I used to have a goal, that I would go to at least one new place every year. The last couple years I've blown this out of the water- this year alone I've added West Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee as new states I've been to. So my 2017 goal is to get out of the country, because not counting Tijuana (and I don't), I've never been. And in truth, the Alaska trip means I'll be spending a couple days in Vancouver, but... if I'm being really honest, Mexico and Canada just seem easy as an American. I can just walk over the border using a passport card, though you can see the above linked Tijuana post to see why I'm not in a hurry to do that again.
So, I'd like to do something in addition to Vancouver. A while back I told a friend that once I'm done with Disney we should look up Groupon deals and whatever's cheapest, we should go. So tonight I got bored and started looking up Groupon Getaway deals, just to see what's out there. Mainly what I'm finding is that you can do all-inclusive trips for pretty cheap if you're okay with someone else making your itinerary. I don't know that I know anyone who's done a tour group through something like this, but I also feel like if it wasn't reputable I'd have heard about it on the news by now, you know? Also aside from European tours that are slightly out of my price range right now, it looks like we'll be a little limited to Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Which is fine with me. I have no problem hanging out on a beach as long as I also get out to see the area beyond the hotel/resort.
Also, thanks to Groupon, I want to go to the Galapagos.
28.8.16
20.8.16
Alaska is a go!
Today, eight months after we first started discussing it, Nick, our mom and I booked our cruise to Alaska. I've spent the last few weeks researching and trying to come up with the absolute best deal, and we ended up deciding on going on Norwegian. Most of the cruise lines tend to go to the same places and you can get the same excursions, so it basically comes down to what kind of boat you want to go on, and for our price point Norwegian was the best deal. I went into some pretty exhaustive detail, too, creating a spreadsheet with each potential trip listed and filtered by its start and end points, stops, dates, days of the week, and prices. We factored in holidays for vacation time. We considered the flight prices to Vancouver versus Seattle, and didn't consider Seward at all because that would include more time and money to get there from Anchorage than I was willing to spend. I learned that May and September are cheaper even though July and August are the best times to go, and decided that oceanview rooms are kind of pointless because for $150 more all they offer you is a porthole. I checked out the best decks if you get seasick (not an issue with us, but just in case) and took the advice to stay away from kid friendly decks if we wanted something quieter. I considered ports, and how much time we had in them.
There is a lot of information out there, if you search it out and/or a crazy person like me.
Most of the total is paid, with a little less to pay up for before February. We don't go until May, and excursions are not close to being bookable yet, but now I'm doing my research on those. The excursions through the ship seem to be pricey, so I'm doing a bit of a deep dive to try and find deals and see if it's worth it to take a van up to the Yukon instead of a train ride to save $70 per person, etc.
So if you have any tips on things to do in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, feel free to drop a comment! Particularly if you know the best place to see a moose.
There is a lot of information out there, if you search it out and/or a crazy person like me.
Most of the total is paid, with a little less to pay up for before February. We don't go until May, and excursions are not close to being bookable yet, but now I'm doing my research on those. The excursions through the ship seem to be pricey, so I'm doing a bit of a deep dive to try and find deals and see if it's worth it to take a van up to the Yukon instead of a train ride to save $70 per person, etc.
So if you have any tips on things to do in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan, feel free to drop a comment! Particularly if you know the best place to see a moose.
17.8.16
The downside
I am in awe of people who travel all the time. I'm not sure I could do it constantly, much as I'd want to (if I had the opportunity). Maybe it's because my trips tend to be pretty action-packed with not a lot of downtime, but my first reaction when a friend announced she was spending a year traveling the world was "That would be EXHAUSTING."
I've learned that personally, I need breaks. A few years back I worked a full week, took a late flight to Portland for a wedding, flew back on Sunday, worked half a week, took a redeye to Chicago for another wedding. I handled it fine, because it gave me a little normalcy where I could sleep in my own bed and do laundry and make something for myself instead of eating out. And maybe it was truer in LA. One of the reasons I left was because I wasn't taking advantage of being there and wasn't doing enough, and here I'm constantly busy. Since getting back from California I've had friends out here and gone to Chicago and have a podcast taping to go to and a party and a baby shower in Wisconsin in my vey near future. I haven't been able to have a down period to recover. It's absolutely normal to get the blahs after vacation, but at some point they should be able to go away. Plus I admittedly tripped up in financial post-vacation recovery, so I get stressed out when I think of Disney in 57 days even when I should be just fine. I won't get a chance to recover mentally, emotionally and financially from my July vacation until mid-September.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Untitled as all get out, but my life's doing pretty good at the moment. I would just also appreciate a nap, and a million dollars.
