I started to title this “back to real life” but I realized doing something normal like going to Dragon Con is real life. Going back to the day-to-day of the last year is the fake life.
So — Dragon Con was actually pretty great. I had my reservations, as you may have noticed in the last post. But the low crowds, the people, the volunteers… everything was great. Of course there were blips here and there but nothing crazy.
I’ll be posting my phone pics here… pics from the “real” camera coming later. Chase took a lot of nice pics!
Wednesday morning we were up at 4AM and ready to load the car. We really had no idea if everything would fit in my Honda Fit.
But the FIT lived up to it’s name, we got everything in plus the mini fridge!
We made really good time. We stopped at Buc-ee’s in Alabama and it was… an experience for sure.
A+ will shop again.
So glad to see the poop lions again.
We had already checked in online and got the notice our room was ready about an hour outside of Atlanta. Yay! We made really good time overall. Got there, I went to check in while Chase got the car unloaded. Check-in took forever and the Marriott’s money-grubbing $75/night upcharge for low floors was off-putting, but we got the 18th floor which was fine.
Although then we got to our room and it didn’t have a tub, which is a problem for me, but we decided to just live with it for the next few days, didn’t want to go through the hassle of moving rooms.
Felt so good to be HOME!
After we got everything to the room we went back down to go deal with the car – we decided to run a few errands before parking since after it was parked we had no “in and out privileges”. Ran to Gail K where I got some fabric for Utena, then to have lunch at a place I can’t remember the name but it was really good.
Then we went to park the car and turns out the spot we’d bought on spothero was in a surface parking lot and not a parking garage like we thought. Was a little worried but it ended up ok.
After that we walked around the hotels a bit just to scope things out.
Loved the Hilton’s Stranger Things theme.
Went back up to the room and unpacked, got everything ironed/steamed.
Since we had a late lunch we just grabbed a little pizza to split at the Hilton cafe and went back to the room to watch the new What If.
Chase hung out downstairs for a while after, but I went on to bed because my head hurt and I was exhausted.
Next morning we had breakfast at Sear which was fine. Then we went to get in the badge pick-up line, got directed the LONG WAY to the end of the outdoor line and after that hike in the heat and masked we were exhausted and sweaty so we decided to come back later.
I did “steal a pin from the TVA” (aka I found a swag-and-seek pen in the lowest level of the marriott!)
We got an uber and went over the puppet museum for a while, since Chase had never been!
I didn’t take a lot of pics since I already took a lot of pics last time I was there, but had to get my pic with Tom and Crow.
When we got back to the hotels, the badge pickup line was EVEN LONGER. We decided we just had to deal with it, so we went ahead and got in line. Glad I took my little fan with me, it was miserable.
Overall it took about an hour and a half. When we got into the actual badge pick-up room, the entire left side of the line was empty and we were directed into the very full right side. Then they cut off the line right after us and started directing everyone after us into the empty left side. We asked if we could also get in the left side and they let us thank goodness LOL. Probably saved us a half hour of standing in the room.
The Jon memorial was already going strong Thursday night.
We had dinner at the Big Kahuna which was good!
Thursday for whatever reason, the Marriott only had 2 elevators in the first 2 banks running (1-17 and 18-30). On check-in day! It was the longest elevator waits we had the whole weekend. They eventually had all 4 running again by Thursday.
I started Thursday with ceremonial Leia.
Neither of my previous ceremonial Leias ever got worn at Dcon (2005 and 2007) so it was nice to finally wear one here.
The new shoes were fairly comfy but did rub a blister on my left foot. WHY SO EARLY UGH LOL
After wearing this for a bit and scoping out costumes I changed into Diane for the rest of the night.
This was great for just wandering around, super comfy.
Stayed out fairly late visiting with friends, people-watching, etc.
Friday morning we got up in no big hurry. First thing on the schedule: dealer’s room! I put on Roxy because it’s cool and easy to wear.
Got to the dealer’s room line about 15 minutes before opening and it was already longer than a block. Though once it opened at 10 we basically just walked all the way around the block and right in. Not bad at all.
Also I got to stand behind this sweet baby in line.
Didn’t really take any pics while we were in there. Got lunch and one of the food places in there, shopped, made mental notes on what to come back for, then headed out to go get ready for the Leia shoot.
Roxy overall went well. Super comfy. Need to fix one weird little gather at the front of the skirt but that was my only complaint.
I cannot even remember the last time I had to do buns at dragoncon. It was a little stressful. LOL
The end of the Loki shoot was happening on the Hilton steps when we arrived, which was fun.
Leia shoot was fun! Chase took pics on the nice camera so i didn’t take much on my phone.
More Jon memorials
After that we went to the food court for a late lunch and was ABLE TO GET A TABLE IMMEDIATELY AND SIT AND EAT LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE. I can’t remember the last time that happened.
I realized when I went to take this off and put everything back in the bag I forgot my bracelets 🙁
After that and a nap it was time to get into Padme and Bail.
First time putting it all on together completely.
