Forgive me if I missed something...


Monday

I didn't go to sleep Sunday/Monday because my flight left Pittsburgh at 6:30am which meant I had to leave for the airport at 3:30am. Luckily for me I made my husband drop me off (muhahahahaha). I highly dislike driving through the city of Pittsburgh, particularly the parkway east and the tunnels.

Well, I got to my gate at Pittsburgh airport only to find it moved to another gate. Somewhere between the 15 minutes I checked in, got through security, and got to the original gate, they changed it. Boo.

Then I got to the Cincinnati airport, which was my first connection. (Originally I was only supposed to have 1 connection, but Delta changed it to two in June.) Before landing, you could see a lot of fog outside, especially in the valleys. Well, between my landing and getting to the next gate (which of course was not the original one I was told to go to) the plane I was supposed to get on to Salt Lake City was not there. Delta, in its infinite wisdom, diverted it to Dayton airport. (Dayton is srsly like 50 miles away, a 20 minute flight). I overheard the staff at my gate talk about how ridiculous it was for them to divert that flight because the fog was not that bad. I figure, how could my flight land if the fog was so bad? Eh, whatever.

The original Cin to Salt Lake City flight was supposed to leave at 8:30am. My connection in SLC was supposed to leave at 11:15am. My Cin flight didn't actually leave until 10:40am, so they was no way in hell I was making that connection. Delta put me on a later flight from SLC to San Diego, but it still was annoying. Especially when you didn't have any sleep and were afraid to sleep in the airport because Delta kept updating you on the status of the Cin to SLC flight.

That flight stuck in Dayton could have gotten to the Cin airport faster if it drove on the highways.

So I finally get to my Cin to SLC flight and I think "ah, finally I can get some sleep" (it was my longest flight).... nope. I think its a requirement these days to have a screaming baby/child on every flight. I just happen to be lucky enough to have said screaming toddler sitting directly behind me, kicking my chair and playing with the window blinds. I seriously can't believe the ignorance of some parents these days. I think I would threaten death to my child if they were to kick the back of a stranger's chair on a cramped airplane. Like, you kick this chair and the plane will fall from the sky.

SLC airport was uneventful. I did get to see the Great Salt Lake and dude was that a weird teal color. Worse then the Monongahela River in Morgantown.

The flight from SLC to SD was also uneventful. I did get to sit in the "exit" row, which has a lot more leg room.


Meet at the airport and we made it safely to our hostel, where I promptly crashed for three hours. No sleep plus three hour time change =/= me.

We wandered around the Gaslamp quarter and found Horton Plaza, where we had dinner. Even with the nap though, I was still dead on my feet so we decided to go back to the hostel and crash.



Tuesday

We woke up kinda later then I wanted too, so we nixed the ferry plans and just went to the zoo. Dude, is that zoo big. Then again, it is world famous. Lots and lots of critters.

Hahah, my highlight was the Sky tram thing. (animals, what animals? LOL) Thing was like a mix between a ski lift with a ferris wheel car. It "flew" over the whole expanse of the zoo. ......We rode it five times. They also had guided bus tours, which were nice after being on our feet for too many hours. My favorite critter was the bearcat. I also liked the koala baby.


Wednesday

So after nixing the plans for the ferry on Tuesday, we decided to go on Weds. One of the pick up points was right behind the convention center, so we walked down that way. (Its about 12-1pm). Well we get closer to the convention and see a bunch of people with badges. We thought they only gave them out later, so we headed back to the hostel to get my paperwork and back down to pick up our badges. Long line was long for badges. I think we got out of there at 3pm. Instead of waiting in the que upstairs for the exhibition hall that opened at 6:30pm, we decided to walk down to the seaside village place, which was a complete and utter tourist trap. Well, I guess it was better then waiting 3 hours inside in a huge ass line. We got back to the convention about 6:15pm and got in at 6:30pm. The que line was still coming down the escalators, so I guess it doesn't pay to wait in that line.

