CON-ventional Wisdom

Well I'm back in the land of the ordinary this morning, babies, husband, housework...oh my. I have a stack of editing to get done and, as always, I need to be writing, stat. Still I feel like taking a moment to debrief and reflect on the events of the weekend and my great escape to the science fiction convention....

The was my first con, so as I stepped cautiously into the universe of Uber fans, cat girls, and star fleet regiments, I had a lot to learn. The professionals and guests provided a diverse schedule of panels and instruction all of which was fabulous. I now have a (treasured) six tape science/space library that I will most definitely re-experience at my leisure. But in the end, it turned out that the biggest things I had to learn were things about myself. Read on, and you'll understand just how serious a learning experience all this fun turned up.

What I learned at the Con:

#1- I'm too old for Cosplay. The sad truth is, I will never be wearing my Sailor Mars costume in public again. I just won't. Even though it's fabulous and I made it myself and I'm terribly proud of it. Na uh. Even if I lose the last bit of baby belly and buff up like Xena Warrior Princess, the costume stays in the closet. Sighs of relief are being breathed around the world. Seriously, I watched the young-uns having a blast in their costumes. They looked great, they were having so much fun, the costumes exhibited so much work, and I just thought to myself... uh, no.
I did it in my twenties, and enjoyed it dammit. But sometime in the last uhng mnum years I became too conservative, too cranky, too conformist, too irritable. Just too damned old.
If I don my Bajoran earring, well it's just jewelry right? If I pin on a ST communicator it'll be over my street clothes. I think I'm comfortable with that.

#2- Patricia Briggs is a really awesome person. She really is. Let me qualify that by saying, I was not a fan going into this thing and I've never read one of her books. I know, I know, she's huge in my genre. Give me a break, I'm lucky to find time to read at all. Still, I'll be reading her books now, let me tell you. While she claims to be shy, I found her: personable, intelligent, charismatic, funny as hell and genuine. Her husband's pretty awesome too... SO, what I learned from this is that should I ever be in the position to attend one of these things in a professional capacity, I want to be: personable, intelligent, charismatic, funny as hell, and genuine. Okay, I'll work on it. I should have plenty of time to practice.

#3- Talk NASA to me...
I'm a space geek, that's not big news. Anyone who hangs out with me long enough gets used to the fact that I switch to the NASA channel whenever noone's looking. I do. Until this weekend, my little obsession was nurtured in private, after the family was to bed, in the wee hours of some Saturday when I'd slip away unnoticed to curl up in front of the TV and watch a launch. Incidentally, I had no idea how much I would enjoy being surrounded by space geeks, talking space, basking in the auras of professionals in the field. I spent the weekend swooning. There's no greater point to this one. Just...talk NASA to me. I like it.

#4- Storm Troopers are sexy. Well, actually, it's the armor. It doesn't matter one snit who's inside it. I may be too old to Cosplay myself, but there's still a 19-22 year old fan girl buried in there somewhere. Who would have guessed that she'd have such a primal, visceral reaction to a man in white plastic? My cheeks got warm, my pulse raced, I giggled. giggled. Gods help me. I found myself blushing uncontrollably every time we passed the Star Wars group. It was embarrassing, but I couldn't help it. I've been a lifelong fan of the trilogy (the real, original one) but I would have thought it'd be Vader that tripped my trigger. Maybe the Han fan in the black cargo pants...?? Nope. Nada. But my knees go gooshy near the storm trooper. What can I say, I like evil. I thought to myself, thank heavens I never did these things as a teenager/young adult. Thank gods this isn't a mega con. I can't imagine being surrounded by groups of STroopers, but I suspect I'd have to be restrained. Don't you judge me. Okay, go ahead. Also, if you know where I can get a reasonable deal on a set of full body, white plastic, articulated...well you get the idea.

*Still blushing**
~Frances