J & G Go Full Nerd. Comic-Con 2014.

Ever since we met each other Sci-Fi has been a thing for my huznand and I.

Before we dated, John actually proposed to me at the Bryan Walmart. At least it was a Supercenter! We were with some fellow Aggie Howdy Camp pals, shopping for overalls I think, and I stopped to gander at the videos particularly these beloved cinematic masterpieces:





So naturally, he knew I was legit and asked for my hand in marriage right there in the movie aisle. And then later when we did start dating this happened:

I think I've mentioned that we entered ourselves into the, at that time, Shadow Canyon Costume Contest and we got second place after the major lame: "Cereal Killer." Whatever, moving on...

And for more qualification, while most children were watching Smurfs (I totally watched it too) I was watching

:
And I was best friends forever with:


We've ALWAYS dreamed of going to a Sci-Fi Convention, you know where we could align with our people.
And this past weekend, with the everloving help of Nana and Poppa we made our pilgrimage a reality. Sans the little xenomorphs... Just too much going on for those little scrappers!
 First about Dallas:
The Comic-Con was at Dallas. Now let's park right there.
 Dallas is fancy.
We are Houston folk.
And there's always been this thing there. They are Neimans, we are at our best, Foley's/Dillards/Macy's. Oh sure, we have a Neimans (we used to have 2!), but we will only ever be FDM. And they, Dallasites?, know it. They complain about our traffic, because Houston is gosh-awful crowded, but Dallas has what we think is the most confusing highway layout. Their exits happen upon you SO FAST. So we spent I'd say like 2 hrs just trying to drive around and park and this and that.

Dallas is much easier on the eyes.
There I said it.

Dallas is less crowded.

But Dallas has cold weather whereas Houston just plays around with the concept 2 weeks out of the year. So to me, Dallas is out. It might as well be Neptune.

We were Lofty.
So we go, we stay in a loft. We pretended we are still relevant and somewhat young.
We even went to the bar up on the rooftop. Just typing that made me feel as foolish as the FREAKINLOUDMUSIC and yuck cig smell everywhere and there was this Teach America Convention across the street that brought all these young thing teachers who are teaching America to the aforementioned SkyRoofTooCool bar top thing, but what they were really teaching was how to wear short dresses. I just wanted a pretzel. Do bars sell pretzels?
I really just wanted to go see a movie. Dang it.

The Comic-Con. 

We need to go to another one. Why? Because as soon as we got in line to get in, my mind shut down.



I just couldn't process:
All the outfits---- BY THE WAY. I wanted to dress up as the Crystalline Entity (an obscure TNG alien/obstacle) and John nixed it. In a way, he was right. Just getting around the whole mess was enough for our first time.
All the people to watch-- there was a guy in I guess some crazy Overload with horns and a robe and a staff and all that and he was in the atm machine line- it made me laugh so much!!!
Where to walk-- we didn't have a plan. Too much.
The fact that we were living out a dream.
HOW WE WERE GOING TO MEET LEVAR BURTON. 
 I'm not going to do justice to this.
We met LeVar Burton.
Geordi.
Reading Rainbow.
Roots.
He is as nice as he appears. Duh.
I was just like this:

THE WHOLE TIME.
Mouth agape.
And it was crowded. Like fire hazard crowded.
And I am beginning to fear crowds due to my lack of depth and peripheral vision (10 eye surgeries- always remember!).

The first thing we do is get in line for our photo op with the LeVar Burton, world's nicest person. I had so much in my mind to say to him. But instead I was socially awkward. Shocker.
I think I told him: "You're awesome."
Wow, he's going to remember that.
The show, Community, has a whole deal about how Troy meets LeVar and just can't deal with it. That basically is what happened to me:LeVar Burton Overload Moment.

Watch this if you have a second... It is perfectly what happens when you meet a celebrity you have loved since childhood... It's like in Neverending Story when Atreyu is faced with who he is by walking through the 2 statues. Yes. I'm happy with that description. That is what meeting one of your childhood heroes is like.