Dude, exhibition hall was NUTS. I ended up using the lanyard they gave me for my badge as a leash on 's bookbag. She lead the way and I followed. She grabbed free things and I put them in the bags. It was a nice system. (Damn were we bag whores too. LOL)

At some point after 9pm we decided to call it quits and we meet up with my friend and her friend for dinner. We then got back to the hostel and meet our new roomies for the week, two very nice ladies from England. They were also comic con go-ers. I was the only one in that room with an american accent. I was outnumbered in my own country!


Thursday

This was kinda a lack luster day for me since I have never been to a con before and didn't know what to expect. Especially with the lines. Luckily we got into the 3D Disney panel in the morning. We had an *issue* with a guard about my camera, which very much pisses me off and I really don't want to discuss. But we did get to see Johnny Depp! For about three minutes! Tim Burton introduced him. Apparently it was the first appearance by Tim Burton at one of these kinds of events in a really long time. So it was exciting to see him.

I left kagome behind for the Twilight panel to get lunch. I then waited for two hours to get into the Robot Chicken panel, but didn't get in. Kagome skipped out on Twilight and got into Robot Chicken, so I got the details from her. I'll have to look it up on youtube later.

I then was paranoid about getting into this star trek panel later at 7, so I got there 4 hours before and sat through the panel before it, which was introducing graphic novels into libraries. I used to work at a library, so it was interesting to me. The star trek panel was also very interesting. Some people are really hard core and there were a couple of arguments in the audience. I learned why nero in the newest flick has a bald head and tatoos.


Friday

This was by far the best day panel wise for me. I learned very quickly from the day before that you just gotta kinda have squatters rights over a seat and sit through all the panels before the one you want to go to. Well, I really wanted to go to the other Disney panel and the panel about the 9 movie because Elijah Wood would be there and then the panel after that because Peter Jackson would be there (alas my LOTR heart.) So I ended up getting there early and sitting through the Warner Bros panel, which was fucking awesome! That was srsly THE panel to go to this year. They showed trailers for so many movies and had the actors from them too. To name a few: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Tyrese Gibson, Paul Bettany, Jackie Haley, Rachel McAdams, and Robert Downey Jr.! Robert Downey Jr. was awesome too. There was a small break in between the sherlock holmes movie and the one prior to it. We all expected the moderator to come out, but nooo it was Robert! Totally unexpected! I could fan girl all day but I'll move on.

The Disney panel was also awesome. They showed scenes from the Princess and the Frog. I am very glad they are going back to the 2D format, at least for another movie. Who knows if they will continue it. They also showed Beauty and the Beast in 3D. The same freaking movie, but in 3D. My heart skipped a beat watching it. It was awe inspiring. I can't wait for that to come to theatres. They also had Hayao Miyazaki and John Lasseter. Miyazaki presented a trailer for his new film, Ponyo, which he also had an advanced screening of. (I will talk about that later).

After the Disney panel was the Nine panel so I got to see Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly. That movie looks really interesting and I want to go see it. Elijah's character is once again the dumbass, like Frodo. *Hmmmm.... we just defeated this creature who was trying to place this stone in this wall.... hmmmm I think I will put it in the wall......*someone dies*... oh I guess I shouldn't have done that, oh well*

I also got to see Tim Burton again, but I can't remember if it was for Disney panel or 9 since he produced both 9 and alice in wonderland. But it was awesome to see him not ONCE but TWICE!

Then I got to see Peter Jackson. *dies* my LOTR experience is almost complete (must find viggo and orlando and john rhys davies).

We didn't stay the whole time for Peter Jackson's panel. I was happy enough to see the man, but we had to run over to the theatre that was playing ponyo.

The line for ponyo was pretty long. We waited two hours before being told that the 8pm show was capped, about 30 people from the front of the line. BUT!!! they added a 10pm show (which, by the time everyone got in the theatre was an 11pm show lol). But we got very good seats and that movie was so beautifully animated. It was exciting to see a movie (for free) that hasn't even been released yet in the US. It was a cute flick.


