ComicCon - Day Four

Finally...the final chapter...

I let myself sleep in Sunday Morning...until 8am. I get up; get ready, pack (I brought an extra bag for the swag I accumulated - and I still ended up leaving a ton of it on the dresser for the hotel maids), stowed my stuff away with the hotel lobby and headed to the con.

I found myself not focusing on seeing any panels - – there were not really any I wanted to see - and basically just helped out at the Browncoat table and doing some last minute browsing. And here comes once again... Mr. Whedon. I talked to him for a few minutes and asked him about some differences I saw in the film last night. He graciously does more pictures and more autographs with others for about a half hour and the headed home – for good this time.

The lottery drawing went really well. The SF Browncoats ended up raising over 12 grand for Equality Now, Joss' favorite charity. I passed out flyers for the NE Browncoats online lottery that was 2 weeks later for thre same charity.

Spent the rest of the day at the table and helped out with the break down. Sadly by the time we finished I didn't have time to go to the Dead Dog dinner, as I had to catch my plane. So I headed off to the hotel, grabbed my stuff and got a ride to the airport from one of my newest friends where I waited my 3-flight/2-stop hell ride back home.

At the airport I got some dinner and waited for the plane. I couldn't wait to get on the plane, as I was so exhausted I could fall sleep standing up...and pretty much did. Once I got on board, I fell asleep before the plane even had taken off, my chair in its full, upright and back-killing position. Only the bump of wheels landing on the tarmac woke me. From there I had to jog the length of the Cleveland and Detroit airports to catch the other 2 flights. When I finally arrived back home to Providence airport, I was 5 hours late. If my plane got in on time, I would have had time to get a few hours sleep -– now I had to go right to work. I plod though the workday barely awake and go home, kiss my wife and kids hello and went right to bed.

It was an exhausting weekend to say the least. I killed myself physically - – my legs, feet and back took about a week to get back to full strength. I caught something on the plane and had a horrible head cold for days.

But the experience was well worth it. Was ComicCon my favorite con of all time? Of course not. In fact in it's own way it was a very cold convention - very much like a Creation Con without having to shell out a week's pay (ComicCon was $60 for the 4 day weekend - a virtual bargain given who you get to see and what you come home with). But it's an experience I would solidly recommend to all to do at least once. I myself would love to go again with my own friends someday if not to see the look of awe I had planted on my face when I first stepped in the place. And as much as I loved meeting new people and making new friends, I truly missed my old friends and wished they got to experience what I did. They would have loved it.