What I'm saying is, full-time travelers, I salute you.
I've learned that personally, I need breaks. A few years back I worked a full week, took a late flight to Portland for a wedding, flew back on Sunday, worked half a week, took a redeye to Chicago for another wedding. I handled it fine, because it gave me a little normalcy where I could sleep in my own bed and do laundry and make something for myself instead of eating out. And maybe it was truer in LA. One of the reasons I left was because I wasn't taking advantage of being there and wasn't doing enough, and here I'm constantly busy. Since getting back from California I've had friends out here and gone to Chicago and have a podcast taping to go to and a party and a baby shower in Wisconsin in my vey near future. I haven't been able to have a down period to recover. It's absolutely normal to get the blahs after vacation, but at some point they should be able to go away. Plus I admittedly tripped up in financial post-vacation recovery, so I get stressed out when I think of Disney in 57 days even when I should be just fine. I won't get a chance to recover mentally, emotionally and financially from my July vacation until mid-September.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Untitled as all get out, but my life's doing pretty good at the moment. I would just also appreciate a nap, and a million dollars.
What I'm saying is, full-time travelers, I salute you.
7.8.16
Touristing Chicago
I feel like it's harder to talk about live in/near it. A couple years ago I could have written pages upon pages of stuff to do in Chicago because I visited it a lot, but now that I'm here it didn't really occur to me. Except that I have friends from other states coming into town this week, and coming up with things was incredibly easy, so I thought I'd write something up for it.
First off, getting around Chicago is very easy. I'm not great at public transportation, or directions, but I find it pretty easy to get around here. And unless I'm supposed to be somewhere at a set time, if I get a little turned around, it still tends to be fun. Also, I hate driving in the city and refuse to do it if I don't have to. It's a lot of one-way streets, a lot of buses, a lot of pedestrians who step out into the street (full disclosure: I do this too), and once I get turned around in a car and then end up searching for a one way street I can actually turn down I've become a raging Hulk monster. So, I prefer to take the train down to Union Station and head out from there. Most of the city is on a grid, and if you need to know which direction to go, if you look in any one direction and don't see buildings in the distance, that way's east to the lake. Easy.
So, things I recommend:
-Millennium Park- Once upon a time I thought this was a stupid idea, but I really love this place. There are gardens and sculptures that are changed out often so you can see something different each time. There's a giant fountain with faces on it that spits water at you in the summer, and in the winter there's outdoor ice skating. There's also the bandshell, where you can catch many, many concertas and events, and which if you look at it a certain way, is absolutely phallic.
Also, there's The Bean/Cloud Gate. Let's be real, it's why you wanted to come in the first place.
You can also use the giant winding metal bridge (which bunnies used to travel overnight and rip up the gardens, fyi) and get over to Grant Park. Again, a lot of concerts here, and it's where the Taste of Chicago is held every summer, and it's the home of Buckingham Fountain, which I'm told is amazing at sunset though I've never managed to witness it myself.
-Next to Millennium Park you'll find the Art Institute. If you're into art at all, I highly recommend this. It's very easy to spend hours here.
-The whole of the Museum Campus is great. The Field Museum is good, with Sue the Dinosaur, and it was my favorite as a kid because it has mummies. As an adult, I realize they don't change a lot of stuff out often, so unless they have a special exhibit it's soemthing I can get through in a couple hours. >The Museum of Science and Industry I am way into. It's more hands on, with exhibits on the human body and cole mines and you can go into a German submarine. It's a great place for kids, and as I've been looking at the website for this I'm thinking I need to go back myself sometime soon.
There's also the Shedd Aquarium, which is one of the better aquariums I've been to as they've been updating it in recent years. My favorite part is the giant tank as soon as you walk in, which will also be the source of a nervous breakdown one day when I hear a parent tell their kid "Look, it's a hammerhead!" when it's CLEARLY A BONNETHEAD SHARK and the information is LITERALLY ON A SIGN RIGHT IN FR ONT OF YOU, DON'T MISINFORM YOUR CHILDREN BECAUSE YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING.
Ahem.
I wish I could say I have great love of the Adler Planetarium, but aside from a decent star show on the ceiling, every memory I have of this place is looking at pictures on a wall. However, if you go outside to the back of the planetarium, you'll get the best skyline views in the city.