Saturday

Saturday we didn't go to any panels. We were too busy running around trying to get signatures for that. Our day started off with trying to win the a spot to get the signature of the Hellboy creator. (She had to get a ticket and the drawing was later in the day or something like that.) While she did that I qued up in the line for the Avatar creator signing line. She joined me after about an hour. the Avatar line was set up that you had to pull a stamped ticket out of a bag to win the right to get Mike and Bryan to sign stuff for you. They had 300 winning tickets and about 500 people. We hoped that at least one of us would win, so the other could give their stuff to them. Well, I am really really unlike when it comes to lottos so I figured I probably won't win.... but I did. I was shocked. Then kagome pulled her ticket, and she won. It was the best HAZAA! moment ever!

After that we ate lunch and went to the exhibition hall for a while. Then we went back upstairs and waited in the area where the Avatar meetup was supposed to be. I guess they were meeting farther down the hall then originally planned. While waiting there, kagome is reading something and I nudged her. "Is that Bryke?" I asked her.... and it was. We followed them down the hallway to where the meetup actually was for one free for all photo op. It was cool to see all the cosplayers. I let kagome have my camera (since she's smaller then me and more ambitious about taking photos) to take photos of the event. There were some really good cosplays, but I think I liked the Suki's and the giant Appa the best.

We didn't stay for the entire thing because we had to get back down to the exhibition hall for the Hellboy drawing. Kagome had two tickets and sadly neither were winners. We stood there for about five minutes trying to process that and wondering what to do when this dude came up to us saying he had a spare winning ticket and would we want it. Hell yes we want it! So in the end she got to get her Hellboy signing. i bought a Hellboy graphic novel and she got it signed for my husband.

While she was once again dealing with Hellboy stuff, I qued up in the Bryke line for sigs. There was a White Lotus Jeong Jeong, who was an awesome cosplay BTW, who passed out an avatar quiz. One of the questions was "who did Katara have feelings for in the series (and if any one puts down Zutara, I will deduct three points from their final score)" I was like fuck that, and still put zutara. Kagome met up with me while I was filling it out and we made it a lolzy CAPSTARA hot mess. Jeong Jeong laughed so hard I thought he was going to cry.

Then we got to meet Bryke (again) and they signed a poster for each of us and also the "fierce and tenacious 2009" shirts we made for the event. muhhahaha oh so devious. mike was like "what does this mean?" (very confused) and I said "zutara" which prompted bryan to go "OH! I get it." We also got another picture with them. maybe next time we shall make a shirt that says "zutara- we still live" or something. best part though- mike held up the shirt for the picture, LOL.


On our way home from the convention we walked by this Alice in Wonderland event. It was like a museum for the movie. There were over 60 props used in the movie, including costumes worn by the cast (muhahhaha Johnny Depp). It was a very cool exhibit. Kagome really liked it.


Sunday

And if it couldn't get ANY better, it did. I got to meet the man, the myth, the legend- Leonard Nimoy. and get a signature and picture.

Seriously, this guy is an icon. Even Johnny Depp has yet to reach the status this man has.

We started the day by deciding again not to do any panel but to explore the exhibition hall. There were alot of things we still wanted to pick up, so it just made sense. Standing in the Paramount line for another foam star trek vulcan "live long and prosper" finger, I noticed another little line forming next to it. I asked some people in that line what it was for and they said "Leonard Nimoy signing" and I was like fuck this to the foam finger and jumped ship. I also found out while in line that Brent Spiner, the man who plays Data, was also there. NICE. (oh course, these weren't free autographs and I had to pay a pretty penny for them, but it was worth it to me. at that point I still hadn't gotten any thing for myself, and these I will always treasure.) Did I mention how short this line was? I don't think many people realized they were there. It amuses me that way more people were in line for foam fingers then the holy grail of the star trek universe.

