How is it possible to go on a vacation, a trip you've planned to relax and have fun, and you always come back more sore, and less relaxed then when you leave? I recently went to San Diego... recently being last weekend. I was there from a Wednesday to a Sunday, 4 nights for those who are keeping track. It was awesome times. So here's the small adventures we went on.
Wednesday:
Got there roughly at about 3 and walked 2 miles over to the convention center. The hotel we stayed at wasn't bad, it wasn't fantastic. Let me just say that I'm thankful the elevator held up while we were there, and I'm still trying to figure out why this hotel needs a helipad.
So we walked the 2 miles to the center, and got to witness the first of the hard core nerds who attended this year's comic book convention, or as it is more widely known, Comic-Con. We got our passes and then continued to wait till about 6pm when the opened the doors to the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall, for those who are oblivious, is an incredibly massive hall that houses huge constructed booths to showcase new products, and new films. Some of these booths will give free stuff away, or have famous actors, directors, writers, and others giving autographs. This year they had it a little bit more organized with the major companies like Sony, and DC, and Warner Brothers in the center of the hall, to the left were video game companies like Capcom and Konami, and to the far right were all the sellers. Merchandise was sold everywhere. The first day wasn't fantastic, but it was pretty awesome with exclusive toys and collectibles practically everywhere you looked and tons of free swag.
After letting it all sink in, we left, at about 8pm. We took a shuttle back to the hotel, and then caught a cab back to Gas Lamp, about a mile or so away from the hotel. This is where it really starts. During the course of that night I gained the taxi cab driver's cell number for later pick up, 2 bouncers knew us, and if I remember correctly 3 bartenders. Not a bad night to start off.
Thursday:
This was practically a full day of convention nonsense. With random pictures of booth babes, and tons of panels to sit in on. Oh... ya.. panels. The Comic-con isn't all just a ploy to suck you dry of your precious green with promises of invaluable nerd-dom. No no no. There's also panels. Rooms to go to and other halls to sit at and listen to some of the more idolised people in the entertainment industry. Writers, actors, directors, creators, you name it, they were there. The movie industries usually take up Hall H. Hall H seats upwards of 6500 people. Keep in mind that that's probably 1/5 or 1/6 of the whole convention. The rest of the downstairs is taken by the exhibit hall, which should give you an idea of just how big it is. Usually the movie industries give away the most free crap. Shirts, posters, bags, random worthless baubles that when you were little ment something to you, but now you look at and think "what a waste of money."
So after spending a full day at the con and then walking back to the room. Not only were our legs and feet tired, but we were pretty exhausted as well. Ordered some Dominos and was about ready to call it a night when my own curiousity had gotten to me. You see, on Wednesday night, the Head of Security at a random bar we had visited and checked out, was having a Vampire Night. I wasn't planning on going, but after about 1 hour of sitting in the room, I got restless. Eventually Jeff was coaxed into going and we walked back down to the bar.
Vampire Night = Weird shit. Ya... seriously. Hollywood paints vampires as sexy and naughty and crazy weird. They are all but crazy weird. Standing there listening to some weird randition of Ramstien and watching random sized women in what I guess was lingerie that had been found at thrift mart only added to my nausea. It wasn't until the whips came out that I started to actually get really scared. It was probably the worst car accident I've seen. And I use that metaphor because it was exactly that. Your own curiousity got the better of you, you slow down in your car and stare, because you want to know how bad it is. Afterwards, you feel like an idiot for slowing down and wished you hadn't had looked. Well, that's mostly my sentiment on this subject matter as well. Once the tall queer looking stick in a speedos got up on stage to have his turn with a whiping, I threw in the towel, said my good byes and went to the Bitter End. The Head Security (George) was in shock about the weirdness as well as the bartender chick (Tatanya). Meanwhile there was a good version of some musical impersonator downstairs that I actually kinda enjoyed.
That was about it for that day. The taxi was in Del Mar, so another 1.3 mile hike back to the hotel. OH and I swear I thought I saw Jean-Claude Van Damn! Screw you Jeff it was him!
Friday and Saturday:
Nothing really extremly wierd happened. I got a random knot on the back of my head, and I got 4 mosquito bug bites and a spider bite from falling asleep on the helipad. For those of you who know me, that's semi normal. The rest of the weekend involved standing around in line to listen to some overpaid people talk about a movie I don't really care about only to find out that I'm not getting any swag. Waste of time. Randomly wandering the halls of the exhibit hall, meeting a few people I admire (Co-creator of Venture Brothers: Jackson Publik, and Jimmy Robinson: Co Creator of the Joker). Got to see a really down to earth easy going Hugh Jackman talk about his new movie Wolverine. Which looks amazing by the way. George came down Friday, and so did Elliot with some random friends. George Jeff and I went out, while Elliot and his friends "enjoyed" the room. Saturday Jetsun joined George, Jeff and I, while Elliot took off. Saturday was interesting. Not much going on, we played a lot of pool, and enjoyed ourselves at random places.
Sunday:
We ate at Denny's after checking out just in time and then parted ways after breakfast/lunch.
Overall it was a fun trip and it really made me feel like I could make a home down in San Diego. I really enjoy going down there and have been thinking about my options at this point. FYI for everyone, I have more pictures of comic-con... well... about 5 good ones. But the real pictures should be viewed at my friend Albert's page. He has a great camera and took amazing photos. Some of which I was there for. This can be viewed at
http://patrick005.com
Enjoy the pictures.
Hopefully on my next trip, which will be here sooner than I think, I will be able to blog through my cell. I know that sounds nerdy and lame, but it actually has a kinda cool sound to it to me. I'd love to be able to write down those events and thoughts after they happen. Maybe it's just me. Eh *shrugs* whateva.
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