So it's finally been announced. The big Star Wars Celebration for 2019. It looks like we're finally headed to Chicago, April 11-15, 2019 at McCormick Place. Apparently McCormick is the largest convention center in the US. That sounds like a great opportunity for them to actually make use of the space and maybe make things a bit easier to get into. Maybe. We'll see.
Celebration is a mixed bag for our little group that's been going for quite a few years now. I personally still have fun, but I go in with very low expectations. What makes it fun for me is the people I get to interact with, the costumes I get to create and wear, and the moments I get to spend with old and new friends. What makes is frustrating for me is hanging my hopes on getting into a panel, but not being able to get into it because I didn't camp out all night just to get a ticket. Or when they accidentally let in a group of people that didn't have wrist bands before they let in the wrist banded people. Or when they only have ONE entrance open for security for thousands of people who need to all go through a metal detector which results in a line that wraps around the building for hours and hours just to get in.
I feel like every convention has hiccups along the way, and Celebration has been no exception over the years. I remember the "this line is capped" signs from Celebration III (my first convention experience ever). Too many people. Too small a space. What are you going to do? Plan better.
But they never quite seem to make it to the "plan better" stage.
One year, they did. They got it right - or so it felt like they did. That was when we were in Los Angeles for Celebration IV. The worst part about that was that none of the hotels were within walking distance of the convention center. You had to rely on transportation. However, the convention center felt big, roomy, and there were things to do at all hours of the day and night. It was easier to get tickets to see what you wanted (like Carrie Fisher's after-hours comedy show; buy your tickets separately on the internet before the event). The store was a simple walk-in, find what you want, and walk-out. Plus there were additional mini-store kiosks all over the exhibit hall! Talk about making it easy to shop (and easy to spend more money).
But I haven't really seen these things return to a Celebration yet. We seem to be back to the Celebration III ways of "you either stand in line for 5 hours to see George Lucas or you stand in line for 5 hours to go to exclusive store". If you don't camp out over night, you don't get in to see anything. What makes this all worse is that - honestly - you really don't even have to pay money to be there. Everything is live-streamed on the internet now, so you can "attend" Celebration without travel or ticket expenses if you so wish. I realize that's both a good and a bad thing. I personally wish there'd be at least a slight delay from the panels to the internet stream. Let us feel like we have some exclusivity since we - you know - kind of paid to be here.
None of these things though keep me from going. That's probably lack of good sense when I think about it, but I honestly think it's because there's something bigger that I get out of attending an event like this. I like to look at things. I like to watch people. I like to wear my costumes, take pictures of other people's costumes, swap stories, encourage others. I feel a sense of community at a convention like this. I don't know if that's normal or not, but it is what it is. So while some of our group are only thinking about attending a day or two at Celebration Chicago (which I respect and understand given the write-up of insanity that I posted above), I'm still planning on all 5 days. I never know what this one will be like. If that day doesn't seem like it'll work out, I'll leave early. If that day ends up being amazing, then I'll take it home with me, along with a big smile spread across my face and a skip in my step like a five-year-old kid.
Even through all of the crap that we've dealt with, I'm ready to Celebrate.
Showing posts with label Celebration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebration. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Illness, Schedules, and Good Enough Lists
Man, have I been down.
Last Wednesday I was running around, checking things off my list, got home, got ready to make dinner, went to go talk to the Nerd Husband, and then stood there in the living room and said, "I feel shivery. Are you cold?"
Thus it began - the saga of the flu.
I foolishly thought perhaps I could slug through the beginnings of my feverish state by working on the costume and fighting it with some cold meds. I finished off the Jyn Erso gloves which was a huge accomplishment, but after I dragged myself upstairs (almost literally), I realized just how little energy I had. And my joints had started to ache. I took my temperature (99 at that point), took another dose of medicine and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night yelling at NH because I thought he was cutting me with his toes (yay, fever-brain). I took my temp again at that point, and it hit 101. The Tylenol in the cold meds wasn't cutting it, so I downed some ibuprofen and water, covered up my feverish self, and tried to sleep.
I stayed home from work on Thursday. I kept the fever. I also kept the fever for part of Friday, so I stayed home again. There was no costuming. There was no moving. There was only the couch, my pillow, my blanket, my cat, my many fluids, what food I could eat, and Netflix. Lots of Netflix. Saturday and Sunday were more of the same, sadly enough, though this time quite feverless which was a welcomed relief. Sunday night, I finally allowed myself just a little bit of work time on the costume as a way to relax. It felt so good to feel kind of human again.
Monday was a rough work day for me - all the way around. It felt like if it could go wrong, it did, and not just with work stuff. It just felt like it was a day of bombardment, and I was so tired by the end of it. But I started to perk up a bit more in the evening, and I allowed myself a bit more work time on the costume. Getting things put together on that vest just made me feel happy. I still didn't sleep well thanks to the cough I have, but such is the way of things.
This week will be a trial to get through, but I think it's possible to get through it. There's a lot to do - personally, work-wise, and vacation-prep-wise, but I'm moving along as best I can. There are some things that are just going to have to be written off, and that's okay. But my brain still has a hard time writing them off. It tends to think, "No, you can do this!" I think the best way to combat that is to make myself a list. Yay, lists!
The Jyn Erso "Good Enough" Versus "Ideal" Costume List
Originally, Wednesday night was supposed to be my Mom's birthday celebration, but Mom and Dad are both down with the crud, as well. Mom suggested we all get together when we're well, and that makes sense to me. So now Wednesday might be packing night. On Thursday, NH and I are going to swing by my sister and brother-in-law's place and drop off my nephew's birthday present.
Somewhere in the middle of everything, I'll rest. I need that, too, because I'm still not great. This cough makes my chest wheeze like Vader's breathing apparatus.
And you know, of course our flight leaves on Sunday. I'm not cutting it close. Nah. It's all good. Well, at least it's all good enough.
Last Wednesday I was running around, checking things off my list, got home, got ready to make dinner, went to go talk to the Nerd Husband, and then stood there in the living room and said, "I feel shivery. Are you cold?"
Thus it began - the saga of the flu.
I foolishly thought perhaps I could slug through the beginnings of my feverish state by working on the costume and fighting it with some cold meds. I finished off the Jyn Erso gloves which was a huge accomplishment, but after I dragged myself upstairs (almost literally), I realized just how little energy I had. And my joints had started to ache. I took my temperature (99 at that point), took another dose of medicine and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night yelling at NH because I thought he was cutting me with his toes (yay, fever-brain). I took my temp again at that point, and it hit 101. The Tylenol in the cold meds wasn't cutting it, so I downed some ibuprofen and water, covered up my feverish self, and tried to sleep.
I stayed home from work on Thursday. I kept the fever. I also kept the fever for part of Friday, so I stayed home again. There was no costuming. There was no moving. There was only the couch, my pillow, my blanket, my cat, my many fluids, what food I could eat, and Netflix. Lots of Netflix. Saturday and Sunday were more of the same, sadly enough, though this time quite feverless which was a welcomed relief. Sunday night, I finally allowed myself just a little bit of work time on the costume as a way to relax. It felt so good to feel kind of human again.
Monday was a rough work day for me - all the way around. It felt like if it could go wrong, it did, and not just with work stuff. It just felt like it was a day of bombardment, and I was so tired by the end of it. But I started to perk up a bit more in the evening, and I allowed myself a bit more work time on the costume. Getting things put together on that vest just made me feel happy. I still didn't sleep well thanks to the cough I have, but such is the way of things.
This week will be a trial to get through, but I think it's possible to get through it. There's a lot to do - personally, work-wise, and vacation-prep-wise, but I'm moving along as best I can. There are some things that are just going to have to be written off, and that's okay. But my brain still has a hard time writing them off. It tends to think, "No, you can do this!" I think the best way to combat that is to make myself a list. Yay, lists!
The Jyn Erso "Good Enough" Versus "Ideal" Costume List
- Boots
- Good enough: as is
- Ideal: add boot covers and buckles, add weathering
- Pants
- Good enough: Kohl's slim-cut black pants, minor work required
- Need to replace one hook/eye
- Ideal: slim down thrift store pants, add pin tucks, twill tape, buckles, etc., and add weathering
- Belt
- Good enough: reuse Lara Croft belt
- Ideal: create an accurate Jyn belt, and add weathering
- Gun
- Good enough: empty holster
- Ideal: 3D print or foam replica, and add weathering
- Shirt
- Good enough: blue-gray 3/4 sleeve shirt from Kohl's
- Ideal: create accurate shirt from scratch, and add weathering
- Scarf
- Good enough: as is
- Ideal: add weathering
- Green jacket
- Good enough: as is (minus the Rogue One patch I sewed onto the sleeve for fun)
- Ideal: paint yellow stripes down the sides of the sleeves, and add weathering
- Brown vest
- Good enough: some work required
- Sew on remaining felt pieces (2) - Tuesday night
- Sew on storm flap to left side (1) - Tuesday night
- Sew on hook to right side (1) - Tuesday night
- Attach elastic waist - Tuesday or Wednesday night
- Sew/attach buckles to tubing (4) - buckles at top and bottom - Friday night
- Sew/attach tubing to both sides (2) - Friday night
- Ideal:
- Version 1: add weathering
- Version 2: make from scratch
- Necklace
- Good enough: as is
- Ideal: honestly, even though mine isn't accurate, I like mine
- Pocket tool
- Good enough: flashlight from Meijer
- Ideal: 2 cylinders needed
- Vest ID Badge
- Good enough: no badge
- Ideal: create badge from craft foam and attach to vest
Originally, Wednesday night was supposed to be my Mom's birthday celebration, but Mom and Dad are both down with the crud, as well. Mom suggested we all get together when we're well, and that makes sense to me. So now Wednesday might be packing night. On Thursday, NH and I are going to swing by my sister and brother-in-law's place and drop off my nephew's birthday present.
Somewhere in the middle of everything, I'll rest. I need that, too, because I'm still not great. This cough makes my chest wheeze like Vader's breathing apparatus.
And you know, of course our flight leaves on Sunday. I'm not cutting it close. Nah. It's all good. Well, at least it's all good enough.
Monday, March 27, 2017
If You Bleed on It, It Must Be Worth Working On
After this weekend, my fingertips hurt. The index finger of my left hand has a bandaid on it now (which makes typing uber-weird) that covers up a neat little chunk I took out of my finger with a straight pin. My middle finger on the left hand has a little red dot from where I poked myself with a needle. The thumb and index finger of my right hand have similar little red dots, and I also have a neat little "stitch ripped" line where I tried to rip the stitches from my own flesh (oops). The basement trash can is full of little blood-stained tissues. My work space kind of looks like Seymour Krelborn's work space at Mushnik's Flower Shop (you know, before he started feeding Audrey II people).
This blog entry is taking an interesting turn... Let's move on.
Since I started sewing, I've had a saying. I don't even know where the saying started in my project-line, but over the years, I keep it in the forefront of my mind every time I work on something: if you bleed on it, it must be worth working on. For me, this basically means that if you went through this much - this much pain and this much hurt - to get here and you're still going, then it must be worth fighting for. Very rarely does bleeding actually help a project. Usually you have a brief moment of panic and insert an outcry/curse (I learned how to curse when I learned how to sew - that's another blog entry for another time). Then you assess the wound, check for bleeding and then, finally, stop the bleeding before it gets on important things like fabric. (Unless, of course, you're working on a weathered Lara Croft costume. In that case, wipe that wound on whatever item is closest to you and call it "accurate".)
This weekend, I spent most of my time working on the Jyn Erso vest. This is the brown vest that I originally purchased off of eBay that I was planing on wearing "as is" and just saying "forget accuracy". This is the vest we'll be speaking off:
So Thursday night, I happened to be starting at the vest and I thought, "Wait. No. I can make this cooler. Way cooler." (This is how all good and bad ideas start, it seems, so it's difficult to differentiate between the two upfront.)
So I sat down with my stitch ripper, turned on my Rogue One soundtrack, and went to town ripping out those stitches. It didn't stop there. It got way uglier and more involved than a few ripped stitches.
