Nerdcation is Over

***STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE PICTURE THING REGARDING THIS BLOG
 ...... .IT'S REALLY ANNOYING!***

As loyal readers to this blog are aware the end of August and Early part of September mark the time for Dragon Con in Atlanta. It always starts the Thursday before Labor Day which makes it easy to remember. As the clock resets and starts counting down to the 2025 Dragon Con I thought I’d document this Nerdcation (as Golden has pinned it) as it was a very nice break for me at least, I hope Golden can say the same.

We did all the things we had planned to do …… stopped by the cool bookstore that we found just north of Atlanta (in Jones Creek, GA) called Kinokuniya Bookstore which has all the anime and art supplies it’s really cool. Golden found it for us last year. We have started going up on Wednesdays which allows us the luxury of an easy drive to Atlanta from her house without the fear of if we get there too late we’ll stand in the badge line forever. It’s a really cool store unlike any other near where either of us live so it’s worth the extra drive. If they don’t have it you likely don’t really need it. Golden is learning Japanese and found a cool book to help her on that journey. I bought a paralympic inspired anime which I admit I haven’t started yet but did flip through a few times during our “Con downtime.” We did stay there a little longer than anticipated which got us to our hotel during rush hour. That I do not recommend. The bumper-to-bumper traffic reminded me of why I could never LIVE in Atlanta. I can visit, I can even go there for work purposes (and have on several occasions) but I need to know that I will soon be leaving Atlanta behind soon … for it to work.

Upon arrival to our hotel, the mecca that is the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the holy grail for Dragon Con goers we were in the thick of everyone trying to check in, valet park cars, and get luggage assistance. This is where I failed in our Dragon Con quest this year. I packed like an insane human being. I didn’t consolidate or pack my bags with any kind of planning for forethought and thus ended up being to spread out. My goal for next year … 2 bags and a backpack. I’m 98% sure I can do it. We heart this hotel, and the staff is very lovely but the queue just to “check in” was wrapped around like a snake. They had three people not even helping people cause they were in the “suer exclusive line” … aka Gold and Platinum status people, I myself only recently made Silver Status. I mean yeah ok … if they have those people in line fine, that’s why they have the perk afterall, but if they don’t maybe help out the normals also trying to check in ? Golden stayed with our bags (cause the dude just took off with the cart like he knew who we were – we are regulars to the Con for sure but not that well known ya know what I mean) and I jumped in line to check in. I tried checking in on my phone but it said you’d still need to see the front desk to get your room key and number. Basically, I’d just be telling them that I was in fact there, so I stood in line and texted with Golden about how she was doing. I finally made it to the front, got our keys headed to find Golden, grabbed a few essential bags off the cart, gave the luggage guy our room number and proceeded to the elevators and found the hottest room to ever exist on earth. Some MFER put the air on 85 degrees. In Atlanta. In August. May that person have boils on their but popp and explode and they not be able to reach them. That’s just … I mean of all the insane things a human can do that borders on just evil. We cranked the air down as low as it would go, propped open the door and tried to relax as we waited on our luggage, which didn’t take long at all actually.

Once we were properly settled and no longer living in satan’s armpit we proceeded to walk around downstairs and see what was up. We grabbed some food and did some people watching. It was crazy to us the amount of people who rolled up to the hotel in full cosplay ready to get the party started. I was like wow slow your roll this is a marathon not a sprint. We ate dinner at High Velocity (a restaurant in the hotel) and walked around a bit, people watched and were safe and snuggled into our beds long before the midnight countdown. That my friends was Day1. 

