Megacon 2013 Report (minus the drool)

Ok, maybe a little drool. 

Dave is now required to dress as Capt Jack everyday, from now on. Unnf.

Anyhotness, on to a proper recap of our Megacon 2013 experience. Holden, Dave and I arrived in our Doctor Who Cosplay-finest and were a bit surprised that despite getting the advanced tickets, we still had to wait a good 45 minutes to get our wrist bands. In fact at the time, the walk-ins were getting their wrist bands quicker than us. Not a huge deal, but the line was FOREVER and a bit anti-climatic for us. But we were in line with our friends Sarah and Daniel and their boys, so we had a good time just chatting and checking out the cosplay.

Holden was a Rock Star for the day once again. There were tons of Doctors of various regenerations running around, but he was definitely the cutest. I may be a bit biased.

Thank you to the sister of this adorable teen Doctor for sending me this and the following picture. You guys are the best!

If I had a dollar for every picture of Dave with his eyes closed I could build my own Tardis.

Since Friday is Holden's only day at Megacon he gets to choose the path and what we see/do. Which drives me a little batty as my inclination is to methodically walk up and down every row. While with Holden the path is more that of a deranged bumblebee. But he was happy and enjoying the attention. Naturally we spent a fair amount of time around the Lego booths, and the  501st and other Builder's Booths where:

We questioned the intentions of our fellow Con-goers.

Holden was attacked by a Rancor.

And we fought a Dalek. While 2-R2 units stood idly by, apparently. 

And took some proper family photos.

We heard several shouts of "Parenting, you're doing it right!" I know that's a bit of an Internet cliche' at this point, but it was still a very nice compliment. Who's to say how long Holden will want to do the family cosplay with us. I'm hoping to get a few more years out of it, but I'm a realist. I'm sure he's going to go through the 'my parents are awesome-my parents are lame- my parents are awesome' phases we all go through, and I'm as prepared for that as I can be, I think.

                                  In the meantime, we'll have as much fun with him as we can. 

Always with the running. The questions is, if you see Capt Jack and the Doctor running, do you run with them or in the opposite direction?

Speaking of running, after the Ken Spivey Band concert (Doctor Who themed-music) Saturday night, we literally ran in our Jack and Rose costumes all the way through the convention hall and back to the hotel because we were tight on time. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't really enjoy doing that and imagining we were running to/from something dangerous. Yes, I am 8 years old.

Any-immaturity, Friday evening the Daves took the boys home, while us wives hung out and pre-gamed. Ok, I pre-gamed. The other two were well-behaved.

"Gimmee a beer, let's play dress-up!" is not an uncommon thing to hear at our Shop parties.

When they got back, the Daves, Lindsay and I went to the bar/club in the Rosen Hotel where the Villian's Party was to happen the following night. Dave was still in his Capt Jack get-up but I wanted to try out my Cyberpunk. Unfortunately all the other Megacon folks must have been elsewhere, cause we were the only ones there in costume. And of course, as Jack, Dave can blend in a crowd. But staying true to our philosophy of "zero fucks to give" we danced liked idiots and had a great time regardless.

On Saturday we put on our Steampunk and hit the convention floor again. It was so wonderful to wear comfortable, flat boots. My Rose boots were surprisingly uncomfortable and have you seen the Cyberpunk boots? Oh right, hold on we're almost there. We had run into Jen from Cake Wrecks and Epbot the day before, but she was in plain clothes. On Saturday, Dave was buying our tickets for the Villian's party and I hear, "Patti!" and I turn around and there she is in her Lady Vadore finery!

This picture does it no justice. Go here to see it properly. 

And for the record, lest it sound like Jen and I are great friends (though I would love it if we were, I think she and her husband John are awesome)....we found them on Friday and reintroduced ourselves. We had met briefly last year at Megacon. But she or John did recognize me and remember my name on Saturday...so I don't think for a second I wasn't bragging about that all day.

Oh and what did Dave wear for Steampunk Saturday?

Fashionable Day Wear for the Casual, but Adventurous Steampunk.

The convention floor was crazy crowded on Saturday and made me feel a lot less bad for making Holden go home Friday night. If we had let him stay he would have just been looking at asses all day. We had to take several breaks, not because we were tired, but just because it was so packed we were getting mental.

