Gather 'round, kids and I'll tell ya the story of Sac-Con Spring 2018!
All in all, the story is a pleasant one. Pictured above is my dear friend Danielle in her kick-ass Laura Croft costume with her way-cool reptile friend "Pretty Ricky", a lovely snek who joined the con along with the fine folk at the Sacramento Reptile Zoo.
However, while the con itself went smoothly enough, there was a hell of a backstory that went into it.
If you're not already following me on social media, allow me to regail you with the copy-pasted version of the story I wrote the literal night before the convention ;-)
So that was day one, and I gotta say, while that ordeal WAS stressful, the replacement wound up working out just great. The car was a great, smooth ride and got wonderful gas mileage. It was difficult to adjust to a vehicle that wasn't my own, but it didn't take too long. I arrived in Sacramento at Danielle's place in pretty decent time, despite the setbacks. We had a wonderful night out including some sushi and some musings on social justice. We laid our tired bones to rest pretty early that night because she knew she still had a few finishing touches to add to her marvelous Laura Croft costume and I... just like to take my damn time getting ready. We left my rental car parked in front of her house and piled all my STUFF into a Lyft and took that the rest of the way to the convention center. Once we got there, we ran into one minor kerfuffle because it felt like we couldn't find anyone who could agree on WHERE registration even WAS, so we went to like, three different tables looking for it... but once we found it, we got our badges (wristbands, in this case) relatively easily and were able to sit down and prep our station with relative ease. Sadly, my rustiness was showing as I only just then realized that I'd left my big, front-of-table banner at home (fuck) so I just had to go without. I was also slightly worried about my table placement. I was allll the way off to one side of the convention hall, usually not my favourite place to be, but it wound up working out alright, from a sales-perspective. It was only a one day convention, so naturally my sales weren't gonna be the best, but I did better than I thought I would.
I met some interesting people, took a LOTTA great PHOTOS, got some GREAT TOYS and generally just had a great time.
There WERE some down points, though.
Sadly, poor Danielle severely underestimated how much a certain type of person was going to just LOVE her Laura Croft costume, and by "a specific type of person" we mean "gross dudes". Laura was definitely an icon for gross dudes BACK IN THE DAY, but I think she and I both kinda of expected that after so long, that reputation had been completely buried by the awesomeness of the reboots (and the new movie), and that Laura was now considered a great action game star in her own right outside of being some kinda weird sex object. We thought wrong :(
For as many great, kind comments Danielle got on the amazing craftsmanship of her costume, there were at least two or three dudes who had some kinda creepy or gatekeepy thing to say, or maybe got a little TOO close for comfort in photographs.
*Le Sigh*
See, this is why I write TransCat.
Well, one of the many reasons I write TransCat.
I wanna be calling attention to THIS kinda behavior as much as possible so that maybe, HOPEFULLY we can drive it out, and make dudes who would act this way either too embarrassed to do it in public anymore, or else, just make them stay home altogether. Cuz like, by all means, if you gotta be pervy, BE pervy, just do it at home, plz. Not asking a lot.
The other kinda stupid thing that happened was this one dude, couldn't have been more than 15 or 16 came up to the table and started flippin' through one of the books. He seemed real interested at first, scanning the pages and whatnot, before finally looking up at me as he placed the book back down in it's little holder, and said "So uh... does she have a dick?" Me and Danielle almost in unison were like "WHAT?"
He started backing away and eventually sauntered off, but Danielle, like the badass she is, shot out of her seat and started talking VERY sternly "what the hell did you just say? No, come back here, say it again, say it again funny dude!" Of course he was too cowardly to apologize, let alone take Danielle up on her offer. I took a small amount of pleasure in scaring him off, but an even greater amount of pleasure in the fact that even the dude's friend, the one who walked up with, kinda stared at him in slack jawed disbelief as he meekly scampered away. I don't think even his friend expected him to be so tactless. I really hope the two of them had a good talk about how "I don't think i can go to things like this with you anymore if you're gonna keep being like this."