Thursday Day 2 started with getting gout badges for the Con which required that we walk … outside. One of the advantages of being at the Marriott is that there are sky bridges to two of the other hotel hotels. However the 4^th host hotel is down the street and that’s where badges are picked up. We used to drive in on this day, pay to park near the hotel get our badges then would proceed to our hotel and check in and chill for the day, killing off the first official day of the Convention. Hence why we started coming in on Wed. The line was supposed to start moving at 10 am. We got in line around 11 and started the long trek around the building. I swear people need to learn how to quee up in a line. At one point there were huge gaps where I guess people didn’t realize the line had moved or I don’t even really know and Golden looked and me and said screw this. We jumped the gap and I’d do it again if asked. Off we went. We were still in the cattle call (as I call it) inside the ballroom to get our badges when I saw the lady previously in front of us walk in so we didn’t jump too far in the line or she did the same thing we did just a little later. Either way we were both much better for it. Once again someone had forgotten to adjust the air and it was quite hot in there. I was glad when we made our way to the front for our badges so we could officially get going on our day. The next order of business was lunch. There were food trucks sat up at the badge hotel but I frankly didn’t want to sit outside. So we walked back towards our hotel and found the little concession shop to grab food and take it back to the room. Where we hung out until dinner time. By now Satan’s armpit was feeling more like a polar bear exhibit but neither of us adjusted a damn thing. Golden wore a hoodie most of the time in the room and I longed for a long sleeve shirt. She is truly my smart friend. We finally dragged ourselves out of bed, into “outside of the room clothes” and proceeded to the Trader Joe’s in the nearby Hilton. Did you know you need a reservation for that restaurant. We did not either. However, they accommodated us and while I enjoyed by porkchop and fried rice Golden’s dish was stone cold by the time it got to her and she didn’t enjoy hers nearly as much. Some more people watching and walking around then back to bed. That was day 2 .. which was officially Day 1 of Dragon Con. Which is confusing I know but it’s important to note that.

Friday day 3 … or Day 2 of Dragon Con was set aside for me to give blood. I like to do it early so if I want to participate in the adult beverage I can without it affecting my donation. Golden comes with me but as previously stated she can no longer give blood, the blood bank would have to destroy it so it seems a wasted effort for all parties involved. After that it was time to feed Marcy so she didn’t take another dirt nap in the middle of the street .. so we proceeded to Peachtree Center and hit up the food court. Got some nurishments and then proceeded to the America’s Mart so we could do our annual Paint and Take. We then hit up the arcade and got our game on, Golden fell in love with a Godzilla pinball machine, which I admit was pretty fun. More people watching and relaxation as we headed back to our hotel. I must have crashed cause I honestly don’t remember the rest of the night.

Saturday, day 4…. Or Dragon Con Day 3 … is set aside for the Vendor Hall. It’s typically an all-day affair. As I think I have said before it’s 4 floors of just things to purchase, people to talk to, things to look at and just …. Stuff. I often call it a game or do I like it enough to carry it the rest of the day? I did end up buying a book which I stood and talked to the author about for about 15 minutes while Golden looked at something else. Golden gets a Henna Tattoo every year while I still on my collapsible stool, truly the greatest thing ever invented, and people watch. It’s really pretty and always suits her very well. It eventually wears off which is kind of sad. These years might have been the best she’s ever gotten. We got out of the Vendor Hall around 4 I think and proceeded to go back to the room for another dirt nap. Saturdays at Dragon Con are very stupid as they sell one day passes and all the people descend on the Con which ends up feeling very suffocating. So we chilled in the room for the night.

Sunday, day 5 … or Dragon Con Day 4 .... At some point every year we have what I call a lazy day. Sunday I guess was that day. We got up, went and got breakfast buffet which was delicious but we ate far too much then proceeded to watch movies and snack the rest of the day. Golden had one thing on her to do list and that was a panel about traveling to Japen. So, we were determined to make that. It started at like 8:30. Crazy I know. We made it down there sat through the panel, got some dinner afterwards, walked around and headed back up stairs shortly after midnight to pack up our things and get into our respective beds for the night.  