-If you still want great views, the Sears Tower (Willis Tower, whatever, sigh) is okay. It's tall, but it's also a little too tall. A few Christmases ago Nick and I took Mom here and were told that it was open, but it was too foggy and you wouldn't see anything. So we went over to the Hancock Building, which has the 360 Observatory. The whole place is open to look out, and when I was there I got some great views of Lake Michigan frozen over, because it was really that damn cold.
-I have spent entire days just exploring the Magnificent Mile. It's all stores, so you can go in and check things out, or window shop, or pop into FAO Schwartz and play with everything.
-A recent discovery: I got it in my head to go on an architecture cruise, so yesterday we went to Wendella Boat Tours. We chose the river and lake tour, so we got an in-depth tour of the nearby buildings, and then headed out onto Lake Michigan for skyline views. I had so much fun on this, and would absolutely do it again.
-Another discover is the Harold Washington Library, which is nine floors. We wandered around taking pictures and being jealous of the kids who get to use the amazing children's section, and rode the escalators up to the gardens, which instantly became one of my favorite interiors of all time. I'm not even going to post a picture. I want you to go and be as surprised as I was.
-Chicago is an amazing theater town. We get the good shows at theaters like the Chicago Theater and the Goodman, but there are plenty of them sprinkled around the city. And I will always recommend catching something at Second City.
-Wrigley Field. I'm a Sox fan, but this is a great venue.
-There are zoos! One is Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free but has pricey parking, and is pretty cool. If you want to get out of the city itself for a bit, you can also go to Brookfield Zoo, which you can easily get to by train. I'm very wary right now of how animals are treated in zoos and aquariums, and both of these were probably not the best when I was a kid, but they've stepped it up a lot and I like them both. Also Lincoln Park has some great city views around the back.
-And finally, just try the pizza. I don't care if you think it's "not real pizza" or you have some messed-up loyalty to New York's pizza, which for the record is just fine and not much to rave about BUT THAT IS NOT WHY WE'RE HERE. My personal favorite is Pequod's, but if you can't get there, it's all about Giordano's or Lou Malnati's, which you can find easily downtown. You can do Geno's East if you're getting desperate. Uno can suck it.
Happy Chicagoing!
First off, getting around Chicago is very easy. I'm not great at public transportation, or directions, but I find it pretty easy to get around here. And unless I'm supposed to be somewhere at a set time, if I get a little turned around, it still tends to be fun. Also, I hate driving in the city and refuse to do it if I don't have to. It's a lot of one-way streets, a lot of buses, a lot of pedestrians who step out into the street (full disclosure: I do this too), and once I get turned around in a car and then end up searching for a one way street I can actually turn down I've become a raging Hulk monster. So, I prefer to take the train down to Union Station and head out from there. Most of the city is on a grid, and if you need to know which direction to go, if you look in any one direction and don't see buildings in the distance, that way's east to the lake. Easy.
So, things I recommend:
-Millennium Park- Once upon a time I thought this was a stupid idea, but I really love this place. There are gardens and sculptures that are changed out often so you can see something different each time. There's a giant fountain with faces on it that spits water at you in the summer, and in the winter there's outdoor ice skating. There's also the bandshell, where you can catch many, many concertas and events, and which if you look at it a certain way, is absolutely phallic.
Also, there's The Bean/Cloud Gate. Let's be real, it's why you wanted to come in the first place.
You can also use the giant winding metal bridge (which bunnies used to travel overnight and rip up the gardens, fyi) and get over to Grant Park. Again, a lot of concerts here, and it's where the Taste of Chicago is held every summer, and it's the home of Buckingham Fountain, which I'm told is amazing at sunset though I've never managed to witness it myself.
-Next to Millennium Park you'll find the Art Institute. If you're into art at all, I highly recommend this. It's very easy to spend hours here.
-The whole of the Museum Campus is great. The Field Museum is good, with Sue the Dinosaur, and it was my favorite as a kid because it has mummies. As an adult, I realize they don't change a lot of stuff out often, so unless they have a special exhibit it's soemthing I can get through in a couple hours. >The Museum of Science and Industry I am way into. It's more hands on, with exhibits on the human body and cole mines and you can go into a German submarine. It's a great place for kids, and as I've been looking at the website for this I'm thinking I need to go back myself sometime soon.
There's also the Shedd Aquarium, which is one of the better aquariums I've been to as they've been updating it in recent years. My favorite part is the giant tank as soon as you walk in, which will also be the source of a nervous breakdown one day when I hear a parent tell their kid "Look, it's a hammerhead!" when it's CLEARLY A BONNETHEAD SHARK and the information is LITERALLY ON A SIGN RIGHT IN FR ONT OF YOU, DON'T MISINFORM YOUR CHILDREN BECAUSE YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE READING.