Below is a rundown of how this vest saga has turned out so far:
Thursday
Saturday
Sunday
After all of that, we're looking at a project that currently looks like this:
Now I'm actually sitting in the basement trying to figure out what my "next steps" are. I received a PM from a poster on the RPF boards today in response to my inquiry about the pockets, and they were very kind to provide me with their pattern and instructions. However, I don't have those print-outs sitting in front of me right now, and my brain is really kind of tired. I'm not sure that's something I want to try and mess with this late at night. Really, I wanted to try to type all of this out so I had it out there - so I could see some of my own progress and just how far along this thing has come.
Yeah, I've bled on it. Yeah, I've taken some chunks out of my fingers, flung a few curses, and drank my weight in Diet Mt. Dew into the wee hours of the morning. But it's been worth it.
It'll all be worth it.
This blog entry is taking an interesting turn... Let's move on.
Since I started sewing, I've had a saying. I don't even know where the saying started in my project-line, but over the years, I keep it in the forefront of my mind every time I work on something: if you bleed on it, it must be worth working on. For me, this basically means that if you went through this much - this much pain and this much hurt - to get here and you're still going, then it must be worth fighting for. Very rarely does bleeding actually help a project. Usually you have a brief moment of panic and insert an outcry/curse (I learned how to curse when I learned how to sew - that's another blog entry for another time). Then you assess the wound, check for bleeding and then, finally, stop the bleeding before it gets on important things like fabric. (Unless, of course, you're working on a weathered Lara Croft costume. In that case, wipe that wound on whatever item is closest to you and call it "accurate".)
This weekend, I spent most of my time working on the Jyn Erso vest. This is the brown vest that I originally purchased off of eBay that I was planing on wearing "as is" and just saying "forget accuracy". This is the vest we'll be speaking off:
| 
|
So Thursday night, I happened to be starting at the vest and I thought, "Wait. No. I can make this cooler. Way cooler." (This is how all good and bad ideas start, it seems, so it's difficult to differentiate between the two upfront.)
So I sat down with my stitch ripper, turned on my Rogue One soundtrack, and went to town ripping out those stitches. It didn't stop there. It got way uglier and more involved than a few ripped stitches.
Below is a rundown of how this vest saga has turned out so far:
Thursday
- I ripped out stitches that held in a front zipper. I pulled the zipper and additional zipper panels off.
- I ripped the stitches out of the collar because I knew I'd eventually have to shorten in both height and length.
- I cut off a chunk of the vest in order to shorten it, with the intent of adding an elastic waistline later.
- Since the vest was a little snug, I went ahead and ripped out the side seam stitches with the intent of stitching those back up with a smaller seam allowance.
- Since I was already staring at the inside of the vest anyway, I decided it was a little too "puffy" for Jyn. I snipped holes into the interfacing that held the fluff batting, and I pulled out about half of it in each and every section of the vest. I hand-stitched these holes back up because it made them lay a little flatter and neater.
Vest guts in the basement - Then, since everything was already torn apart and it made it easier for me to do any sort of decorative stitching, I decided to go ahead and start making the decorative lines that are on the front of Jyn's vest.
- I went to bed quite happy with where this was all going.
- We ended with something like this at midnight:
- Trip to JoAnn's to pick up some fabric for pockets, details, additional stuff, lining, etc.
- I added the decorative stitching to the other side of the vest.
- I shortened the collar in all ways it needed to be shortened and stitched it down.
Saturday
- Trip to JoAnn's (again) to pick up coordinating thread that I forgot to pick up on Friday. Also picked up some stiff felt pieces to use as "webbing" because I can't find any dark brown webbing. And this is "good enough".
- Decided the back of the vest would look "super awesome" if I actually quilted it like Jyn's in the movie. So I ripped more stitches, pulled out more stuffing, did some research on tie quilting, and then measured and marked and quilted. By hand. Ouch.
Learning new things - like floss tied quilting - Then, because the torture wasn't quite exquisite enough, I decided that I could totally change the lining of the jacket from tan to the screen-accurate red. So I got down on the floor, put a piece of tissue paper over my vest, drew out a rough pattern with seam allowances, and then cut out my two side lining pieces.
- I hand-stitched one of the side lining pieces, and I pinned the other one in place.
- I cut up some of the stiff felt to use as the two webbing pieces on the vest front and tested placement.
- I decided to hand-stitch the yellow stitch lines that go from the shoulder to the waist band of the vest. I completed one of four which allowed me to place the faux-webbing.
- I stitched down the faux-webbing.
Sunday
- Turned on my sewing machine to realize I'd blown the light bulb. Cue the third trip to JoAnn's in just as many days. Light bulb found. Got caught in store by thunderstorm. Looked around. Remembered I needed elastic. So remembered to get that.
- Decided I could do a back lining piece, too (I'm so glad I'm making this "easy" on myself). Did the same pattern mock-up with the tissue paper, cut my fabric piece, pinned it in.
- I finished hand-stitching in all three lining pieces while watching movies with the Nerd Husband.
- I finished hand-stitching in the last three yellow stitch lines from shoulder to waist band.
- To cut down on the bulk of the garment (because it was currently outer layer, batting, interfacing, original lining, red lining), I decided to cut out as many portions of the original tan lining as I could get to. Some areas were hard to reach and other areas were kept to help stabilize the whole thing.
- I tried to play with a pocket pattern and drafted out two patterns that didn't work out for me. I'm trying to figure out how to add the gusset and make it look decent. It was late when I started, though, so I gave up and went to bed.
After all of that, we're looking at a project that currently looks like this:
|  |
Monday, March 20, 2017
A Mixture of Things and Stuff
Just a little lunchtime update - because I need to share the awesome.
The baby shower (which was the second column on my massive to do list that I've been keeping for weeks now) was yesterday, and it went off without a hitch! It was so awesome to have everyone come together for the planning, set-up, and clean-up of the whole event. Our whole bunch worked together so well, and it made things so super easy. I think everyone had a great time.
So now, that column on the to do list will get hidden, and we focus on only two columns - "Personal" and "Celebration" (as in Star Wars Celebration). It's so satisfying to see the time dwindling down toward vacation, and yet I'm also slightly panicky on occasion. However - just like the baby shower - I think this will all come together and be a pretty awesome event.
Costume-wise, I didn't do anything over the weekend because I was working on baby shower planning and whatnot. But I did have some fun little costuming things that popped up last week at various times. I did do some work Thursday and Friday nights, so we can talk a little bit about that, at least.
Thursday night I decided to take some time to work on yet another Asajj Ventress make-up test. This one went really well, and I'm thrilled with the new make-up style that I'm testing out. I managed to find some great matte eyeshadows for shading and defining, too. I'll have to write-up a more detailed post on this later when I have time, but I think it'll work out really well.
Friday was St. Patrick's Day, so I wanted to follow tradition and wear some green but with a nerdy twist. I pulled out my Her Universe Death Star Plans dress (because it has green in it), my almost-complete Jyn jacket, a Rogue One patch that I quickly stitched onto the jacket sleeve, and some shamrock socks. I put it all together for a pretty nifty outfit, if I do say so myself. Not one person noticed. I so felt like a Rebel spy. It was awesome. Also, a little part of me was sad that no one noticed, but the other part of me felt cool for being such an expert undercover operative. So points for me on the Imaginary Scoreboard of Life.
I also finished up the Kyber Crystal necklace on Friday night by adding the findings onto the leather cord and adding a dab of glue to keep it all secure. I'm kind of proud of this little project for a few reasons. First of all, it allowed me to use some items I already had sitting around the house (leather cording, wire, jewelry findings and jump rings). The only things I purchased for this particular part of the costume was some E6000 glue (which I have never used before in my life and really need more practice with) and a little quartz crystal from a fun little local shop called Accent on Nature. Secondly, I got to visit this awesome little store I otherwise might not have run into, and I actually ended up spending way more time looking around than I intended. I found the employee working that evening was so engaging and willing to help out. He wanted to see the image from the movie, and then he walked around to help me find ways to replicate the project. It was extremely helpful for a person like me who has little to no experience in jewelry-making. They also had shop kitties that roamed around and helped you out with your shopping experience. It was pretty excellent.
Friday was also a test of some fabric paint for the Jyn jacket. I tried a mixture of yellow acrylic and white Tulip "puffy paint" again to get that screen printed puff quality, but I'm either not mixing it at the correct ratio or the puffy paint properties just get lost when you mix in the acrylic. I can't really mix too much more white in, though, because then my yellow starts to turn to a pastel, and Jyn is not an Easter egg. I've been playing with mixing up some colors along with the yellow acrylic I have, too - just to see if another shade needs to be used. But I can't find anything I like. The black made it green. The tan did almost the same thing as the white and turned it pastel yellow again. And honestly, I kind of like how the yellow looks on its own. So I might just go with that. We'll see.
Finally - today - I decided to throw a bit more costume stuff together. I grabbed the Kyber crystal necklace and the almost-complete Jyn jacket on my way out the door for work. The Kyber crystal held up fantastically. No issues. However, the second run of the Jyn jacket actually caused some popped stitches in the back area. I had created a little shoulder vent by using a blind hem stitch because I thought it looked better than an actual seam would down the back shoulders of the jacket. However, two of the stitches popped when I tried to throw it over my shoulder this morning and pull it into place. It tugged at the fibers of the fabric weave, too, and it kind of messed them up. Not a big deal, really, but definitely one I'm going to have to revisit (do I care to add a seam or simply leave "as is").
Despite all of this, I think my next stop on this little project is working on the gloves. I need to shorten those, add the wrist strap, and then those should be done and ready to go. Once those are done, I'll figure out the next step and then the next, until - finally - we'll have something that's "close enough" and hopefully still looks pretty darned fun.
The baby shower (which was the second column on my massive to do list that I've been keeping for weeks now) was yesterday, and it went off without a hitch! It was so awesome to have everyone come together for the planning, set-up, and clean-up of the whole event. Our whole bunch worked together so well, and it made things so super easy. I think everyone had a great time.
So now, that column on the to do list will get hidden, and we focus on only two columns - "Personal" and "Celebration" (as in Star Wars Celebration). It's so satisfying to see the time dwindling down toward vacation, and yet I'm also slightly panicky on occasion. However - just like the baby shower - I think this will all come together and be a pretty awesome event.
Costume-wise, I didn't do anything over the weekend because I was working on baby shower planning and whatnot. But I did have some fun little costuming things that popped up last week at various times. I did do some work Thursday and Friday nights, so we can talk a little bit about that, at least.
Thursday night I decided to take some time to work on yet another Asajj Ventress make-up test. This one went really well, and I'm thrilled with the new make-up style that I'm testing out. I managed to find some great matte eyeshadows for shading and defining, too. I'll have to write-up a more detailed post on this later when I have time, but I think it'll work out really well.
Friday was St. Patrick's Day, so I wanted to follow tradition and wear some green but with a nerdy twist. I pulled out my Her Universe Death Star Plans dress (because it has green in it), my almost-complete Jyn jacket, a Rogue One patch that I quickly stitched onto the jacket sleeve, and some shamrock socks. I put it all together for a pretty nifty outfit, if I do say so myself. Not one person noticed. I so felt like a Rebel spy. It was awesome. Also, a little part of me was sad that no one noticed, but the other part of me felt cool for being such an expert undercover operative. So points for me on the Imaginary Scoreboard of Life.
I also finished up the Kyber Crystal necklace on Friday night by adding the findings onto the leather cord and adding a dab of glue to keep it all secure. I'm kind of proud of this little project for a few reasons. First of all, it allowed me to use some items I already had sitting around the house (leather cording, wire, jewelry findings and jump rings). The only things I purchased for this particular part of the costume was some E6000 glue (which I have never used before in my life and really need more practice with) and a little quartz crystal from a fun little local shop called Accent on Nature. Secondly, I got to visit this awesome little store I otherwise might not have run into, and I actually ended up spending way more time looking around than I intended. I found the employee working that evening was so engaging and willing to help out. He wanted to see the image from the movie, and then he walked around to help me find ways to replicate the project. It was extremely helpful for a person like me who has little to no experience in jewelry-making. They also had shop kitties that roamed around and helped you out with your shopping experience. It was pretty excellent.
Friday was also a test of some fabric paint for the Jyn jacket. I tried a mixture of yellow acrylic and white Tulip "puffy paint" again to get that screen printed puff quality, but I'm either not mixing it at the correct ratio or the puffy paint properties just get lost when you mix in the acrylic. I can't really mix too much more white in, though, because then my yellow starts to turn to a pastel, and Jyn is not an Easter egg. I've been playing with mixing up some colors along with the yellow acrylic I have, too - just to see if another shade needs to be used. But I can't find anything I like. The black made it green. The tan did almost the same thing as the white and turned it pastel yellow again. And honestly, I kind of like how the yellow looks on its own. So I might just go with that. We'll see.