A girl an dream.
I'm very lucky, living where I do and frequenting the places i frequent, that I hardly EVER run into behavior like this from random passers by, but that makes it all the more jarring when a pleb DOES get through.
Oh well, let's hope he grows up someday ^___^
Like I said, it was only a one day convention, so the story isn't a long one.
I drove home that night after some bomb-ass burritos. I woke up monday morning to the good news that my car COULD be worked on that and would likely be done by the afternoon. I was able to save myself some dough by turning in my rental car a little early, and my old gal runs like a dream again. Happy ending!
Coming up next is Fanime, MAYBE San Francisco Comic-Con and then... and THEN... the BIG one... San Diego Comic Con!
The hype is real, ladies n' germs! Stay tuned for more details.
All in all, the story is a pleasant one. Pictured above is my dear friend Danielle in her kick-ass Laura Croft costume with her way-cool reptile friend "Pretty Ricky", a lovely snek who joined the con along with the fine folk at the Sacramento Reptile Zoo.
However, while the con itself went smoothly enough, there was a hell of a backstory that went into it.
If you're not already following me on social media, allow me to regail you with the copy-pasted version of the story I wrote the literal night before the convention ;-)
"'Kay nerds, are you ready for storytime?So, a few months ago, I was having trouble with my car. It did that thing where you start it, and it stalls a lil' bit and dies. My first thought was it was a battery problem, but AAA came out and said my battery was just fine, it was the Starter that was an issue.So I brought my car over to my local garage, and the mechanic asked me to turn it on for him, and I did. Of course, THIS time, the car started perfectly, didn't show any signs of trouble, so he was like "it sounds okay to me, but bring it back if it gives you any more trouble".Flash forward a few months, and I'm in SF at a friend's place, and my dang car does this AGAIN, except this time, it starts up just fine again after letting it idle for a few minutes. At this point it's easy to put out of my mind, since I was able to drive home, no incident.Flash forward to JUST LAST NIGHT!I'm in Redwood City, picking up my buddy from the Cal Train station. He has his bike with him so we dismantle the bike as best we can, stick it in my trunk and back seat, and we're all ready to have a fun night on the town, dinner and whatever, but as soon as we're all situated and ready to go... my car does the THING again.I'm like "don't worry, give it a couple minutes and it'll start right back up. We wait, I try again, Dead. I'm starting to get scared, but I try again after another few minutes. Dead.Fuck.Long story short, he and his girlfriend whom we were gonna meet up with wound up taking the train home, and I had to call a tow truck. The driver arrived and thankfully he knew a little about cars, so before hooking me up to the tow he tried giving me a jump, he tried starting the car a few times and listening to the noises it made, tried locating the starter, which proved difficult since it was night time and all he had was a little flashlight, but in the end he came to the conclusion that the Starter was in fact, shot, and I DID need a tow.Sadly, there's not a lotta mechanics open on Friday night, so we just went to the mechanic I went to before, and dropped my car off on the curb, next to his building. I left a message on his machine that I hope he gets to Monday morning, telling him what happened and that I need his help A.S.A.P.In the MEAN TIME... I still have a comic convention trip to plan. What's a girl to do except rent a car for the weekend? Thankfully, my mom helped me track down a really good deal on one. I picked it up this morning and I'm ACTUALLY feeling pretty good about it. It's a pretty good car. Ford Focus. It DID cost $150 to rent for the weekend, so that hurts a little ;_; but it's better than no car at all, so I can't complain too much.