Ahem.
I wish I could say I have great love of the Adler Planetarium, but aside from a decent star show on the ceiling, every memory I have of this place is looking at pictures on a wall. However, if you go outside to the back of the planetarium, you'll get the best skyline views in the city.
-If you still want great views, the Sears Tower (Willis Tower, whatever, sigh) is okay. It's tall, but it's also a little too tall. A few Christmases ago Nick and I took Mom here and were told that it was open, but it was too foggy and you wouldn't see anything. So we went over to the Hancock Building, which has the 360 Observatory. The whole place is open to look out, and when I was there I got some great views of Lake Michigan frozen over, because it was really that damn cold.
-I have spent entire days just exploring the Magnificent Mile. It's all stores, so you can go in and check things out, or window shop, or pop into FAO Schwartz and play with everything.
-A recent discovery: I got it in my head to go on an architecture cruise, so yesterday we went to Wendella Boat Tours. We chose the river and lake tour, so we got an in-depth tour of the nearby buildings, and then headed out onto Lake Michigan for skyline views. I had so much fun on this, and would absolutely do it again.
-Another discover is the Harold Washington Library, which is nine floors. We wandered around taking pictures and being jealous of the kids who get to use the amazing children's section, and rode the escalators up to the gardens, which instantly became one of my favorite interiors of all time. I'm not even going to post a picture. I want you to go and be as surprised as I was.
-Chicago is an amazing theater town. We get the good shows at theaters like the Chicago Theater and the Goodman, but there are plenty of them sprinkled around the city. And I will always recommend catching something at Second City.
-Wrigley Field. I'm a Sox fan, but this is a great venue.
-There are zoos! One is Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free but has pricey parking, and is pretty cool. If you want to get out of the city itself for a bit, you can also go to Brookfield Zoo, which you can easily get to by train. I'm very wary right now of how animals are treated in zoos and aquariums, and both of these were probably not the best when I was a kid, but they've stepped it up a lot and I like them both. Also Lincoln Park has some great city views around the back.
-And finally, just try the pizza. I don't care if you think it's "not real pizza" or you have some messed-up loyalty to New York's pizza, which for the record is just fine and not much to rave about BUT THAT IS NOT WHY WE'RE HERE. My personal favorite is Pequod's, but if you can't get there, it's all about Giordano's or Lou Malnati's, which you can find easily downtown. You can do Geno's East if you're getting desperate. Uno can suck it.
Happy Chicagoing!
3.8.16
The next big thing
Since I was a kid I've dreamed of going to Australia. For years I blamed it on being a kid who thought koalas were cute, and recently realized it was probably more that Robert Scorpio on General Hospital was Australian. I wish I was kidding about this reasoning but it's true. I've always been fascinated by it. I'm interested in the culture, the slang, the accents, the boys, the fact that people can live there at all when everything's designed to kill them, and I know people joke about that but there's something in that that genuinely speaks to me. I have all these things I want to see and do, and in a dream world I could spend a whole summer there, exploring everywhere I can get to. I have a friend there who's been encouraging me to go for years, and I would love to, but it's always been too expensive. Australia has been my holy grail of trips for my entire life.
Last weekend, my friends and I got together at one of our houses. I'd just gotten back from California, my ex-roommate had just gotten back from London, and most of the night was us talking about our trips. And then somewhere towards the end, the one I'm going to Disney with told us that she's going to Australia next month basically on a company's dime, and I have been seething with jealousy ever since.
I want this clear: I don't compete. I find inspiration in other people getting to travel, and I'd much rather celebrate someone else getting to do something cool rather than being upset about my own situation. But I was mad at life about this one. Sarah once got to go and invited me, and I couldn't come up with the money in time and it's always bothered me, and this was worse than that. Days later I was still sitting at work thinking, "Why am I not doing that?"
And then I thought, "Why am I not doing that?"
I'd told my Australian friend a couple weeks ago that my goal was to go there in 2018. So I'm going to make it happen in 2018. I'm not going to get a whole summer to travel. It'll probably be more like two weeks, and I'll have to choose which cities I want to hit. I'd always wanted to tack New Zealand and Bali on there, and I'm not sure that's feasible. I'm going to have to be judicious and find deals and make some sacrifices, but so far it's looking like I can actually pull this off if I'm careful over the next two years. I've been doing research, figuring out which cities are the best for what I want to do, and I'm making notes on prices so I have an idea of what I need to save.