Finally - today - I decided to throw a bit more costume stuff together. I grabbed the Kyber crystal necklace and the almost-complete Jyn jacket on my way out the door for work. The Kyber crystal held up fantastically. No issues. However, the second run of the Jyn jacket actually caused some popped stitches in the back area. I had created a little shoulder vent by using a blind hem stitch because I thought it looked better than an actual seam would down the back shoulders of the jacket. However, two of the stitches popped when I tried to throw it over my shoulder this morning and pull it into place. It tugged at the fibers of the fabric weave, too, and it kind of messed them up. Not a big deal, really, but definitely one I'm going to have to revisit (do I care to add a seam or simply leave "as is").
Despite all of this, I think my next stop on this little project is working on the gloves. I need to shorten those, add the wrist strap, and then those should be done and ready to go. Once those are done, I'll figure out the next step and then the next, until - finally - we'll have something that's "close enough" and hopefully still looks pretty darned fun.
Friday, March 10, 2017
An Update on Why There's No Update
I've been wanting to write out a post just so I can try to keep up with things a bit more regularly, but I find that every time I put some words on the screen, I just end up deleting them. I think it's because it's mostly just my daily ramblings about costume projects. Issues I'm having with sewing or creating things. Or just posts that say, "omg I completed 2 things and have 50 more left to go!" So I delete those types of posts, and this blog just sits silently.
Well, no more, my friends! Today you will get an update on why there hasn't been an update. Actually, I already updated you on that (see opening paragraph). So now...on to an update of rambling and half-finished proportions!
My life has been reduced down into four columns on a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is my current tie to sanity. I have a white column with the date, a purple column for personal things, a pink column for baby shower planning, and a blue column for Star Wars Celebration preparation. I update my list every day, multiple times a day. I italicize any items to make them as "done". A row gets hidden when the day is over. Leftover tasks that don't get italicized get moved to another day. It's simplistic but oh-so-effective for me in this hectic time.
I wanted to give a run-down of the Celebration preparation activities that have actually happened. I think if I see them listed out, it'll make me feel better. (And we don't have to talk about the things that are left to do because that will not make me feel better...)
What Has Happened (Since Monday, February 13th)
Now I have to stop. Because writing a blog post was not on my To Do list.
But it is now.
Because marking "done" things in italicized font is my life.
Well, no more, my friends! Today you will get an update on why there hasn't been an update. Actually, I already updated you on that (see opening paragraph). So now...on to an update of rambling and half-finished proportions!
My life has been reduced down into four columns on a spreadsheet, and that spreadsheet is my current tie to sanity. I have a white column with the date, a purple column for personal things, a pink column for baby shower planning, and a blue column for Star Wars Celebration preparation. I update my list every day, multiple times a day. I italicize any items to make them as "done". A row gets hidden when the day is over. Leftover tasks that don't get italicized get moved to another day. It's simplistic but oh-so-effective for me in this hectic time.
I wanted to give a run-down of the Celebration preparation activities that have actually happened. I think if I see them listed out, it'll make me feel better. (And we don't have to talk about the things that are left to do because that will not make me feel better...)
What Has Happened (Since Monday, February 13th)
- Finished last hand-stitched hem on finger of Jyn gloves
- Kohl's shopping for blue-gray shirt and pants for Jyn
- Failure on first trip
- Success on the second trip!
- Got Asajj Ventress make-up in mail; did 2nd make-up test
- 1st make-up test was done with old paint that was already on-hand and was completed prior to 2/13
- Painted test stripes with puff paint and puff paint/acrylic mix for Jyn jacket
- Heated up iron and tested puff paint
- Puff paint really puffs; puff paint/acrylic mix did nothing
- New Jyn vest arrived from eBay; too small but will work
- Old Jyn vest was blogged about previously; a tan piece of blah that will probably sit this one out
- Trip to thrift store for Jyn items - no luck
- Trip to JoAnn's to buy fabric for Jyn scarf - no luck
- Trip to WalMart to buy fabric for Jyn scarf - success
- New Asajj make-up arrived
- Asajj princess dress and raven finger puppet arrives (this silly idea deserve it's own post, really; maybe someday)
- Try on princess dress
- Stare at awkwardly fitting dress in the mirror
- Prep dress for return
- Give dress to Nerd Husband to drop off to UPS for return
- Keep raven finger puppet because he's amazingly awesome
- Buy more thread from JoAnn's
- Check out thrift store for friend's planned Cassian costume and send pics to friend
- Check out thrift store for dark brown webbing or belts - no luck
- Find Asajj skirt in dirty clothes and wash skirt
- Restitch shoulder seam on Jyn jacket
- Repin and finish blind stitch on Jyn jacket back
- Finish sleeve detail on Jyn jacket
- Work on Jyn necklace
Now I have to stop. Because writing a blog post was not on my To Do list.
But it is now.
Because marking "done" things in italicized font is my life.
Friday, February 24, 2017
Costumes are Built on Hope
More times than not, that title sitting up there sums up how I feel about my little hobby. Sometimes I just sit back and hope that I'm doing the right thing, buying the right fabric, creating the right pattern, and putting things together the right way. It usually all turns out. Of course, there are other times when your lightsabers fall apart before you even make it into the convention center. But you know, you can still hope that it's all good. Sometimes you run out of time and you just can't make things as awesome as you envisioned them. Or sometimes you run out of knowledge about how to make something, and you just say, "Good enough with what I can do right now." You do those things, and you hope that it will be okay.
So it's with that same hope that I'm embarking on a journey to create Jyn Erso's costume from Rogue One: A Story Wars Story. I've been lurking in the RPF thread about Jyn's costume, but I haven't really said much. Mostly I'm just information gathering and silently sending jealous waves of awe across the internet to people whose work I admire. I know that my time is now limited because every time I wanted to start costuming, something else in real life would happen. So now I'm sitting here with a little over a month to put something together and a lot of weekends which are filling up with family and friend stuff. I'm kind of to the point mentally where if I focus on just one thing beyond what it is I'm doing, it compounds into a hundred things, and I freak out.
So - since my hobby should be fun and not cause me too much stress - we're going with a goal of "good enough" accuracy. That being said, there are things I want to try to incorporate, and if I can, I will. I also decided that - with my time constraints - my best bet would be to create costume pieces from existing items found in the great Thrift Store of Awesome and the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness. I'll run through what I have, where I am with it, and what my plan is. If you can call it a "plan".
Green Jacket
Located at the Thrift Store of Awesome. The first thing I bought and the first thing I started working one. Plus, it's probably one of my favorite parts of this entire costume. Jyn's green Rebellion jacket that she wears as part of her outfit on Jedha just really felt like "me". You don't even get to see this jacket at the end of the movie, but I absolutely love it. Not sure why because there's really nothing special about an army green jacket with blood stripes down the sleeves, but I'm weird like that.
I picked up a green military-esque jacket that was a little big for me, and I set to work ripping off the pockets, pinning up the back shoulders to bring it in a bit, and pinning the collar to get a stand-up effect. Finding thread to match this fabric was more difficult than it should have been, but I have thread now and things that need stitching back up. Once the stitching is complete on these items, I plan to figure out where to hem the length (if at all), add the decorative top-stitching to the collar and lower band, and maybe add a zipper - for kicks. Because I'm cruel to myself like that.
Lastly, I really want to put those stripes up the side. The actual garment appears to have stripes that are screen printed with puff paint. I know nothing of screen printing, and the only puff paint I have a history with is the kind that I used to make a fan t-shirt for a Backstreet Boys concert (yes, you can make fun of me; I won't cry). So after some research online and determining that I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on real screen printing stuff, I took my trusty coupons to JoAnn's and picked up three colors of acrylic paint and a big ol' tube of white "Puffy" paint. I have no idea what this will make. The correct answer is probably "a mess". The answer I'm hoping for is "awesome stripes".
Jacket: maybe $3.50
Thread: $1.07
Zippers: $6.90 (because I couldn't decide and bought 2 with the intention of using them in the future)
Paint: $6.83 (with definite re-usability on the acrylic colors, but maybe not so much on the $2 Puffy paint)
Pants
Located at the Thrift Store of Awesome. I picked up a slightly-too-large-in-the-waist pair of stretch twill black pants (with the widest legs you've ever seen). This might not have been my best choice because when I sat down with the intention on trying to figure out how to taper the legs, add front seams and back seams to both legs, and figure out how to add pin tuck details to the lower leg, I freaked out. I just kept pinning things and unpinning them and telling myself I was horrible and no good at this. Until finally, I ended up sitting in my basement with my legs out in front of me, donning the in-side out confusedly pinned pants, and thinking, "What the hell do I think I'm doing? And how do I get up off the floor now?"
In the meantime, I have given up on the pants, and I set those aside so I could think. I've watched some tutorials on tailoring pants now, and I have a rough sketch in mind of how I'd like to proceed. But I'm waiting for a better brain day so we don't have a repeat episode of last time.
I did pick up some "good enough" buckles when I was at Hobby Lobby this week because all of their sewing notions were half-off. Woohoo for sales!
Pants: maybe $2.50
Buckles: maybe $1.50
Gloves
I didn't want to spend $50+ on screen accurate gloves that would have required additional work and leather dyeing (things I haven't done before), so I took to the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness. Considering I have what seem like grotesquely sized hands when you're shopping for women's gloves, I finally landed on a pair of vintage brown leather gloves, well-worn, made in Italy, size 8. Some stains on the gloves, but hey - that's what I want, right! They had a "best offer" deal going on, so I threw in an offer and was accepted by the seller.
These things are awesome. They fit, which is great. The leather is thin but definitely seems to hold up, so it won't feel as bulky to me as the screen accurate gloves. I felt awful at first about cutting up vintage Italian leather gloves, but I justified my actions to myself by saying that they were well-worn already and smelled of old lady perfume. So I started cutting off the finger tips, and then I took a seam ripper to rip out the vintage silk lining. It took some time and patient cutting to get the gloves down to the acceptable "height" in the fingers for me, and then I used one gloves as a pattern to match the other.
I'm currently in the process of restitching the seams so that they don't fall apart at the fingers. I have two fingers left to go, and then I can move on to shortening the gloves and using that extra leather to add the wrist strap. I'm so happy with these, and they aren't even done.
Gloves: $8.75
Vest
This is a hard one for me to count costs on because I bought material to make a vest. Jyn's vest is cotton in the back and nylon in the front, so I ended up with some quilting cotton and two different types of nylon. But then time started slipping away and the calendar started filling up, and I freaked out So I'm not going to include that cost in my analysis right now
After my freak out session, I took a trip to the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness which made it all better once again. I ended up finding a vest that looked about right to me, not too puffy, and a "best offer" deal on it. It had some stitching that was coming undone, but the seller was honest about it. Otherwise, the thing looks pretty darned good. And since I'd like to replace the stitching, that's fine by me. Plus, I can pass it off as "battle damaged", so who cares about defects?! The only thing that might cause me issue is that it's listed as "tan". I didn't really realize that until after I put in my offers, so we'll see what happens. Apparently, you can dye nylon; I did some research on it at lunch today. But then again, I might decide "good enough" and just go with it.
I would like to add new pockets, webbing, and maybe some of the contrast stitching. Maybe even add the little floss tied quilting puffs in the back (which would be something new I've never done). But again, if this stuff doesn't get done, I'm not going to be sad.
Vest: $7.00
Belt
While it's no where near accurate, I'm actually thinking about using my gun belt from my Lara Croft costume. It has the same leg wrap, and it's brown. Good enough! If I have time or patience, maybe I'll dig into something else later.
Belt: free
Boots
I think I'm going to reuse the Lara Croft boots for this as well. They're the perfect height and color. I doubt that I'll have time or resources to make the boot cover patches, though. But in the meantime, I'm going to consider this one done.
Boots: free
Scarf
This is another one of those pieces that you don't see later on in the movie, but she does wear the item on Jedha. And honestly, I just love scarves, so I really want to make this piece. I've been searching for fabric for a couple of weeks now, though, with no luck. So this is still up in the air.
