This year was weird.
The bad:
-First and foremost, Ash wasn’t there. It just made the weekend feel off.
-The crowds were really heavy. To the point I wasn’t comfortable rewearing Marie Antoinette or Anne Boleyn as the weekend wore on. And it’s not so much the amount of people – it’s the lack of crowd control. Dragoncon could easily accommodate its current numbers with some more crowd control and direction.
-I sweated more this weekend than I did wearing the Time Lords in the parade in 2012.
-Dumbass drunk bitch who kicked K9 and got me incredibly riled up for the most of the night.
-Drank too much that night and had a hangover Sunday morning.
-Fell down the stairs completely sober Friday morning. Dumb shoes with no traction on carpeted stairs – just slipped and hit my butt. Thankfully wasn’t even bruised and not many people around to see LOL
-Chase’s silly pillow got lost again. This time not his fault. Pretty sure it fell off between the room and the lobby during checkout, while the bellhop was going down the freight elevator. We both remember it being put on the cart specifically to weight something down, but don’t remember it getting packed INTO the car. Wouldn’t care except it was a crazy expensive pillow.
Now that that is out of the way…
The good:
-Got exactly what I was hunting for in the dealer’s room. We went over saturday morning instead of doing the parade and shopped without much of a crowd.
-Badge pick-up was insanely fast. I brought my kindle to read while in line. Never had a chance to grab it because we walked right in and got our badges.
-Every volunteer I personally met was friendly and nice.
-The crowds were better on Sunday.
-The Yule Ball was fun.
-Watching the masquerade was fun. Can’t remember the last time I sat and watched the whole thing.
-Hanging with Cat
-Getting 3 more MST3K autographs in my collection.
-As much as I hated checking out and leaving Monday (what a rigmarole), it was so nice to already be home last night with my animals and my chicken spaghetti and project runway on the DVR.
-My costumes. Everybody else’s costumes. As usual!
-Having a nice room with a view of the pool. Although I should probably put this in “bad” because it was almost cruel, I hadn’t brought a swimsuit and was so hot coming back to the room so many times!
-The minifridge was a god-send.
-Stood next to Billy Boyd in the lobby for about 5 minutes.
-Finally found the TARDIS at the Sheraton.
I hate there were so many people I missed seeing this year. I was really rather a lazy bum and would only stay in costume 1-3 hours (3 hours tops. Generally more like 1-2) and then go to the room and shower and nap. So I’m blaming that on missing people.
So a more detailed recap under the cut…
Tuesday we both got off work a bit early and came home and loaded up the car and hit the road. Grabbed dinner on our way out and it was the best Chick-fil-a I’ve ever had.
Spent the night at Derek’s parents’ just outside of Atlanta. Got up and jetted on into the city. Check in was a breeze and our room had a lovely view of the pool.
After we got everything in the room we headed over to Ikea. Had to pick-up some stuff for friends and also got a few things for ourselves. Then back to the hotel where I unpacked and ironed. Dinner was Max Lager’s.
After that I got into Johanna so I could do photos on the 10th floor and the elevators without bothering too many people.
I was actually rather pleased with Johanna. I really didn’t think I was going to like it. But once I got it all on and the makeup and everything I was pretty pleased.
Got changed and just hung out the rest of the night.
Thursday we got up and had breakfast in the food court, then meandered over to get in line for our badges. We were surprised to get over there and see no line outside. Walked right in and got our badges, so that was super nice. Chase and I went and had lunch at Vortex after that.
That night I wore Marie Antoinette TARDIS and Dr Forrester (while my hair was still crazy). Like I said I’d planned on wearing Marie Antoinette again, but it just ended up being too crowded and crazy to even attempt. Headed to bed early since I had to wash my hair out and straighten it for Anne the next day.
Friday morning I got up and threw on Donna Fires of Pompeii. This costume needs some serious work before I wear it again. I want to replace the trim with something less bulky and it also needs rehemmed (it’s too long). This is what I was wearing when I slipped on the stairs, LOL. Went out and took a few photos of it before I had to go back and get into Anne Boleyn.
One of my corset straps popped off as I was finishing getting into the dress, so I had to partially take the dress back off and handsew it back in place, ugh! And while I was twisted around doing that, the other one popped! Never using that way of fastening a corset again, that’s for sure.
After I got dressed we headed over to the Hilton for the Vintage Vogue Fashion Show, we all got lined up and pranced across the stage. It was really cool to see so many neat costumes lined up and then getting to see them up close backstage and afterwards.
After I found Chase again we headed off to take photos before I changed. He stepped on the side hem of my dress and ripped it off of the bodice in about a 2 inch spot. Easily fixable but not something I really wanted to do at the con – if I’d felt up to wearing Anne out into the crowds again I could have fixed it —- but knowing that it happened once made me paranoid about it happening again, and worse.
So I got into Rogue as Ms Marvel which I have like 2 photos of total. The latex was seriously itching me so I only stayed in it while Chase was photographing/videoing a Robin Williams tribute, then got out of it. Will have to wear it again to get some better photos later on.
As I said before the mini-fridge was a godsend – we ate in the room most of the time. Sandwiches and chips. It was great.
