No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on September 7, 2011

But first, Peter and I took Caroline to the bus stop for her first day of the Third Grade. She got the teacher she wanted and I wanted too. She has all her school supplies and her snack for the day. She is excited to say the least. She had a good summer with a nice ender with DragonCon but she is ready to go back to school.

The DragonCon thoughts are under the cut because it got a little long

This was a good DragonCon for all of us.

Caroline had fun and earned money selling drawings. She met some interesting people and saw some old friends we hadn’t seen in a while. There were some children of other artists in Artist Alley that she became friends with. And she enjoyed seeing her grandparents and her aunts and uncles and cousin.

Misha Collins took his Castiel puppet to one of his panels. I have heard stories about what happened including from Misha. I am glad that he likes it.

Of course a Big Old Thank You to Pat Henry for having us to the convention and to his family who I have watched grow up over the years. Now they have the grandchildren running around the convention.

A Big Thank You to my fellow judges on the Friday Night Workmanship contest. Y’all just rock and I have told Regina I want you back when we do this next year. And another to the Crossed Swords for MCing it again. Always a pleasure and always fun.

Also a Big Thank You to everyone who entered. Y’all made it very very hard for us to choose who got what. Everyone showed up with their A game.

A Special Thanks to Bill Fawcett for facilitating badge pick-up and helping me cut through some red tape for the other badges.

A Big Thanks to Regina Kirby who does a bang up job with programming for the convention. She is always there with an answer when I have a question.

Big Thank You to all the directors of various tracks that had me on panels for them. I had some really good panels this year and hope to do a few of them again.

Big Thank You to Beau (half of the DragonCon Janitor Puppet group) who got together an awesome puppet slam that I was and am more than proud to be a part of.

Big Thank You to Rachel and John for stepping in and lending a hand with performing “It’s OK if You’re Takei” for the Puppet Slam. Couldn’t have done it without you.

Big Thank You to Anne and John who are the directors of the Art Show. Y’all and your staff do a great job every year and I hope to be part of the Art Show next year as well. Maybe I will finally get everything done before the show.

Big Thank You to all the staff and volunteers for all your help in making my DragonCon so Awesome. I know it is a lot of work but because of y’all the attendees have so much fun.

I had a lot of good stuff happen at the convention which outdid the few problems that showed up.

I am sorry if I seemed a little preoccupied if you were talking to me at the convention. I was very tired probably the whole convention and had the performance on Sunday hanging over me which had a lot of my attention. If you caught me Monday then I was much more coherent.

We had a rare gathering of the O’Shea clan at Sean’s party. It had been probably about 8 years since we all got together in the same place at the same time. So Patrick proved his existence to a bunch of Sean’s friends who didn’t believe that he existed. It was really nice. The four of us were in the same place at the same time and I felt a sense of balance that I haven’t felt in a very long time.

I got to talk to so many interesting people through out the weekend. One thing I love about DragonCon is the diversity of people that gather there. You probably have an expert on just about every subject under the sun at that convention. I learned and I taught the entire weekend.

I had forgotten how much fun it can be to perform in front of your peers. I have done puppets at various conventions all over the world but it is different when you are showing what you do to other people who really get what you are doing. And the other members of the Puppet Slam were just great too. It was a diverse set of styles and sketches. I am sorry everyone didn’t get in to see it. I am hoping that we get another shot at this next year. I am already plotting the next sketch.

One thing I got to do this convention I never thought in a million years I would do was I had an opportunity to show Jim Steranko my puppets and talk about my form of art with him. It was awesome as was he.

I got hugs from so many people that don’t even know that when I was younger, I was a big fan of their work but am proud to now call them friend. I play it cool but inside is a fan girl jumping up and down making those annoying fan girl sounds.

My biggest problem at the convention was getting from point A to point B in time. And we added time to our journeys in hopes of making it on time.

Yes they were cracking down at who came into the hotels and yes it was a pain but any problems were home made rather than from outsiders which DragonCon can deal with much more efficiently.

The Habit trail bottleneck in the Marriott seem to get better after the disaster that was Friday. That is one point that may need some policing until the fans get the idea that stopping and taking pictures in that area is a no-no.

Yes, I did ruin a number of photos for people but I am not that sorry. If you are going to take photos in the public walkway, expect that other people are going to have to get through. Especially when you are blocking the only path somewhere. I don’t have the time for one more picture to be taken.

Speaking of Photos, if Anyone has or has seen either photos of me with Lockheed which I wore Friday or Misha Collin with his Castiel puppet, please tell me where I might see them. Goes the same for anyone who has photos from my performance at the Puppet Slam. Same goes for pictures of Peter and/or Caroline.

Now it is clean-up from the convention and getting ready for the rest of the school year.

Feel free to ask my any questions you might have about DragonCon or convention going in general.

I am grateful that we all had such a wonderful time at DragonCon.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: