August 19, 2008
We hiked Multnomah Falls ….
visited the second VooDoo donut location ….
And even tried out the bacon maple bar! I thought it’d be the grossest thing EVER but … it wasn’t. The idea still creeps me out, though.
Speaking of creepy …. this is the world’s creepiest bathroom at Rimsky-Korsakoffee House:
This is what you see when you walk in the door and turn right. AUGH!
In all fairness, the House itself was quaint, cute, quirky as all get out, and all that stuff, but I will never EVER use that bathroom.
August 17, 2008
Whew. Home again, and it’s a bit of an oven here. The wedding was gorgeous, the food was delicious and dancing was good ole ’60s music, with a dash of Prince and Jackson (Michael) for the young ‘uns. Must have got some weird taste in music sinceI knew just about every song the DJ played, while our retired friend kept exclaiming, “this is my kind of music!”
I got a lot of career advice from said retired friend. She was pretty high up the chain in the corporate world before she retired and had a lot of insight and opinions to share. Also, a book recommendation, and an introduction to some of her good friends who are in business or banking. She’s very intent on mentoring us and helping us expand our networks through her contacts, which is mighty generous of her.
Have discovered the Furminator and absolutely love it. Thirty dollars for a dog brush?? But it works so well! *internal debate* This would be dead useful for my big fuzzball of a dog, she’s so furry that she gets clumpy when I don’t brush her enough. Will consider it.
Time for bed to start the week off right, hope y’all had a great weekend!
August 13, 2008
Please excuse the lack of posting, I’ve been back for a couple days but inundated with work and work-related issues.
The travel was a bit insane, as evidenced by the 14 delays and overbooked planes, but thankfully the return trip was much less eventful. They only asked for volunteers, they didn’t actually have to bump anyone. Call it foolish but I actually put my name in thinking that it’d be great to get two free round trip tickets from the one free trip. Of course, it’s just for mainland travel, so I couldn’t finally make a free trip to Maui or anything, but still, it’d be cool.
We had a great weekend, but more on that later. I’d forgotten my camera so I had to take pictures on my cousin’s camera.
August 4, 2008
The budget: $300, plus $150 in gas cards
Spent: $142 cash, $41 gas
Bought: 7 trade paperbacks (gifts), 1 tshirt (gift), 1 super cool toy for BF (gift)
Free: Sketch from Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content (gift), sketch from Lars Brown of me with a Viking hat, sketch from the Penny Arcade guys of Tycho and Gabe doing a fastball special. Bonus points to whoever recognizes that move! 🙂
Still to spend: flowers for the friend who let me stay in his condo (40, to split with BF), shipping fee to send his keys back (5, USPS Priority Mail), ticket for next year
Favorite quote (financially related, of course): Grant Morrison, answering a question from a fan
“You just have to try to learn to let go of your desires. You have to detach yourself from materials, sort of be separate from it, so that you can enjoy life. It’s really difficult, I know, because we’re surrounded by really cool things …. I want to go see Dark Knight again! But you have to remember that things just make you miserable. You see, there’s always going to be some cool thing you want, and then when you get that, you’re going to want another cool thing. In the end, you’re just going to be miserable because you can’t have all the cool things in the world. ”
I love that. I felt like I practiced that philosophy of enjoying being there at Con, and being selective about the things I picked up. Actually, I only bought gifts for other people this year, I didn’t buy a thing for myself, and I came out of there utterly content. Grant Morrison is crazy awesome. And his super Scottish brogue made him that much more lovable. Well, that and his very mellow demeanor with fans. And the fact that he’s always spiffed out in a suit and crazy tie. Speaking of Dark Knight: AWESOME!
Favorite Con Man: David Mack!
