We have shared interests (comics, anime, music, creeping on beautiful people, eating, talking about bowel movements…the usual girly things), we understand each other’s quirks (I sleep in a satin bonnet, Sirose likes white noise before bed), and we mostly have a great time in each other’s company. So, now that you’ve amassed your crew, there’s the con itself.
PREVIEW NIGHT
I have skipped Preview Night every year, but one (2012), because the year when I did it, it didn’t feel like anything special. They previewed a few pilots for new television shows, and the exhibitor hall was open. But, it was still crazy crowded, half the exhibitors weren’t hooked up to the wifi and couldn’t use Square, so shopping was bunk, and it just didn’t have that loving feeling for me. Plus, all of us have jobs/work and getting 3-4 days off from work in a row usually isn’t that easy. So, Preview Night…I’m sure some people like it, but I don’t find it necessary to partake.
THURSDAY
Our Thursday started with the drive from Los Angeles to San Diego. I have both driven and taken the train and I find they have equal benefits if you’re with the right people. Fifteen minutes into the drive we were laughing and already talking Harry Potter, so we knew this trip was going to be made of magic. I tweeted when we passed the boobs (if you’ve driven from LA to SD you know what I’m talking about), we drank boba, and there was a requisite Jason Derulo sing-a-long once we hit San Diego County (Seriously, Want to Want Me is one of the best pop songs of the past three years). We left LA at 11:30ish, and with one bathroom break, made it to San Diego at 1:30ish. So, traffic really wasn’t that bad. We checked into our hotel, The San Diego Courtside Marriot in Mission Inn (it’s seriously a lovely hotel, with a great staff, and fabulous amenities - I highly recommend it and would stay there again) and had a few drinks before heading out. Yes, drinks. We treat Comic Con as our girls get away weekend, so they sake, whiskey, rum, and champagne were free flowing all weekend. The shit talking started as soon as we got in the car, and if tried to remember all of the ridiculousness that was said, this write up wouldn’t be done for three weeks; but here’s a highlight;
Kirsten: Like, you see someone pretty and they put on makeup and get prettier?
Me: Sometimes I think that about myself that in the morning.
Me: We are not spending money on booze, we can spend it on comics!
We left the hotel and headed to the convention center to pick up our badges and get our feel for the lay of the land. We did not get Thursday badges. This was partially because the waiting room is a bitch (no, I don’t have any tips on how to navigate that), and partially because we weren’t even that hot on going this year. So we grabbed badges for the days that we had them, and engaged in one of our favorite pastimes; people watching. We saw some great cosplay (wait for that at the bottom), and we saw some very beautiful men. We like the beautiful men a lot. I took a hilarious picture with the street team from Another Period, and I got my dreams of becoming a shark crushed when the Sharknado 3 street team would not tell me where I could score an awesome shark dress. After a hilarious dinner at our one of favorite eateries; Dick’s Last Resort, we headed back down to convention center for more people watching. We saw what we thought was going to be a flashmob of guys dressed like the titular character from the Hitman game franchise, but just turned out to be an elaborate photo op. There was a lot of that this weekend. Hey guys, in the future, fewer weird photo ops, more flash mobs. It was basically a simple day and when we got back to our hotel there were a group of ladies playing bagpipes, and it didn’t make sense then, but it did later. We asked if they took requests and asked for the Game of the Thrones theme, but they didn’t hear us.
FRIDAY
We didn’t get Friday badges either. This was a concentrated part of the plan, to at least skip one day and go badge free. Why, you ask? Well, here’s the thing. Panels. I say, unless it is your absolutely favorite show/fandom ever, you have never been to a panel, and you really think shit is going to go down, and/or it is smaller and not happening in Ballroom 20/Hall H skip the panel. The majority of the material will end up on the internet within a few hours and you’ll be able to catch up later. If you choose to go to the panel (Ballroom 20/Hall H specifically), you will be foregoing sleep, comfort, and the rest of the convention, because going to panels is not an easy 30 minutes and then you walk away ordeal. It’s a wake up at the crack of dawn, get in line, wait in line, maybe you get into the room, maybe you don’t, probably sit through something you don’t care about, fight your way to the front seat, and then it happens, and then it’s over, the exhibitor hall is almost closed, and you’re hungry/exhausted kinda deal. I only regretted this move with the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Panel, because….duh, free concert and lightsabers? Ugh. The second part of that decision was made because of the outside activities. Every year several outside activities are set up behind the convention center, at PetCo Park, across from PetCo Park, and in the Gaslamp. There’s so much, it’s hard to get to it all. Friday is usually the best day to do it, so that’s what we did Friday.
