Posted By Kathleen David on August 5, 2018
Last time I posted was over a month ago and it is a record I care not to do again.
Oh I have probably a million reasons and excuses why I have been so quiet here.
I think more than anything I needed a break from a number of things and the month of July was that break.
But I missed my brother’s birthday message which I regret. I did talk to him and saw him last month so he knows I love him.
July was a month of travel as well. We were pretty much on the go the entire time and when we weren’t, I was not in the right frame of mind to sit down and write about my life.
Here’s what July consisted of:
Shoreleave 40 in Baltimore was a lot of fun. Did panels and talked to friends.
It was also the book launch for a book I edited with Peter entitled “They keep killing Glenn” in which 20 authors killed Glenn Hauman in many creative ways. I told people I didn’t kill him. I just found the body and had Holmes and Watson solve the murder. The rules of the game were that no two authors could use the same method in his demise. Peter and I are quite proud of the fact that no one used a gun. We had a lot of fun with it. It is available on Amazon both as an e-book and trade paperback.
We spent the beginning of the week with our friends going to the Goddard Space Center to hear the Okudas talk about art and NASA along with a VIP tour where we learned some cool things and scary things about space and our planet. Caroline was grooving on the next version of VI that she got to play in.
The next day a bunch of us went to the Smithsonian Air and Space for a tour which we learned a lot not only from our tour guide but also from Inga who works on the Hubble project. Glenn, Brandy, Caroline and I went to see the objects in the National Museum of American History that we wanted to see and happened on a small Ella Fitzgerald exhibit that was really neat.
That evening we all got together to see a Yankees vs. Orioles game. Orioles won much to everyone’s surprise late in the game.
Wednesday found us driving to Fort Lauderdale and we made it as far as south of Jacksonville before stopping.
Thursday was the first day of Florida SuperCon so we quickly loaded in and got to work. I re-introduced myself to Steve Whitmire who remembered meeting me once I said Center for Puppetry Arts and he could place me. We had a number of interesting conversations over the weekend. I also met Hugh Spight who was in Dark Crystal and Star Wars among other things. His mystic from Dark Crystal was one of the one I had put together for an exhibit so that was neat. There were other people there I had done so many conventions with that it was old home week in the green room catching up on kids and families. Caroline discovered that one of her favorite voice actors worked with her father on a video game. She became friends with a number of the voice actors and got to ask them questions about the industry. Overall it was a great convention and we had a lot of fun.
From there we went to Disney World and spent a couple of days there. Since the new Toy Story land opened, we could not go to Disney Hollywood Studios. This was not a bad thing since I think it lessened the crowds at the Magic Kingdom allowing us to do more. Highlight of the trip had to be Animal Kingdom and Pandora. We rode a banshee, which was the best amusement park immersive ride ever. I could feel the beast ‘breathing’ as I rode like a horse. The breath would reflect how much effort the banshee was putting out. Call it Star Tours meets Soaring but by a factor of 10. Also we got to see Pandora at its best with all the bioluminescence and carefully placed lighting and waterfalls.
Jacksonville was the next stop to see Shana and some really good films at her theater.
We saw Yellow Submarine that holds up over time.
We saw “Won’t you be my neighbor” about Fred Rogers and his work. So worth seeing if you can. It is a lovely documentary about hows and whys of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. It will leave you smiling.
We also saw “Three Identical Strangers” about a man who goes to college and everyone calls him Eddie but his name is David. He discovers that he has a twin brother only to find out that he is a triplet. I remember this went it happened because they were on all the talk shows and such. They even started a restaurant together called Triplets. And then it gets weird as we discover why the parents had no knowledge that their baby had two identical siblings. By the end it really leaves you thinking about subjects that are a little too close to home.
After that we went to St. Augustine for our beach week with my family. Our days followed the following pattern:
Breakfast
Beach
Lunch
Nap
Beach
Dinner
This year there was a lot of rain so the second beach trip tended to be a walk on the beach rather than sitting out. Caroline got to spend time with her cousin and in the ocean so she was happy. It was relaxing.
On Thursday we drove up to Raleigh North Carolina for the Raleigh SuperCon. A number of the guests were the same as the previous convention so we met up with our new friends and there were a number of old friends as well. I had done a couple of panels at Florida SuperCon for a friend and this time he needed to slot me in for a few more as he was short a couple of people. I was very busy during this convention doing a number of panels on comic book related subjects. I did have free time to spend with Ariel, AJ and Anthony along the way.
And I had probably one of my more surreal lunches I have had in my lifetime. I have known Larry Hama for a while now through Peter. We run into each other at Marvel Screenings and the like. I got my lunch and he had an empty seat next to him so I sat down at his invitation. Steve Whitmire was across the table from me and sitting between Larry and Steve was Alice Cooper. We had one of those conversations that went from point A to point J and wandered by to point B only to find ourselves at M. We talked music and theater and comics and movies and conventions and people we know. Discovered people that we all knew in common which we found funny. The capper for me was the next day I was eating lunch again and I felt someone warmly clap me on the shoulder and said, “How’s it going girl?” It was Alice. We exchanged pleasantries before he went off to do a signing. I love the man’s music but I really like him as a person and brilliant conversationalist.
We drove back to New York through some awful weather and made it home safely. The cats were happy to see us. After unpacking the car, I had to do laundry quick because Peter is currently in Minnesota at FanFusion and I had to pack him for that.
The next couple of weekends are packed with various activities and then we are off to DragonCon. After that school starts for Caroline and we are heading rapidly to the end of the year.
I am grateful for all the experiences I had in the month of July.
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