A WEEKEND OF HIGHS AND LOWS

Celebrities, Tow trucks, cheeseburgers, empty wallets, happy younglings, and a Jedi secret exposed...

Last weekend I attended Phoenix Cactus Comicon for the first time. It was a mixture of Sci-Fi, Comics, and Anime. I really felt my age when I realized that I didn't recognize 99% of the costumes I saw. To me, comics are Charlie Brown and Donald Duck...and anime is just.... something I don't understand...

I mostly went because of the Rebel Legion, and because my real estate agent wanted to have an open house with us not at home.... So we needed someplace to go.... And I love to dress up in costumes...

I started off on Friday with the ups and downs of getting a display binder made and printed up for the RL table, while also getting my house ready for the open house. So I was grumpy when I got to the Con since I didn't have time to take a shower... and they were 15 minutes late opening the doors... and after we got the table set up, the head of the Con comes by and lets us know that anyone who works the table can get free passes... Would have been nice if he told us that when we booked the table... maybe $25 is cheap for three days, but $50 to Grampy and I right now is a fortune...

But on the up side of Friday, I wore my new Rebel Legion Knights of the Jedi Order tee-shirt and my CUSTOM HAND PAINTED STAR WARS SHOES courtesy of the Princess of Painting, Hansgirl... they were much admired by the group and all the kids they made me show them off to...I should have just sat with my feet up on the table…

We made it to the Film Fest kickoff, seeing a weird Star Wars fan film, a few episodes of Chad Vader, and then SPIRITS OF THE FORCE, written by and starring my friends Joel and Brenda of the Rebel Legion as Kyle Katarn and Jan Ors...

Saturday started out with more house crap, but we finally got away on time. My boots were sliding around so I decided to roll my socks down for padding.. which involves removing the boots, of course... and Grampy has to help me get them back on.... Which went fine until one zipper got stuck.... So there we are in Jedi garb, sitting at the RL table with my leg in his lap while all the galaxy discovered the great Jedi secret....we wear pink socks... good thing they couldn't see my flowered underpants...

The best time of the whole weekend was mid-day Saturday, when I helped put on a "Jedi Training Camp" for kids. I handed out lightsabers, kept younglings in line, played Master to an Apprentice, and let a couple of younglings beat me in a duel.... Then I remembered I had my pocket camera in the truck and shot a video of the next class... you can see it here, but the videography is obviously done with a pocket camera by someone who doesn't know what she's doing...

The only picture of my participation is of me in the background sitting on my Jedi butt holding the camera... and here I am standing next to "Master Bendeen" of Spirits of the Force… during the screening the night before, I leaned over to one of the women from the group and whispered," that’s a cool costume"… then he shows up Saturday wearing it… ROFL

Then we went to a Q&A session with Walter Koenig and Tim Russ of Star Trek fame about a new fan-film called Star Trek: Of Gods and Men which looks fairly cool, especially if you remember the original Star Trek the way I do... as a kid... it's a fan film, but with real actors...

They were out of seats so I stood in the back of the room and ended up chatting with the producer of the film! Then on the way out a snotty teenager pointed at my Jedi costume and asked, "Isn't this a conflict of interest?" Hey, space is space... it's either cool or it isn't, and I don't take sides based on the title... Not all of Star Trek sucks and not all of Star Wars is awesome....

BONUS PHOTOS:
Jedi A'Sahrad Hett with a Sandperson (named Cindy)
Our Rebel Legion State Captain and boyfriend
A Dancing Stormtrooper?
Young Indiana Jones
Mountain Base has HOT chicks

I can't remember who they're supposed to be... of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most...

Then a crisis arose when we discovered the food cart was out of hot dogs! So we went to McDonald's... a funny side note, when we arrived on Saturday morning, someone was pulling out of the closest handicap parking space to the entrance, and we took it... when we came back from McD's someone was pulling out of the second closest spot so we took it... the Force was truly with us... and then it left us as Grampy locked the keys in the truck....

