Dragon*Con goes on for another day – but I’m out of it for this year.

Yesterday was mom & Jeff day (filled with awesome), and today was my celebrity birthday day.

No misogynistic / sexist dumbsh*t today (so that was nice). Also saw a lot of references to the idea that cosplay isn’t consent – including from Dragon*Con itself. I think in some ways the ruckus started by Scalzi and the co-sign post that came immediately after did a lot towards making that an open topic for comment. I will never really know for sure, because this was my first Con – but I do know that D*C made a BIG deal out of adding that “more clearly” to their policies post-Scalzi-post.

Onto the skills I learned today… the vendor stuff was in a totally separate building, which made choosing to shop VERY active and I like that a lot.

I like that accidentally I have figured out that I am WAY less likely to buy Stuff if I have gotten over my (badge night) t-shirt envy, and I’ve been surrounded by stunning, creative, craftsmanship for a day or two. The box (ordered from amazon to sell at D*C) doesn’t look so tempting, and if a t-shirt is clever I’ve seen it 20 times and don’t need it. If it isn’t clever … well, I don’t need it then either. Also a level of exhaustion to make me really consider if I want to carry it for four more hours helps too.

I had three celebrity pictures taken. I got four celebrity autographs. I’m glad I did both as it totally stripped me of any notion that being a celebrity at these things would be fun. It is appeared to be tough to (1) Not have anybody want to come up to you, (2) have such a huge line that you can ONLY churn out the work you are being paid for in that moment, or (3) to have people only be interested in the work you did 25 years ago. It looked exhausting, and soul churning.

All of that being said, Ed Asner made me burst into tears, Peter Davison was lovely, George Takei was as awesome as you would hope for, and John Barrowman is just a complete f*cking delight. Hell even the Yellow power ranger (not the douchetool white / green guy) was charming. It made remember to say “thank you” over and over again.

I’ll do this again. It was great fun. I’m exhausted now and need to go to bed.

Oh. In a world full of Whovians it was easy to find others. I saw 5 references to Welcome to Night Vale – and my shirt was commented on by a half-dozen more. It was fun to find a sub-tribe in such a huge mass. I’m sad I didn’t take a picture of “Waiting for the Bus in the Rain” woman – because she NAILED IT.

My husband gave this to me as a birthday gift. He did good.