Friday highlights included; The Heroes Reborn experience which was a basically a long trailer and a rad photo op, The Fear the Walking Dead set walk through with virtual graffiti (where I virtually spray painted a dick on the wall, because I’m a 14 year old boy at heart), free Ice Cream from the street team for Scream Queens where you also got to shoot a .gif with your friends (or a creepy old man in our case who wouldn’t leave us alone in line and we had to push out of our .gif), and an inflatable dog house promoting The Peanuts, where we got to play with real actual beagles. I have to say this year, the free swag was much better. There was actually useful things like ice cream, bottled water, popsicles, umbrellas, hats, sunglasses, flashlights, keychains, and t-shirts. You didn’t have to scavenger hunt, tweet or hashtag things or give away your firstborns’ personal information like the past two years. There was even a truck giving out free Totino’s Pizza Rolls (and I might have gotten back in line there 3-4 times)! Every year across from the convention center Assassin’s Creed has constructed an obstacle course that I have wanted to do every year. I’m a peripheral Assassin’s Creed fan, having played the games with my brother and ex-boyfriend, but mostly I just like to pretend I’m a badass and jump over shit. However, the past four years I’ve lacked the confidence, physical awareness, and friend support to actually do said obstacle course. Well, this year we walked past, the line was only 30 minutes, and my girls had my back. I made that course my bitch, except for the part where I might’ve jumped too early and the one part where I kinda fell. But, whatever! You try doing an obstacle course in skinny jeans and creepers! We saw Josh Holloway ride pass us in an open air bus thing, promoting his new show Colony, which I have no clue what it’s about, but I loved him as Sawyer on Lost so I swooned, regardless. As we were heading to PetCo Park to take part in the Nerdist offerings, Blake Anderson from Workaholics walked past us, and I legitimately stopped breathing and then yelled my love for him, despite his status as a married man, at his retreating back. I’m such a classy lady, I know. Then, there was a group of beautiful buff men walking around in kilts promoting Outlander, and they were being followed by people playing bagpipes! It all came together. The Nerdist had some fun photo ops, and some awesome merchandise for Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls (I love Amy Poehler; she is all I want to be - - her and a shark).
After running around all day, we ordered some to-go Thai, and headed to our friend Katherine’s hotel room. Katherine is one of the raddest women I’ve ever met; she’s an artist, a baker, an expert cosplayer, and generally the sweetest person ever. She was Him, the year we were The Powerpuff Girls and it’s been love ever since. We ate dinner together, drank a case of Smirnoff Ice’s, kinda played Cards Against Humanity, watched random youtube videos (including our favorite video ever - Drunk Girls by Chris D’Elia - that we force everyone to watch when we drink), and witnessed Katherine’s amazing bff, Jonny, give a twerking lesson.
I don’t advise against hanging out in The Gaslamp at night. It’s actually a ton of fun. The Gaslamp has a hot club/bar scene and it’s especially funny during Comic Con, because San Diego bros meet SDCC nerds. But, we just weren’t feeling it this year. I think the older you get, the more drinking at home and knowing where your bed is becomes appealing.
SATURDAY
Okay, Saturday. We had badges! But, um…we only used them for two hours. You see, we decided to give up our day to wait in line for the Game of Thrones experience. We are HUGE Game of Thrones fans. We generally have Game of Thrones parties at least three times during the season, we text about it in between episodes, we quote it to each other daily. We are Games of Thrones people and none of us had ever done the experience because the line is always way too long. Since we hadn’t ever done it, and because the experience will only happen for two more years, because we only have two more years of show, we had to. We got in line at 9:30, it didn’t open until 11:00, and the line was already around the block. The line was CRAZY. I took a slight detour from the line, to get a Peanuts trucker hat, and omg, the lines for the outside/free to the public stuff on Saturdays and Sundays is THE WORST. But, I got to run into my main, Annelisa, so it was totally worth it. There was a great give away for X-Men: Apocalypse, and they had these awesome canvas totes, that they would not give to me. While we waited in line I talked to my favorite youtuber/producer/writer/actor Issa Rae, and it was everything to me. I encountered the busiest SubWay I have ever seen and never experienced so much anxiety over a sandwich. A pizza truck pulled up next to the GoT line and started selling personal pies out of the back. The lady behind us had the funniest laugh I’ve ever heard, and I could not record it, despite valiant efforts. We finally got in at 2:00. That’s right, 2:00 pm. I hate to say it, but it was pretty disappointing. It was mostly photo ops (which are a great giveaway, because they’re a personalized moment), but I expected more? The photos didn’t even turn out that great, tbh. They had a few costumes from the most recent season, and the most important part, taking a picture with The Iron Throne. However, right when we braved through and got to The Iron Throne, they stopped the line so a newscaster could film a story. We were so irritated at that point, Sirose and I, literally stood there and said “SHAME” over and over during her segment (if you’re caught up you totally get the reference and know we’re hilarious assholes).
After that, it was into the con. We saw two great cosplays I couldn’t get pictures of; Lego Heisenberg, and what we dubbed BoJack Stormtrooper - a guy in a Stormtropper uniform with a horse head mask on. Our friend George, had met up with us for the day, and he hilariously asked for selfies with nearly every cosplayer he saw. The exhibitor hall was set up very much like previous years. I really enjoyed what Weta had set up, as I always do. Hasbro and Mattel did amazingly again. Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were fun. DC, Marvel, Image and Boom were as expected. We only had < three hours to see the exhibitor hall before it closed, and we were on a mission to find a crucial item for our cosplay the next day. We did multiple laps at high speeds, couldn’t find it, almost gave up, and then 30 minutes before the hall closed, we saw a teen boy with it on, I accosted him, and we found it! Celebrations all around, and then back to the hotel.
Nicole was absent that day to attend to a family matter, so we decided to surprise her with a pizza party when she came back. We mixed several drinks. Katherine and Jonny came over to party with us. My two cents about the pizza fiasco can be summed up in the following tweet; .