I'm also figuring out how much it's going to cost to go diving with sharks. That is non-negotiable.
Last weekend, my friends and I got together at one of our houses. I'd just gotten back from California, my ex-roommate had just gotten back from London, and most of the night was us talking about our trips. And then somewhere towards the end, the one I'm going to Disney with told us that she's going to Australia next month basically on a company's dime, and I have been seething with jealousy ever since.
I want this clear: I don't compete. I find inspiration in other people getting to travel, and I'd much rather celebrate someone else getting to do something cool rather than being upset about my own situation. But I was mad at life about this one. Sarah once got to go and invited me, and I couldn't come up with the money in time and it's always bothered me, and this was worse than that. Days later I was still sitting at work thinking, "Why am I not doing that?"
And then I thought, "Why am I not doing that?"
I'd told my Australian friend a couple weeks ago that my goal was to go there in 2018. So I'm going to make it happen in 2018. I'm not going to get a whole summer to travel. It'll probably be more like two weeks, and I'll have to choose which cities I want to hit. I'd always wanted to tack New Zealand and Bali on there, and I'm not sure that's feasible. I'm going to have to be judicious and find deals and make some sacrifices, but so far it's looking like I can actually pull this off if I'm careful over the next two years. I've been doing research, figuring out which cities are the best for what I want to do, and I'm making notes on prices so I have an idea of what I need to save.
I'm also figuring out how much it's going to cost to go diving with sharks. That is non-negotiable.
1.8.16
SDCC 2017: The (belated) post-con rundown
I'm not big on recovery days after a vacation. There are ways to ease back in without taking up more vacation or sick time that can be used for later trips, at least if you're me. And yet I had to take a sick day on Tuesday because my god, this con took it out of me. I feel like I'm still recovering.
I'll be real from the start: this was one of my least favorite cons, and I've been to seven. Part of it was friend drama that's not going into this blog that put a damper on things, but a lot of it was that there wasn't as much there as in previous years. The schedule was heavily loaded for Saturday but then I had a lot of holes in my schedules the other days. Usually Vikings and Bates Motel take over a parking lot for offsite events. That didn't happen this year. It was a five hour wait for the Game of Thrones Experience which was severely lacking when compared to other years. I spent less than five minutes at Petco Park and deciding I didn't want to do any of the things there... In fact on Wednesday travel buddy Sarah and I went to Petco at 6:30 to see it an hour and a half after it opened, and there was one food truck and one attraction ready for people. Things were still going up around the Gaslamp, things weren't up around the marina... It was really disappointing on that front. Maybe we got spoiled, but I actually weirdly got bored at times when I'm used to having way too much to do.
And then there was stuff Comic Con International couldn't control, like the weather. My weather app said it was 73 degrees. My weather app is a motherfucking liar. It was very hot for San Diego, and humid, with large crowds of people giving off body heat, and no one seemed to be prepared for it. Most pictures of me from the weekend already have my makeup melted off. On top of that, people were littering like animals, and the janitorial staff or whoever cleans up was really bad about doing it, so things smelled and if you had to sit on the ground you had to watch where you were putting yourself, and it all led up to things just feeling gross. It's an anomaly. I've never seen it like that before. I hope I never see it like that again.
But that's enough about the disappointments, though there's a Story in here that I will get to. Despite these things I did have fun, so let me talk about what I did there:
-I stood in line for two hours on blacktop for a raffle to get Star Trek premiere tickets. I didn't even want to go. I was there to help my friends have a shot. A couple eventually got them, after going back. So glad I got the sunburn.
-I actually got out on the exhibit floor twice. It's a great place to take pictures and check out what there is to buy (though I've never spent more than $10 on myself), but usually it gets massively crowded and claustrophobic. It did that Sunday, when I was actually trying to get things for people and I had to flee because it was too much, but Thursday was a good run.
-I took insane amounts of pictures at the Star Wars booths. Like, it's a very real problem.
-While in line at about eight am on Friday, I got a call saying, "I'm watching you right now." One of my friends was in the line next to me.
-Got the hell into Hall H. More on this later.
-Had breakfast at the same place as Sigourney Weaver.
-And Anna Kendrick.
-Took part in a singalong at Animaniacs Live.
-Ate like a normal person! Mostly
-Slept somewhere that wasn't a hotel room floor! Like a hotel room bed!
-Ran into Ralph's just before closing to buy snacks to cram into a Han Solo-in-carbonite lunchbox a friend bought me in LA. For the rest of the weekend I was able to say things like "I have snacks in Han Solo," and "Do you want to look through Han Solo?" and I am bringing him everywhere from now on.
