and Joe Pesci from Home Alone.  Cool.

This year, more so than the rest seemed a lot more crowded.  I was turned away from several panels that were over crowded.  I am not talking big celebrity panels, but smaller ones.  Adult Oragami was one.  HUHUH?!?!? I got to the line 30 minutes early then someone comes out of the panel room and tells us that the room is already full.  For oragami?  Holy cow.  Evey year is busy but doggone, this was bad.
I went to the Dealers Room(s) at America's Mart and crowded does not describe it.  Rumor has it that at one time the fire marshal came to limit people.  I do not know if that is fact or not, but I would not be surprised at all.  When I first got there it was not too bad but people kept filing in and it got to be too much.  Once in the rooms it was so hard to navigate and find your way out.  Crazy mess.  Supposedly there is a plan in place for next year to move the hall in to building 2 of the America's Mart and that has more floor space for walking between the individual vendors.  I am all for this.  WOO HOO.

Saturday was the parade which I avoid like the plague.  Way too many people for my liking.  I go to panels during the parade and have a good time with smaller crowds.  People start to trickle in after the parade and then the insanity begins.  In the Marriott you can barely move anywhere,  no matter what floor you were on.  The Hilton and Hyatt were barely any better.  YUCK.  It took me almost an hour to get from they Hyatt to the Hilton.  This year the Hilton was busier than it had ever been.

As always there were several parties.  I wandered into a Star Trek party and danced with some drunk Klingons. Had a moment with some Elven Kings doing the YMCA at a Hobbit party.  I had a blast at all of the parties I went to.

Sunday and Monday were much better in terms of crowds so I was able to go to so many more panels and gatherings.  Friends, new thoughts, ideas and fun.  My favorite Monday panel has been the same for the last several years.  It is Namarie-Into the West put on by the Tolkien Track.  Basically it is a recap of what they did this year and suggestions for next year.  Totally awesome as always.
Monday is also kind of fun watching the mass exedous.  Kinda sad but fun too.

I do not want to recommend Dragon Con to anyone because then it will just make it more crowded for me.  Selfish I know but damn, it is so crowded I do not want any more people there.  BUUUUTTT if you have the need to feel at home with people of your own kind, like I do, Dragon Con is the place to be at home with thousands of people who will show you nothing but love in your choice of nerdery.

The Con 2013

Check out my LiviRae Lingerie tee-shirt.  "No Bust Too Big or Small, We Fit Them All".   Trust me there are lots of women at the con who can DEFINITELY utilize their help. This is me looking for an empty bathroom at DragonCon. Please see attached.

Poo Humor