Son of The Epic of Comic-Con

[lunasariel]

Well, I'm back. (This is the last time I'm going to use that joke, I promise!) I've been almost completely out of touch for the past week or so, so catching up has been kind of a huge job. I feel kinda bad about this, since the hostel we stayed at had wi-fi, as did the con center itself, but I think Matt Smith summed it up best when he said, "Comic-Con is like going a hundred miles an hour, twenty-four hours a day." There were times when, academically, I knew I should probably take a bite out of the million and one things I had to catch up on, this recap not least among them, but I just couldn't muster the energy.


The plan was to leave at 5:30 Wednesday morning. This, predictably, did not happen. I was travelling with H, C, and H's sister AD (who turned 19 on the last day of our trip), and H called me around 5:00 to say that C, our driver, needed more sleep, and that we would be leaving at 7:30. We ended up getting on the road somewhere around 10:30. C is very proud of his ability to drive long distances safely, so he drove almost the entire way from Sebastopol to San Diego himself, with only the occasional assist from me. The drive ended up taking slightly more than 12 hours, since H insisted on taking the 101, the more scenic, but much longer, route, instead of the I-5, which is incredibly boring, scenery-wise, but is at least an hour an a half quicker, and almost impossible to get lost on. If you can't tell, this developed into a recurring argument between the three of us (AD, quite sensibly, stayed out of the whole thing), which eventually ended badly, but I'll get to that later. For the moment, suffice to say we went H's way and stopped for food and/or gas and/or bathroom breaks surprisingly infrequently, and only got lost once. We got into our hostel just barely before the 11:00 PM cutoff time, and got signed in by a half-asleep hostel worker who showed us our rooms (AD and I shared one double room, H and C another), where we promptly crashed. Despite the utter and lamentable lack of AC (C described it as "like living in someone's mouth"), they were very nice rooms, especially for a hostel. Instead of numbers, each room had a large letter on the door, painted to represent a country that started with that letter, and the decor of the room matched, to a certain extent. H and C had G, for Germany (although, for some reason, my initial thought was Ghana), and AD and I had K, which I'm pretty sure was for Kenya. I've never roomed with AD before, and she turned out to be, like, 95% the perfect roommate. She's quiet, easy to please, and doesn't stay up too incredibly late, but she also has a tendency towards messiness, and is the loudest breather I've ever heard. Like, she woke me up on several different nights just with her breathing, not even snoring. And this was even despite my usual earplugs.

We had to get up waaaaay earlier than anybody would have liked to Thursday morning, the first official day of the con (Wednesday night, Preview Night, is only for those with four-day passes), but it was sadly necessary. We had to stand in a terrifyingly long line to pick up our badges, swag bags, etc., and then rush off to the TheOneRing.Net panel, the first of the whole con. The line went wrapped all the way around the building and across the bordering harbour, so I initially despaired of our chances to get into the TOR.N panel (which, as I predicted was packed, what with the Hobbit movie[s] coming out and all.), but it actually moved fairly quickly, so we ended up having plenty of time. It was while standing in this line that it really started to sink in. The long-ass lines, the hurting feet, the costumes, the heat, the enormous press of people, the rush...yup, I was at Comic-Con. Included in the enormous press of people, somewhere, was my mom, RG, and A, who were all attending their first-ever Comic-Con! (Well, my mom and RG had accidentally attended the NYCC a couple of years ago, but that doesn't count.) I was a little worried about them, since my mom has a version of the same agoraphobia as I do, RG is deeply, almost pathologically introverted, and A has a tendency to get overloaded and freak out when overstimulated, and Comic-Con is nothing if not overstimulating. To help them along, I penned Rose's Handy-Dandy List o' Comic-Con Tips, which I have a feeling I'm going to want to have next year:

1. Wear comfortable shoes. You will be standing and/or walking for upwards of eight hours a day. I promise, come Sunday afternoon, your feet will thank you.
2. Beware of pickpockets! 30,000+ people are all crammed into one building, and almost all of them with purses, swag bags, satchels, and backpacks dangling off them. Fanny packs are not the worst fashion disaster you will see, and are a good, safe investment for your wallet, keys, etc.
3. You will get run into, jostled, and generally shoved around. I'm sorry, there's no avoiding this. It helps that those doing the shoving are generally like-minded zealots, but there will be crowds. This can get frustrating, but if everybody tries to stay polite and doesn't shove to hard, things generally work out okay.
4. As a corollary to #3, you can't be afraid to push back. I promise that you will never get anywhere if you politely wait for an entirely open space to show up. I'm not saying that you should just charge and hope for the best, but a few well-placed "excuse me"s go a long way, and the occasional jostle or flat tire, whether given or received, is more or less unavoidable.
5. Shower. For the love of God, shower. This may seem like kind of a no-brainer, but what with all those people literally jammed into one another's backs, if someone has a B.O. problem, it's going to ruin a lot of people's day.
6. Bring water. The con center is heavily air-conditioned, so it may not feel like you're expending a lot of moisture, but it sneaks up on you. You will be doing a lot of walking, a lot of shoving, and quite a bit of lifting, so stay hydrated!
7. Con food is expensive. Bring your own, or at least be prepared to walk a couple of blocks. Remember: there's no shame in bringing homemade sandwiches; you don't want to get stuck with a $4 soda and an $8 slice of pizza (not kidding here).
8. Budget your time wisely. Getting into line for a panel at least half an hour before is generally a good idea; you may want to get in even earlier, or even sit through the preceding panel ("vulturing"), if you think the one you want to see is going to be especially popular. In addition, keep in mind that the con center is a huge, multi-leveled building, and due to the aforementioned crowds, movement will generally be slow.
9. Agree on a meeting time/place if you split off from your party. Cell phone reception within the con center isn't all that great, and all the noise means that chances are you won't hear your phone ring anyway.
10. Your Events Guide ("con bible") is your friend. Get to know it. Not only does it have an extremely helpful map and graphically organized list of panels, but it has each and every exhibitor and where to find them, which, if you're looking for one booth out of 5,500, is a lifesaver. This year they put out an app for iPhone and Android, but it rather drains the battery, and sometimes there's just no substitute for good old-fashioned analog. It also has pretty much everything one needs to know about the rules, child care, disabled services, even surrounding restaurants! Personally, it's not really a con until my Events Guide has been sat on, bent, dog-eared at least five times, written in, used as a fan, and spilled on.

I'm sure there were more, but I've forgotten them by now.

Anyway, we finally made it into the con, and into the TOR.N panel, which was FANTASTIC. Every year they have a surprise guest, usually someone affiliated with the movies, or at least the fandom in general, in a big way (the last time I went, in 2009, it was either Alan Lee or John Howe; I forget which), and this year it was Richard Taylor, who was handing out some bits of Dwarven chainmail he made especially for the con. Glee! I didn't get one, of course, but the fact that he was there at all was awesome. Aside from that, it was about what I expected: lots of squeeing about the upcoming movie(s), as well as some controversy about the same. In particular, during the Q&A section, one girl from the audience really mixed it up with one of the panelists over
Tauriel and Fili's (or was it Kili's?) purported crush on her, and whether or not the addition of her character and/or the romance is a betrayal of Tolkien's source material or an example of the whole interspecies romance thing he had going on
. The moderator cut it off before things went too far, but it was my ideal debate: less about "omg you're a stuck-up purist!"/"omg you're a dumb fangirl!", and more about citing one's sources and thematic analysis. See, this is why I go to Comic-Con!

After that got out, we went to forage for food at the local Ralph's, where we had an interesting conversation with one of the locals. I've always kind of subconsciously been working under the assumption that the San Diego locals basically battened down the hatches and, er, hid for the week or so that downtown was more or less taken over by a horde of nerds, but it turns out that this guy, at least, rather enjoys it. He doesn't attend anymore, since Comic-Con became more mainstream/Hollywood-oriented, but he still likes to see the costumes, and see everybody enjoying themselves so much. So that was good to hear.

After lunch, we set out on a mighty trek to find the blood donor's place. SDCC holds a blood drive every year in honor of Robert A. Heinlein, who died of a rare blood-borne disease. It's been less than four months since I got my ears pierced, so I couldn't donate, and AD has a thing about needles, but H and C were all ready to go...except it took us an hour longer than expected to find the place, and once we did, we had to wait so long that we had to choose between giving blood and being late for the Mass Effect panel that H&C&AD wanted to go to. We chose Mass Effect. Or rather, everyone else chose Mass Effect, and I chose to meet up with my mom, RG, and A, since A) I hadn't seen them all con except for one fleeting glimpse in line for our badges, and B) secretly, I could care less about Mass Effect, even though H&C&AD are crazy about it. So I met up with them as they were getting out of a panel, got lunch (again), and just generally chilled until it was time to go re-join the rest of my party.

The last big event of the night was the Superhero Kung-Fu Extravaganza, which, along with TOR.N, we never, ever miss. The Extravaganza is, basically, a showcase of the year's best (and best worst) martial arts movies, many of which C is a huge fan of. In fact, his birthday is coming up (as is mine, come to think of it. Yikes!), so I bought him one of the movies we saw clips from, since of course they had their own booth on the exhibit floor. It ran kinda late, though, so we didn't get back to our hostel (which, thankfully, was actually pretty close to downtown without being über-expensive) until 11:30-ish.