On the way downstairs, Chase jumped in an elevator that only had room for one. I couldn’t fit with my hoopskirt, and he was gone before I could say anything. Like “I have your phone” or “where are we meeting”. So i went down to the AL and looked around, didn’t see him. Then had to go down the stairs to the ML to see if he was there, no luck. By this time I was starting to get hot, sweaty and frustrated. Ran into a friend and she said if she saw him, she’d tell him where I was, so I just stayed put. Thankfully she DID find him – he’d gone on over to the Hilton! He came back to find me. And showed me that the zipper on his boot had busted. Oooh boy. They’re his old Vader boots from 2005 so they’ve been around, not really surprising, but still frustrating.
Went on over to the Hilton and found a corner to sit and he basically had to take the costume off to fix the boot, which thankfully he was able to get zipped back up right and it stayed zipped up for most of the rest of the night.
Besides the boot, the only other issue we really had was that #1, I should’ve put pockets in his pants. I can go back and do that. He has nowhere to carry stuff right now LOL. And #2, the mantle kept riding up, so need to figure out some way to strap or snap it down into place on the jacket.
Few small things I need to do on Padme — first, I need to put closures further down on the surcoat, because the front “points” kept shifting further out than they were supposed to be. I think just continuing my hook and eye tape down further would fix that. Second is the gathered portion of the shoulder wrap is sitting a little too tightly causing it to sit higher than it should. I’m going to move each side out just like half an inch so it sits in the right place. And finally the headpiece/tiara wanted to tilt forward, gotta figure out someway to anchor the bottom of it downwards.
And I wore my Mothman boots with it — was originally going to wear the ceremonial Leia shoes but after the blisters from Thursday, switched to mothman boots (knee high black suede boots with heels). They worked fine but are totally FLAT inside and hurt after a while. I’d like to switch to wearing flats with this but I’d have to shorten the skirt — I think I could shorten it from the top fairly easily.
Thanks to Jess for the pic of us together!
After the shoot we were both sweaty and gross so off to shower and change. I got into Mothman for the rest of the night, and since the boots had been SO uncomfortable with Padme, I switched to black flats. Much better.
We had a late night dinner reservation at Trader Vic’s. I made this reservation back in like April LOL. I just made it for 6 people at 10 because I had on idea who was coming to the con or who we’d find to show up with us. It ended up being me, Chase, Cath and a couple of Cath’s volunteer buddies we’ve gotten to know the past few years.
Got seated a bit early, had a good dinner, good drinks, good Disney conversation. Dunno that we’ll go back, but it was nice for a one time thing.
Of course with dinner at 10 that was a late night. So after that and a bit of wandering, it was off to bed.
Saturday we just woke up when we woke up. Watched a bit of the parade.
It’s hard to tell but we could see the TINIEST sliver of the parade from our window LOL.
First up that morning was Eliza.
Not super happy with the wig, but it’s ok. Feel like Morticia more than Eliza LOL We went around and took some photos, hung out for a bit, then off to change.
It was so nice to finally wear this though!! Only problem I had was the shoes. I had painted them with design master flexible spray paint which worked great for my Hera boots. I even sealed them which I normally don’t do! By the time I took them off the paint was cracking off at every place the shoe bent. Looked awful! So I guess i’m going to sand them off and start over with Angelus.
But now that Eliza was out of the way, it was finally time for WANDA!!
Ok so here are 2 dumb things I did.
First, I realized last weekend that the glue I was using for most of this DID NOT WORK on the black urethane fabric. It just peeled right off. This is what I’d used to glue the red stripes onto the black front side panels for the bodice. They’d been glued onto that for weeks at that point with no issues. So I decided it must be ok on there for whatever reason. I should know better, I just didn’t want to have to redo them!
Second, I wore a different bra than what I used when I patterned this bodice on myself. Used my strapless bra so it wouldn’t show under the collar, but that bra doesn’t squish me down as much. Within a couple of minutes of having this on, the stripes were buckling and peeling off right at the curve of the bust. I mean it probably would’ve happened whatever bra I was wearing but the buckling exacerbated things. I had to take it off, reapply the stripes with little pieces of toupee tape and just pray it held. Also put on a better bra even though that one shwed.
Thankfully the stripes held. And I felt like a total badass in the costume. Totally loved it.
Can’t wait to get Chase’s good pics!!!
Besides that blunder it held up well. Before the con we were already considering this version 1 anyway because there’s stuff both of us want to redo/fix/upgrade — I didn’t really finish the back, it’s just plain, didn’t do any of the stripes or anything back there. So I’ve got to do that, fix the front stripes, and I do want to do the cape too eventually. It may be a long process of upgrading as I do one thing at a time.
I wore Wanda for a REALLY long time. Even as the shoes started to really hurt I still kept wearing it because I loved it LOL.
After that, changed into normal clothes and ubered over to Vortex for dinner. Came back, got into trillian and Zaphod!