I love that he totally humors me. I took a hiatus from comics for a while, jaded by all the Marvel crossovers in the late 90s and his books (Kabuki) were what brought me back to the creativity and sheer artistry that I loved. Thus, I completely fangirl out when I see him, and visit him at every Con I attend. For his part, he’s all smiles, and totally gracious and friendly to every Con attendee, and considering how rough Con can be for these creators, it’s amazing. I know that it’s all fun and games for us, but Con is business for those in the industry and you can tell that some of them aren’t into socializing with their public AT ALL. Not this guy, he’s never having a bad day. Six years I’ve been seeing him at Cons now, and never anything but a smile on him. Luckily, real BF is ok with my Con BF. 😉
August 2, 2008
Con was excellent. I was concerned about an unresolved idiopathic arthritis flare-up, idiopathic in this case meaning I hadn’t done anything to cause it like overexerting myself, or lifting/carrying heavy items. It wasn’t just the run of the mill aching either, it was the alternately dull and sharp throbbing pains that would either keep me from sleeping or wake me in the night. Of course, lack of sleep is a trigger so I feared a vicious cycle that would ruin Con. I made myself rest for a solid 12 hours from Tuesday night through Wednesday; believe me, it’s hard to do on the eve of 8 days of travel with some packing and cleaning left to do. Still and all, rest was the only thing I could do for myself and by Wednesday morning the pain receded to a manageable level.
Vacation! After a semi-leisurely start, interrupted by spates of panic from colleagues, I was on my way. The calls continued well into the afternoon, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle via phone or email. Annoying, but there it is.
It cost $41 to fill up my tank. And I’d still had a quarter tank when I stopped at the gas station. Thank goodness for the gas cards. Arrival in San Diego at 12:30 pm was thrilling: I was back! It’s the sole pleasure and luxury I’ve allowed myself since college, a yearly pilgrimage of sorts. I stay at a friend’s parent’s house, and for four solid days, we are spoiled terribly. Good food, good beds, good company. His parents provided a bounty of sandwich fixings, fruit, and snacks for our lunches, his mama cooked breakfast foods every morning and dinners as well. Absolute heaven for a piggy at table like me.
It balanced the intense days we spend backpacking our lunches and comics through the San Diego Convention Center, walking miles upon miles through the throngs of fellow geeks and nerds, scouting the booths and deals. And my, there were deals to be had!
The news outlets were putting the attendance count at 125,000. My Con has become so much more mainstream, that on my drive back home, I felt a wee bit possessive. I could almost wish it weren’t so enormous now, but I think that that kind of attention, attendance, and interest should be good for the industry. Obviously, the money flowing in stimulates that economy, but more than that, the level of quality has been increasing, the bar has been raised. For example, who’s seen Sin City? Or the Dark Knight? Those films were built on the backs of truly terrible films like Batman and Robin or X3. (I’m sorry, I’m a X-fan and the last of the X movies was a sore disappointment.) But out of those beginning struggles comes a push for better storytelling, stronger plotting, pacing and creativity. Sure there’ll still be money-motivated flops but we’re already seeing that the filmmakers with a passion for the original medium are able to bring their skills into the film medium.
Anyway, not to rant. It was truly an impressive crowd there. A Comic Con staple is waiting in line. There are lines to get your badge, lines to get into the convention hall before it opens, lines to have your books signed and get sketches, lines to get vouchers to get into other lines. Lines, lines, everywhere! 
The fun part about having a posse at Con is having company during those seemingly interminable waits, but you can just chat with the folks you’re in line with. Yep! I’m advocating talking to strangers. It’s best not to give them your number, and every once in a while it’s best they don’t even know your name, but generally we’re all semi-normal and just there for fun. There’s a bit of a high I get walking through Con alone, too – I love hanging out with fellow geek friends and family, I love having BF hang out in my world for a bit, but there’s a time I need to be alone and soak in my surroundings. No matter how bad things have been all year, being alone at Con, in that moment, takes me out of all the pettiness, all the anger and frustration and confusion to a different place. I love it. We’re calling it Condorphins..
My financial overview comes next!
July 23, 2008
Well, not really. But I’m going to give my bags a last looky-loo, and then toss them in the car, fill up and get going!!