Sadly, we couldn't get tickets for Friday or Saturday, the peak days. I didn't even tempt myself by reading the schedules for those days, since I already knew the included the Game of Thrones panel, the actual Hobbit panel (including PJ, Martin Freeman, and Ian McKellen), Lynn Flewelling's panel on war in epic fantasy, and the Firefly 10-year anniversary panel, which had the *entire* cast, plus Joss! And he and Nathan Fillion actually went out to talk to fans waiting in line! *whimper* Instead, we got tickets for Magic Mountain. It was far away enough that we decided to book a hotel there instead of driving through the entirety of L.A. more than necessary, which was kind of a last-minute thing, but worked out okay. We slept in a little on Friday, and so didn't get going until late morning. Factoring in the four-hour drive (thanks to getting lost once and several bathroom breaks), we didn't get there until almost 3:00. And when we did get there, we realized that our season passes, which we had bought while still Oop North, were still keyed to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, whereas we needed to get into Six Flags Magic Mountain. It eventually got sorted out, of course, but it meant an extra 20+ minutes of waiting in line, in heat that I'm sure was perfectly normal for native SoCal folks, but had us delicate Northern flowers wilting like crazy.

Our first ride of the afternoon was Tatsu, which was amazing. I'm normally rather "eh" about roller coasters in general, but this one was the best adrenaline rush I've had in ages! It had, hilariously, all this meditative Zen-like music pumped into the waiting area, which didn't at all mesh with the shrieking, or really anything else anyone expects from a roller coaster. To top it off, the motif of the ride is a big spiky red dragon, and while we were waiting in the last portion of the line, which was, basically, one big crush of moving people without any real form or organization, I swear I heard someone ahead of us say, "If Granby can do it, you can do it!" I'd been in Hyper Geek Mode all of Thursday, what with Comic-Con and all, so I pretty much switched right back on and started looking around for my hypothetical fellow fan. But I was still a little leery of basically yelling "Temeraire!" and seeing who yelled back, and I didn't get a look at the speaker's face, so, alas, my hypothetical fellow fan must remain hypothetical. Also, given the size of the Temeraire fandom, it's highly unlikely that there was one actually there, so it's entirely possible that they said something else entirely, and I just mis-heard it.

Our next ride (the Viper, I think?) was less fun. I get really bad motion sickness, and although Tatsu didn't set it off, this one did, and I narrowly avoided throwing up on the nice family in the car in front of us. Also, C, still our designated driver, A) didn't much care for it either and B) was tired, so he and I started agitating for calling it a day and just having an early night at our hotel, kicking back with some TV and maybe some Bananagrams. But H and AD (I do not know where they get this energy) were still bouncing off the walls, so we compromised: C and I went back to the car (ostensibly for naps, but it ended up being for reading; Neverwhere for him and Master and Commander for me, with not-infrequent appeals to the nautical-backgrounded C for help with the terminology) while H and AD ran around until the park closed. This was a rest that I badly needed, and, I suspect, C needed even more. H is my best friend in the world, and I love her dearly, but sometimes people just need a break from each other, and I had reached that time.

When we all joined up again that evening, we ended up having dinner at a nearby, and aptly-named, Fatburger, which was tasty, all the more so because we basically hadn't eaten all day. Then it was a not-too-terribly long trip to our hotel (a real hotel this time, not a hostel), showers all around, TV, a little reading, and bed. We really did mean to play Bananagrams, but we were all beyond exhausted by that point, and the formation of complete sentences was getting to be quite a task, let alone complicated wordplay. I admit that I had been worried about the hotel, since the reviews weren't stellar, and we were looking for value, not class, but it turned out to be perfectly respectable. Certainly much better than the hotel where we spent our first Comic-Con (where we passed the time, before leaving each day, by counting hookers in the parking lot), and even better than our hostel (less quirky, but it had AC and individual showers, not communal). I slept better there than at the hostel, too, but that was probably only because I got to sleep in a bed, for once, since the beds at the hostel were only big enough for two if they were a couple, shall we say, and so I took the floor, since AD has a similar joint disorder to H, which would make sleeping on the floor painful.