Shirt
I really would love to create the shirt with the little collar flap that Jyn wears, but again, I'm having a hard time color-matching fabric. I might end up going with a gray "good enough" 3/4 sleeve shirt, but I haven't located a possible one just yet.
Gun
This one I'm stuck on. I've done so much research that my head is spinning. I could build one, but I need a model Luger airsoft gun. Plus, it's a matter of "con safe", and I want to be as mindful of that as possible. I could buy a 3D printed one, but I'd more than likely have to paint it and assemble it. The next money step up is buying one that's printed, assembled, and painted. I'm weighing my options. Part of me kind of just wants to mix my fandoms and carry a banana.
As of right now, that's the big stuff I can come up with. There are other little pieces and parts (comlink, ID tag, etc.), but I'm not really in a mind to think of that right now. Plus now I'm just laughing because River Song is pointing a banana at the Doctor. Life is ridiculous like that.
Until next time, stay shiny!
So it's with that same hope that I'm embarking on a journey to create Jyn Erso's costume from Rogue One: A Story Wars Story. I've been lurking in the RPF thread about Jyn's costume, but I haven't really said much. Mostly I'm just information gathering and silently sending jealous waves of awe across the internet to people whose work I admire. I know that my time is now limited because every time I wanted to start costuming, something else in real life would happen. So now I'm sitting here with a little over a month to put something together and a lot of weekends which are filling up with family and friend stuff. I'm kind of to the point mentally where if I focus on just one thing beyond what it is I'm doing, it compounds into a hundred things, and I freak out.
So - since my hobby should be fun and not cause me too much stress - we're going with a goal of "good enough" accuracy. That being said, there are things I want to try to incorporate, and if I can, I will. I also decided that - with my time constraints - my best bet would be to create costume pieces from existing items found in the great Thrift Store of Awesome and the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness. I'll run through what I have, where I am with it, and what my plan is. If you can call it a "plan".
Green Jacket
Located at the Thrift Store of Awesome. The first thing I bought and the first thing I started working one. Plus, it's probably one of my favorite parts of this entire costume. Jyn's green Rebellion jacket that she wears as part of her outfit on Jedha just really felt like "me". You don't even get to see this jacket at the end of the movie, but I absolutely love it. Not sure why because there's really nothing special about an army green jacket with blood stripes down the sleeves, but I'm weird like that.
I picked up a green military-esque jacket that was a little big for me, and I set to work ripping off the pockets, pinning up the back shoulders to bring it in a bit, and pinning the collar to get a stand-up effect. Finding thread to match this fabric was more difficult than it should have been, but I have thread now and things that need stitching back up. Once the stitching is complete on these items, I plan to figure out where to hem the length (if at all), add the decorative top-stitching to the collar and lower band, and maybe add a zipper - for kicks. Because I'm cruel to myself like that.
Lastly, I really want to put those stripes up the side. The actual garment appears to have stripes that are screen printed with puff paint. I know nothing of screen printing, and the only puff paint I have a history with is the kind that I used to make a fan t-shirt for a Backstreet Boys concert (yes, you can make fun of me; I won't cry). So after some research online and determining that I didn't really want to spend a lot of money on real screen printing stuff, I took my trusty coupons to JoAnn's and picked up three colors of acrylic paint and a big ol' tube of white "Puffy" paint. I have no idea what this will make. The correct answer is probably "a mess". The answer I'm hoping for is "awesome stripes".
Jacket: maybe $3.50
Thread: $1.07
Zippers: $6.90 (because I couldn't decide and bought 2 with the intention of using them in the future)
Paint: $6.83 (with definite re-usability on the acrylic colors, but maybe not so much on the $2 Puffy paint)
Pants
Located at the Thrift Store of Awesome. I picked up a slightly-too-large-in-the-waist pair of stretch twill black pants (with the widest legs you've ever seen). This might not have been my best choice because when I sat down with the intention on trying to figure out how to taper the legs, add front seams and back seams to both legs, and figure out how to add pin tuck details to the lower leg, I freaked out. I just kept pinning things and unpinning them and telling myself I was horrible and no good at this. Until finally, I ended up sitting in my basement with my legs out in front of me, donning the in-side out confusedly pinned pants, and thinking, "What the hell do I think I'm doing? And how do I get up off the floor now?"
In the meantime, I have given up on the pants, and I set those aside so I could think. I've watched some tutorials on tailoring pants now, and I have a rough sketch in mind of how I'd like to proceed. But I'm waiting for a better brain day so we don't have a repeat episode of last time.
I did pick up some "good enough" buckles when I was at Hobby Lobby this week because all of their sewing notions were half-off. Woohoo for sales!
Pants: maybe $2.50
Buckles: maybe $1.50
Gloves
I didn't want to spend $50+ on screen accurate gloves that would have required additional work and leather dyeing (things I haven't done before), so I took to the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness. Considering I have what seem like grotesquely sized hands when you're shopping for women's gloves, I finally landed on a pair of vintage brown leather gloves, well-worn, made in Italy, size 8. Some stains on the gloves, but hey - that's what I want, right! They had a "best offer" deal going on, so I threw in an offer and was accepted by the seller.
These things are awesome. They fit, which is great. The leather is thin but definitely seems to hold up, so it won't feel as bulky to me as the screen accurate gloves. I felt awful at first about cutting up vintage Italian leather gloves, but I justified my actions to myself by saying that they were well-worn already and smelled of old lady perfume. So I started cutting off the finger tips, and then I took a seam ripper to rip out the vintage silk lining. It took some time and patient cutting to get the gloves down to the acceptable "height" in the fingers for me, and then I used one gloves as a pattern to match the other.
I'm currently in the process of restitching the seams so that they don't fall apart at the fingers. I have two fingers left to go, and then I can move on to shortening the gloves and using that extra leather to add the wrist strap. I'm so happy with these, and they aren't even done.
Gloves: $8.75
Vest
This is a hard one for me to count costs on because I bought material to make a vest. Jyn's vest is cotton in the back and nylon in the front, so I ended up with some quilting cotton and two different types of nylon. But then time started slipping away and the calendar started filling up, and I freaked out So I'm not going to include that cost in my analysis right now
After my freak out session, I took a trip to the eBay Galaxy of Gloriousness which made it all better once again. I ended up finding a vest that looked about right to me, not too puffy, and a "best offer" deal on it. It had some stitching that was coming undone, but the seller was honest about it. Otherwise, the thing looks pretty darned good. And since I'd like to replace the stitching, that's fine by me. Plus, I can pass it off as "battle damaged", so who cares about defects?! The only thing that might cause me issue is that it's listed as "tan". I didn't really realize that until after I put in my offers, so we'll see what happens. Apparently, you can dye nylon; I did some research on it at lunch today. But then again, I might decide "good enough" and just go with it.
I would like to add new pockets, webbing, and maybe some of the contrast stitching. Maybe even add the little floss tied quilting puffs in the back (which would be something new I've never done). But again, if this stuff doesn't get done, I'm not going to be sad.
Vest: $7.00
Belt
While it's no where near accurate, I'm actually thinking about using my gun belt from my Lara Croft costume. It has the same leg wrap, and it's brown. Good enough! If I have time or patience, maybe I'll dig into something else later.
Belt: free
Boots
I think I'm going to reuse the Lara Croft boots for this as well. They're the perfect height and color. I doubt that I'll have time or resources to make the boot cover patches, though. But in the meantime, I'm going to consider this one done.
Boots: free
Scarf
This is another one of those pieces that you don't see later on in the movie, but she does wear the item on Jedha. And honestly, I just love scarves, so I really want to make this piece. I've been searching for fabric for a couple of weeks now, though, with no luck. So this is still up in the air.
Shirt
I really would love to create the shirt with the little collar flap that Jyn wears, but again, I'm having a hard time color-matching fabric. I might end up going with a gray "good enough" 3/4 sleeve shirt, but I haven't located a possible one just yet.
Gun
This one I'm stuck on. I've done so much research that my head is spinning. I could build one, but I need a model Luger airsoft gun. Plus, it's a matter of "con safe", and I want to be as mindful of that as possible. I could buy a 3D printed one, but I'd more than likely have to paint it and assemble it. The next money step up is buying one that's printed, assembled, and painted. I'm weighing my options. Part of me kind of just wants to mix my fandoms and carry a banana.
As of right now, that's the big stuff I can come up with. There are other little pieces and parts (comlink, ID tag, etc.), but I'm not really in a mind to think of that right now. Plus now I'm just laughing because River Song is pointing a banana at the Doctor. Life is ridiculous like that.
Until next time, stay shiny!
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Reflections of Celebration
I'm sitting here realizing that in two months, I will be boarding a plane to soar through the clouds to take me to Orlando. Not just for Disney. Not just for Universal. But for Star Wars Celebration 2017. 2017, people. How crazy is that? Then again, maybe it's not all that crazy for you. Maybe your life is going swimmingly and the years have gone by in the same manner, day in and day out. I'm betting the probability of that is low. Very low. So if you're like me in some way, you're going to look at the year 2017 and think, "How did we get here?" If you're even further like me, you're looking at Star Wars Celebration 2017 and thinking, "How did we get here?"
Let's have a boring history lesson. Perhaps if you imagine it being related to you by C-3PO, it will make things slightly less boring. Maybe.
Celebration has a history that intertwined with the release of the Star Wars Prequel trilogy, and Celebration I was held from April 30-May 2, 1999 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado. The event was held three weeks before the official release of The Phantom Menace, and it was the first Star Wars convention since 1987.
When Attack of the Clones was set to release, Celebration II was held in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 3-5, 2002. I missed out on this one by about a week. I found out about it maybe a week after the convention had been held, but there was no way I (at the time, a poor, young college freshman) could have made the journey by car and paid my way into the con. But I vowed that I could make it to the next one - because I had faith their would be a next one. I gathered up an old coffee can, printed out a little label with Obi-Wan staring at me and "Celebration III Fund" written in Star Wars font. I put every dollar I earned and every penny I found into that little can.
When Celebration III rolled around from April 21-24, 2005 in Indianapolis, I was there. My funds had taken me this far, even though I ended up a bit shy due to some unforeseen issues with hotel rooms. But thanks to the grace of a friend who allowed me to pay back my bill monthly, I was there. A college senior. There with a Jedi costume of my own, in the middle of a severe bout of depression, but so stinking excited because I was freaking there. I met people I had talked to on the StarWars.com message boards from all over the word (the board are history now, sadly enough, but I still miss them). I waited for hours just to get into the dumb Celebration store. I saw props and costumes. I tried to get into lines that were always "capped" due to capacity. It was one heck of an experience, though - even when dealing with a tough time in my own personal life. I wouldn't trade it.
Since my days at Celebration III, I have made every effort, saved my pennies, and attended each Celebration held in the US: IV, V, VI, and Anaheim 2015 (why did we stop numbering them?). My fellow fans around the world have been able to take part of international Celebrations held in England, Japan, Germany, and back to England again.
So that's how we got here. That's how a poor college freshman who missed out made sure she didn't miss out later on. That's how that 19 year old kid grew into a 34 year old adult(?) who still does a lot of child-like things despite having grown-up responsibilities. And that's how we've made it to 2017 and will push on to Celebration 2017. We learn. We grow. We fall down. We pick ourselves back up. We learn some more. And we grow some more. It's a process, one that I've been following like everyone else has in life.
And it's a cause for Celebration in my book.
Let's have a boring history lesson. Perhaps if you imagine it being related to you by C-3PO, it will make things slightly less boring. Maybe.
Celebration has a history that intertwined with the release of the Star Wars Prequel trilogy, and Celebration I was held from April 30-May 2, 1999 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado. The event was held three weeks before the official release of The Phantom Menace, and it was the first Star Wars convention since 1987.
When Attack of the Clones was set to release, Celebration II was held in Indianapolis, Indiana from May 3-5, 2002. I missed out on this one by about a week. I found out about it maybe a week after the convention had been held, but there was no way I (at the time, a poor, young college freshman) could have made the journey by car and paid my way into the con. But I vowed that I could make it to the next one - because I had faith their would be a next one. I gathered up an old coffee can, printed out a little label with Obi-Wan staring at me and "Celebration III Fund" written in Star Wars font. I put every dollar I earned and every penny I found into that little can.