So, the Hall H line. If you've never been, the biggest room in the convention center is Hall H, which holds upwards of 6,000 people. The really big stuff goes in there. The lines are also ridiculously long to get in, and years and years of con staff not stopping people from starting lines earlier than the rules state mean that you might have to wait a day to get in. Which isn't really as bad as it sounds. One person can keep a spot in line for five people, so throughout the day you can have people come by and bring things or take a shift for a few hours so you can wander around, get food, see other things, whatever.
Iiiiiii did not have that that day. My roommates had left around 2:30 am for another room, and at 6 on Friday I woke up with a feeling that I needed to get in line. After ending up in the wrong line- again, line management sucked- I got into the Saturday Next Day Line, where I ended up back on the blacktop that I'd been in for the Star Trek tickets I didn't get. And we didn't really have a system for who would ever relieve me or when people would be around, so I basically sat there for nine hours and tried not to get sunstroke. I made friends with the women in line behind us, which got me a bathroom break and a walk into the Hyatt for blessed air conditioning, where everyone in the ladies' room said things like "You are getting pink." I'm not exaggerating about the sunstroke, either. I came fairly unprepared, not realizing I'd be on blacktop and that I'd be there for that long, so I had water and sunscreen that I applied six times and still got burned. I ended up taking off my shirt because I had a tank top on underneath and wore the shirt as a cape to try and protect more of my skin. Some friends brought me coffee and water. My amazing awesome from Kelsey came to keep me company and took a nap in the parking lot and brought me an umbrella, which I didn't realize I needed until I had it. She is my Hall H superstar.
Also we were next to the poor man's version of the Abigail from Fear the Walking Dead, which played zombie noises for two hours behind me.
I got a two hour break when my roommates got out of their last panel. I got to eat, shower enough to rinse off the sweat and gross, and then after seeing a tweet that they were handing out wristbands, we headed back down to the line. We didn't need to. Someone had mixed up the time they were going out that day and so the line was packed again early. Thanks, person who didn't know what they were doing.
The way this works is: in order to get into Hall H, you need a wristband. People are joined by the friends they were saving a spot for, and everyone has to be in line when they hand them out, or you're out of luck unless you want to try on the actual day of those panels. They have A, B, C, and D, all color coded, and once you get your wristband you can go home and sleep, and the next day you'll be able to rejoin the line at the back of your color group. Or you can sleep in line and keep your space. We had a couple people sleep in line, which was a good call since there were reports that the line people were ignoring the color groups and sending everyone who returned the next morning to the back of the wristband line regardless of where they should be. This was not the biggest problem there.
In the morning we had some really great line guys, who offered to get me coffee if I gave him the money, who walked the lines making sure they knew everyone and just being friendly. Then while I was finally on my break, they had a shift change, and things went to hell. We were next to the ferry, and a bored ferry worker on her phone kept directing people through the Next Day Line to get there. And while the guys in the morning were great, they hadn't roped off the lines. When wristbands started going out and everyone stood, the back of the line smushed so that people couldn't tell where the line actually was in an attempt to jump ahead. I'm pretty sure people were using the ferry misdirect in order to hop in line, and the line monitors we had now did not care. They were utterly clueless. People were getting upset, and while we were checking the @HallHLine twitter account to see where they were on wristbands, we'd see a lot of tweets saying "Security is needed at the parking lot." It was a lot like being in a zombie movie where you can hear it all right behind you but you're just too ahead of it to see what's going on. The mess was very close to us, and I'm very grateful for the feeling that told me to get up and get in line when I did.
Wristbands stopped for a while. The people in charge of the line people, called blinky blinks (they wear blinkers), came over and started questioning things. They pulled people up to just behind us out of the parking lot and next to the boats, where we were given wristbands and then stopped again. And when I say we were close to it, I mean that my group got out of the parking lot, as did the three women behind us, and two guys behind them, and then they shut things down until they got the line settled. And then we were stuck waiting for a little while, until they moved us ahead to get in place to sleep. Now, we really should have been under the tents based on when I got in line, but we weren't. They moved us near them, next to a couple of generators, and then moved us back, right under the lights of the Adult Swim carnival, which I think stayed on all night. And that was where people had to sleep. I stayed long enough to claim a place in line, because they tend to compress things too much and then when people rejoin there's no room, and once people were crawling into sleeping bags, I went back to my room to sleep in a bed.