Eventually we could take no more and we went back to the hotel to grab some dinner and a nap before we went back in our Doctor Who cosplay for the Ken Spivey Concert. I've already given you the main highlight of that in the previous post, but suffice it to say that it was a really fun time. I wasn't sure what to expect but the folks there were quite friendly and fun. Jack-I'm-Married-To and Rose (me) waltzed and then we were joined by Jack-I'm-Not-Married-To and the Tenth Doctor. Squeee.

You didn't think I wasn't going to include another picture of him did you?

After that it was a mad scramble back to the hotel to get in our Cyberpunk gear for the Villian's Party. 

Looking like extras from a 70s sci-fi movie.

But with LED lights. Fun for blinding other club-goers with.

The Villians' party was cool. Dave and Lindsay hadn't bought their tickets ahead of time and I guess they weren't letting anyone else in at the door so they couldn't join us which was a major bummer. But Sarah did. Which was awesome as apparently I popped her Club cherry. Seriously, the poor gal had NEVER been to a club before, but let me tell you girlfriend was rocking her Harley Quinn cosplay and turning the boys down left and right. AND held her liquor, which I so appreciate. We danced like idiots some more, Dave and I were asked to send in pics to be extras in some upcoming SyFy channel show, and I got white chocolate stuffed french toast at Denny's at 2:00 am. What more could a girl ask for? Except maybe for a hot husband who will dress up in crazy outfits and even wear eyeliner just cause you ask him too?

Oh wait, got that too.

Sunday we slept in a bit and then headed to the convention floor to do our shopping. After five costume changes in two days I was cosplayed-out. We both wore normal clothes and were glad for it. For breakfast I had a Nutella and Banana Crepe. Amazeballs. But it also helps explain why I felt like crap on Monday. Waaaaaay too much alcohol and non-paleo food. But still mostly worth it.

My Megacon 2013 loot.

The posters are the Exploding Tardis/Starry Night which is now hanging in our hallway because my house is too small for it to fit anywhere else, and the Walking Dead for my brother. After shopping we headed on home, to prepare to reenter polite society. Which is tough. I don't think Dave has as hard a time with it as I do, but you creative types out there probably know what I mean. You spend the whole weekend playing as someone else (or multiple someones) and it's kind of a let-down and/or odd to go back to being just you. Don't get me wrong, "just me" is still pretty freakin' awesome. But regular me does not have a hand cannon, nor gets to travel by Tardis.

But I think the fun of cosplaying is that, if you pick the right characters anyway, you take a little bit of them away with you each time you do it. Like in the case of Jack/Rose and the Cyberpunks, we walk away feeling a little more confident, a little sexier, and a little more bad-ass. Which is always a good thing. 

**maybe don't do this if you cosplay as a serial killer.

Let's play dress-up

Despite an Adventure Race on Saturday, (story/post when I get pics) we actually got a bunch of cosplay work done this weekend. As of this moment I think i have let Dave convince me to do the Cyberpunk just at the parties Friday and Saturday night. Partly because I think he wants to get as much mileage out of Capt Jack as possible, but also that he feels a little less confident in his Cyberpunk costume. But c'mon, doesn't he look good?

Our son asked if he was wearing a chest plate underneath the Underarmour Shirt. Yay Crossfit!

Regarding our Doctor Who cosplay, here is a pic of the "looks" we're all going for, for reference. This is from the Stolen Earth episodes.

I'm Rose (purple jacket), Holden is the Doctor (brown suit, center) and Dave is Capt Jack (on his knees...where we like him)

He has some buttons to sew for Capt Jack, but it's essentially completed. He hasn't decided whether or not he's going to bother with the Vortex manipulator or gun, since they'll be out of view, unless he chooses to pose with them. 

The big deal is that he shaved off his goatee yesterday!!!!!! I know, right? I'm pretty sure Holden has never actually seen him without some form of facial hair. I'm not gonna lie, I prefer him with some...but I dig it. And I fully support the commitment to the character. Though my first impression post-shave was that I felt like I was kissing a girl. 

I'm not sure who that says more about.

Without further adieu, Capt Jack:

What you just heard was the sound of Fan Girl panties dropping all across the interwebs.

