My sorta kinda late San Diego Comic-Con recap!

So, my dreams came true and I finally got to attend San Diego Comic-Con!  And it was EVERYTHING! Glorious, amazing, fun, overwhelming, tiring, exhausting, exciting, fantastic and a whole lot of other things I can’t think of right now because I still have con brain(even a couple of weeks later)  and my thoughts are all YIPPEECRAZYBALLSHUBBAHUBBALOOKATHIMOVERTHEREOWWYEAHWHEEEE when I try to think about how to explain it all!  Sooo, forgive this recap if it’s all over the place; I’m still recovering from my brain being splintered from joy! I will say that if you are a fan of tv, movies, comics, celebrities, books, sci fi, paranormal, cartoons and basically anything in popular culture, you should put Comic-Con on your radar.  There was something for everyone….many somethings for everyone and its was just such a good atmosphere.  It felt like everyone was just so happy to be at Comic-Con and just so happy for everyone else that was there with them.  I’ll be carrying all of my happy feelings from Comic-Con with me for a while; it was just one big ball of fun!

There’s no way I can recap it all; it’s mind-blowing how much stuff is going on for those few days, both in and around the convention center. My sister @QueenCityE and  I tried to do as much as we could, whether the events required a badge or not.  There was just so much to choose from.  I’m just going to hit the highlights and post some of my fave pictures.

-First, our hotel was fantastic!  Kudos to the Westgate Hotel for EVERYTHING!  The fanciness, the food, the turndown service, the top notch toiletries, the 24 hour room service, the scented air in the lobby…just everything was amazing!  And, being 10 blocks from the convention center meant we were close enough to walk if we wanted but far enough away from all of the hustle and bustle around the convention center to really get some quality rest each night.

-We got to meet Gini Koch and fellow members of her Hook Me Up! Gang.  Had dinner with them all twice and it was lovely!  The get together is an annual occurrence and I hope I’m able to attend again in the future.  Nice talking  cons, books, sci-fi, romance, pop culture and, of course, MARVEL MOVIES! :-)

-The only panel  that was a MUST for me was the This Week in Marvel podcast on Thursday; as long; as I got into that, anything else I was able to do was gonna be gravy.  I not only made it to the podcast but asked a question and got a Disney Infinity Cap figure for my trouble, I got to fist bump one of my Twitter faves, @AgentM and got to see special guest Tom DeLonge! YAY! Also, since the podcast was in the San Diego Library, which was also the place where the Art of Comic-Con Exhibit was, we took a look at that while we were there, as well. 

-I got to see the premiere of the animated movie Justice League: Gods and Monsters, an alternate universe story.  So good but so not for little kids; be warned!  But if you like your violence graphic and your language coarse…look this one up when it comes out later this month!

-I made it into the legendary Hall H for a couple of panels, my fave of which was the Heroes Reborn panel, partly because I’m so excited for the new show but also because Zach Levi (more on him later!) . The Scream Queens/American Horror Story joint panel was pretty good too;  Kathy Bates and Jamie Lee Curtis were hilarious and Matt Bomer was really, really attractive.  And Angela Bassett was, as usual, FLAWLESS.

-I spent time at the Nerdist Conival which was put on by the Nerdist, Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls and Felicia Day’s Geek and Sundry at Petco Park.  It was free and FAB!  I got to see Chris Hardwick and Elijah Wood, hung out with the co-founder of Smart Girls, Meredith Walker and saw some pretty sweet cosplayers; my fave was the family Reno 911 cosplay! 

-By far, I had the most fun at Nerd HQ, another free event that didn’t require a badge.  Nerd HQ offers opportunities to drink, take pics with celebs and see panels with celebs (for a small fee) and dance, all in the name of charity. The lines are much shorter to see some of the same people you have no chance of seeing in Hall H unless you’re spending nights in line. Zach Levi is the brains behind Nerd HQ and also very visible at Nerd HQ, both on the panels, in the photo booths and on the dance floor.  And he’s really, really attractive, in case you didn’t know.  Just sayin.  I saw Dylan O’Brien at Nerd HQ but I didn’t get a pic…because fangirling.  I also saw Zach, Julie Plec (writer of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals), Gabe Sachs (writer of Freaks and Geeks), Retta, Yvette Nicole Brown and Scott Porter.  And met a bunch of fun folks, sat next to dancing dinosaurs, saw Chewbacca get twerked on on the dance floor, met a Twitter buddy and fangirled over one of my fave tweeters. Nerd HQ was nothing but good times; can’t wait to go back!

-Possibly my favorite part of the whole experience was the Nerdist live broadcast at the Balboa Theatre on Saturday with Tom Hiddleston, Gullermo del Toro and Maisie Williams, as well as the Nerdist regulars Chris Hardwick, Matt Mira and Jonah Ray.  I frequently listen to the Nerdist podcast at work and in my car and am a big fan but I loooooooooooooooooooooove Tom Hiddleston…like LOOOOOOOOOOVE and getting to see him in person was the PERFECT topper to a wonderful trip!  Honestly, the hold up on posting this recap has been my agonizing over which pictures of Tom to post.  Ummm, I took a buuuuuuuuunch of pictures of Tom!  Heh. And in one of them, he's looking RIGHT AT ME; you can't tell me he's not, dammit! 

My trip to Comic-Con ended up being everything I wanted it to be and more than I could’ve hoped it would be.  It’s two weeks later and I’m still floating from the experience.  It was once the number one item on my bucket list and now I’ve checked it off.  But, I’ll be going back!  Now that I’m a veteran SDCC-goer, I know that even if I don’t have tickets to the con itself, it’s still worth the trip to San Diego to just experience the atmosphere and everything else going on.  And I plan to do just that!  Big thanks to @Crazy4ComicCon, @SD_Comic_Con and @friendsofcci for all the tips and tricks and suggestions that helped me get my tickets and my hotel, keep my sanity and feel like I had some understanding going in; all of your help was much appreicated!  If you are interesting in attending Comic-Con in the future, I suggest you give them all a follow. And HUGE thanks to my buddies @jaymzangel, @EthiopianSiren, @mundungus42  (thanks for the introduction, @DawnaMaeWilson) , who are all Comic-Con vets who passed on advice to me that was invaluable! It’s lovely to have such great people in my life!

The pics below are just a sampling of it all; San Diego, the Convention Center, Nerd HQ, the panels, the people, the events, the everything!  Thanks for stopping by to take a look! (If you're on the computer, click on the "i" in the slideshow window to see my captions,)  Enjoy!