In my opinion, Hall H was worth it. I'm not sure my roommates would agree, but I may have to do this again next year. We saw the Star Trek anniversary panel (eh), the Aliens anniversary panel (fine), Women Who Kick Ass (good), and then all the movies Warner Brothers presented, and then Marvel. We got wands given to us by Eddie Redmayne, who literally ran around Hall H in a heavy sweater in San Diego in the summer, in order to do some kind of light trick for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We saw Will Smith take over the Suicide Squad panel, which was fine with me because he's Will Smith. We got the Wonder Woman trailer, which I didn't get to see because at the time I was behind both a tall guy and a tall guy with an Afro. We got Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy footage and saw the casts of movies and by the time we got to Marvel, the energy in the room was amazing because that's what everyone was really here to see, so people went nuts over everything, and then there was a whole mess while we had to wait for them to hand out hats. Which I could have skipped out on but most certainly did not.
So, as a whole, SDCC this year wasn't my favorite. Next year'll be better.
I'll be real from the start: this was one of my least favorite cons, and I've been to seven. Part of it was friend drama that's not going into this blog that put a damper on things, but a lot of it was that there wasn't as much there as in previous years. The schedule was heavily loaded for Saturday but then I had a lot of holes in my schedules the other days. Usually Vikings and Bates Motel take over a parking lot for offsite events. That didn't happen this year. It was a five hour wait for the Game of Thrones Experience which was severely lacking when compared to other years. I spent less than five minutes at Petco Park and deciding I didn't want to do any of the things there... In fact on Wednesday travel buddy Sarah and I went to Petco at 6:30 to see it an hour and a half after it opened, and there was one food truck and one attraction ready for people. Things were still going up around the Gaslamp, things weren't up around the marina... It was really disappointing on that front. Maybe we got spoiled, but I actually weirdly got bored at times when I'm used to having way too much to do.
And then there was stuff Comic Con International couldn't control, like the weather. My weather app said it was 73 degrees. My weather app is a motherfucking liar. It was very hot for San Diego, and humid, with large crowds of people giving off body heat, and no one seemed to be prepared for it. Most pictures of me from the weekend already have my makeup melted off. On top of that, people were littering like animals, and the janitorial staff or whoever cleans up was really bad about doing it, so things smelled and if you had to sit on the ground you had to watch where you were putting yourself, and it all led up to things just feeling gross. It's an anomaly. I've never seen it like that before. I hope I never see it like that again.
But that's enough about the disappointments, though there's a Story in here that I will get to. Despite these things I did have fun, so let me talk about what I did there:
-I stood in line for two hours on blacktop for a raffle to get Star Trek premiere tickets. I didn't even want to go. I was there to help my friends have a shot. A couple eventually got them, after going back. So glad I got the sunburn.
-I actually got out on the exhibit floor twice. It's a great place to take pictures and check out what there is to buy (though I've never spent more than $10 on myself), but usually it gets massively crowded and claustrophobic. It did that Sunday, when I was actually trying to get things for people and I had to flee because it was too much, but Thursday was a good run.
-I took insane amounts of pictures at the Star Wars booths. Like, it's a very real problem.
-While in line at about eight am on Friday, I got a call saying, "I'm watching you right now." One of my friends was in the line next to me.
-Got the hell into Hall H. More on this later.
-Had breakfast at the same place as Sigourney Weaver.
-And Anna Kendrick.
-Took part in a singalong at Animaniacs Live.
-Ate like a normal person! Mostly
-Slept somewhere that wasn't a hotel room floor! Like a hotel room bed!
-Ran into Ralph's just before closing to buy snacks to cram into a Han Solo-in-carbonite lunchbox a friend bought me in LA. For the rest of the weekend I was able to say things like "I have snacks in Han Solo," and "Do you want to look through Han Solo?" and I am bringing him everywhere from now on.
So, the Hall H line. If you've never been, the biggest room in the convention center is Hall H, which holds upwards of 6,000 people. The really big stuff goes in there. The lines are also ridiculously long to get in, and years and years of con staff not stopping people from starting lines earlier than the rules state mean that you might have to wait a day to get in. Which isn't really as bad as it sounds. One person can keep a spot in line for five people, so throughout the day you can have people come by and bring things or take a shift for a few hours so you can wander around, get food, see other things, whatever.
