meanwhile, back in the mundane world

…and another DragonCon is in the books. As I said on twitter this morning, you know it’s the Tuesday after DragonCon when your brain is just terribly confused about why breakfast isn’t coming with a background soundtrack of Jason Isaacs telling stories. (He’s really good at it, btw. Plus, you know, the voice (the real voice, not Lucius’s nasty little hiss—there’s a story there, too) and the accent and even from the back of the room, the eyes. Breakfast burritos never had it so good.)

For a variety of mostly small reasons, it was an odd con this year. My nephew didn’t come up (which was more of a relief than a regret—he’s on the spectrum and is very exhausting—but I hope he didn’t come because he had something else going on, not because his parents decided he didn’t need to be around the weirdos) and L & her husband were out gallivanting around California wine country so I didn’t have my sit-at-the-Hyatt-bar-people-watching-and-drinking companions. (Probably a good thing, as you might remember the year when all the Bane cosplayers did not mix well with the alcohol and this year, the Suicide Squad Jokers were even creepier.)

Also, BabyBoy was only down for Saturday night/Sunday during the day, as he had rehearsals all weekend. (Did I tell y’all that he somehow got cast as one of the big parts for the high school’s fall play? In typical BB fashion, he wasn’t even sure what play he was auditioning for; he auditioned with a dramatic monologue instead of a comedic one; and he read almost totally cold for the callbacks and still got the part. If that child ever focused, he would take over the world.) So that was also less fun, though it was one kid less I needed to worry about when it was 2 a.m. and he wasn’t in bed.

Karl Urban had to cancel a few weeks prior, which threw my focus all for a loop. :( I was totally prepared to devote myself to his panels (speaking of voices and accents and eyes, oh my), and probably would have even gone for a photo op, but alas, it was not meant to be. (I whined about it all weekend, though, especially after we did an encore viewing of Star Trek Beyond on pay-per-view late one night.) Oh well.

Joey and Chris were there, though! And alittleblue and kachera and I managed to get ourselves to their (#@%!!) 10 a.m. Sunday morning panel. (I don’t remember what the other two had been doing the night before, but I’d been out Rocky-Horror-ing until something close to 4. In the morning. That’s almost my normal wake-up time during the week, omg.) They were fun to listen to, though, especially Chris giving Joey a hard time about his hot dog stand that is about to open at the Florida Mall. (Yes, I know.) blue got pictures, so it really was just like old times.

Sidenote: I waaaaant the sparkly stuff blue and k had in their hair. It was like Christmas tree tinsel (the icicle kind) but thinner and it was subtle enough that I stared at blue for half the *n-panel before I decided that yes, her hair *was* sparkling and it wasn’t glitter.

#2Son & I had a good run with the Marvel people – lots of varied panels, with not just the same people and everyone very excited about the things they were working on. We also had excellent luck with the Star Wars and urban fantasy writers—it wasn’t just the same 4 guys and Chelsea Quinn Yarbrough, which it has tended to be in the past. They still have more that they can do, but I thought there was an effort put forth to expand past the usual, stereotypical panels and participants.

We did get into the Masquerade on Sunday night, which was…fine? The costumes are amazing, but it’s just so crowded and by Sunday night I’m up against my personal introvert wall (and that’s after not fighting the crowds for the parade, as we could see it from our room this year.) I’m still not exactly sure why Joey and Chris were hosting, either, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t in the minority in thinking that. I think I would have rather gone to the steampunk ball and gotten to see blue and kachera and Totoro (who apparently now lights up, whee!)

Alsoalso, I did not spend any money on the dealer floor, which is very perplexing. I was gunning for new t-shirts from We Love Fine, but the stuff they had with them was not singing to me and nothing else reached out and grabbed me. (Well, there was this lovely lady who made these beautiful long vests/coats that buckled like a Regency gown and laced up the back like a Victorian corset, but they were $250ish and y’know, that’s a LOT (“”) of t-shirt money. I managed to get my AmEx away from her. It was close, though.) Plus, I still haven’t gotten everything I bought last year framed, so I did not look too closely at the artists. I’m sure they’ll be there next year, right? Right.

So, yeah, Jason Isaacs and the kid who played Joffrey (plus Alexander Siddig), a live performance of Rocky Horror and the Philharmonic playing geeky music, plus a bunch of writers and artists, that’s who I was geeking out over this year.

But no Karl Urban, :(