In like no time I got to meet him. I found I am incredibly quiet in these kind of situations. The man just had me in such deep awe. I shook his hand, he signed a picture. I thanked him for coming to these kind of events where he thanked me back to being a fan and without the fans, these events wouldn't exist. I also got to take a picture of him (which makes me want to change my FB pic to it, but I just got married last month, so it puts me in a predicament. bridal picture or me and nimoy... ahhh)

Then I got to meet Brent Spiner. He was very chatty. I let him pick which photo to sign, which I think threw him off a little. I was still in Nimoy awe and didn't want to make a decision, lol. Actually it didn't matter which one he signed because I would still cherish it. (I also let the woman coordinating Nimoy's crowd pic Nimoy's picture because I was standing right in front of the man and couldn't think straight. She picked the one she said was Nimoy's favorite.) I kinda felt bad for Brent Spiner because everyone was after Nimoy's sig and not his. I on the other hand was not going to leave without both. (I was very happy I had taken money out of the atm a couple days before to have the amount they wanted for both too.) I did get a photo with Brent too, which was also awesome.

By the time I got back to kagome, in the paramount line for transformers seat cushions, I was so star struck. Meeting Leonard Nimoy and Brent Spiner trumped meeting Tom Cruise in London back in 2004, trumped Johnny Depp and the Warner Bros/Disney/Nine/Peter Jackson panels two days before. I will not lie, I shed a couple of tears. Kagome thought I was going to pass out and I nearly did. That was definitely the highlight of my comic con experience. I think I'll have to find a star trek convention and go to it, since the star trek elements were the things I most enjoyed at SDCC (to my shock).


Then we got to deal with WB fuckery, which pissed us both off. WB booth srsly needs some better communication. they were yelling at us to disperse this line we were in and we told them we were there two hours before and they told us to come back at 12:30pm. Well, we came back 40 minutes before 12:30pm, and not only was the signing's line we were trying to get into there but it was capped. So we argued with him about why were were sent away and why we wern't given the correct time. His only response was "we are only following comicon rules." I responded with "so what? are comicon rules to be disorganized?" Bastards. We weren't even there for us, we were there trying to get a sig for one of our hostel roommates who was in a panel for the person she wanted and wouldn't be able to make it back down in time for the signing. WB also had major line issues earlier in the day when we were trying to get some swag items off of them (and it wasn't even a bag!)

So we ended up at Adult swim booth and Viz before leaving SDCC for good.


Monday

Kagome's flight was at 6:30am so we got to the airport at 4:30am. I only got about 2 hours of sleep. and I had the same flights back to Pittsburgh, so it was nice to travel with someone. The security line in San Diego airport became an adventure for me, because they didn't like the 10 inch round fan I brought with me because I knew the hostel would be hot. I packed it in my checked bag go to San Diego but with all the stuff I acquired it won't fit and I had to carry it on in my carry-on. Some guy looked at it for a good minute in the x ray machine before calling another guy over. Then I heard one of them say ".... is that a fan?" God that had me worried before I heard that cause I thought I left a liquid bottle or a pair of scissors or something in that bag. They searched my carry on and swabbed the fan down, I guess looking for explosive residue or something. They also looked at my liquid bag. Eh, I know they are doing their job, so I can't fault them for being thorough. People fuss about the increased security measures, but really, people would fuss more if we had more incidents and there weren't any measures in place. I think these people need to be thanked more for trying to keep our airplanes safe then yelled at because they are inconveniencing someone.

We flew through Atlanta airport (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) I srsly HATE that airport. With a passion. The passion of a thousand suns. A thousand suns going supernova.

Apparently is incredibly lucky in airports that people hate. We had virtually no problem. In fact the gate we arrived in was very close to the gate we departed in, which was very close to the food court. Most times I get the gate that is the farthest point possible in the airport. It happened with my departing Pit flight, the Cin flight, the Salt Lake City flight, the arriving San Diego flight, the departing San Diego flight but not the Atlanta and arriving Pit flight. , you are one lucky traveling buddy.

So I got home, my husband picked me up and we went grocery shopping. I got in our house and crashed on the living room reclining chair for about an hour. Then I got up and geeked over the Nimoy/Spiner sigs and gave him his Hellboy novel. I was exhausted but didn't want to sleep yet and felt more in a star trek mood then I have been in YEARS. I think it was just lying dormant in me while i was in college. So I ended up watching some next gen and then falling asleep.

Oh and it was nice to see my chinchilla again. I was very happy to see my husband had not accidentally killed him. I think Herbie missed me.... or at least, i think he likes me more then Vasco.