Part 1 – The Airport Terminal
I need a laptop.
I’ve been at the airport for about an hour… everything was pretty easy (Chelle rules!). I really like how huge, open, and clean this place is. I don’t like how cold it is… sitting in the cold waiting reminds me of hospital waiting rooms.
I killed some time skimming magazines in a nearby magazine store, but more time writing the letter to the reader for the Chaos Campus Preview. A rough draft was already written, but it needed a cleaner second draft. Typing will be the third and final draft. I still have to write one for the ChiSai Preview.
Our flight is delayed by 20 mins. The woman assures us everyone will make their connections… unless they’re LAX. Which from the looks of people’s reactions that happens a lot with LAX. Mental note: No LAX for me.
Part 2 – The Arrival
(Everything is now on PST)
I made it to San Diego in one piece and on time (actually about 30 mins early).
Currently the joints in my right hand are aching a bit from the longer flight (Mental note: No trying to sleep on hands so high in the air). I drank my V8 when the ride began and a tomato juice around mid flight. Maybe those helped, maybe they didn’t.
So yeah, we’re here about 30 mins early and I have that time to kill as I wait for Nelson. It sucks that my cell phone doesn’t work in this part of the country.
*looks around* Okay, Louisville’s airport is larger and cleaner than this one… blah…
Part 3 – The Hotel
This trip was not planned so well. Well, at least the meet and greet part.
I realized late that I was still upstairs at the airport so I made my way downstairs to a HUGE FUCKING CROWD of people. Nelson doesn’t really know me by face, nor I with him… but even if we did finding each other would be like a needle in a haystack mission. My cell phone doesn’t work here so I had to decide: Try to make it to the hotel myself or try to make it to O’Bryant’s home. Knowing O’Bryant is rarely at home I opted for the hotel.
That was an adventure. An adventure that sucked ass. I’ll save you the gory details, but after a TON of trouble I finally made it to the Holiday Inn. So… here I am in the room watching Seinfeld and wondering if Richard is still out looking for me…
Part 4 – Day One
I ended up needing food after Seinfeld and went down and ordered a club plate from the cute Polish/Chezh woman in the cafe. She brought it up and it was good… but it was like four sandwiches on one plate with fries and two apple juices. I ate half of it.
I went to sleep and Nelson came in around 3am after going out drinking with O’Bryant and to a strip club. He saw me in one of the beds and the leftover food sitting out and though his key opened the wrong room. That was funny.
We were up and out early to get good parking and then we met up with O’Bryant for breakfast. The cafe was near a huge and beautiful body of water and the view kept grabbing my attention as we ate. If I lived there and had a laptop I’d be at that cafe every morning to write (in theory). I had French toast, bacon, and eggs which would be my running breakfast theme for the trip.
After standing in line forever for my pro badge (which is nowhere near as good as the exhibitor badge- mental note for next time) I met writer/actor Kevin Grevioux near the end. I shook his hand, but didn’t have time to make small talk as the line was finally moving. I didn’t have any cards, postcards, or books on my to give him. Damn.
Inside the convention I was a postcard passing out machine (and standing on my feet so much kicked my ass later on in the evening and later in the trip… why couldn’t I have brought sandals? Why am I comfortable wearing boots?). We finally met Tony Lee in the flesh and he’s even cooler in person than online! His passport was stolen adding him to our growing tally of arrival mishaps (Nelson’s flight left early causing him to catch a 3 hour later flight). Tsuda finally arrived frustrated as his computer died before he left (sounds like mine), his plane was late, and his room wasn’t ready for check in when he arrived. Yeesh!
More events I can’t remember… later after the con we met up with Tony and the Digital Webbing crew at a bar. Our bartender was one of the HOTTEST women I’ve ever seen. It was sooo nice being able to sit at a bar and not be assaulted with cigarette smoke!
There are record highs in some parts of CA… two places made 119 and 120 degrees. Glad I’m not there! San Diego has a nice dark cool thing going on early in the day, super hot in the afternoon, and cool again in the evening.
P.S. We got back in too late to hit up the hot tub, so I have to settle for sitting in a hot bathtub. My legs are still going to kill me tomorrow. *groan*
Part 5 – Day Two
For the most part, quick hits:
More breakfast, same spot, same meal. O’Bryant and Nelson are a trip. The view never gets old. I really like watching the crabs on the rocks at the shore.
More waiting in line… I repeat, the pro badge sucks. Exhibitor is where it’s at.
Panel 1- Comics to Movies- Saw Stan Lee. Didn’t stay to the end so I didn’t get to shake his hand. I should have. I don’t remember why I left early.
Walked around the smaller tables and collected cards and freebies. Most will probably be given out to the crew at the next meeting.
Back to the booth… more postcards to give out… still trying to sell comics.
Panel 2- Blacks in Comics- I forgot to bring flyers and comics, but I did pass around business cards.
Tsuda and I went to the artist alley pro area and gave copies of Myriad to Buzz and Mike Lilly (who is cool as hell). I think I gave copies to Adam Hughes… I hope to God I did.
We went to a restaurant called “Dicks”… where they have good food and service, but they’re supposed to be a dick to you. Interesting concept. We stayed past midnight.
Part 6 – Day Three
Quick hits again…
We’re all dead dog tired, so we’re turning in early.
Today was the busiest day of the con, so the parking garage filled early. We made it, but O’Bryant didn’t. No breakfast for him. 🙁
The postcards did well on the freebie table.
Went to the Writer’s Panel and the Minority Report… passed out cards, postcards, and comics. Networking… you know me.
After the con we were dying of hunger so we ate at some close restaurant that was super expensive. But it was good (enough).
I’m going through the bag full of loot now… getting rid of the doubles. I plan on hitting the rest of the convention hard tomorrow as it is the final day.
Part 7 – Day Four
SDCC comes to a close and I’m at the airport. I’m so tired and I can’t wait to go back to Louisville to sleep for a few days and recharge. Sooooo drained.
I didn’t have time to take many pictures here… and a lot of times I just didn’t think to bring the camera. Doh! The few I have will be cool though… I hope they don’t accidentally erase or something.
I did a lot of networking, met a lot of new people, met a lot of online people, and got a ton of stuff.
Well, more to come later perhaps. For now I have comics to read…