The next day was much of the same: pack up in the morning, head to Magic Mountain, leave in the late afternoon, arrive back at our hostel that evening. The only difference was, my motion sickness got triggered by our first ride, The Riddler's Revenge (Six Flags apparently has a deal with DC, so there were a lot of DC superhero/supervillain-themed rides), so I sat out the next few. C sat them out with me, but I'm not sure whether he did so out of general niceness (he's that kind of guy), or out of genuine tiredness, since he still seemed pretty knackered (the fact that we got coffee instead of food for breakfast probably didn't help). Either way, we sat in the shade, chatted, and I introduced him to the magic that is Akinator while H and AD stood in more lines. Eventually we got hungry, and Six Flags isn't nearly as nice as Comic-Con about letting you bring in your own food, so we got some tasty, but staggeringly overpriced ($12 for four chicken strips or a turkey leg and a handful of fries) amusement park food. After this, the previous day continued to repeat: H and AD were still rarin' to go, but C and I were pretty much done, so we split up again, C and I chilling (literally; it was hot as hell again) in the car while the ladies (well, other ladies) tired themselves out. We made better time back to our hostel, and so avoided the "we're going to be late!" tension that plagued us upon our first check-in. We got the same rooms, unloaded our stuff, and made an unusually early night of it, since we were all tired, and not much looking forward to more running around the next day.

The big event on Sunday was the Doctor Who panel, held in Hall H, which seats 6,000. We decided to get there three hours early, just to be safe. Even so, I'm glad we had H and AD with us, since wheelchairs and their attendants got to go in early. All this should give you an idea of just how popular Doctor Who is, especially among the con-going crowd. We had to sit through the two preceding panels, but this wasn't a terrible hardship. The first panel, on Fringe, which was apparently winding up for its last season, wasn't bad, if not terribly interesting to a non-fan, and was made better by the unexpected appearance of John Noble, a.k.a. Deneathor, who apparently plays one of the main characters. After that was the Supernatural panel, which I had mixed feelings about. I pretty much gave up on it about halfway through the most recent season, so I felt like a bit of a traitor sitting there, but the actors were in fine form, there were a couple of good questions, and we even got a clip of the ever-popular season gag reel. But, of course, we were there for the good Doctor, and the noise when Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, and the new co-writer whose name I forget (Christina something?) came onstage was deafening, and not just because approximately 40% of the audience had brought their sonic screwdrivers, and turned them all on simultaneously as tribute. And it's amazing how much the three leads *are* their characters: Matt was clueless and bumbling and brilliant and so very clearly in charge, Karen was loud and sweet and started crying when they talked about the next season being Amy and Rory's last, and Arthur was supportive and relatively quiet and a huge geek (well, they were all huge geeks, but you know what I mean). They were all immensely charming and funny (AD made the astute observation that you basically have to be a stand-up comedian to be on a panel these days), the Grand Moff was his usual wonderfully evil, teasing self, and we got a few crazy-making teaser snippets, so I call the day a win.

After the Doctor Who panel got out (the following panel was on The Cleveland Show, and it's kind of embarrassing how much Hall H emptied), we still had a couple of hours to kill before the con officially closed at 5:00, so this was when we did the bulk of our shopping. I picked up a couple of the much-touted Hobbit pins from TOR.N's booth, which was sharing space with Badalai. I bought my leafy-looking ring from them at my very first con, four years ago, and it's been getting pretty dirty/beat up since then, so I talked to one of the people there about cleaning it. She recommended vinegar water and a soft toothbrush, or one of those sonic cleaners they use on eyeglasses if I wanted to spring for it. As always, my first concern is for the stones, so I'll have to do a bit of research to see if vinegar is okay on semiprecious/precious stones, and if so, what kinds. I also found a place called Angel Wear that does some drop-dead gorgeous jewelry; I bought two pairs of earrings (one pair jade studs for everyday wear, one pair Celtic knot & rainbow moonstone for when I feel pretty), and only barely restrained myself from buying a $245 rainbow moonstone net necklace or a $75 very Elfstone-y necklace centered around a green stone of some kind, with lots of Elvish-looking twisty designs in silver around it. But then again, I got their card, with their website on it, while I was there, so I'm not out of danger yet.

One thing I've been forgetting to mention this entire time was a new tradition I instituted this year, the Cosplay Count. Basically, I kept track of every (decent) costume I saw, tallied them up at the end, and came up with some surprising results. The rules were as follows:

1. Only actual, homemade costumes allowed, i.e. a T-shirt with the pattern of Iron Man's armor does not an Iron Man make. Also, no obvious pre-fabs.
2. For fandoms I'm unfamiliar with, I grouped everything together. For example, A:TLA or LoK was easily one of the top contenders - I'm pretty sure most of them were Korra, with a Toph or two, and maybe some others, but I don't know enough about the fandom to distinguish them, so they all got lumped together.