Whoo!
We have free wi-fi throughout the convention center this year, but unless I email my posts, I probably won’t be doing much blogging between now and next week because the laptop is just too heavy to carry. Oh, and I’m on va-ca-tion!! I’ve got a few posts scheduled, though.
I’ve got my $150 in Shell gas cards in my wallet, my $200 in cash (my entire budget for the trip), and a short list of people I’m going to spend that cash on. After that? It’s all food, parking and me!!
So very excited. This is going to be awesome. Have a great week everyone!
July 12, 2008
Ho boy. If this is how tired I am after a night and afternoon of socializing, I’m going to be in trouble at the end of this month when I’m going to be on the road for 8 days. I’m an inveterate correspondent, and I don’t even want to look at emails I intended to respond to, today. That’s how tired I am. My brain is *done* with talking to people. Well, why are you posting? you ask? Because you’re not just any people, you’re MY people. 🙂
A girlfriend was back in town last night, and I haven’t seen her since the wedding in January when we certainly didn’t get a chance to really socialize at all. She invited everyone over to dinner, and five of us sat down to the most amazing home cooked dinner ever. When did we grow up and when did she learn to set a table like that??? It was in-cred-i-ble!!!
Picture this:
A platter of sliced beef, brisket style.
Baked beans in lightly spiced barbeque sauce.
Perfectly crisp green beans.
Fresh, crisp, sliced cucumbers, with a squeeze of lemon and dash of salt.
Ripe, red, succulent tomatoes.
Roasted baby potatoes.
Freshly baked, made from scratch, apple tart, with homemade bechamel sauce.
Heaven. Sheer gastronomic heaven. Everything was fresh, picked from the garden or from the farmer’s market. I made a total pig of myself, and doubled up on helpings of everything. And there were still leftovers! We had a red wine from Paso Robles, and an Australian white. Seriously, it’s one thing to pretend I’m an adult and drink wine with the grown-ups at work functions, but there’s something strikingly poignant about realizing that we were staging our very own dinner party. Nothing so formal and constrained as one with place cards and hostess gifts and such, but still the real deal. Conversation went ’round and ’round the table, taking everyone in turn, telling our stories, catching up on lives. There was a lot of love and a whole lot more laughter as everyone gave everyone else a hard time. It’s comforting to know that there are still relationships that are just easy after so many years.
Then, today, we had our little college reunion lunch. The college pal that I kept in touch with and I were kicking around ideas a few months ago and I proposed that we get the old gang together. It took a lot of coordination and calls, but we pulled it together and got six of our nine intended guests to show up for lunch today. Actually, that sounds like they weren’t interested, but I think everyone was happy that we’d put this together. I think it was quite a success: we laughed and talked for FOUR HOURS. We never even got around to catching up, we were just enjoying each others’ company and telling funny stories and picking on one another like the old days. It felt like hardly a day had passed since we graduated four years ago. Everyone’s changed a little. I could see it. We aren’t those gangly 20-year-olds anymore, and there was some complexity in their eyes, some sadness that wasn’t shared, and a little tentativeness that was only mostly covered up by banter. I think we’d all forgotten what it was like to have fun, just stupid, loud, dumb, funny, gratuitous fun. That might be why we were just happy to be together, and we’ll be doing it again.
If only I weren’t so busy for the next several weeks…. but I’m going to be out of town or otherwise engaged every weekend from next weekend through the end of August. Eeep! My schedule is actually pretty daunting, but I plan to milk it for all I can. Who knows how much longer I’ll be in the area or have a stable income from this job! Oh, don’t worry, I’m not trying to spend it all now or anything, I just want to reconnect to people and remember what it’s like to have a life. It’s going to be important to find that confidence again for interviews and finding a new job!
Anyway, I found myself unable to keep my eyes open after I finally got home after 4 pm. Eventually I caved to the inevitable and just napped. Mmmm…sleep….