After a trip to the dealer’s room (in normal clothes), a nap and shower, I got into Peggy because I was excited to wear it. Chase wanted to bring K9 down. It took him a long time to get him ready and then couldn’t get an elevator – had to carry him down the stairs. So by the time we were actually on the floor I’d already been in Peggy for an hour and a half and was already hot. The crowds were REALLY bad and getting K-9 through was a mess. It all escalated when some idiot drunk girl with purple hair full out purposefully kicked K-9 as she walked by (broke his suction cup nose off but otherwise no damage). Chase pushed her away and she ran off around the corner, and I followed because I was enraged. I caught up to her around the corner and asked her why she’d done that, she said she “thought it was a toy.” I told her I was going to report her to security and demanded to see her badge. She offered a hug as apology. I kept demanding her badge (she didn’t have it anywhere visible so I doubt she had one at all). She finally took off running. I went over to the nearest security and reported her – he’d seen her run by. I doubt they were able to do anything, but WTF?
By the time we got K9 back up to the room I was still hopping mad. We ended up not taking K9 down again the entire weekend, which sucked because Chase had made several upgrades including his neck movements. Poo.
I think I may have put Donna on after that and we wandered around, not totally sure.
Saturday morning we slept in! First time ever! I put on normal clothes and we braved the dealer’s room once more. We got through the parade crowd and shopped for a good hour and a half with minimal crowds. Getting OUT of the dealer’s room was much harder, LOL. I thought I’d really miss doing the parade — but I didn’t. We DID get to hear the Doctor Who group as they went right by us as we were trying to get down into the MARTA station to go under the street, so I didn’t miss everything completely! LOL
I changed into Peggy and we went over to the USO Girls/WWII shoot for a bit, but had to go and take Cath some lunch. She was doing her usual Guest Trans job and was super busy all weekend.
After that I got into Meg and we just hung out for a bit. I’ve heard rumors that people were throwing beer bottles in the Marriott… we nearly got hit by one of those tiny Shampoo bottles they leave in the room (glad it WASN’T a glass bottle or it would have shattered all over us). Assholes.
I threw on Emma after that and after only being in it about 30 minutes, ran back and changed into Dr Forrester because I realized all 3 MST3K folks I wanted autographs from were there in the Walk of Fame. Got all 3 on Tom! I’m so happy!
After dinner I got into Shadowcat and Chase got his Finding Nemo seagull hat on. Yep, I finally brought Shadowcat back after wanting to do that for years – she was my first superhero costume at my first Dragoncon in 2002. I did buy new tights and made a new mask!
Anyway, I ran down and met up with the 80s X-men group which was AWESOME. I hope to find a pic of the whole group soon. It was so hot, though, after about an hour and a half my mask was sweating off my face. I made it back to the room just as the entire left side slumped off LOL
I wore Fires of Pompeii Donna the rest of the night because it was the only cool, comfortable thing I brought. I kept wishing I’d brought Fionna. Cath and I did our usual wandering around and I drank too much. Had a tiny hangover Sunday morning thanks to that.
I talked myself into getting into Johanna again since I hadn’t actually worn it at the con technically – just wednesday night and only on the 10th floor. I managed to stay in it for about 2 hours before the wig felt like it was going to make my head pop off. I’m really really sad I didn’t get to meet up with any other Hunger Games folks 🙁
Another shower (that Johanna shirt is an awful sweat machine) and I got into Peggy and we headed to the Marvel shoot. I only stayed for the subgroups parts because it was SO HOT. I’d even brought my TARDIS fan in an attempt to stay cool, but it just wasn’t happening. Chase stayed a bit longer so I’m excited to see the photos he took.
I got back and stripped and had to immediately jump in the shower again. I’m glad my Peggy shirt is washable. UGH!
I was pretty much done after that. I had wanted to try to get into something else but could only manage Donna again. Even after that I went and put on normal clothes for the rest of the night – and my “Snitches Be Crazy” shirt got more compliments than half of my costumes, LOL. Went up and watched the masquerade which was a lot of fun, and then wandered around with Cath til around 2 in the morning. We had wanted to go to Cruxshadows but we decided we were too tired. We did manage the Yule Ball for a bit.
Monday morning we got up and Chase went down to the bellhop to ask if it was better to go get our (off-site parked) car before getting a bellcart or vice versa. The bellhop said get your carts NOW and then go get the car because it was only a 20 minute wait. We finished packing as quickly as we could, because the 20 minute wait was about accurate. As I said in the “bads” above I’m pretty sure the bellhop lost Chase’s pillow between our room and the lobby. He went down the freight elevator without us and it probably got knocked off in that process.
I then waited in the lobby with the carts and the bots for about a half hour while Chase got the car – and listened as the wait time for a cart went from 20 minutes to an hour, to 2 hours, to 3 hours by the time we left. Whoa. Also stood next to Billy Boyd for a while, that was awesome.
Drive home was uneventful. Listened to our Harry Potter books on tape. Got the pets and headed home to the couch and Project Runway and chicken spaghetti.
Just like the parade I thought I’d be really upset by not staying til Tuesday like we normally do – but outside of the craziness of checkout and having to be at my desk this morning, I really wasn’t sad at all. I was just so happy to be home and ready to sort through photos.
I’ll write some more specific costume thoughts and of course pictures later on!