Monday, AKA Labor Day, also known as Day 6 … or Day 5 of Dragon Con is always reserved for traveling back to Golden’s house then crashing hard. We typically have to wait for luggage assistance for like 2 hours and it’s quite annoying so this year we had a  plan. I’d get up early call them and we’d be on the road early. So I got up early …. I called them and they said we’d be there in 20 minutes.  I was like um…. Ok. I proceeded to get dressed and tried to wake up Golden, several times. I didn’t fully believe they would be there in 20 minutes … but damn if they didn’t and damn if she didn’t jump up and become a functioning adult faster than I’ve ever seen her do it. It was quite impressive. We were out the door and walking to the elevators by I’m going to say 8:30…8:45 at the latest. We got the car packed up and was leaving for what may be our easiest roll out ever. To say I was impressed is an understatement. Not too long after we were on the road we spotted a Hardees and I love me a Hardees breakfast so we pulled over and filled our bellies. We got to Goldens and took a long dirt nap, ordered pizza and watched a Harry Potter marathon.

So all in all I’m calling it a successful trip. According to Dragon Con the number is 75K+ for head count (but I feel that’s way low) and over $200K raised for this years charity the Arthritis Foundation. See Dragon Con puts out donation buckets at every event and all over the place really and collects money throughout the convention for the charity of choice. Dragon Con then agrees to provide a dollar for dollar match which is really cool. It’s their way of giving back, it’s typically a local charity but not always. By my count we walked 25,011 steps, or roughly 11 miles over the trip, and traveled roughly 947 miles according to Google Maps, which tracked us the entire way which isn’t scary at all. We had a lot of downtime, which we both desperately needed, had a lot of laughter, got to see some amazing Cosplay and most important I got to spent 5 6 solid days with my bestie. So yeah it was successful. I drove home at the arse crack of dawn on Tuesday after not sleeping at all Monday night. I slept for nearly 13 hours Tuesday night and Wed felt like a brand new human being. It is crazy what sleep will do to a person, both the lack of it and having enough of it. Now my PTO is over, it’s the weekend officially and I’m looking at the prospect of returning to the real world on Monday. I’m not ready. Not even kind of ready. That scares me more than anything I saw at Dragon Con if I’m being honest. I might be at a crossroads and I’m not sure which way to go.

Hope everyone had a successful and safe Con and arrived back to their home bases safely.

Thanks,

Marcy (@beaslma)

Dragon Con is near.. Are you ready?!

*****BLOGGER IS STILL NOT LETTING ME UPLOAD PHOTOS     ARGH *****

According to the Dragon Con website we have just under 11 days until Dragon Con officially kicks off. The Ap has been updated. The schedules are set (kind of), I mean they often change at a moment’s notice throughout the Con. I have once again set up my profile on the ap and sent Golden a friend request so we can see each other’s schedule (seriously can’t they get some nerd to figure out how to roll that from one year to the next?). I have made my appointment to give blood. I’ve checked the status of our hotel about 349,730,967,304,967,340,967 times and we are still good to go …. Now all that’s left is …. Well all the things.

There’s packing, and laundry (there’s always laundry), then packing up my bathroom stuff, and my electronics, charging all my external charger ports, clearing off my phone to make way for all the awesome I’m about to see. Charged my Switch and made sure it was updated, don’t worry I’m sure the next time I play it there will be another update.. Oh and i have to go get my annual Dragon Con TV subscription. I’m also in the process of clearing my work schedule so I can fully enjoy the time away with my bestie.

This is the first year I’m taking 2 whole weeks off (10 days to be exact). I’m taking the Friday before I leave and the Monday before I leave off then heading to Golden’s on Tuesday, then to Atlanta on Wednesday and will be in Atlanta until Monday where we will make our way back to Golden’s to crash hard before I drive back home, likely that Tuesday. Then I plan to take the rest of that week off to again do laundry, unpack, decompress, and ready myself for the return to work thing. I wish Golden could do the same, but COVID might have messed that up for her. At least she’s clear for the convention. On my to do list this week is getting my latest COVID vaccine just in case. I assume they are still giving them out … guess I’ll find out. The last one I got was before last year’s convention. I don’t know if it helped or not but I didn’t get sick so I can at least say I tried.