So that was day one, and I gotta say, while that ordeal WAS stressful, the replacement wound up working out just great. The car was a great, smooth ride and got wonderful gas mileage. It was difficult to adjust to a vehicle that wasn't my own, but it didn't take too long. I arrived in Sacramento at Danielle's place in pretty decent time, despite the setbacks. We had a wonderful night out including some sushi and some musings on social justice. We laid our tired bones to rest pretty early that night because she knew she still had a few finishing touches to add to her marvelous Laura Croft costume and I... just like to take my damn time getting ready. We left my rental car parked in front of her house and piled all my STUFF into a Lyft and took that the rest of the way to the convention center. Once we got there, we ran into one minor kerfuffle because it felt like we couldn't find anyone who could agree on WHERE registration even WAS, so we went to like, three different tables looking for it... but once we found it, we got our badges (wristbands, in this case) relatively easily and were able to sit down and prep our station with relative ease. Sadly, my rustiness was showing as I only just then realized that I'd left my big, front-of-table banner at home (fuck) so I just had to go without. I was also slightly worried about my table placement. I was allll the way off to one side of the convention hall, usually not my favourite place to be, but it wound up working out alright, from a sales-perspective. It was only a one day convention, so naturally my sales weren't gonna be the best, but I did better than I thought I would.
I met some interesting people, took a LOTTA great PHOTOS, got some GREAT TOYS and generally just had a great time.
There WERE some down points, though.
Sadly, poor Danielle severely underestimated how much a certain type of person was going to just LOVE her Laura Croft costume, and by "a specific type of person" we mean "gross dudes". Laura was definitely an icon for gross dudes BACK IN THE DAY, but I think she and I both kinda of expected that after so long, that reputation had been completely buried by the awesomeness of the reboots (and the new movie), and that Laura was now considered a great action game star in her own right outside of being some kinda weird sex object. We thought wrong :(
For as many great, kind comments Danielle got on the amazing craftsmanship of her costume, there were at least two or three dudes who had some kinda creepy or gatekeepy thing to say, or maybe got a little TOO close for comfort in photographs.
*Le Sigh*
See, this is why I write TransCat.
Well, one of the many reasons I write TransCat.
I wanna be calling attention to THIS kinda behavior as much as possible so that maybe, HOPEFULLY we can drive it out, and make dudes who would act this way either too embarrassed to do it in public anymore, or else, just make them stay home altogether. Cuz like, by all means, if you gotta be pervy, BE pervy, just do it at home, plz. Not asking a lot.
The other kinda stupid thing that happened was this one dude, couldn't have been more than 15 or 16 came up to the table and started flippin' through one of the books. He seemed real interested at first, scanning the pages and whatnot, before finally looking up at me as he placed the book back down in it's little holder, and said "So uh... does she have a dick?" Me and Danielle almost in unison were like "WHAT?"
He started backing away and eventually sauntered off, but Danielle, like the badass she is, shot out of her seat and started talking VERY sternly "what the hell did you just say? No, come back here, say it again, say it again funny dude!" Of course he was too cowardly to apologize, let alone take Danielle up on her offer. I took a small amount of pleasure in scaring him off, but an even greater amount of pleasure in the fact that even the dude's friend, the one who walked up with, kinda stared at him in slack jawed disbelief as he meekly scampered away. I don't think even his friend expected him to be so tactless. I really hope the two of them had a good talk about how "I don't think i can go to things like this with you anymore if you're gonna keep being like this."
A girl an dream.
I'm very lucky, living where I do and frequenting the places i frequent, that I hardly EVER run into behavior like this from random passers by, but that makes it all the more jarring when a pleb DOES get through.
Oh well, let's hope he grows up someday ^___^
Like I said, it was only a one day convention, so the story isn't a long one.
I drove home that night after some bomb-ass burritos. I woke up monday morning to the good news that my car COULD be worked on that and would likely be done by the afternoon. I was able to save myself some dough by turning in my rental car a little early, and my old gal runs like a dream again. Happy ending!
Coming up next is Fanime, MAYBE San Francisco Comic-Con and then... and THEN... the BIG one... San Diego Comic Con!
The hype is real, ladies n' germs! Stay tuned for more details.
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