I did a few small updates to Trillian, recurled the wig, moved the patch higher up on the arm. Chase went with regular shoes with Zaphod to save his back LOL.
After some drinks at High Velocity we did a little wandering around before Chase called it a night and went to bed. I hung out with Cath for a little longer. Rode up the elevators to her room and got a VIP elevator service from a very nice Marriott employee LOL Then walked up to my room from there since we were only a floor apart!
Sunday morning we again just woke up when we woke up. I put on Arwen and we went to get some photos but didn’t stay in it long.
Put Diane back on and we decided to try our luck with the food court again. Not near as good a luck as Friday, had to walk around for about 10 minutes to find a table and then it took Chase another 20 minutes to get food. But after that we headed back off to the dealer’s room for a while until Chase’s back got too tired.
Loved all the TVA/Loki stuff in the Marriott.
We went and had dinner at Big Kahuna again, then I put on Wanda for that usual “it’s sunday night at dragoncon and I don’t want this to end”. There’s always this kind of desperation Sunday night at dragoncon. You don’t want to go to bed, you don’t want it to end, you don’t want to go back to the real world so you just keep pushing even when it’s really wise. Felt doubly so like that this year.
Chase went on to bed early while I hung out with Cat a while longer.
Finally went to bed just after midnight. Got up at 5am to call for the bellhop so we could get on out of there before the rush.
Goodbye potato
I feel like this abandoned wig on a marriott sign sums things up well.
We got downstairs, checked out, and Chase walked to get the car – all fine, easy, quick. Went to load the car and the bellhops just kind stood and watched while we pulled the bell cart out and loaded the car? Super weird, but saved us not having to tip anybody I guess.
We made it back home around noon! Wow! Stopped and got a rapid covid test on the way home and did it as soon as walked in, unloaded the car while waiting on results. Both negative. Will test again later this week.
So overall:
The good:
1. All of my costumes! Of course I nitpick and have things I want to fix/upgrade but I loved all of them and had fun wearing them.
2. Everybody else’s costumes! So much creativity.
3. Seeing friends and actually hugging people
4. Feeling like myself again for the first time since Feb 2020. I almost started crying Thursday night because I was so happy to feel like me again.
5. Loved that the Marriott leaned into the TVA angle, some of the employees were even wearing TVA shirts!
6. The low crowds were FANTASTIC. You could actually walk around and see stuff and find people without being crushed in a crowd.
7. Loved hanging one of the hang out areas be the Hilton patios. At night it’s cooler out there and just felt better to stand out there and chat/people watch than inside.
The bad:
1. Masks. I mean I know we have to right now but ugh, it’s just miserable when you’re already hot or walking a lot to also have your face sweaty from a mask. I really hope this is over by next year and we don’t have to wear masks. Also it was REALLY hard to recongize people in masks! LOL I stared WAY too intently into a few peoples’ eyes trying to figure out if I knew them!
2. The DJs, both inside the Marriott and outside at the Hilton. The Marriott’s DJ was TOO FREAKING LOUD. You could not stand and talk to somebody directly in front of you on the atrium level. I enjoy some background music for the party atmosphere, but this was too much. Save the loudness for the dancing and raves? And the hilton’s DJs that I heard had some weird song choices. And the constant DJ air horn noise. I miss the hilton lobby dance party, understand why it’s not there this year, but hope it’s back next year. That was way more fun.
3. The Marriott and their upcharging for lower floors. Also the fact they won’t do legacy. I mean i know they’ll sell the rooms to anybody either way but I’ve literally stayed at the marriott for dragoncon for TWENTY YEARS. Throw us a bone, let us do legacy!
4. I am so sore LOL. I can’t feel the toe next to my pinkie toe on my left foot. I came home with duct tape still all over my feet. I had a migraine literally all weekend which isn’t unusual and was contained by my migraine medicine but still, annoying. I am getting old.
5. I took 11 costumes and only wore 10. Because I rewore Diane and Wanda, I skipped Raddus Leia. I’ll try to bring her back next year.
More observations:
I saw a lot of folks talking about how they were seeing so many people at dragoncon not masked. That was not my experience at all. 99% of people were masked at any given time indoors during the day. As the day progressed and more people were drinking, you’d see less people in masks near the bars, obviously. We just avoided those areas. Outdoors I’d say it was 75%. I saw some people walking around blatantly unmasked and not drinking but it was few and far between and it looked like those people did NOT have badges. I dunno if they managed to sneak in off the street or were hotel guests or what. I obviously took some photos unmasked, but in those cases I was not near anyone but Chase, and outdoors we were distanced from other people. I feel like everyone else was doing the same and trying to keep things as safe as possible so we could all be there and enjoy the con safely.
The lower crowds were so so so great. I saw somebody say they’d pay an extra $50 for their badge to keep the attendance cap and I agree. There was never any traffic jam in the skywalks, you could look over the balconies in the marriott even at night and see the FLOOR on the atrium level. It was like old dragoncon.
Anyway that’s all for now. If I have more thoughts I’ll add them when I come back to do my next photo post!