#NerdsUnite: Best Week Ever (Comic Con and My Birthday!)

Jul 21

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet Julie. You may know her already as Confessions of an Unwed Bride (her posts are SOOOO GOOOOOD!!!! So much soul in such a little body!!!) I digress ... she's got a whole lot more going on in that nerdy little noggin of hers, and wants to share said knowledge about general pop stufferino with you guys. Here is her latest ... HIT IT JULIE!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @ItsMeJoolie

Wow…what an absolutely amazing week this was! Comic Con and My 30th Birthday!

I didn't know how I was going to get onto the floor of Comic Con this year and I didn't know if I would have a place to stay. I only knew one thing: that come July 12, I would be in San Diego! It's that simple. I knew I was going to be in San Diego, I knew I'd at the very least hit up CC parties and at the very worst I would have to sleep in my car. Once you have that bottom line, you have nowhere to go but up! I used to plan things out perfectly, now I just live with the knowledge that things will work out, they will fall into place. You may have to hustle a bit to make it work, but in the end it will.

After realizing that I had slacked on getting a badge through TNTML, I started asking around. I'm blessed to have so many talented friends that could potentially get me a pass or maybe they might have a place for me to crash… "I'll have to see Julie, I'll let you know". So everything was very, very up in the air even just a mere week out from the event. But alas, everything beautifully came together at the last minute. @Leah_Cevoli was a speaker on a panel and was able to give me her guest pass! Then @MyMelodie let Jen and I stay at her place in San Diego. Perfect! Last year, I didn't have a pass and I slept in my car. So this was a huge improvement!!

I also took off of work this year, so I was able to go all of the days that I wanted to. So Jen and I drove down on Thursday morning and didn't hit any traffic. Score again! We parked the car in a hotel that said there was no parking for the convention (confidence will get you everywhere) and parted ways.

I went to go pick up my badge. Such a fabulous feeling! A badge with my own name on it!!! Squeee! I hit the convention floor for a bit, immediately overwhelmed by the vast amount of people and all the shininess that is Comic Con. Then I found @JohnSollitto and caught up with him.

A short while later it was time for Leah's panel, "The Most Dangerous Women at Comic Con". It was a nice mix of nerdy women. There was 10 chicks on the panel including Adrienne Curry, Patricia Tallman (Babylon5, NOTLD,Evil Dead 3) and moderated by Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl), a very kick-ass lady herself. There was a wide variety of questions asked including what have they/would they cosplay as and a whole discussion about booth babes (conclusion on that topic: they should know whatever it is that they are reppin').

And then it was already party time. Through the beauty of social media we found what turned into our resident bar for the weekend, The Propaganist (@PropagandistBar). We ended up there the following night, which was just a great, great night out. There's so much bullshit at Comic Con, so many "Are you on the list?" type of (crowded and boring) parties that it was so great to find a nice place to drink and hang out with friends.

Then Saturday came along. I had spent a lot of time partying and not nearly enough time doing what we should all be at Comic Con for, nerding out. I met up with my friend Jay because I knew that he and I are always on the same page with this kinda stuff. We walked around for hours and I'm pretty sure I still missed some stuff. One thing that has become my favorite thing to do at these conventions is take some time to visit with all of the artists and see their work. They are always friendly and quick to strike up conversation. While doing this, my eyes landed on a familiar name, Peter S. Beagle. I freaked. One of my favorite movies as a little girl was The Last Unicorn. Just loved it. I remember it coming on the Spanish station and watching it anyways because I knew all of the words. When I got older I bought the book and read that, too. I ended up buying a gorgeous illustrated version of the story and he signed it for me!! He was so humble, after I thanked him, he thanked me and I could tell he really, really meant it. As I walked away holding the book I joked, "Okay, I can go home now". We didn't stay out very late that night and left SD at a decent hour on Sunday and again, did not hit any traffic.

Everything was so great, but what made it really special was my amazing friends. What a great way to end my 20s!! Just amazing!

Then dun, dun, DUN! I turned 30 on Tuesday. Oh dear, Lord, I've been dreading this. No one wants to get older, but as a female, you lose value in the eyes of some guys, the media. So it can be hard to look forward to getting older. Again though, I have some great friends and an amazing boyfriend, so I really felt the love. My bf took me out to dinner on Monday night and got me a Jambox, which I have wanted forEVER! The boy had the most gorgeous flowers delivered to my office on Tuesday and then took me out to dinner again! We then headed over to play trivia with the gang. After it was over everyone sang me happy birthday. A great way to end the evening!

Here's the best part about turning 30. The wisdom I've gained and the self confidence and worth that I have grown into. I'm actually throwing myself a birthday party this weekend. I haven't done that since I was a child. I never thought anyone would come to my party and/or I was not social and literally didn't have many friends to party with. But now, I am beyond excited to see everyone that I care about gathered together.

"Don't dream it, be it."

Yes, easier said than done and I still have to work on that myself, but "if you build it, they will come."

Big thank you to all of my friends for making Comic Con and my birthday great and for being just totally awesome people.