This was a fun day. I just went for Saturday and as always spent my time in the ginormous dealer's room, but what I really did was stand around and talk to people *all day.*

When litl_iruka and I arrived in the dealer's room, our first stop -- as it always is -- was the DC booth and who should be signing *right then* but Gail Simone. I brought nothing with me for anyone to sign since I really didn't plan on standing in any lines this time, but I hopped into the line to say hello in person after random communications for the past several years (message boards mostly, like everyone else, but I also interviewed her for Birdwatching back when she first took over Birds of Prey.) She was very gracious and friendly, just as she always is online. Only her hair is WAY cooler than you can imagine.

My brother and niece drove across Indiana and met us (right before lunch time due to Unavoidable Delays), but we then rendezvous'd with a former coworker of mine/fellow geek and we all stood around chatting for awhile outside our shared comics shop's booth.

My brother had a line to go stand in by the time we were all ready to go get food, so the three of us who remained went over to the Expoteria to eat of the traditional hamburger. I got to talk to my niece for the first time in AGES -- who is ALMOST 18 YEARS OLD and will be a senior this year. Wow. My little girl's all grown up! *sob* -- and that was a good thing.

We ran into Scott McCullar and Sean Taylor (and just missed Erik Burnham but said "hi!" to him later in artists' alley along with some other Dixonverse stalwarts like... y'know... Chuck Dixon--who I didn't actually say "hi" to nor he me. I don't think we've EVER properly met due to... well, that's a long story and many years old and not as dramatic or interesting as this tease may make it seem, so nevermind). We talked for a bit then headed back into the fray of the dealer's room. My brother returned from his line successful and he and my niece broke off to go get HIM a traditional hamburger or something food like, and so we finally Went Shopping!

We popped over to the Moonstone booth a few times throughout the day, trying to meet up with quest4success who proved elusive until late in the day.

Drew Geraci was over in artists' alley and we visited him a couple of times during our tour of that area and ended up going to dinner later, helping him escape from the landlocked convention center to a non-Expoteria or hotel restaurant.

I liked artists' alley a lot more this year, mostly I think because I skimmed through it, avoided the OMG BOOBIES! artists, and didn't get dragged into too many pitch sessions. One of the few I did end up listening to was sold as "the anti-chick-lit!" and then he described a plot that I'm truly baffled this guy thought would interest me, what with me being a girl. Because his basic premise was that this poor guy gets sucked into a relationship by a woman who turns out to be crazy! WOW, REALLY? How original, the harpy women ensnaring poor hapless men. He goes through his whole spiel, and I deadpan, "So, basically, it's a Judd Apatow script?" And he -- kid you not -- clutched his chest and howled in pain. It was AWESOME.

But I met Pab Sungenis! I completely GEEKED OUT over him. He's the creator of one of my very favorite comic strips, The New Adventures of Queen Victoria and so I was able to blither at him face-to-face. Which honestly? My fan-highlight of the day. I met Gail Simone and Warren Ellis, and Pab is my highlight. I love his strip that much.

Oh, yeah, did I mention the meeting of Warren Ellis? Ex-coworker called me late in the day and left a message basically saying, "There's, like, no line for Warren Ellis right now if you want to try for it" and this was a little bit after we'd finally made contact with quest4success, so I abandoned him and litl_iruka for a bit while I zoomed over to the Avatar booth, got into the short line, was admonished not to (a) touch (b) shake hands with (c) talk very long to or (d) pitch to Warren, and basically I just said hello and that I was a big fan. I had nothing to sign. He gave me a bunch of "Freakangels" stickers and was very approachable and courteous. I followed ALL the rules and was in and out in less than a minute. Yeah, it was a little weird of me, but I'm okay with that. The man almost NEVER COMES TO CONVENTIONS, and I have now met him at one. So there. I told this adorable little blond boy (he was maybe 11?) and his mom that this was a big deal because the boy was trying to get all the signatures on this comic he had (bad me: don't remember which it was) and here he was getting Warren's which was a Tough Get. He was duly impressed.

I went back and chatted with quest4success for awhile longer and then litl_iruka and I took a break before making a last strafing run at the dealer's room shops and artists' alley offerings. My brother and niece ended up having to leave before dinner due to Unavoidable Circumstances (his entire day was filled with oddly capitalized words, poor thing) which was a bummer as we usually do the majority of our Wizard hanging-out over dinner.

I'm sure I'm missing out on details. It was a bit of a weird whirlwind of a day, but I got a couple of nice, inexpensive prints (one I really love that I'm going to see if the artist has on his site so I can link it for you guys), a bunch of artists' cards to check online for later, and an unidentified bishonen anime figurine that litl_iruka and I both gravitated toward so I figured, heck, he's pretty. I'll get it and find out who he is later.

(Here's that picture)