When Celebration III rolled around from April 21-24, 2005 in Indianapolis, I was there. My funds had taken me this far, even though I ended up a bit shy due to some unforeseen issues with hotel rooms. But thanks to the grace of a friend who allowed me to pay back my bill monthly, I was there. A college senior. There with a Jedi costume of my own, in the middle of a severe bout of depression, but so stinking excited because I was freaking there. I met people I had talked to on the StarWars.com message boards from all over the word (the board are history now, sadly enough, but I still miss them). I waited for hours just to get into the dumb Celebration store. I saw props and costumes. I tried to get into lines that were always "capped" due to capacity. It was one heck of an experience, though - even when dealing with a tough time in my own personal life. I wouldn't trade it.
Since my days at Celebration III, I have made every effort, saved my pennies, and attended each Celebration held in the US: IV, V, VI, and Anaheim 2015 (why did we stop numbering them?). My fellow fans around the world have been able to take part of international Celebrations held in England, Japan, Germany, and back to England again.
So that's how we got here. That's how a poor college freshman who missed out made sure she didn't miss out later on. That's how that 19 year old kid grew into a 34 year old adult(?) who still does a lot of child-like things despite having grown-up responsibilities. And that's how we've made it to 2017 and will push on to Celebration 2017. We learn. We grow. We fall down. We pick ourselves back up. We learn some more. And we grow some more. It's a process, one that I've been following like everyone else has in life.
And it's a cause for Celebration in my book.
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
In Memory of a Princess
I realize that I've been quiet lately in the light of the events that covered the Star Wars fan blogs, news channels, and internet sites at the tail end of 2016. I'm not even sure I've adequately discussed my thoughts out-loud regarding these events because my voice stops or my brain stops or my heart just says, "Not yet." Even as I'm going back and rereading this (because I've been trying to draft this post for over a month now), I don't think I've really said exactly what I felt or thought. I know, however, that eventually I'll have to say something. I'll want to say something. So I wanted to see if I could draft out my idea so that it might eventually become full-fledged words on the screen. This is that draft, along with some edits, and probably a few more additions before I actually hit "publish".
We lost Carrie Fisher unexpectedly on Tuesday, December 27, 2016. This came shortly after the news that she had experienced a "cardiac incident" while in-flight from London to Los Angeles the previous Friday. We didn't expect this. We heard "stable", and we all had hope. But that hope was obliterated when we saw the headlines on Tuesday. Almost as though life wanted to add insult to injury, the very next day we saw the headline that we had lost Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds. One day after her daughter.
My introduction to Carrie came through Star Wars, and over the years, I've been lucky enough to listen to her speak at a few fan conventions including Star Wars Celebrations. Let's face it - so many of us met this leading lady of sci-fi fantasy the same way. We fell in love with her through her portrayal of Princess Leia. Her spunk, her wit, and her charm filled the screen. Leia was determined, strong-willed, and unwavering. She was a true hero in the Star Wars saga.
Carrie Fisher herself was a true hero to a lot of causes. Despite her difficulties with drugs and alcohol throughout her past, she was honest about her addictions, her bipolar disorder, and her depression. She shared these things with people as a form of education to let people know they were not alone in their struggles. She was sharp-witted, had a wicked sense of humor, and was full of life on the stage. And through it all, her honesty and genuine heart shown through.
I am nothing like Carrie Fisher. I am not a risk-taker. I have never been addicted to drugs or alcohol. I have never had bipolar disorder. My sense of humor is less risqué. I am not as brutally honest. She is so unlike who I am at times that it's probably hard for some people to understand why I am so upset by her passing.
However, I think the reason I am so upset is because - despite the fact that I am none of these things - I looked up to her and who she was. A part of me wanted to be like that. I looked up to how honest and forthright she was about everything in life. Carrie Fisher was who she was, and she never apologized for it. That was just how it was going to be. You couldn't change it, and you didn't want to. That must be amazingly freeing - to realize that you are who you are and people shouldn't be allowed to judge us because of who we are. I wish we could all feel that freedom.
Carrie spoke out for those suffering with bipolar disorder, depression, and all mental illnesses in order to educate others. She spoke out to help those who were suffering realize they were not alone in their struggles and they were not abnormal because of them. This specifically resonated with me - having dealt personally with two particularly difficult psychological diagnoses over the years. Hearing her speak about it in person - to hear her reach out to a crowd, to those who might be hurting or to those who might not understand - brought me to tears one time at a convention in Indianapolis. (She explained to a child in the audience what "bipolar" meant after he had asked her a question during the Q&A.) I will never forget that feeling. It was a complete sense of validation in your hurt coupled with the promise of strength to overcome all of it. She helped instill that through words alone. That's amazing.
It's been a tough time for a lot of people. The world has seemed dark and ugly, and I think a lot of us were just pulling to make it through 2016. Then more stuff happened, and some people just kept thinking that the turning of a number on the calendar of life would make it better. But a number is a number - it doesn't change anything except what we make it change. We are the people who make a difference - even in the darkness, we can still be a beacon of hope.
Even if it's a tiny hope.
Even if it's someone's only hope.
Thank you, Carrie Fisher, for all that you were and all that you always will be - to so many. May the Force be with you always.
We lost Carrie Fisher unexpectedly on Tuesday, December 27, 2016. This came shortly after the news that she had experienced a "cardiac incident" while in-flight from London to Los Angeles the previous Friday. We didn't expect this. We heard "stable", and we all had hope. But that hope was obliterated when we saw the headlines on Tuesday. Almost as though life wanted to add insult to injury, the very next day we saw the headline that we had lost Carrie's mother, Debbie Reynolds. One day after her daughter.
My introduction to Carrie came through Star Wars, and over the years, I've been lucky enough to listen to her speak at a few fan conventions including Star Wars Celebrations. Let's face it - so many of us met this leading lady of sci-fi fantasy the same way. We fell in love with her through her portrayal of Princess Leia. Her spunk, her wit, and her charm filled the screen. Leia was determined, strong-willed, and unwavering. She was a true hero in the Star Wars saga.
Carrie Fisher herself was a true hero to a lot of causes. Despite her difficulties with drugs and alcohol throughout her past, she was honest about her addictions, her bipolar disorder, and her depression. She shared these things with people as a form of education to let people know they were not alone in their struggles. She was sharp-witted, had a wicked sense of humor, and was full of life on the stage. And through it all, her honesty and genuine heart shown through.
I am nothing like Carrie Fisher. I am not a risk-taker. I have never been addicted to drugs or alcohol. I have never had bipolar disorder. My sense of humor is less risqué. I am not as brutally honest. She is so unlike who I am at times that it's probably hard for some people to understand why I am so upset by her passing.
However, I think the reason I am so upset is because - despite the fact that I am none of these things - I looked up to her and who she was. A part of me wanted to be like that. I looked up to how honest and forthright she was about everything in life. Carrie Fisher was who she was, and she never apologized for it. That was just how it was going to be. You couldn't change it, and you didn't want to. That must be amazingly freeing - to realize that you are who you are and people shouldn't be allowed to judge us because of who we are. I wish we could all feel that freedom.
Carrie spoke out for those suffering with bipolar disorder, depression, and all mental illnesses in order to educate others. She spoke out to help those who were suffering realize they were not alone in their struggles and they were not abnormal because of them. This specifically resonated with me - having dealt personally with two particularly difficult psychological diagnoses over the years. Hearing her speak about it in person - to hear her reach out to a crowd, to those who might be hurting or to those who might not understand - brought me to tears one time at a convention in Indianapolis. (She explained to a child in the audience what "bipolar" meant after he had asked her a question during the Q&A.) I will never forget that feeling. It was a complete sense of validation in your hurt coupled with the promise of strength to overcome all of it. She helped instill that through words alone. That's amazing.
It's been a tough time for a lot of people. The world has seemed dark and ugly, and I think a lot of us were just pulling to make it through 2016. Then more stuff happened, and some people just kept thinking that the turning of a number on the calendar of life would make it better. But a number is a number - it doesn't change anything except what we make it change. We are the people who make a difference - even in the darkness, we can still be a beacon of hope.
Even if it's a tiny hope.
Even if it's someone's only hope.
Thank you, Carrie Fisher, for all that you were and all that you always will be - to so many. May the Force be with you always.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
How a "Planner" Became a "Pantser"
There's an event that happens around the world in November called NaNoWriMo. To quote their description on Google, "NaNoWriMo is an annual (November) novel writing project that brings together professional and amateur writers from all over the world." I've participated in Nano (as I'm going to call it for short) a few times in the past, as well as some of their smaller Camp NaNoWriMo events that they hold in April and July. I have only completed my goal of 50,000 words once and that was in November 2013 (which Facebook kindly reminded me today with my "WINNER" picture I took). All of my other attempts at fallen pitifully short of my goal, but that's okay - and I'm okay with it. The point is that I tried, and I did my best to enjoy my writing while I was writing it.
Now you might be saying, "Hey, Shada," (which is my nickname, if you've forgotten). "What's this writing business? This doesn't have to do with Star Wars or Disney. Isn't that what you said this blog was about?"
And I would say to you, "Now, you hold on to your horses just a gosh dern minute there, whippersnapper." (My Nano novel that I "won" with as a western of sorts; I'm sorry.) "You give me some time here, and I'm gonna learn you at thing or two about a'plannin' and a'pantsin'."
That just...sounds weird. I am so sorry. Moving on.
The terms "planner" and "pantser" are things that I learned about in the Nano writing community. There were some people who carefully spent the month of October (or earlier) planning out their novel piece by piece. Writing up character sheets. Gathering research and information. They were the "planner" group. Then you have the people who sat down on November 1st with a blank slate. Maybe a rough idea of where they wanted to go. No solid leads or characters. These are the people who are writing by the "seat of their pants" - the "pantser" group.
There are parts of me that have always been a planner. I loved my little schedule/planner in high school that they gave us for free every year. I'd get my different color pens out and color coordinate everything so I knew what was homework, what was personal, what was extracurricular. When our Star Wars Celebration group prepares to go to a convention, I like to have group discussions, make hand-outs, discuss plan of attack and what we'd like to see. I like to know what will be there when I'm going to a certain place. I don't need to know exactly where I'm going to be at 2:15pm, but I like to know the things that are available to me, what times they're open, and what my "must dos" are. And I like to have some things very planned - flight times, pick-up times, dinner dates and times, etc. Things like that need planning. You can't just show up at the airport and go, "Hello, sir, put me on an airplane. I want to go to Florida." That doesn't work. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming it doesn't work.
While I have usually considered myself a planner in my lifetime, I also know that I have a bit of a pantser in me, as well. This goes back to the idea of I don't know where exactly I'm going to be at 2:15pm. I hate hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute schedules. I hate to feel like I've tied myself into a work-day schedule when I'm really just trying to have a weekend off or a vacation day. That drives me batty and makes me more stressed because what happens if I don't obey my schedule? What happens if I fail? See? Not fun for me. When it comes to Nano, I'm also a "pantser". Characters and writing need to flow. If I force myself into the research element of it without really having purpose or care behind it, then I'll just feel stressed and bored and I won't want to write anymore. Not really a productive attitude when you have 50,000 words to write.
These two paragraphs only describe me and my style of writing and vacations and life. Not everyone is the same, and that's okay! It makes life uber-interesting when we're not all carbon-copy cookie-cutouts of each other. We are not the Emperor's Clone Army! (Which, really, is a bad example because even the clones prove that they aren't carbon-copies of each other despite having the same genetic structure...but I digress.)
What I'm really trying to say here is that my planner lifestyle has had to make a huge shift into the pantser lifestyle just because life (and myself) made it that way. I learned that I can't be rigid in my plans and still expect myself to roll with the punches. If there's an issue with one way of doing things, I can't keep doing things that way and not change to something else so I can get a different outcome. I encountered a lot of crap over the years that bucked up against my planning abilities and threw me totally out of whack, so I finally learned to just say, "Fine. You win. We're wingin' this one." And I learned that that's okay. You can be a planner and a pantser, and there's nothing wrong with either of them.
For me, a bit of both suits me just fine, and that's the attitude I'm trying to take toward my planning of our next Walt Disney World trip in December. We've been dealing with so much this year - from personal illness, to family illness, to sudden losses and death, to depression and anxiety, to just living the day-to-day. I didn't plan any of that, and if I'd clung so desperately to a personal plan during all of this craziness, I think I'd be a lot more insane than I currently am. I had to let it go - all of it. I could do what I could do only in that moment I could do it, and that was okay.
I'm keeping that in mind as I'm looking at all of this Christmassy stuff at Disney and reading blogs and gathering information. Some of it makes me really nervous because it's the typical things we hear when we read about Disney. All of the websites tell me to plan - I need a plan. I need to know which park I'm going to go to on which days. I need to make advances dining reservations. I don't have any FastPasses. I don't have a Dining Plan, but it says I should have a Dining Plan. I can't eat that much. Omg. What if we don't make it to blah? What if we can't walk it? What if we're sick? What if it rains?
I hate all of that. All of it. I understand that having a Disney vacation means you have to plan, yes. But I personally believe in not making myself physically ill while planning the gosh dern thing (there's that old Nano novel coming back around again). So when I've been doing my reading and researching, what I've been attempting to do is just make a list. Make a list in my head of things I'd like to see, where they are, when they're available. I have quite the list thanks to lots of different websites, including Disney Tourist Blog. I found their articles to be quite helpful, including the self-tour of all of the decorations at the Disney resorts. This was a big thing on the Nerd Husband's and my list, so it was helpful to find a bit of a guide to get us where we wanted to be.
Also, to allow us a bit more freedom in our time schedule and exploration, we decided to rent ourselves a car for this trip. We have a lot of things we'd like to go outside of the Disney parks, and it can sometimes be rather trying to resort hop using Disney transportation. So we chalked up the extra bit of money (which isn't bad, really), and we're going to test this out to see how we like having our own vehicle while on property. I'm kind of excited to get to drive down there again; it's been a while.
Sitting back and reading all of this again, it sounds a little rambly - but the point I'm trying to make is that maybe you can take a step back from the uber-planning. Even if you just take one day and leave it completely open, maybe that would help. Just a day to say, "Hey, where do you want to go? Let's go play." Because really, that's what it's about, right? Playing and creating memories with your family and friends and loved ones. At least that's what it's always been about for me, and I need to remember that. That should always come first when I sit down and come up with a plan by the seat of my pants.
Now you might be saying, "Hey, Shada," (which is my nickname, if you've forgotten). "What's this writing business? This doesn't have to do with Star Wars or Disney. Isn't that what you said this blog was about?"
And I would say to you, "Now, you hold on to your horses just a gosh dern minute there, whippersnapper." (My Nano novel that I "won" with as a western of sorts; I'm sorry.) "You give me some time here, and I'm gonna learn you at thing or two about a'plannin' and a'pantsin'."
That just...sounds weird. I am so sorry. Moving on.
The terms "planner" and "pantser" are things that I learned about in the Nano writing community. There were some people who carefully spent the month of October (or earlier) planning out their novel piece by piece. Writing up character sheets. Gathering research and information. They were the "planner" group. Then you have the people who sat down on November 1st with a blank slate. Maybe a rough idea of where they wanted to go. No solid leads or characters. These are the people who are writing by the "seat of their pants" - the "pantser" group.
There are parts of me that have always been a planner. I loved my little schedule/planner in high school that they gave us for free every year. I'd get my different color pens out and color coordinate everything so I knew what was homework, what was personal, what was extracurricular. When our Star Wars Celebration group prepares to go to a convention, I like to have group discussions, make hand-outs, discuss plan of attack and what we'd like to see. I like to know what will be there when I'm going to a certain place. I don't need to know exactly where I'm going to be at 2:15pm, but I like to know the things that are available to me, what times they're open, and what my "must dos" are. And I like to have some things very planned - flight times, pick-up times, dinner dates and times, etc. Things like that need planning. You can't just show up at the airport and go, "Hello, sir, put me on an airplane. I want to go to Florida." That doesn't work. I haven't tried it, but I'm assuming it doesn't work.
While I have usually considered myself a planner in my lifetime, I also know that I have a bit of a pantser in me, as well. This goes back to the idea of I don't know where exactly I'm going to be at 2:15pm. I hate hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute schedules. I hate to feel like I've tied myself into a work-day schedule when I'm really just trying to have a weekend off or a vacation day. That drives me batty and makes me more stressed because what happens if I don't obey my schedule? What happens if I fail? See? Not fun for me. When it comes to Nano, I'm also a "pantser". Characters and writing need to flow. If I force myself into the research element of it without really having purpose or care behind it, then I'll just feel stressed and bored and I won't want to write anymore. Not really a productive attitude when you have 50,000 words to write.
These two paragraphs only describe me and my style of writing and vacations and life. Not everyone is the same, and that's okay! It makes life uber-interesting when we're not all carbon-copy cookie-cutouts of each other. We are not the Emperor's Clone Army! (Which, really, is a bad example because even the clones prove that they aren't carbon-copies of each other despite having the same genetic structure...but I digress.)
What I'm really trying to say here is that my planner lifestyle has had to make a huge shift into the pantser lifestyle just because life (and myself) made it that way. I learned that I can't be rigid in my plans and still expect myself to roll with the punches. If there's an issue with one way of doing things, I can't keep doing things that way and not change to something else so I can get a different outcome. I encountered a lot of crap over the years that bucked up against my planning abilities and threw me totally out of whack, so I finally learned to just say, "Fine. You win. We're wingin' this one." And I learned that that's okay. You can be a planner and a pantser, and there's nothing wrong with either of them.
For me, a bit of both suits me just fine, and that's the attitude I'm trying to take toward my planning of our next Walt Disney World trip in December. We've been dealing with so much this year - from personal illness, to family illness, to sudden losses and death, to depression and anxiety, to just living the day-to-day. I didn't plan any of that, and if I'd clung so desperately to a personal plan during all of this craziness, I think I'd be a lot more insane than I currently am. I had to let it go - all of it. I could do what I could do only in that moment I could do it, and that was okay.
I'm keeping that in mind as I'm looking at all of this Christmassy stuff at Disney and reading blogs and gathering information. Some of it makes me really nervous because it's the typical things we hear when we read about Disney. All of the websites tell me to plan - I need a plan. I need to know which park I'm going to go to on which days. I need to make advances dining reservations. I don't have any FastPasses. I don't have a Dining Plan, but it says I should have a Dining Plan. I can't eat that much. Omg. What if we don't make it to blah? What if we can't walk it? What if we're sick? What if it rains?
I hate all of that. All of it. I understand that having a Disney vacation means you have to plan, yes. But I personally believe in not making myself physically ill while planning the gosh dern thing (there's that old Nano novel coming back around again). So when I've been doing my reading and researching, what I've been attempting to do is just make a list. Make a list in my head of things I'd like to see, where they are, when they're available. I have quite the list thanks to lots of different websites, including Disney Tourist Blog. I found their articles to be quite helpful, including the self-tour of all of the decorations at the Disney resorts. This was a big thing on the Nerd Husband's and my list, so it was helpful to find a bit of a guide to get us where we wanted to be.
Also, to allow us a bit more freedom in our time schedule and exploration, we decided to rent ourselves a car for this trip. We have a lot of things we'd like to go outside of the Disney parks, and it can sometimes be rather trying to resort hop using Disney transportation. So we chalked up the extra bit of money (which isn't bad, really), and we're going to test this out to see how we like having our own vehicle while on property. I'm kind of excited to get to drive down there again; it's been a while.
Sitting back and reading all of this again, it sounds a little rambly - but the point I'm trying to make is that maybe you can take a step back from the uber-planning. Even if you just take one day and leave it completely open, maybe that would help. Just a day to say, "Hey, where do you want to go? Let's go play." Because really, that's what it's about, right? Playing and creating memories with your family and friends and loved ones. At least that's what it's always been about for me, and I need to remember that. That should always come first when I sit down and come up with a plan by the seat of my pants.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Star Wars Dark Side 10K - Part 2
We woke up Saturday morning while it was still dark outside (again). I think the alarm was set for 2:45 AM or so. We dressed quickly and headed out to the bus stop to be there by 3:30 AM. I'd finished the Asajj Ventress costume, and I was pretty darned proud of it. It was time to take it out and show it off and be Sithly! There was a line at the bus stop at our hotel, but it wasn't too bad of a wait and the bus pulled up quickly. We hopped on, and we were off to the races.
It was awesome driving on the property in the dark. Pulling into the Epcot parking lot where it's just a barren wasteland of parking spaces but you can see Spaceship Earth in the distance - that was just cool. We pulled up to the drop off area, and we kind of blindly followed the crowds as we walked...and walked...and walked to the main area. It was kind of a ridiculous walk, honestly. There were a few volunteers, some people checking bags. We didn't have to worry about any of that, so we figured we'd have plenty of time to maybe get a picture or two with some characters or some schemes.
When we got to the main area, it looked like the party had been in full swing for hours to be honest. If busses didn't start running until 3:30 (and we were on that bus), where did all of these people come from? The lines for the characters and photo scenes were outrageous, and they were already announcing the fact that they were closing the lines in 15 minutes because it was almost time to get people to their corrals. Weird. But maybe it's always like this. I have no idea; it's my first event.
So we enjoy the DJ silliness and fan crazies - DJ Elliott was providing some entertainment, and it honestly felt like being "home" at a Star Wars Celebration. So that part was pretty neat, and we decided not to worry about the pictures. It's not like we couldn't grab those at a convention later on. I saw one other Asajj Ventress costumed runner, but other than that, Asajj wasn't anywhere to be seen! That kind of made me sad considering all of the time she got on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but oh well. About 20-30 minutes went by or so, and then they announced they were moving people to the corrals. So we follow the herd (literally) to our corrals, find corral E, get in place and get ready.
Get ready to be smushed in with a bunch of other people for about an hour and a half, unable to sit, unable to stretch, unable to do anything but stand and watch Star Wars trailers and have conversations with the people around you. And freeze. It was pretty darned cold that early in the morning, and we just kept having to think warm thoughts and huddle together. I guess that was one good thing about being packed in so tightly. But the wind was just brutal at times.
The Nerd Husband and I spent time pointing out costumes in the sea of people who just kept flooding into the corral section. It was seriously never-ending, and they kept packing us in tighter and tighter. I knew right then there was going to be no way I could run this thing. Not in the slightest. Even if I had a hope of breaking through in some way, I had a feeling it was going to be like this most of the 6ish miles we had to go.
They released each corral with a length of 10-15 minutes in between. Something like that. I didn't time it; it would have annoyed me far too much, I think. But I spent my time in a pleasant mood instead - watching the fireworks and cheering for the corrals as they were released. Patiently waiting to move up, and finally...it was our turn. Corral E. The "Evil" Corral as we then referred to ourselves. It's the Dark Side 10K, after all.
We got our on your mark, get set, gooooooooooo - FIREWORKS! I filmed it on my phone, we walked until we go to about the start line, and then jogged lightly over the start - because c'mon, you kind of have to start off a run at least kind of running. I think I gave a thumbs up to the camera guy, but who knows if it was broadcasted on the screens to corral F (the only folks left waiting to start the race).
We did our running through the Epcot parking lot and met up with a high school band who was playing Star Wars music. That was a great pump-up, and it made me so excited to be outside running(?) at Epcot. We managed to do a few run/walk intervals, but it was proving to be difficult to keep up with our interval timer on my phone. Even this early on, we were kind of bottle necking in places - especially as we moved our way into Epcot. It was then that we decided that we would do what we could with our intervals, keep up with the folks that were close to us in the corral, and speed up when necessary to not get swept. Honestly, this was the best decision of the race - the decision to not make it a "race".
I never even saw the mile marker for the first mile - who knows what I was gawking at. It could have been the backstage view of Epcot, trying to figure out what the buildings were for and what they housed in them. Or waving at the cast members who were cheering for us. Or checking out the back gate that was open into Mexico as we rounded the corners to Star Wars music playing. The lights on the Mexican pavilion as we made our way into the park and up the pathway toward the entrance to the World Showcase. Or looking at the giant screen playing Star Wars movie clips. Of course, then there was Spaceship Earth - that ball never ceases to amaze me. Somewhere in there I think I saw Artoo and Vader, and I just kept staring at it all and smiling and walking quickly or jogging a bit when I could find a place to break through.
We rounded into Canada and the UK, and then the path took the bridge toward the "back door" of Epcot with the intent of moving on to the Boardwalk area using a little bridge. It was kind of a narrow little pain-in-the-butt pathway, let me tell you. But again, we treated it like a walk-fest when we couldn't do our intervals. No big deal until you see the balloon ladies, right? (The balloon ladies, by the way, are women who do Disney races and walk at the back of the pack at the correct official pace time. It's my understanding that they carry balloons so you can see them, and you don't want to fall behind them because then you will be swept. I am proud to say we never saw the balloon ladies.)