I can't say I'm real excited about cosplaying Rose. I kinda feel like I am Holden and Dave's accessory. But I suppose it can't always be about me. That said, I'm pretty happy with it. Obviously we are not the kind of cosplayers that get hung up on perfection. (No, really?) But aside from the neckline and carving the gun out of block, (instead of painting a nerf gun and adding the silver bits as we did) I don't see how it could be much better.

Don't let it be said I haven't made hair sacrifices either.

 I can't wait to dye and cut my hair post-Megacon.

I've also figured out our Steampunk Sunday cosplay. No more Steampunk Bride and Groom as my wedding dress is too big now. #fitpeopleproblems

As it turns out, there are pitifully few #fitpeopleproblems memes. What do you suppose that says about the internet? Uh...yeah. Moving on....

I am using the the petticoat from my wedding dress as the base for this year's steampunk cosplay. I really dig that I made a whole new creation this year only using stuff already in my closet and jewelery collection. Dave's is pretty much the same as one he's done before. I like to call it Colonial Steampunk 

This is from 2011. I'll not comment further, other than to say, how cute was Holden? What you can't see is his Rockeeter-type Jet Pack on his back.

Anyfatties...we're all getting excited. Our cosplay is no where near impressive as lots of others out there. However, the past two years we have always felt incredibly welcomed and our efforts appreciated. And with all the picture taking, etc it is awful fun to play rock star for the day.

Feeling Good...

especially for a Monday.

I was not feeling good Sunday morning, after a super-fun night out with a couple of our favorite couples.

I feel like this picture pretty accurately sums up Evan and I's friendship. I act like a weirdo and he judges me. I'm ok with it. 

By the way, hangovers suck. But if you want to play you've got to pay. I don't even feel like I drank that much, especially compared to how many I'd pound in an evening in the past...and the fact that I was shaking my booty a lot of the night. But eating clean will do that to you.

We spent most of the night at Captain Hiram's. We ran into even more cool people than the ones we brought with us. The band, 60 Watt Sun was playing a lot of 80s hair metal which was a hoot. And the thing was, they were really good. Looootta creepers out Saturday night, though. I felt like a groupie at  a Motley Crue concert circa 1985. Of course, I never actually was a groupie, nor ever saw them in concert back then because I was 12 and that would be weird. Though probably not unheard of.

Moving on....

Sunday afternoon, one of the Crossfitting couples hosted a Paleo Potluck Picnic at their amazeballs home on the Indian River. Seriously. You never realize how ghetto you are until you go into a house like that. It was so nice to get our nom on at a potluck without having to second guess or ask what was in stuff. The food was super-yummy and the camaraderie wonderful as always. I made the Chocolate Chili from Well Fed, which was a hit. No surprise there. You don't like that Chocolate Chili you need to have your taste buds examined.

I also did something productive this weekend too! I know, right? I got my Cyber Punk head piece completed, made a good go at Rose's gun for our Doctor Who cosplay and started my Cyber Punk Hand Cannon. The gun just needs a strap, but the Hand Cannon still needs lots of work. Dave made the handle for the inside, and I painted it, but that is as far as I've gotten. I need to run by the Auto Parts store after Crossfit this week and see if I can pick the LED lights I'd like to add to it. Dave also did a little work too for his Cyperpunk costume. I was afraid his was going to be really boring, and more just an accessory to me, but he's building some silver-hose-thingees that are going to be pretty cool I think. Pics when everything is completed.

Speaking of all that, the panels have been announced for Megacon. There are several cosplay panels that sound interesting, and I'd really like to go to the Wil Wheaton Q&A. We'll definitely hit the big Villian Party at the Rosen next door. It's rare that we get to go to a big city club, especially one with dancing girls, and themed costumes and decor, etc.

Hey honey! I hear they even got that moonshine what come in dem fancy brown bottles and all! Aaaand an indoor outhouse!

Seriously though, the Arkham Nights party last year was pretty impressive, stylistically speaking. I'd like to wear my Cyberpunk to that party, but I'm afraid Dave's going to want to live in his Capt Jack costume. I'm going to be beating the fangirls off with a stick, I just know it.

This is the part of Capt.  Jack that Dave keeps forgetting about. Oh please, oh please let there be some gay, fanboys there.