A few must do items on the to do list for Dragon Con include:

• Paint and Take -  Honestly one of my favorite things ever … we get to sit and people watch while painting these little miniatures that someone made on a 3D printer. It’s by far the most relaxing part of our trip.
• Vendor Hall - which is like I don’t like 6 floors of just stuff from books to plushies to action figures to t-shirts and everything else you might think of. I usually find something to bring home but also find something but don’t wanna carry it around and so I leave it behind.
• Walk of Fame – which is always interesting cause that’s where the “talent” ends up between their panels and you can talk to them or get an autograph. One year we hung out with the guy who does the Voice for Pinky and the Brain. Another year we met Nathan Fillion. One year we helped a “handler” do a Lego build while waiting on the guy who ended up not showing up cause his panel ran long. We met Felicity Day once who told Golden she loved her hair. Then later tweeted something out to the world and Golden showed me her phone and said she’s now internet famous cause she was in the background. It’s just fun to just walk around and see whose there. It’s only open at odd times tho so it’s hit and miss on if we get there are good times.
• Blood Drive – I participate but Golden cannot. On 9/11 Golden went to give blood and a few weeks later got a letter that her blood had to be destroyed. Thus began her journey to the Medical Marvel that she is today. So it’s a nice “check up” without having to pay a copay. Plus I get a cool shirt.
• Joystick Gamebar – this was new since Covid. Before they would have some prototype games in the Gaming hall that you had no idea how to work cause it was usually in Japanese or some other language and you’d just hit a bunch of buttons until you got frustrated and walked away. Now they have what they call a Gamebar in ATL within walking distance from the host hotels that we can play actual games like donkey Kong and Pacman and Mrs. Packman and racing games and pinball. It’s all free yall and it’s fun!
• Coloring for Charity – each year Dragon Con picks a specific charity and has little events and donation buckets all over the place for people to donate to the charity. A few years ago we stumbled upon this event which allows you to get a coloring book that is created by some of the artist in the Artist Pop Shop (or something like that) and it’s really cool to just sit in a room, chill and color like a small child for a bit before going back into the big mess that is the Con.
• Dragon Con Parade – Tho I admit after the first few years it was more fun to watch from our hotel room on TV or to skip it all together and go to the Vendor hall while everyone else was occupied. I do like looking at all the pictures from it tho. It’s where you get to see a lot of the creativity fly in one central location. There is no other way to describe the feeling of seeing 75-100 Agent Carters walking down a block than just Awesome.
• Dance Parties – I don’t dance but I like watching others do it....Who knows maybe i will let loose this year and go to town with some cute young stud looking to have a good time ...... 

I don’t really have costumes planned this year, much like last year it just seemed like a lot of trouble. I am taking my Care Bear onesie for Onsie Wednesday but it may or may not make it out of the back that it is in. I like walking around … looking at all the creativity that bursts out of people this time of year and I know I’ll never be as creative as they are. I always forget that for Dragon Con anything goes until I get there and see literally everything on display. Then my anxiety kicks in about will people get it ? Is it cute or stupid? What if I am a half fan and then suddenly these people start talking to me about said topic I’m dressed like and I don’t know enough to talk to them about it. I mean I’m nerd adjacent but not full on nerd. Plus there’s not a lot of cosplay for a full figured gal AKA fat girl and that’s not something I can change in 11 days. So I will pack all the nerdy shirts and proceed as planned and spend 6 amazing days with my bestie in a nice pair of blue jeans and comfortable shoes, preferably with a rum bucket in my lap, you know … once I’ve given blood of course.

 If you are heading to Dragon Con next week hit us up …. @theonlygolden   @beaslma

Happy travels and make it home safely!