The best thing about this little narrow path was a lady at the end of it who was cheering people on. She had a sign that said sometime like "Good job, Random Stranger. You can do this!" It literally made me laugh of loud, and I said, "Thank you, Random Stranger! That's awesome."
The Boardwalk was just a nightmare to run on with all of those people - lol. So we walked it. And then we walked quite a bit of the pathway from the Boardwalk to Hollywood Studios, doing little jog spurts when we could get into a good groove and not get in the way. I was starting to worry around this time that it was going to rain on us; we felt a few little misty drops, but that was about it. We ran under a little bridge down by the river that they had bathed in deep red lights and Darth Vader's breathing was playing on a loop. It was pretty cool, but that was about the only thing we saw until we got to Hollywood Studios.
I honestly don't recall what characters or stops or anything were in Hollywood Studios. It was just neat seeing the whole place in the early dawn light. The lights were still on, and the cast members just seemed genuinely thrilled that we were up and out this early in the morning being stupid.
From here on out, the pathway is kind of a blur to me, and I'd have to sit down with a map to really show you were we were. I remember seeing an alligator in a little bog-like thing off of a main road. That was a fun little pit stop. I think my favorite part of this last bit of the run, though, was running down this little dirt/gravel access road. We were surrounded by trees and everything, and it felt a bit like running through Endor. I loved that.
The homestretch was back at ESPN Wide World of Sports, complete with dozens of costumed Rebel Legion and 501st folks. I stopped long enough to ask a stormtrooper if I could take a selfie with him, and he obliged. And then...
FINISH LINE!
I filmed going across the finish line, too. They were calling out names of people as they crossed, but I don't remember hearing my name. Not a big deal. I finished. I got my medal placed around my neck, and I was given a box of goodies. There was really no place to sit down except on the pavement which was weird, so we just took our box of goodies and our awesome medals and decided to head back to the bus. There were huge lines waiting for the bus, and we were all very hot and tired and still standing and waiting. That was just...hard. Really hard. We got in a conversation with teh couple in front of us, and it helped pass the time.
Back at the hotel, I prompted pulled off my shoes. Wearing new socks was a bad idea, and my feet were swollen. That never happened during any of my training sessions, so it was a new one. I let my feet rest and I gobbled through some of my goodies. Then the Nerd Husband took a nap, and I drew up a hot bath and relaxed. Who needs a hot tub when you've got a bath tub? Yay, value resorts!
After our rest, we decided to head out to actually get to enjoy the Epcot Flower and Garden festival, and we spent the rest of the day on our feet. My phone told me at the end of the day that it was my "most active day ever" - clocking in at a crazy 18.25 miles. Holy. Mother. Of pearls.
So as a conclusion regarding the Dark Side 10K race - all-in-all, I had a pretty good time with it. Did I have some gripes? Yep. Did I have some nerdy geek moments? Yep.
Let's start with the complaining first. ;)
Gripes
Fangirl Squee-worthy Moments
It was awesome driving on the property in the dark. Pulling into the Epcot parking lot where it's just a barren wasteland of parking spaces but you can see Spaceship Earth in the distance - that was just cool. We pulled up to the drop off area, and we kind of blindly followed the crowds as we walked...and walked...and walked to the main area. It was kind of a ridiculous walk, honestly. There were a few volunteers, some people checking bags. We didn't have to worry about any of that, so we figured we'd have plenty of time to maybe get a picture or two with some characters or some schemes.
When we got to the main area, it looked like the party had been in full swing for hours to be honest. If busses didn't start running until 3:30 (and we were on that bus), where did all of these people come from? The lines for the characters and photo scenes were outrageous, and they were already announcing the fact that they were closing the lines in 15 minutes because it was almost time to get people to their corrals. Weird. But maybe it's always like this. I have no idea; it's my first event.
So we enjoy the DJ silliness and fan crazies - DJ Elliott was providing some entertainment, and it honestly felt like being "home" at a Star Wars Celebration. So that part was pretty neat, and we decided not to worry about the pictures. It's not like we couldn't grab those at a convention later on. I saw one other Asajj Ventress costumed runner, but other than that, Asajj wasn't anywhere to be seen! That kind of made me sad considering all of the time she got on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but oh well. About 20-30 minutes went by or so, and then they announced they were moving people to the corrals. So we follow the herd (literally) to our corrals, find corral E, get in place and get ready.
Get ready to be smushed in with a bunch of other people for about an hour and a half, unable to sit, unable to stretch, unable to do anything but stand and watch Star Wars trailers and have conversations with the people around you. And freeze. It was pretty darned cold that early in the morning, and we just kept having to think warm thoughts and huddle together. I guess that was one good thing about being packed in so tightly. But the wind was just brutal at times.
The Nerd Husband and I spent time pointing out costumes in the sea of people who just kept flooding into the corral section. It was seriously never-ending, and they kept packing us in tighter and tighter. I knew right then there was going to be no way I could run this thing. Not in the slightest. Even if I had a hope of breaking through in some way, I had a feeling it was going to be like this most of the 6ish miles we had to go.
They released each corral with a length of 10-15 minutes in between. Something like that. I didn't time it; it would have annoyed me far too much, I think. But I spent my time in a pleasant mood instead - watching the fireworks and cheering for the corrals as they were released. Patiently waiting to move up, and finally...it was our turn. Corral E. The "Evil" Corral as we then referred to ourselves. It's the Dark Side 10K, after all.
We got our on your mark, get set, gooooooooooo - FIREWORKS! I filmed it on my phone, we walked until we go to about the start line, and then jogged lightly over the start - because c'mon, you kind of have to start off a run at least kind of running. I think I gave a thumbs up to the camera guy, but who knows if it was broadcasted on the screens to corral F (the only folks left waiting to start the race).
We did our running through the Epcot parking lot and met up with a high school band who was playing Star Wars music. That was a great pump-up, and it made me so excited to be outside running(?) at Epcot. We managed to do a few run/walk intervals, but it was proving to be difficult to keep up with our interval timer on my phone. Even this early on, we were kind of bottle necking in places - especially as we moved our way into Epcot. It was then that we decided that we would do what we could with our intervals, keep up with the folks that were close to us in the corral, and speed up when necessary to not get swept. Honestly, this was the best decision of the race - the decision to not make it a "race".
I never even saw the mile marker for the first mile - who knows what I was gawking at. It could have been the backstage view of Epcot, trying to figure out what the buildings were for and what they housed in them. Or waving at the cast members who were cheering for us. Or checking out the back gate that was open into Mexico as we rounded the corners to Star Wars music playing. The lights on the Mexican pavilion as we made our way into the park and up the pathway toward the entrance to the World Showcase. Or looking at the giant screen playing Star Wars movie clips. Of course, then there was Spaceship Earth - that ball never ceases to amaze me. Somewhere in there I think I saw Artoo and Vader, and I just kept staring at it all and smiling and walking quickly or jogging a bit when I could find a place to break through.
We rounded into Canada and the UK, and then the path took the bridge toward the "back door" of Epcot with the intent of moving on to the Boardwalk area using a little bridge. It was kind of a narrow little pain-in-the-butt pathway, let me tell you. But again, we treated it like a walk-fest when we couldn't do our intervals. No big deal until you see the balloon ladies, right? (The balloon ladies, by the way, are women who do Disney races and walk at the back of the pack at the correct official pace time. It's my understanding that they carry balloons so you can see them, and you don't want to fall behind them because then you will be swept. I am proud to say we never saw the balloon ladies.)
The best thing about this little narrow path was a lady at the end of it who was cheering people on. She had a sign that said sometime like "Good job, Random Stranger. You can do this!" It literally made me laugh of loud, and I said, "Thank you, Random Stranger! That's awesome."
The Boardwalk was just a nightmare to run on with all of those people - lol. So we walked it. And then we walked quite a bit of the pathway from the Boardwalk to Hollywood Studios, doing little jog spurts when we could get into a good groove and not get in the way. I was starting to worry around this time that it was going to rain on us; we felt a few little misty drops, but that was about it. We ran under a little bridge down by the river that they had bathed in deep red lights and Darth Vader's breathing was playing on a loop. It was pretty cool, but that was about the only thing we saw until we got to Hollywood Studios.
I honestly don't recall what characters or stops or anything were in Hollywood Studios. It was just neat seeing the whole place in the early dawn light. The lights were still on, and the cast members just seemed genuinely thrilled that we were up and out this early in the morning being stupid.
From here on out, the pathway is kind of a blur to me, and I'd have to sit down with a map to really show you were we were. I remember seeing an alligator in a little bog-like thing off of a main road. That was a fun little pit stop. I think my favorite part of this last bit of the run, though, was running down this little dirt/gravel access road. We were surrounded by trees and everything, and it felt a bit like running through Endor. I loved that.
The homestretch was back at ESPN Wide World of Sports, complete with dozens of costumed Rebel Legion and 501st folks. I stopped long enough to ask a stormtrooper if I could take a selfie with him, and he obliged. And then...
FINISH LINE!
I filmed going across the finish line, too. They were calling out names of people as they crossed, but I don't remember hearing my name. Not a big deal. I finished. I got my medal placed around my neck, and I was given a box of goodies. There was really no place to sit down except on the pavement which was weird, so we just took our box of goodies and our awesome medals and decided to head back to the bus. There were huge lines waiting for the bus, and we were all very hot and tired and still standing and waiting. That was just...hard. Really hard. We got in a conversation with teh couple in front of us, and it helped pass the time.
Back at the hotel, I prompted pulled off my shoes. Wearing new socks was a bad idea, and my feet were swollen. That never happened during any of my training sessions, so it was a new one. I let my feet rest and I gobbled through some of my goodies. Then the Nerd Husband took a nap, and I drew up a hot bath and relaxed. Who needs a hot tub when you've got a bath tub? Yay, value resorts!
After our rest, we decided to head out to actually get to enjoy the Epcot Flower and Garden festival, and we spent the rest of the day on our feet. My phone told me at the end of the day that it was my "most active day ever" - clocking in at a crazy 18.25 miles. Holy. Mother. Of pearls.
So as a conclusion regarding the Dark Side 10K race - all-in-all, I had a pretty good time with it. Did I have some gripes? Yep. Did I have some nerdy geek moments? Yep.
Let's start with the complaining first. ;)
Gripes
- The walk from the bus pick-up/drop-off to the Expo and the Finish Line.
- This was just hard. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered me, but I was trying to prep for a race. And then afterward, I was trying to recover from a race. I felt like all of that walking just tacked another 5K onto my distance, to be honest. Can we just move the bus area closer to wherever it is we need to be?
- Expo merchandise
- There was nothing left that was worth getting, and we were there very early on the 2nd day of the Expo. My guess from reading message boards and other blogs is that local eBayers come out, purchase a bunch of merchandise, and then resell at crazy prices on eBay. Sure enough, I did some searches, and that's what happened. I hate this. Please, there are some people who this is their first race. Maybe just having a magnet to put on our cars would make us feel kind of cool, you know?
- Narrow pathways and too many people - not able to "race"
- I understand that part of this is because I was in the next-to-the-last corral, but surely something could have been done. Maybe even split up the last couple of corrals. I don't know, but it was kind of upsetting to not be able to do what I'd trained to do. I accepted that fact early on, though, and it made life easier. Next time, I know - submit a proof of time and get in an earlier corral.
- More entertainment in some places
- There were times when there was just...nothing. Not a lot of times, but I know there's that stretch of road from Hollywood Studios until the access road where my greatest entertainment was the girl who complimented my Asajj hat (without realizing what it was) and the alligator I saw in the bog. I didn't need much, really. Maybe even just some music or a random Star Wars character holding a sign. Nothing big. But there were times it just seemed quiet.
- Fix the Race Day photo weirdness
- If you're on the first bus at 3:30, but by the time you get to the Race all of the photo ops are closing...something is wrong. Severely wrong. If you need to start busses earlier, that's fine. If you need to start the festivities later, then that's okay, too. But it doesn't seem okay that for some reason those of us who stayed on property got left out of the photo op fun.