Here's what I got, in order of popularity:

• Steampunk: innumerable (seriously, don't even try)
• Adventure Time: MANY (stopped counting before we'd even gotten in the building on the first day)
• 11th Doctor: 16 (15 in fezzes 1 in a Stetson)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender or Avatar: Legend of Korra: 14
• Dalek: 12
• Ash Ketchum: 10
• Jedi: 9
• Thor: 9 (surprising number of them genderbent)
• Link: 8
• TARDIS: 6 (1 complete with Pandorica painting)
• 4th Doctor: 6
• Poison Ivy: 6
• Kingdom Hearts: 6
• Hobbit: 6 (including a very well-done Frodo & Sam pair)
• Star Trek: The Original Series: 5 (mostly redshirts)
• Picachu: 5
• Robin: 5 (both genders)
• Random Pokémon: 5
• Batwoman/Batgirl: 5
• Fullmetal Alchemist: 5
• Captain America: 5
• Katniss: 5
• Cantina band members: 5
• Sims: 4
• Wonder Woman: 4
• Superman: 4
• 10th Doctor: 4
• Catwoman: 4
• Harley Quinn: 4
• Deadpool: 4 (1 genderbent)
• Batman: 3
• Flash: 3
• Harry Dresden: 3
• Mario: 3
• Mini Jedi: 3
• Joker: 3
• X-Wing Pilot: 3
• Assassin's Creed: 3
• Naruto: 3
• Indiana Jones (character, not fandom): 3
• Merida (Brave): 3
• Stormtrooper: 3
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: 3
• Kaylee: 3
• River Song: 3
• Ghostbuster: 3
• Metal Gear Solid: 3
• Castiel: 3
• Jack Harkness: 3
• Invader Zim: 2
• Sailor Moon (fandom, not character): 2
• Green Lantern: 2
• Purple Lantern: 2
• Doctor Horrible: 2
• Black Widow: 2
• Iron Man: 2
• Éowyn: 2 (1 Dernhelm, 1 c. Houses of Healing that I initially mistook for Elbereth/Varda)
• Sherlock Holmes (various incarnations): 2 (1 with accompanying Sherlock-verse Watson?)
• R2 units: 2
• Arthur Dent: 2
• Storm: 2
• Hawkeye: 2
• Riddler: 2
• USO Girl (from Captain America: The First Avenger): 2
• Loki: 2
• Dragon Age: 2
• Spider-Man: 2
• Carmen Sandiego: 2
• Wolverine: 2 (1 movieverse, 1 90s cartoon)
• Daenerys: 2 (1 Dothraki, 1 Qartheen)
• Nick Fury: 1
• Emma Frost: 1
• Mini Stormtrooper: 1
• Ninja: 1
• Viking/Nord: 1
• Nightwing: 1
• Blue Beetle: 1
• Princess Peach (I think): 1
• Punisher father & son team: 1
• Genderswapped Jayne: 1
• Supergirl: 1
• Mini Supergirl: 1
• Luigi: 1
• Waldo: 1
• Sallah (Indy's Egyptian friend in the fez): 1
• Red Riding Hood: 1
• Splinter Cell guy: 1
• Rincewind (I think; seen from a distance and in a crowd): 1
• Tron: 1
• Silver Surfer: 1
• Green Power Ranger: 1
• The Thing: 1
• Quailman: 1
• Wolverine Power Ranger: 1 (THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!)
• Imperial General (Star Wars): 1
• Slave Leia: 1
• Rorschach: 1
• Mother Gothel (Tangled): 1
• Drop-dead awesome Disney villains group (Maleficent, The Horned King, Dr. Facilier, Evil Queen, Scar): 1
• Full set of Power Rangers (??? incarnation/era): 1
• Mass Effect: 1
• Office Avengers (full team): 1
• Imperial Guard (red robe & mask guy from Star Wars): 1
• Russia (country): 1
• Nightcrawler: 1
• Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl: 1
• Leonidas: 1
• Fallout: 1
• Jean Grey/Phoenix: 1
• Amy Pond: 1
• Howl & Sophie: 1 each
• 5th Doctor: 1
• Harry Potter: 1
• Starfire: 1
• Raven (Teen Titans): 1
• Pocahontas: 1
• Chii: 1
• Mal Reynolds: 1
• Rogue: 1
• Dr. Manhattan: 1 (yes, he was wearing pants)
• Luke Skywalker: 1
• Xena: 1
• Darth Vader: 1
• Mini Darth Vader: 1
• Hermes: 1
• Scottish Highlander (woad guy, anyway): 1
• Tony Stark (complete w/ goatee, glowing arc reactor, and babes): 1
• Freakazoid: 1
• San/Princess Mononoke: 1
• She-Hulk: 1
• Sons of Anarchy: 1 (spotted by C, a devout fan)
• Camp gay Batman & Superman: 1 each
• Jesus: 1
• Angel (X-Men: First Class): 1 (I think?)
• Hit-Girl: 1
• Mystique: 1
• Ronald McDonald: 1
• Qui-Gon Jinn: 1
• Sand Person (Star Wars): 1
• Thorpool (Thor + Deadpool = AWESOME, it turns out): 1
• Hogwarts student: 1
• Captain Hammer: 1
• Cyberman: 1 (and steampunk to boot!)
• Ms. Marvel: 1
• Spy vs. Spy team: 1
• TIE fighter pilot: 1
• Idris: 1 (not sure whether this should go under the TARDIS heading or not)
• Mini Wolverine: 1
• Esmeralda: 1
• Gaius Baltar & 6: 1 each

