Comic-Con Adventure Part Three: Lesson I learned my first day

So, after sitting through a panel discussing the impact of Doc Savage on the development of comic heroes such as Superman and Batman hosted by Anthony Tollin and Michael Uslan (yes, I love pulp fiction too!), I headed down to the volunteer booth.

Annie waiting on her volunteer assignment

Here is where I got my first real lesson about Comic-con: it's all about waiting. Waiting to get your assignment at the volunteer booth, waiting to get into the panel you want to see, waiting to buy the collectible toy you must have, waiting to get on the trolley, etc.

The second thing I learn is there are just too damn many people to manage efficiently. My first assignment was to line wrangle. I stood in front of a door for three hours and made sure no one in the really, really long line blocked access to the fire exit. The folks in this line were waiting to buy limited edition toys from Hasbro. So to pass the time, I struck up a conversation with a guy in line -asking about what he collects, what he was excited to see... and it turns out he is originally from Cincinnati. Very Cool. Chat a little bit more about collectibles - and I mention I had really wanted a Iron Man Mighty Mugg, but that I doubted I would be able to stand in line for the three and a half hours(!!!!!!!!) it was going to take. So this great guy (whose name I forget and I am really sorry!) offers to get it for me and to call me on his cell when he is finished. He says he is standing in line for the GI Joe Collectables so one more figure wouldn't matter.

This is where I learned the third thing about Comic-con. It is filled with great people. About 2 hours later, I get a call on my cell. I was now the proud owner of an Iron Man Might Mugg. So my mystery friend formerly from Cincinnati -thank you thank you thank you. You made my day.

After line wrangling, I bought lunch. This brought me to lesson number four: bring a sack lunch. A hot dog and a can of Coke cost me $6.00.

I then decided that I wanted to go see another panel - this one on Science in Science Fiction, host by Dr. Kevin Grazier (former rocket scientist turned science advisor), Jaime Paglia (writer and producer of Eureka) and Phil Plait (badastronomy.com ). And guess what? I got to wait in line almost an hour. It was worth it. It was a great panel.

I staggered through the dealers hall one more time and headed back to the hotel. The amount of walking involved had been too much for the hubby with his bad knees, so I opted to spend some time with him at the hotel pool, then out to dinner. Of course this meant we missed some of the stuff who should have been standing in line for - and possibly some really cool parties but it was nice spending quality time together.

We went to this place called Santana's for burritos. While it was a local fast food chain, it was still better than most of the Mexican food here in Columbus. We had huge burritos and a variety of fresh made salsas - kinda like what Chipolte would like to be.



Tony got a California Burrito. It had everything a normal burrito had plus fried potatoes. Topped with their tomatilla based green salsa - it was great.


I had the Carne Assada burrito. Really nice... I also got some sides, like chips and guacamole plus some beans - don't bother. Stick with the burritos.



By the time we got back to the hotel, Tate and Annie were back. They had eaten some tacos from a small joint around the corner. Good but nothing to right home about.

The whole group then tumbled into bed. The last lesson I learned: Take along really good walking shoes. My dogs were barking when I finally passed out in the hotel room.