Iiiiiii did not have that that day. My roommates had left around 2:30 am for another room, and at 6 on Friday I woke up with a feeling that I needed to get in line. After ending up in the wrong line- again, line management sucked- I got into the Saturday Next Day Line, where I ended up back on the blacktop that I'd been in for the Star Trek tickets I didn't get. And we didn't really have a system for who would ever relieve me or when people would be around, so I basically sat there for nine hours and tried not to get sunstroke. I made friends with the women in line behind us, which got me a bathroom break and a walk into the Hyatt for blessed air conditioning, where everyone in the ladies' room said things like "You are getting pink." I'm not exaggerating about the sunstroke, either. I came fairly unprepared, not realizing I'd be on blacktop and that I'd be there for that long, so I had water and sunscreen that I applied six times and still got burned. I ended up taking off my shirt because I had a tank top on underneath and wore the shirt as a cape to try and protect more of my skin. Some friends brought me coffee and water. My amazing awesome from Kelsey came to keep me company and took a nap in the parking lot and brought me an umbrella, which I didn't realize I needed until I had it. She is my Hall H superstar.
Also we were next to the poor man's version of the Abigail from Fear the Walking Dead, which played zombie noises for two hours behind me.
I got a two hour break when my roommates got out of their last panel. I got to eat, shower enough to rinse off the sweat and gross, and then after seeing a tweet that they were handing out wristbands, we headed back down to the line. We didn't need to. Someone had mixed up the time they were going out that day and so the line was packed again early. Thanks, person who didn't know what they were doing.
The way this works is: in order to get into Hall H, you need a wristband. People are joined by the friends they were saving a spot for, and everyone has to be in line when they hand them out, or you're out of luck unless you want to try on the actual day of those panels. They have A, B, C, and D, all color coded, and once you get your wristband you can go home and sleep, and the next day you'll be able to rejoin the line at the back of your color group. Or you can sleep in line and keep your space. We had a couple people sleep in line, which was a good call since there were reports that the line people were ignoring the color groups and sending everyone who returned the next morning to the back of the wristband line regardless of where they should be. This was not the biggest problem there.
In the morning we had some really great line guys, who offered to get me coffee if I gave him the money, who walked the lines making sure they knew everyone and just being friendly. Then while I was finally on my break, they had a shift change, and things went to hell. We were next to the ferry, and a bored ferry worker on her phone kept directing people through the Next Day Line to get there. And while the guys in the morning were great, they hadn't roped off the lines. When wristbands started going out and everyone stood, the back of the line smushed so that people couldn't tell where the line actually was in an attempt to jump ahead. I'm pretty sure people were using the ferry misdirect in order to hop in line, and the line monitors we had now did not care. They were utterly clueless. People were getting upset, and while we were checking the @HallHLine twitter account to see where they were on wristbands, we'd see a lot of tweets saying "Security is needed at the parking lot." It was a lot like being in a zombie movie where you can hear it all right behind you but you're just too ahead of it to see what's going on. The mess was very close to us, and I'm very grateful for the feeling that told me to get up and get in line when I did.
Wristbands stopped for a while. The people in charge of the line people, called blinky blinks (they wear blinkers), came over and started questioning things. They pulled people up to just behind us out of the parking lot and next to the boats, where we were given wristbands and then stopped again. And when I say we were close to it, I mean that my group got out of the parking lot, as did the three women behind us, and two guys behind them, and then they shut things down until they got the line settled. And then we were stuck waiting for a little while, until they moved us ahead to get in place to sleep. Now, we really should have been under the tents based on when I got in line, but we weren't. They moved us near them, next to a couple of generators, and then moved us back, right under the lights of the Adult Swim carnival, which I think stayed on all night. And that was where people had to sleep. I stayed long enough to claim a place in line, because they tend to compress things too much and then when people rejoin there's no room, and once people were crawling into sleeping bags, I went back to my room to sleep in a bed.
In my opinion, Hall H was worth it. I'm not sure my roommates would agree, but I may have to do this again next year. We saw the Star Trek anniversary panel (eh), the Aliens anniversary panel (fine), Women Who Kick Ass (good), and then all the movies Warner Brothers presented, and then Marvel. We got wands given to us by Eddie Redmayne, who literally ran around Hall H in a heavy sweater in San Diego in the summer, in order to do some kind of light trick for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We saw Will Smith take over the Suicide Squad panel, which was fine with me because he's Will Smith. We got the Wonder Woman trailer, which I didn't get to see because at the time I was behind both a tall guy and a tall guy with an Afro. We got Doctor Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy footage and saw the casts of movies and by the time we got to Marvel, the energy in the room was amazing because that's what everyone was really here to see, so people went nuts over everything, and then there was a whole mess while we had to wait for them to hand out hats. Which I could have skipped out on but most certainly did not.
So, as a whole, SDCC this year wasn't my favorite. Next year'll be better.
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