I'm free! Free at last. Thank you, Baby Jesus.

Okay, so WonderCon is finally over and I can RELAX. So nice.... Okay, so here was my WonderCon Experience:

My first day was Saturday and I went as neighbor Dan's assistant so I was pro-passing it up. We get there about an hour after it's started and all the way there are some of the worst dressed people I've seen in years. They weren't even in costume; they were just kind of sad. We get inside and it's completely crowded which was a bit frightening. We went along and talked to some of Dan's friends. Two of the first people we meet are Mr. Lobo (a late-night horror film host) and The Queen of Trash, who is a power lifter, stage wrestler, character in a comic, and occasional side-kick to Mr. Lobo. She's also a shiny and wonderful person who can be a bit intimidating at first in that she's 6'1" and, when I met her, was wearing shoes that added another six inches or so onto that.

So we continue on our little journey and talk to all of Dan's heroes and friends and it's lots of spectator fun for me, since I don't know any of these people or what to say to them. At one point in the day Dan had to go give blood so I was left to wander on my own. TERRIFYING. There's no experience on earth to rival the fear that comes across you when you realize that you're a lone girl in a convention full of sexually frustrated comic geeks. I've never in my life felt like a 'piece of meat' before that prolonged period of solitary meandering and I hope never to repeat the experience. So the day progressed and I bought some comics: Ojo and Portrait Of the Warlock As a Young Man, and some cute stickers from a booth. Oh, and I also, while on my own, found this comic called The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. There was a pleasant enough looking young man sitting at the table so I told him what a great idea it was and how I hoped it would be as hilarious and I imagined. He proceeded to tell me that it wasn't supposed to be funny. I felt awkward for a long moment and then told him "Make it funny, it has to be funny." I'm not sure he really appreciated that but I gave him the name of a really humorous Lovecraft-influenced novel that I'd read and he seemed happy enough for that..

Sunday was more fun for me. We got there just as the doors were opening so it wasn't crowded yet. Dan took me to go speak to some of his friends including comic artist Keith Knight who was wearing a lovely Houndstooth apron that was both sexy (he's a very attractive man) and functional with its pocket. We also went to see these two lovely men who were working on a Luchador Noir comic. There we very nice and entertaining. We spent MOST of the morning hanging out with The Queen of Trash who is, again, a super nice person and I'll miss her now that she's gone home to Sacramento. I did, however, sneak away at one point to talk to the nice guy who has an autobiographical comic out called Elephant Eater. He's a really pleasant young man and I liked to pretend we were friends.

The day progressed quickly. We met some more people, saw some interesting booths. Eventually we decided it was time to eat. We went over to the Chevy's across the street and I had a margarita, then I had another. That's right; I got drunk and went back to WonderCon like a wayward teenager. We went one last time to the booth where the writer of Looking Glass Wars was stationed. He's a very nice man and fun to talk to and apparently really likes margaritas because he demanded that I tell him where I got mine. Then Dan went off to buy comics for cheap and I went off to get some cute buttons that I'd seen a friend of Dan's wearing with a cute little kitten on it that said "I hate you". So I went and bought five different buttons from them as they were $1 each and I got two extras for free and a hug for being so cute (personality, not looks). Then I said goodbye to the adorable Keith Knightly and the sweet author of Elephant Eater who drew me a picture. While I was getting my picture drawn, Raphael from the noir luchador comic came up to talk to me and decided that he must draw me something too so we migrated back to his table and he made me a drawing of a lemur eating a cactus just like I asked. And then it was time to head home; the horror of poorly dressed nerds and people fighting tooth-and-nail to get at boxes of 50% off trade comics over at last. One haunting image will, I fear, stay with me forever, though: A young man trying on a leather jerkin and looking in the full-length mirror with an expression that quite clearly said "this jerkin is TOTALLY going to get me laid." .....and the worst part is that, in the confines of WonderCon, it probably would do just that....

Okay, I just got my first job ever (excluding those two weeks at Boston Market in Highschool) and it's wonderful! I get to work at a bakery and it's totally a "local" place. It's the Cheers of baked goods. And I get to take specialty cake orders and stuff. I don't get to MAKE the cakes or anything, but I do get to package them sweetly. Be proud of me!

Alright, so I'm out of college now and am looking for a job. Unfortunately all I want to do is lay around on my ass and do nothing; so that's what I'm going to do for a while until my parents force me to get a job. Hopefully I'll get bored with living the do-nothing life style before that. Maybe I'll actually get around to do something productive, like drawing, some time soon. We'll see. God, but I'm a bad 'artist'.

Lisa

Howdy!
Well, It's end of semester and I'm still not doing much work. I can't help it. There are so many more entertaining things than sitting in front of Maya or fillng out x-sheets. Now that Brittany, my apartment-mate, has finally turned 21 I get to take her out to the bars and show her off. Hopefully she'll have a good experience tonight and become a regular at Johnny Foley's like me.
It's back to Kansas for a month soon. I can't wait to drive around and admire the greenery. So much better than walking around and avoiding the human feces. Ohhhh yeah.