- Fix the Race Day walk to the corrals
- Did we really have to trek that far to our corrals? lol Holy cow. I mean, I really don't care in the long run - what does it matter? But that just seemed a bit of a stretch to me.
- Seating at the Finish line - benches, maybe
- I'm not sure how to fix this one, but I saw so many people sitting in the sun on the pavement trying to eat their banana. It was hot and uncomfortable, and there they sat. It didn't seem quite fair, and I think that's why we just opted to go to the busses. Maybe a tent? Some bench seating or something?
- Buses
- More of them, maybe? Or just shaded areas to wait for them?
Fangirl Squee-worthy Moments
- 501st and Rebel Legion volunteers
- I was so glad to see all of those costumers out there supporting the runners and walkers. That truly made my morning because there were so many of them and so easily accessible to everyone for pictures and whatnot. Those of us who couldn't afford to wait in official character lines got a chance to take a picture with these folks, and that was just awesome. I really appreciated them being there.
- Epcot backstage
- Why this made me as happy as it did, I have no idea. There isn't much back there, but it still felt like I was getting away with something by being somewhere I'm traditionally not allowed to be.
- Epcot in the early morning
- What more can I say? Epic.
- High school band playing Star Wars music
- This pumped me up quite a bit, and I needed it after standing in the wind for about an hour and a half. Thank you, bandies!
- Random Conversations with strangers
- I'm weird; I know. But this is the part of a convention that always means quite a bit to me - getting into random conversations with random people that you'll never meet otherwise. You meet these people right now - in that moment - because you're sharing something cool. You're sharing fandom. And yes, I'm a natural-born introvert, but I still love interactions like this.
- Getting to wear my medal to the park
- You get into all sorts of conversations with people. You exchanges congratulations with other racers. You get congratulated by cast members, and some of them even stop to admire your medal. It was just another way to meet more smiling people; I liked that.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Oh, She's Not Dead. Not Yet.
I've been putting off posting because I have too much to say and just not enough time (or brain power) to sit down and say it. So I decided a while ago that I should wait, collect my thoughts, and then type it all out for the blog. Then the brain went "OMG SO MANY MUCH THOUGHTS", and it flipped out. So I haven't written a thing until now.
It doesn't really hurt anyone but myself when I don't write about stuff, so really - I'm not out much. lol But I really want to make an effort to keep this blog going and up to date because it's a pretty good source of hope and inspiration for me. All too often, we deal with the negative things in life and have to wade our way through the crap of work, mean people, personal issues, and interpersonal relationships. But here, I'm doing my best to focus on two over-arching things that bring me joy - Star Wars and Disney. That's a lot of happy stuff right there, so I don't want that die out.
Right now, though, my brain is tired. I need to still gather up my mental and physical resources to come back here and type out something that makes some sense. Maybe there's just too much going on in my brain, and I can't fit it all in one post. So what I'll do is make myself a little list of ideas - things I've been wanting to talk about but not having the time.
It doesn't really hurt anyone but myself when I don't write about stuff, so really - I'm not out much. lol But I really want to make an effort to keep this blog going and up to date because it's a pretty good source of hope and inspiration for me. All too often, we deal with the negative things in life and have to wade our way through the crap of work, mean people, personal issues, and interpersonal relationships. But here, I'm doing my best to focus on two over-arching things that bring me joy - Star Wars and Disney. That's a lot of happy stuff right there, so I don't want that die out.
Right now, though, my brain is tired. I need to still gather up my mental and physical resources to come back here and type out something that makes some sense. Maybe there's just too much going on in my brain, and I can't fit it all in one post. So what I'll do is make myself a little list of ideas - things I've been wanting to talk about but not having the time.
- Recap of the Disney trip in April - complete with Dark Side 10K race details (short story - we finished, we got medals, we looked awesomely geeky, my feet hurt)
- Costume ideas for Disney trip in October for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
- Announcement of Star Wars Celebration in Orlando next April 2017
- Which leads to...costume ideas for Star Wars Celebration next year
Friday, November 20, 2015
The Fandom Connection
There's something special that happens when one Star Wars fan meets another Star Wars fan. You don't have to know the person. You don't have to be in the same state this person lives in. You don't have to be of the same "walk of life" as this person or even share the same likes in pizza toppings and views on religion. All you have to do is realize that this other person is a Star Wars fan and - boom - instant connection. It's what makes fan events like Star Wars Celebration so great.
Star Wars Celebration has a history that dates back to the prequel era when Lucasfilm held the first Celebration in Denver, Colorado in 1999 to celebrate the upcoming movie, The Phantom Menace. At the time, I never heard a thing about Celebration - despite the fact that I was frantically snatching up action figures, clipping articles from the newspapers, and drinking more Pepsi products than I ever had in my entire life just so I could collect all of those character cans. (Fandom makes you do weird things, people. It's truth.) A few years went by, and a second Celebration was held in conjunction with the release of Attack of the Clones, and the convention was moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. I remember I heard about this - the weekend it was happening. Now, Indianapolis isn't that far from me - a few hours in the car, and I could have been there. But I was a young college student, not a lot of money, and trying very hard to work a job and go to school full time. So Celebration was out, and I was bummed like you wouldn't believe.
I made a vow - right there - that I would be at the next convention, no matter where it was held. So I made myself a little bank out of a coffee tin I snagged from my parents (because I didn't drink coffee at the time), and I printed out a picture of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and labeled it "Celebration III Fund". Every time I would have change, it went in the tin with a satisfying "clink". If I made some money from helping my videographer friend film a wedding, I put that money in my tin - "clink". Extra cash left over after buying books and gas and insurance - "clink". I saved for three years in that little bank, and I managed to save up enough money for a ticket, gas to get there, and to split a hotel room with a friend of mine.
Then real life happened - it wasn't a bad thing, but it felt like it at the time because it made my trip a tad harder. My friend met her husband and got married in the midst of all of this Celebration planning, and then our group of two went to a group of three - and I didn't feel like I could room with them in a hotel. That would just be a tad awkward. So we added a second hotel room onto the reservation that I would be in by myself, and - since it was fair - I offered to pay for it in whole. So that doubled my room expense, and I didn't have that money saved. Luckily, my friends were understanding, and they offered to let me pay them back on a monthly basis, no interest, with the teeniest little college-kid-budgeted size payment plan you've ever seen.
And you know what? It worked. I made it to Celebration III in Indianapolis, IN in my mother's Hyundai Accent, with my burned CD of compiled Star Wars songs, parodies and sound clips and a whole lot of Star Wars excitement in my heart.
Now, I won't deny that this was a rough time for me personally. School was tough. I was in my senior year of college. Things were dark and kind of oppressing, and I was struggling with a fun little bout of depression. I had just recently found out it was "major depressive disorder", and my brain thought oh, so that's what's wrong. But that's another story, and we won't delve into that ugliness right now. What really matters here is that - yes - things were dark and heavy and rough and brooding and ugly - but Celebration...was a Celebration of so many amazing things.
I met online friends from the forums at www.StarWars.com. I saw shows, looked at costumes, hung out with fans, watched trailers and gasped and ooo'ed and aww'ed over all sorts of things that were just nerdy and geeky and downright fun. I waited in lines and then laughed when lines were "capped" (again) and complained more and laughed with people. I got to wear my hand-stitched Jedi tunic that I'd worked for a year on - a year. And I was so proud of it, and everyone thought it was awesome, and I felt so awesome. And yes, there were times I was still down and I felt like crap thanks to my fun little brain chemical deficiency, but you know what - I wouldn't trade that Celebration for anything. Not a thing. None of it can ever be replaced.
It's why I've continued to go to Celebration since CIII in Indianapolis. I've been from one side of the country (Orlando, FL) to the other (both Los Angeles and Anaheim, CA), and those experiences have all been a mixture of both bad and good in all sorts of ways. But I wouldn't trade them. None of them.
Because when one fan meets another fan - while you're waiting in yet another long time for a panel, or just sitting there eating lunch, or you've seen someone wearing a costume you love - there's a connection that you don't find much in life anymore. There's a sense of, "This person is like me. Okay, maybe not 100%, and we don't see eye to eye on everything. But check this out! They like this thing! This one thing, and we can talk about this, and we're both excited about it. And isn't it so amazing that blah and he did yada and omg did you see when so-and-so?!" *insert Kermit flail here*
That is what being a fan is. What it's supposed to be about.
And I won't trade that for anything. Ever.
Star Wars Celebration has a history that dates back to the prequel era when Lucasfilm held the first Celebration in Denver, Colorado in 1999 to celebrate the upcoming movie, The Phantom Menace. At the time, I never heard a thing about Celebration - despite the fact that I was frantically snatching up action figures, clipping articles from the newspapers, and drinking more Pepsi products than I ever had in my entire life just so I could collect all of those character cans. (Fandom makes you do weird things, people. It's truth.) A few years went by, and a second Celebration was held in conjunction with the release of Attack of the Clones, and the convention was moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. I remember I heard about this - the weekend it was happening. Now, Indianapolis isn't that far from me - a few hours in the car, and I could have been there. But I was a young college student, not a lot of money, and trying very hard to work a job and go to school full time. So Celebration was out, and I was bummed like you wouldn't believe.
I made a vow - right there - that I would be at the next convention, no matter where it was held. So I made myself a little bank out of a coffee tin I snagged from my parents (because I didn't drink coffee at the time), and I printed out a picture of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi and labeled it "Celebration III Fund". Every time I would have change, it went in the tin with a satisfying "clink". If I made some money from helping my videographer friend film a wedding, I put that money in my tin - "clink". Extra cash left over after buying books and gas and insurance - "clink". I saved for three years in that little bank, and I managed to save up enough money for a ticket, gas to get there, and to split a hotel room with a friend of mine.
Then real life happened - it wasn't a bad thing, but it felt like it at the time because it made my trip a tad harder. My friend met her husband and got married in the midst of all of this Celebration planning, and then our group of two went to a group of three - and I didn't feel like I could room with them in a hotel. That would just be a tad awkward. So we added a second hotel room onto the reservation that I would be in by myself, and - since it was fair - I offered to pay for it in whole. So that doubled my room expense, and I didn't have that money saved. Luckily, my friends were understanding, and they offered to let me pay them back on a monthly basis, no interest, with the teeniest little college-kid-budgeted size payment plan you've ever seen.
And you know what? It worked. I made it to Celebration III in Indianapolis, IN in my mother's Hyundai Accent, with my burned CD of compiled Star Wars songs, parodies and sound clips and a whole lot of Star Wars excitement in my heart.
Now, I won't deny that this was a rough time for me personally. School was tough. I was in my senior year of college. Things were dark and kind of oppressing, and I was struggling with a fun little bout of depression. I had just recently found out it was "major depressive disorder", and my brain thought oh, so that's what's wrong. But that's another story, and we won't delve into that ugliness right now. What really matters here is that - yes - things were dark and heavy and rough and brooding and ugly - but Celebration...was a Celebration of so many amazing things.
I met online friends from the forums at www.StarWars.com. I saw shows, looked at costumes, hung out with fans, watched trailers and gasped and ooo'ed and aww'ed over all sorts of things that were just nerdy and geeky and downright fun. I waited in lines and then laughed when lines were "capped" (again) and complained more and laughed with people. I got to wear my hand-stitched Jedi tunic that I'd worked for a year on - a year. And I was so proud of it, and everyone thought it was awesome, and I felt so awesome. And yes, there were times I was still down and I felt like crap thanks to my fun little brain chemical deficiency, but you know what - I wouldn't trade that Celebration for anything. Not a thing. None of it can ever be replaced.
It's why I've continued to go to Celebration since CIII in Indianapolis. I've been from one side of the country (Orlando, FL) to the other (both Los Angeles and Anaheim, CA), and those experiences have all been a mixture of both bad and good in all sorts of ways. But I wouldn't trade them. None of them.
Because when one fan meets another fan - while you're waiting in yet another long time for a panel, or just sitting there eating lunch, or you've seen someone wearing a costume you love - there's a connection that you don't find much in life anymore. There's a sense of, "This person is like me. Okay, maybe not 100%, and we don't see eye to eye on everything. But check this out! They like this thing! This one thing, and we can talk about this, and we're both excited about it. And isn't it so amazing that blah and he did yada and omg did you see when so-and-so?!" *insert Kermit flail here*
That is what being a fan is. What it's supposed to be about.
And I won't trade that for anything. Ever.
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