BubblesSOC

Almost three months later I finally get around to writing my Dragon*Con 2010 summary. Well, that’s the story of my blogging life these days. Better late than never I suppose

Dragon*Con 2009 was my first fan convention experience. I felt like a 6 year old visiting Disney World for the first time. Thousands of people were dressed as their favorite characters from sci-fi, fantasy, anime, etc. An army of nerds like me from across the country had invaded Atlanta.

I dragged my poor husband throughout four different hotels forcing him to take photos of me with wizards and Klingons. Surprisingly enough William seemed to enjoy himself but I knew that other arrangements were needed for 2010. See, my husband is an overworked corporate accountant, and Dragon*Con happens to fall in the middle of his busy season. William is also only a budding nerd (he hadn’t seen a Star Wars movie until we started dating 8 years ago) who would prefer to attend the season opener for the Crimson Tide than a panel discussing Lord of the Rings.

I didn’t want to attend the con alone so I started recruiting some college friends. I also started hanging out on Cosplay.com and the D*C LJ in hopes of making some new friends. Some D*C twitterers expressed interest in a ‘tweetup‘ so I offered to organize one.

The aspect of the con I enjoy the most is the costumes. I knew who I wanted to dress as, but since I can barely sew on a button I needed to commission my costume. I discovered Erica last year via a group of BioShock Splicers I met who were wearing her creations. Although I contacted her a bit late, she agreed to make my costume and worked with my tight budget

My costume was lined up, badge pre-registered, schedule highlighted, entourage assembled. I thought I was prepared for the 4-day geekfest. However, I made a fatal mistake. I assumed we would be completely moved into our new apartment by the week before the con. Instead, I was still moving junk the day before the con Luckily I still managed to pick up my badge Thursday night (after waiting in line for 2 hours) and meet Erica with my costume.

Friday morning I had intended to be at the con by 10am. Instead I was wading through the chaos that was downtown Atlanta to drop off my costume with Erica for her to make some critical adjustments (thank goodness she offered to do this for me ♥) I didn’t make it back to my apartment until after 2pm, and I needed to be in costume and at the Hilton by 5pm for the D*C Tweetup I organized. I somehow managed to leave my apartment by 4:30, which normally would be more than enough time. But alas, I sat in traffic for an hour and wasn’t inside the Hilton until 5:45. Needless to say my Tweetup had fallen apart since the hostess was nowhere to be found

Despite the insanity and lack of sleep, I had a good opening night William even stopped by and people-watched with us for a while. I also got to meet a lovely lady from the Westeros forum. We talked A Song of Ice and Fire for an hour which put my weary mind at ease.

We were exhausted Saturday morning so I missed the parade again but the highlight of the day was attending the Star Trek: The Next Generation panel with my dad. I’m not a big Star Trek fan, but I did grow up watching TNG with my dad. He records all the reruns on SyFy for us to watch when I come to visit ♥ The panel, featuring Riker, Geordi, Troi, Data, Tasha Yar, was hilarious. My dad had a blast! He even got to shake hands with Q at the Walk of Fame. He’s coming back with me in 2011 so I hope there will be a good selection of Trek guests again. I overheard my dad telling one of his friends over the phone all about the day So cute!

I’ve rambled way too long so this is the end of Part 1. Part 2 is dedicated to my costume (Daenerys Targaryen from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series) and my first cosplay photoshoot:

(My Dragon*Con 2010 Photos on Flickr)