No, it’s not the setup to a terrible joke; it’s pretty much how I spent my weekend at Raleigh SuperCon. This is Part One of Three.
Our con weekend actually began Thursday when we received news that Karen Gillan of Doctor Who and Guardians of the Galaxy fame would not be able to attend. Sadness.
Then the “Con Crunch” began as, well into Thursday night, we put finishing touches on our costumes and began packing.
Friday we made our way to Raleigh and fought traffic to find a parking space. Seriously, almost one third of our travel time was spent going about one mile. Such is the nature of things, though I was decidedly more more aggravated at the time.
There was a brief moment of tension at prop check when they said my wand was too sharp. Seriously?!? But thankfully saner heads prevailed and we were soon on the main floor taking in the sights and sounds that is SuperCon.
First things first I immediately found Andy Hunt’s table. He sells a card game called “Necronomicards” – a Lovecraft-inspired card game for which he did all the art, rules, etc. I missed it last year when he sold out, but this year I picked up volumes 1 & 2 plus the Kickstarter bonus.
Then it was on to Chris Bachalo’s table where he graciously signed a page in my copy of Neil Gaiman’s “Death” miniseries. He said it was the first time he’s ever been asked to sign that particular photo!
We also tried attending some panels, with limited success. Every room outside the main ballrooms has issues with sound. Krystal tried to attend a lecture on “Beyond Steampunk” while I tried to hear a talk about weird creatures of the Carolinas. I left after the talk was 30 minutes late and hadn’t started due to technical issues.
We checked into our hotel and used the refund money from our Karen Gillan photo op to pay for valet parking. It was worth it not to fight traffic.
But then we had to fight the elevators! Of the three elevators in the hotel only one was working. One elevator for 17 floors with a convention in town. Even when they finally opened the stairs and service elevator it took us almost an hour and a half to get everything up to the room – and we took it all in one trip!
We made it back to the convention center in time for a group photo and then headed down into the exhibition hall to find something to eat. We settled on trying Bao, a kind of steamed dumpling. We got the barbecue soy protein since it wouldn’t bother any of Krystal’s allergies.
It was delicious! If I didn’t know it was vegetarian, I would have sworn it was pork.
We attended a few night sessions, which again suffered from technical difficulties. We also managed to meet some of our instagram friends for the first time in real life. Woot!
Then we headed back to the hotel. Our friend Leslie was with us, and while she and Krystal chatted I went down to the hotel gym to run my 7 Saturday miles (even though it was still 11:00 Friday night).
When I got back to the room, it wasn’t long until we were all fast asleep.
Stay Tuned for Part 2!
Running In My Head 