DragonCon

Ok, so as most of you may have guessed, I'm a huge dork. DragonCon is the biggest gathering of huge dorks like myself on the northeast, so naturally I've been excited to go on this trip for months now. DragonCon is in Atlanta, Georgia and on friday Alex and I took a plane down. Unfourtantly, we had to book our flight much later in the day than most people because Alex works and didn't want to take a day off. So we left at 6pm from LaGuardia and landed in Atlanta at around 8pm. Luckily we were able to catch up with most of our NYJedi friends who had flown down thursday to put on a show at DragonCon earlier in the day on friday. Apparently, the show went really well and I was a bit disappointed I missed the main lightsaber event. But nonetheless, we all went out for BBQ and then walked around the Convention. Alex and I were unable to get our badges because we came in late, but even though we were not able to go into any of the dance parties, walking around the Lobby and seeing so many people dressed as superheroes, pop culture icons and so much more was amazing. I will try to post some pictures, but you get the general gist. Alex and I actually went to bed a bit earlier (3am) than the rest of our friends because we couldn't go into the parties.

Saturday, Alex and I got up and first checked out the parade that was going on. This is when all the costumed people (which is probably close to 2000 people) walk around the 5 hotels that host the convention and wave while everyone else watches. It was pretty awesome, especially since they grouped like dressed people together. There was a whole section for Avatar: the Last Airbender, the 501st (which is a national star wars cosplay group), Harry Potter and so on. Then Alex and I headed to get our badges, which luckily didn't take very long because I had the foresight to preregister. Then we headed together to one panel on Legend of the Seeker, which was not very good at all and we went to get lunch. Then Alex and I split up and I headed to see Scott Bakula, who was Captain Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise. It was pretty awesome. Then I went back to my room to retrieve my Spider-Man comic book that I wanted Stan Lee to sign and went to go see him speak at the next panel. There was a guy I was standing behind who was talking with me for about a half hour while we waited to go into the Stan Lee panel. We exchanged contact info and became facebook friends, but I think he was after a Con hookup. After Stan Lee's panel, I headed over to get his autograph, which just jumped my comic book's value so much. It's pretty awesome. I also went shopping and bought two pieces of spider-man art for my collection. I do have a thing for comic book art.

Then I went to dinner with a few of the NYJedi (we went to hooters, which was awesome) and Alex and I decided we would check out every scheduled party at the Con. We first started with "Mighty Fine Shindig" which was the Firefly/Serenity party which had ok music but great costumes. Then we hit up the Star Trek party, which was lame and then headed to the Star Wars party and the Rave which were in the same hotel. The Rave was playing Goth music so it wasn't very interesting, but Star wars was a lot of fun with good dancing and pop music. We had a good time, but ultimately decided to head back to the hotel. A bunch of our friends were already there (there were 7 people staying in our hotel for this con) and we ended up all hanging out on Alex and I's bed and talking and having fun. Though one of our friends, Margaret, fell off the edge of the bed and ended up whacking her face pretty hard. But we were all still laughing about it. We ended up going to sleep around 4am.

Sunday was crazy, as we all had to get up at 8am in order to participate in the Saber School panel, which is where the NYJedi teach children how to use lightsabers. Though the lightsabers they give the kids are 1.5 foot long foam noodles, which is adorable. I was surprised how good Alex was with the kids, as we both tend to abhor children in general. It worked out great and everything went smoothly. After the panel ended, then next panel was going to be for the voices behind Gargoyles: the Animated Series, which Alex loved as a child. So we ended up getting front row seats for that and it was great! The voice actors from that show are actors from Star Trek TNG Mr. Riker and Diana Troy, so it was great being able to meet them and listen to them talk. After that, Alex and I split up, but the panel I was supposed to go to ended up being full (it was a True Blood panel, so it makes sense) so I just walked around the exhibits more, then headed to a Heroes panel, where all us fan's discussed the loose ends of the show, which there were many of. Then Alex and I met up again and went shopping. We ended up buying quite a few weapons including a spider-man Dagger!!! So awesome!

Then we met up with NYJedi members again and went to a steampunk ball where the costumes were amazing, but the music was awful. So we headed out to a diner and spend a good chunk of the night talking and eating lots of delicious southern food like fried catfish and red velvet cake (unbelievably good). Then we headed back to the hotel to pack and then went to walk around the hotels one last time. Once that was done, we headed back and by that time, our other roommates were there and were starting to pack as well, since we all had early flights and decided it would be easier to stay up all night rather than try to get to sleep and risk not getting up in time to catch our flights. Alex and I ended up leaving the hotel at 4:30am and taking a cab to the airport.

Unfourtantly, there was a bit of a hang up because one of the weapons Alex had purchased, an airgun that was shaped like a shotgun, was too big to fit in our luggage and so we couldn't sneak it onto the plane the way we had last time. So there was this whole be thing with trying to find a case for it (even though it was in a box and sealed) and we were worried that even if we tried to break it apart and put it in luggage, by that point the airline knew what we were carrieing and we didn't want to be in trouble with the TSA right before we head to China. So Alex ended up having to give this beautiful Air rifle to one of the workers at the airport who was very happy to be the new owner. I was super pissed off by this point because I had been up for almost 24hrs and there was a lot of wasted time over nothing. But at least we ended up getting a refund for the third checked luggage back and we got on our plane safely. Once back in NYC, I collapsed and slept from 10:30am to 6pm.

Now after this is CHINA!!!!