Honorable mentions go to Thorpool and Wolverine Power Ranger for creativity, one of the Storms for oh-god-how-are-you-real-why-can't-I-look-like-that beauty, and the Disney villain team for sheer awesomeness. This list was kind of tiring to do, since I always had to be looking everywhere, checking for repeats, etc., all while not, y'know running into people or anything, but overall it was a lot of fun to do, and I think I'll repeat this little experiment next year. (Also, I think H&C&AD had fun helping me out with it, so that's another plus.)

And that was pretty much it for Comic-Con. We had one final dinner with my mom's party after they got out of their last panel (an analysis/discussion of Harry Potter fandom) at Red Lobster, which, to the surprise of nobody but me, was mostly seafood. I mean, I've eaten there before, and I don't remember there being nearly that much seafood, so I ended up giving half of my surf'n'turf platter (the closest they had to purely non-seafood food that wasn't an appetizer) to H and AD, which they enjoyed, so that worked out okay. My mom's party was experiencing their first post-con high/exhaustion, which we all were prepared for, but hit us hard nonetheless. It's like the jeweler at Angel Wear I talked to said (as well as I can remember): "I don't want it to be over, but I can't wait until it's done," if that makes any kind of sense. So we all decamped back to our hostel, and them to their hotel, all with the intention of getting an early start the next morning.

The drive up was significantly less fun than the drive down. This was probably just because we were all tired, and tired of each other, at this point, and just wanted the whole thing to be over, but H, who is normally fairly touchy, started being, for lack of a better word, a brat, and C, correspondingly, became passive-aggressive and prone to heaving heavy sighs and glaring. The thing about H is that she always has to be in charge, and always has to be right, and god help you if you go up against her. The specific issue was that she wanted to take the 101 up as well, whereas C and I wanted to take the I-5, which, as I said before, is duller, but would cut hours off of an already extremely long drive. But H started digging in her heels about having some sort of personal philosophy of enjoying every minute of her life, always seeking out beauty, etc. (I've known her for 14 years, and this is the first I've heard of it, but whatever.) And when H digs in her heels, they generally stay dug. Apparently she neglected to tell C that the route we took down was the longer way, so he was already kinda annoyed at her about that. But then, when we were all arguing about which way to go back up, they went off by themselves while AD and I were packing, and she apparently told him that she'd talked it over with me, and I'd agreed to her way of doing things, when I definitely hadn't. This came out in the car ride on the way back up, and C got pissed, which is where the aforementioned passive-aggressiveness came out. When we stopped for a bathroom break, they went off to have it out, and she told him that she had meant to talk to me and just forgot, which, okay, things were kind of hectic and confused as we were leaving, so I don't blame her, but not owning up to it until then looked bad, making C angrier. Eventually, C and I just got tired of arguing, and we were headed in the general direction of the 101 anyway, so we ended up going that way. H and A would both hate me if I told them this, but they are so similar in this way: they both seem to thrive on conflict and love to seek out new things to fight over, new things that they absolutely have to be right about, they both will argue until the earth falls into the sun, they're proven right, or the other person gives up and agrees, whichever comes first, and they both sulk and/or try to change their arguments when they're proven wrong. For people like me, though, it's the exact opposite: conflict is wearing, draining, and I'll go to some fairly extreme lengths to avoid it.

Aside from the initial blow-up, the drive was okay. Long, of course, and there was one scary moment in the late evening where the gas light came on when we were half an hour from the nearest gas station (we made it, if barely), but on the whole, it was okay. H has been reading the Percy Jackson series aloud to C, and did so for several hours (she's been trying to get me into it, and I read the first one and liked it, but don't feel any special desire to pursue the series, I'm sure to her annoyance), and we stopped for food twice: once at a Coldstone (it was AD's 19th birthday that day, and she wanted ice cream), and once at an absolutely fantastic Irish pub called Dargan's, I believe in Santa Monica, or possibly Santa Barbara. Somewhere along the coast, anyway. We had stayed there during our very first trip to Comic-Con, way back in 2008, stumbled upon it by accident, and loved it. They had the only calamari that I've actually liked, ditto for fish and chips, and we all just really liked the atmosphere of the whole place. This time, it didn't disappoint. AD took most of her shepherd's pie with her, but deemed it extremely tasty, I was direly jealous of H's and C's Irish Breakfasts (my meal of choice back in England was the English Breakfast, and the Irish breakfast only has soda bread instead of rye/white/whatever and thicker bacon [more like Canadian bacon than American], so this wasn't a big surprise), and my own habitual bangers'n'mash were pretty good. The bangers were a little bland for my taste, but the mash itself, as well as the beans it was served with, made up for it. So, yeah, if any of y'all are ever in the Santa Monica (or possibly Santa Barbara) area, Dargan's comes highly recommended!