And also in the truck were our wallets with the phone number to the auto club... but a quick call to Montana fixed that...LOL... I went inside to take my turn at the RL table while Grampy waited for the tow truck... which took 45 minutes to show up and then they guy didn't have any break-in tools... he tried to tell Grampy it was his own fault for locking the keys inside.... No, that's not the reason you don't have the right tools, moron....

After table duty we attended "Star Wars Q&A" with Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch, and Felix Silla. I remember Felix as Twiki on Buck Rogers back in the '80s, but he was also Cousin Itt on The Adams Family and the flying Ewok in Return of the Jedi. Seeing him next to Peter Mayhew was hysterical and they played it up... It was an amusing and entertaining hour...

Sunday, I put on my new Mara Jade costume for the first time besides wearing it for pictures... Grampy and I planned on going to the free photo booth, so I used makeup and hair spray, and got my fake braid over my shoulder just like Mara... wrapped up my boots...Grampy got all our props into the truck and we took off for the Con... and by the time we got there 10 mintues later it was like Kamino... I had a DUH moment, much like Obi-Wan must have had here...

I tried standing under the door of the camper shell while Grampy got the rest of his Yoda outfit on, but I was still getting soaked... and halfway across the parking lot he lost a foot off one shoe... we made it inside and I accessed my emergency Jedi supply pouch and fixed the foot...

Ever wonder what's in a Jedi’s pouches? Safety pins, hair pins, a compact, lipstick, breath mints, quarters for the Coke machine.... Important items for the survival of the galaxy...

After a touch up we went to the photo booth, and of course, we had to stop for several pictures along the way.... Of Yoda, not of me... and before we got to the booth he'd lost his OTHER foot, and one of my boots had come unwrapped.... I was so flustered that I forgot to take off my glasses for the picture... which was supposed to be available today online and still isn’t…

And no one refilled the Coke machines overnight…

Leaving the vendors' room was as difficult as entering it as far as stopping for pictures was concerned... so we stashed Yoda's head and hands under the RL table so we could go check out the artwork and stuff without distraction....

I took pictures of all the celebrities, and here's Felix Silla teasing me... and everyone's favorite wookie...


It really sucks to go to a con with no money.... I'm not into comic books, but there was artwork and toys and books.....And it really sucks when you're over 50 and ought not to be worrying about such things....it's ridiculous at our age to be living payday to payday... goddamn house has drained us dry....:rant: :rant: :rant: There weren’t even any good freebies, just anime junk…

I did buy a cool picture of the Battle of Hoth, and the artist signed it.... My first piece of SW art...

By three o'clock realized that that two elastic bands are not enough to hold the weight of my braid onto my real hair, and it was sliding lower and lower... so I took a hairpin and pinned it to the shoulder of my dress...

That picture of the biker scout at the urinal was in Sunday's paper, and I'm just glad the photographer wasn't hanging out in the ladies room.... Nose powdering, hair pinning, and brassiere adjustment would NOT do much for Mara's image...

After serving my table duty for Sunday, we went to a screening of the first part of Star Trek: Of Gods and Men and a reel of some hilarious Trek bloopers...

By then it was after five, and the RL table was closing down, which was good, because it was my dress dummy we were using... so we got our stuff, and headed out towards the parking lot... and it's Kamino all over again... I was so afraid to get my shiny new piece of SW art wet... so I rolled up the artwork and put it inside the free posters I had, and started out through the downpour... as I step out from under the overhang at the front door, the dress dummy under my arm bumps the lightsaber hanging on my belt and the sound goes off.... "Hey there's a Jedi around here," I hear someone say.

All the way across the parking lot (no close spaces this time) in the rain I hear, "hmmmm, swoosh, hmmm, hmmm"

So, would I go to the con all over again? Sure, if I can get in free....LOL

And the worse part of it all....not one person came to see my house.... {sigh}