Marcy

 

 

Paralympics … and DRAGON CON Anxiety

   

So we are now on I think day 5 of the Paralympic Games (nearly at the half way point) and while I haven’t posted a blog about it I’ve definitely been watching it. It hasn’t gotten the love that the Olympics get but the coverage I have been able to watch in my opinion has been BETTER. Instead of the never-ending tape delayed wall to wall coverage …… NBCSN and the Olympic channel are breaking out blocks of LIVE events which has been awesome to watch. Granted most of it takes place after I go to bed (time zones are hard :D) but I have been able to watch some Wheelchair Rugby, Wheelchair Basketball, Triathlon, track and field, swimming events and even some ping pong what has however eluded me is Sitting Volleyball. I love everything about watching that sport. The sportsman ship between the teams, the power that these athletes hit the ball without ever leaving the ground, and just volleyball in general. I had the pleasure of playing this in high school at a fundraising event and let me tell you all …. It’s hard. As an Abled Bodied person you want to jump up, you want to get the lift you need to hit that spike but you… well can’t. That’s against the rules. What I’ve been doing is recording the coverage so I’m not missing anything, but I have yet to catch this but that’s my goal for the next few days. Watching these games has made me really really miss Invictus Games ... but they will be back next year. It's been fun seeing some familiar faces representing their country.  

Why the next few days when there are several days left in the games?! Cause this Wed I pack up the car and head north to Golden’s for our yearly Nerdcation. Dragon Con is gonna be super different this year but I also think way more awesome. For one the crowds will be down with limited attendees which is always a good thing. I remember when Golden and I first started going the crowds were nothing like they were in 2019 which it was just too much. Too many people, too many cosplayers, too many idiots destroying things (sorry Fed Ex display), too much drinking, it was all just too much. We still had fun and enjoyed ourselves but it felt very suffocating at times and the idea of a “smaller” con makes my soul very happy.

For two everyone that comes to the Con this year has to either be vaccinated or show a negative test before they can pick up their badge. After watching people lose their minds over this “rule” I’m glad it is in place. So many who were planning to come have dropped out, but what it really means is that the people that are at Dragon Con really really wanted to be there. That means that everyone there will be in good moods and great spirits even if they are drinking all the spirits. Ha! Photo from above is from several years ago. 

For three ….. for the first time in forever …. We are staying in a HOST hotel. We were scheduled to be in a host hotel back in 2019 when the Sheraton had to close for the Legionnaires Disease outbreak … and we got kicked out of the hotel (I’ll never believe that it wasn’t cause of that but whatever). We scrambled at the last minute and found a room at another hotel we’ve stayed at before and it was fine but we were bummed. Then in 2020 I scrambled and made it happen again and a pandemic threw us to the floor. However the hotel moved our room to this year and I have been checking it daily in fear that it may happen again. I have called them several times to make sure that we are good. I’m sure when we check in they will give me that look like oh it’s her. I don’t care how they look at me as long as they give me a room. Ha!

 And most important Golden and I really really really really need 4 days of laughter, fun, doing nothing unless we wanna, and food. It’s 4 days of doing literally whatever we want, when we want, and how we want. Being in a host hotel will cut down on travel back to the hotel so I’m hoping it will also allow us to do more. We usually head out in the morning walk to the hotels or get on the bus and frolic until late in the afternoon. Sometimes we go back to the room to rest up for night activities but sometimes that kills us for the day. We end up taking naps and getting settled and often talk ourselves of going back out. This also allows Golden to head our at night when I’m snoring away and her Medical Marvel Team No Sleep member can’t sleep. We will have to come up with a system for that tho so I’ll know she’s ok. I’m also hoping that by being where we are we can run up to the room and chill then come back out when things start to become too much.

I am planning to attempt to give blood again. Mostly cause I know that blood is super important right now but also cause the T-shirt they are giving away is worth possibly passing out again. See several years ago I gave blood then I don’t know what happened. We were waiting on the buss to take us back to the room and I was kind of our of it. I stood up thinking the buss was coming and looked around …. I guess I stood up to fast and …. I passed out. I woke up a few minutes later with full on road rash all over my face, my glasses somewhere on the sidewalk and Golden telling me to stay down. See we were at the top of a really steep hill and her fear was that if I started rolling she wasn’t going to be able to stop me and I’d Indian Jones the City of Atlanta.