We made it home a little past midnight, unloaded the car (we had been driving mine, since C's Honda, fondly known as Fish, really isn't up to the trip anymore) at H/C/AD's house, and then I dragged my carcass back to my place and promptly crashed. This was on Monday night, which became Tuesday morning before I got to sleep. I've spent the past few days trying to catch up on the, essentially, three weeks that I've been gone, with varying degrees of success. I signed up for the rest of next semester's classes (the Greek/Norse/Celtic Comparative Mythology was filled up, boo), took care of some other bits of assorted business that had been cropping up, caught up on what's been going on in the wide world of Teh Interwebz, went back to work (So. Many. Kittens!), and today even made it to the used bookstore a couple of towns over to sell some of the textbooks that the Berkeley store wouldn't take. Of course, there was a waiting/appraisal period between when I dropped my books off and when I was told what I could get for them, so I ended up leaving with almost as many as I came with, but now at least I have copies of Master and Commander and The Far Side of the World that don't have Russell Crowe's face on them (I mean, he made a good Jack Aubrey, but I don't like movie covers in general. Makes me feel cheap), and a more complete edition of the absolutely necessary Aubrey/Maturin companion, A Sea of Words. Speaking of which, I'm on an Aubreyad re-read (almost done with M&C now), and...d'awww! It's both endearing and sad to see the boys before life really got to them. Jack is still a carefree quasi-pirate cheerfully getting back at his jerkass commanding officer by banging his wife, Stephen is still trying to process that he is, in fact, allowed to be happy now and again, Pullings is still a semi-squeaky master's mate, James Dillon is still alive and kicking brooding attractively (I have discovered a weakness in myself for first lieutenants: poor stupid James, cataclysmically danger-prone Tom Pullings, poor stupid and cataclysmically danger-prone Granby...it's a sickness, I tells ya), the Snake Incident, both Plague Incidents, and several Dr. Maturin to the rescue! moments have already happened, and Stephen has only begun to discover how bone-deep incompetent he is at things like getting onto the ship without going over the side (Every. Single. Time).


So that's my third Comic-Con, and the last of a truly exhausting series of trips. After several days of basically hiding in my room and napping a lot, I almost feel ready to face humanity again.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Epic writeup is indeed epic! I flirted with the idea of going to cons, but I'm not sure I'd really enjoy it very much, with the crowds and pushing and waiting in line and being on one's feet all day, so it's very nice to read a thorough account of someone else's experience without the hassle of actually having to be there ;P

Bummer about not being able to see the GoT and Hobbit panels and the Firefly reunion, but the TORN panel sounds like a lot of fun! And glad that the Magic Mountain substitution (with bonus hypothetical Temeraire fans, apparently XD) worked out to be decently fun, if mostly recuperation time for you.

(LA seems to be a place of sketchy-sounding hotels that are actually not bad at all. When we were down there for Thanksgiving (2010, I think?) we stayed at the Clarion Hotel (somewhere close to the UCLA campus, not sure what part of LA that would be), which we had been skeptical about due to reviews, but it ended up being an offbeat but very pleasant place, a very positive surprise where we had expected, at best, An Adventure.)

The jewelry you managed to resist splurging on sounds really pretty! And, of course, you'll have to show off the Hobbit pin when we next meet :) (Is it going on your Bag o' Pins?)

Very impressive cosplay count (and a fun new tradition)! I totally wish I could see the genderswapped Jayne. The other LJ person I know who was at Comic-Con posted a picture of the Disney Villains group, and it looked awesome indeed!

Sorry to hear about the argument on the way back :( The last couple of times we went down to SoCal we took 101 or the even more scenic coastal route for bits, which made a huge difference to our enjoyment of the drive -- but that's why we split it over 2-3 days.

An LJ friend introduced me to the Percy Jackson books, and I found them fun, but in a passive way. I still haven't read the 5th book, and the reason we have a copy is that L got into the series and wanted it. Now O has become a huge fan as well, and they're bugging me, "How come you haven't read the 5th book yet?" O claims he likes them better than Harry Potter, which, he's entitled to his opinion of course, but no.

Sorry to hear you won't get to take the comparative mythology class -- that sounded really cool! Do they offer it in the spring?

