I look at this blog, and I feel intimidated. Kind of funny, really - it's a blog about Disney and Star Wars, and I look at it and go, "I don't want to write in that. It'll take too long. I'll sound stupid. There's too much to say, and I don't have the time to care about it."
It's all a lot of excuses because I feel like I need to talk about something. But the truth is, I don't need to talk about anything. I ran my first half marathon, and I feel like I need to write up this big, long post about everything that happened. But I don't need to do anything. I don't owe the world anything. I only owe it to myself to remember that it was amazing. I smiled the entire time I ran. I ran 13.1 miles with a freakin' chest cold, and I was never more grateful for hot weather and 90% humidity in my life. I could breathe because of that weather, and I believe it contributed to me getting through. My homemade Rapunzel-esque costume worked perfectly. I got pictures with princesses before the race started. They had fireworks going when I was running into Magic Kingdom. They played "Back in the Saddle Again" when I crossed into Frontierland,
and I thought of my Mom and Dad and all of the years we've spent
together in Florida building memories. That made me smile even more.
And I got through. I'm officially a Disney Half Marathon princess now. Pascal and I made our way through all of those miles to cross the finish line with a smile on our faces, and it was worth every moment of training that I put into it last year. I found my nerd husband (who was having a good health morning that morning), and he met me with a single, bright red rose. He was so proud of me. He was beaming. He took my picture, and he showed me video of me in the home stretch. He was cheering loudly on the video. I never got the chance to see him even though I looked, but he was here, and he was so, so proud. It made me feel amazing.
Would I do it again? Yes, I would. But I think I'm going to wait for Star Wars because I'm assuming that at some point in the future, that half marathon course will run through Star Wars Land...and I'm not missing out on that.
It's back to real life now - at least for a little bit. It sort of stunned me when I looked at the calendar just a bit ago and realized we're only a little more than a month away from our trip for Star Wars Celebration in Chicago. That's insane! With everything going on in life (and believe me, behind the scenes, there's a LOT of crap going on), I kind of forgot all about it. Which means I also forgot all about all of my grand plans for costuming and starting early and whatnot.
Right now, I'm sitting here thinking I might not even bring a costume. That feels odd considering I've at least had one costume at every convention I've attended. So I'm still thinking it through and deciding how I feel as time passes by. Honestly, my attentions are elsewhere in life right now, and costuming or sewing or creation of anything just feels like work. I have enough on my plate, and the last thing I want to do it accumulate more work and/or heartache for myself. Add on to that the fact that I actually gained weight while training for this half marathon (oops), and I don't want to make myself feel bad about the fact that some things just might not fit. I accept that because, hey, I was able to run a half marathon and finish strongly. I don't need to get ahead of myself and undermine my accomplishment. I'll get back to where I was, but I don't want to subject myself to the pain of feeling bad because such-and-such pants don't fit, and omgtheworldisgoingtoendbecausei'mfat.
So I'm over here kind of in limbo - looking at costume upgrade and changes I could make to existing costumes, not wanting to spend the money because of personal challenges we're facing at the moment, wondering if taking this trip is a good idea, but knowing that ultimately it is a good idea, curious about how long it'll take me to get back into a shape I'm 100% comfortable with, debating whether or not I should eat another girl scout cookie because they're too darned good, hoping our friends aren't annoyed that we haven't reached out to make plans with them, and wishing I could just sit and rest and not have this insane run-on sentence of worries flow through my head 24/7.
The paragraph about is why I don't write here (or anywhere) hardly at all. I feel obligated or concerned, and I don't write with reckless abandon like I used to. But this entire post was recklessly written with abandon (and then a little editing at the end), so maybe this is what I need to do. Maybe it's just like training for that half marathon. Take your time. Make yourself strong. Remember it's okay to fail. Remember it's okay to amend your plans. Remember that life doesn't always work the way you want it to, but it does work, and you can work within it. That's what I want to strive to do. I want to strive to keep moving, keep working, and keep pushing forward.
At a particularly rough patch this winter, I wrote a note on a purple post-it and attached it to my monitor at work. Dated January 16, 2019, it reads: "I have the strength to keep going - mentally and physically. I've proven it time and time again."
As Han would say, "It's true. All of it."
Showing posts with label Celebration Chicago 2019. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebration Chicago 2019. Show all posts
Monday, March 4, 2019
Tuesday, May 29, 2018
Celebration Time, C'mon!
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.
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.
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