The best part of that story is that Golden, Maribel, and I kept tweeting each other about the incident. Earlier in the day Maribel had falling and hurt herself and Golden had just taken her injection so we were all complaining about our ailments. When I got back into town I immediately went to the eye glass place cause my glasses were really jacked up and scratched beyond use. I was hoping to get new glasses before I had to go back to work. However, it didn’t work out for me. So I went back to the office and the road rash was still on my face but my lip was not as swollen. My boss sits down in my office and he is just smiling and said so…did you have fun. I said of course. he said …really ? and he has this cat ate the canary grin on his face. I said well there was one thing and I started telling him about the BP thing … at the time he was super concerned about my BP cause our office used to do blood drives every quarter and the quarter before they wouldn’t do mine cause it was far too high. The whole time I’m telling the story he’s just sitting there smiling. I finished the story knowing it would only make him worry more and he said “you forgot I followed you on Twitter huh?!” so he already knew what had happened he just wanted to see if I’d tell him or not. Well played sir.

I’m hoping giving blood this year won’t be quite as interesting. I’m schedule to give it on Friday morning so I can get up get some breakfast head over and give blood then if I start feeling weird head to the room for a bit before going back down. I have a plan :D

I’m a little geeked out about going to the Con during a pandemic but I really feel like the organizers are making every effort to keep everyone safe. Vaccinations/Negative tests, masks mandatory for all, and they are having multiple “cleaning” events during the day and night. Granted the risk is still there but I feel like this is going to be the cleanest con I’ve ever attended. I feel like I did back when I went to my nephew’s state championship … if I’m going to go I’m going to make the best of it. 

I have a hotel reserved for if I get anything I can stay there and mom and dad will stay safe. I have also learned over the last year or so that you can justify in your head anything that you really want to do. I also bought 2 over the counter tests that I can take so I’ll know if I have it or not. I’m packing hand sanitizer like it’s free and doing all the precautions that I have been told will “keep me safe” and I’m just going to pray that it does. I’ve been very lucky during this pandemic …. And I’d like to keep that streak going. That being said if I make it though it without catching anything … I’m totes going to start licking doorknobs. Just kidding that’s a horrible idea …. Almost as bad as this milk crate thing and also where are you all getting so many milk crates!?

Marcy (who is procrastinating packing by writing this up)

Nerdcation is in effect!!!!!

So yesterday I drove to the meca that is Golden’s house and today we drove to the meca that is the Sheraton Hotel in Atlanta to pick up our Dragon Con badges, from there to the Hilton where we will call home for the next few days.

This is our third straight year to attend Dragon Con which turns 30 this year. That’s a milestone birthday and we are here to celebrate. Here’s watermelon vodka in the fridge, a Wonder Woman cup with my name on it and most important my best friend sitting on the other side of the room. This weekend is gonna be awesome.

We are chilling in the hotel, calming down our hearts from the drive here, I tell you driving in Atlanta is INSANE tho I admit I think it’s a combination of too many freaking exists and too many people not really knowing where they are going and then all of the sudden their exit is there and they have to get over causing a giant cluster*uck on the interstates of Georgia which apparently has had 954 people die, as of a few hours ago. This is something Georgia feels the need to advertise, I’m not sure why I guess they think we’ll see that number and think I need to be careful? We saw that number and thought what is wrong with you Georgia so they might want to rethink that campaign. It also did make me wonder if I get in a wreck on the interstate but then die at the hospital would I count?

Soon we will venture out into the world to find food and share in the awesomeness that is DragonCon fun we hope to be at the Marriott when midnight hits for the Dragon Con midnight countdown cause that was fun last year. Kind of a we made it to the Con celebration.

Once again Atlanta has all the things this weekend, football, business conventions, book festivals, hot air balloon festivals, a sound circus, all the things. Spread it out some Atlanta!!! The third member of our crew, Maribel will be her Saturday afternoon then our crew will be in full effect.   

If you are at Dragon Con hit us up …. @beaslma     @theonlygolden           Maribel

See yall soon!!!

Marcy