And yay for new (old) books! I feel the same way as you about movie covers, even if it's movies I really like, like LotR.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

it's very nice to read a thorough account of someone else's experience without the hassle of actually having to be there ;P
Glad to be of service! I can vicariously experience Europe through you, and you can vicariously experience cons through me.

it ended up being an offbeat but very pleasant place, a very positive surprise where we had expected, at best, An Adventure.
I love these kinds of surprises! The one we stayed at wasn't in the best of repair everywhere, but it was clean, quiet, and the lady at the desk was friendly, so I call it a win.

Is it going on your Bag o' Pins?
It certainly is! I got there kinda late, so there were only two types left, and I'm fairly sure my mom ninja'd the cooler of the two I got, but, hey, I now apparently vote for Smaug for President, and that could never not be awesome.

I totally wish I could see the genderswapped Jayne.
Girl!Jayne was actually one of my favorite costumes, since she had obviously put a lot of thought into it. It wasn't just a girl wearing Jayne's outfit, but actually what Jayne would wear if he were female. So she still had the hat, the fatigue-looking pants, and the guns, but had a midriff-baring/bikini top, and one or two other details that I forget now, but remember going "oooh!" at.

O claims he likes them better than Harry Potter, which, he's entitled to his opinion of course, but no.
Sacrelige! XD I mean, I liked them okay, but nothing really grabbed me and dragged me in. I've mentally put Percy Jackson in the same category as Hunger Games: maybe, someday, if I come across it and don't have all that much on my plate at the time, I'll pick it up, but otherwise, meh.

Do they offer it in the spring?
It's always a possibility, but probably not. From what I could tell, this was a very small (only 18 seats!), one-off class for the extraordinarily geeky among us. Of course, this is Berkeley, so "extraordinarily geeky" would describe a good 50% of the population... (Also, it looks like they're not offering the History of Middle-Earth class this semester either. Poop.)

I feel the same way as you about movie covers, even if it's movies I really like, like LotR.
Yes, definitely. This is why I don't want the newest edition of Game of Thrones (book, not show), since it has Sean Bean sitting on the Iron Throne, and I'd much rather have the old covers, with just an object/symbol. It helps that the covers of the two books I bought to replace the movie tie-in editions are really pretty, with just Turner-y paintings of ships and the titles, while both copies I had previously just had the main actor's face. I mean, I thought he was a fantastic choice for the role, and I really enjoyed watching him, but sometimes I just need to divorce myself from the movies and enjoy the books on their own merits, you know?

[hamsterwoman]

I can vicariously experience Europe through you, and you can vicariously experience cons through me.

Deal! :)

It wasn't just a girl wearing Jayne's outfit, but actually what Jayne would wear if he were female.

That is the best kind of genderswapping. Now I wish I could see it even more!

One of the things that seems to appeal to the rodents about the Percy books a lot more than it does to me is the humour. The humour is quite juvenile, so right up a 10-12 year-old's alley, but I find it annoying rather than charming for the most part, and definitely not nearly as funny as Harry Potter's.

And, yep, definitely prefer the symbolic covers on the ASOIAF books as well.

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

Well, I went and googled Angel Wear Jewelry and found their website. It's all seriously beautiful and unique, but there are no prices! How can I let myself fall in love without prices? Without this hard info I am not able to begin the process of talking myself into buying something. It's probably really expensive anyway, so I suppose it's just as well.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

It's all seriously beautiful and unique, but there are no prices!
Yeah, the Angel Wear website really annoys me, if only because it could be so much more! It doesn't have either of the pairs of earrings I bought, or either of the necklaces I talked myself out of buying. And, yes, prices would be helpful, if probably a bit daunting. XD

It's probably really expensive anyway,
Actually, the stuff I bought was fairly reasonably-priced. A pair of jade studs, set in silver, for about $11-$15, and a really lovely dangley silver pair with rainbow moonstones for ~$25. Of course, I only bought the less expensive stuff on purpose, and the bigger and/or custom pieces can really get up there (although the $245 necklace was just about the most expensive thing at the booth).

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

Truly? $11 to $25? I had no idea. That's so affordable! I thought minimum $50 for the smallest, most insignificant thing, so I was therefore well out of it.

If that's the case, I believe I should go and tell them off. Maybe (when they're ready,)they'll perhaps rethink their extremely lame website.

I mean, here you are, through your blog, giving them props and publicity, and as a result someone like me (who never in a million years would have heard of them) goes there and gets turned off and frustrated. I'm sure that's not what they want. Don't they want publicity and sales?

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

The artist/jeweler said that she was going to set up an Etsy store sometime soon (around the end of this month, I think?), and that would definitely have prices, but, yeah, the website generally has a lot of problems; I get the feeling that it isn't updated/tended to/tweaked very often.