So here is the social awkward proof of one of the best/worst moments of my life: BUT FIRST disclaimers:
1. My shirt is NOT doing me justice. I knew I didn't like side-sag shirts! I'm not expecting. I was expecting a pretzel, but it never came to pass.
2. My arms are melting.
3. My glasses are covering my "special eyes."
4. I'm a photog who doesn't know a thing about how I personally should act/pose for photos.
5. I couldn't contain my feelings.
6. John looks awesome no matter what he does, says, acts, farts, whatever. He is always awesome. I try so hard! He just is.
So here it is, you've been warned:

LeVar couldn't be nicer, cooler, more awesome. He is the real deal. And I went around saying aloud, "Well we are best friends with Geordi now soo..... Yeah..."
I also said stuff like, "I know you all want to take pics with me- please one at a time." No one laughed.

I LOVE LEVAR BURTON Y'ALL!!!!!!!!
In the LeVar Burton, meet your destiny, line was  this SUPER SWEET girl was behind us and I wish I would have lamented with her more about the beautiful gown her mother sewed for her- yes!- that was the SPOT ON replica of Kaylee's dress from Firefly (Shindig episode):

She was also upset at how we just didn't have enough time to tell LB how great he is! Too much.
So after that mind melding we went on to get our autograph (you pay for all that btw) from Brent Spiner, aka: Data.
DATA FROM STAR TREK THE NEXT FREAKING GENERATION. 
I again just stood there and almost drooled out of my mouth at him as he asked for our names.
You know my name is pronounced: Hard G Gillian. Well he goes on to talk about how he knows Gillian (Soft G) Anderson and I go, "Can you please tell her how to say her name!?!?"
Great.
Cool moves Gillian.
Tell Data to tell Gillian Anderson how to say her name correctly.
After that, I could not come back from this mind shutdown awkward barfing so I just went comatose through the rest of the day.
And no pretzel.
But it was still awesome.

We watched Nathan Fillion in action.

Pretty sure this pic was taken illegally. Our bad.

He is an entertainer. He seems to be like he is on his shows- funny, endearing, someone you want to hang with, etc. Next time, we will get his autograph as he seems super friendly and really works the crowd.

Here's a list of some of the stars that were there: ANd what I think of them by looking at them for an average of 40 sec.
Marina Sirtis- Troi- TNG- she was beautiful!! You could tell how nice she was just from looking at her!!
Michael Dorn- Worf- TNG- he seemed like his character...
Christopher Lloyd- Doc Brown!!!!!!
William Shatner (he wasn't there on Saturday)
Denise Crosby- Tasha Yar- TNG
Alice Cooper- did you  know he's an outspoken Christian??!
Michael Rooker- Merle from Walking Dead- he seemed really cool. Wore shades.
Stan Lee- you could not take any pics nearby him whatsoever.
Beth from Walking Dead- she was the size of a fairy. I barely saw her!
Jewel Staite- Kaylee- Firefly, Serenity- she's precious!
Summer Glau- River- Firefly- Serenity- she's ballerina-ish!
Adam Baldwin- From so many things-- Firefly- didn't get a good look, but pretty sure he was awesome to meet
Sean Maher- Firefly- seemed genuinely nice!
Gina Torres- Firefly - didn't see her, but sure she had an air of awesomeness
The guy who played the Governor on Walking Dead.... Still mad at him.
Jonathan Frakes- Riker from TNG- Um, he's awesome.

So guys. It's getting late in the day. Here's some pics. Note we used our old point n' shoot as we didn't have time for the big camera and all that requires. It was so crowded and I was a total girl about that.

 Wait, first let me expand these wings that took 725 hours to make.

 You know, just chilling.

 I told you it was crowded. This is the area where all the stars were.

 Me and Barf. He's his own best friend.

 He almost got his arms ripped off.

So jealous of these people- They might as well been THE TMNT characters!!!!!!!

SO yeah. I'm still recovering from the mental workout. And the physical to be honest.
It was an overload of fun and the best part about it was being with Johnicles. He is THE coolest of all the people we saw. The funniest. The most creative. And I love him so much.

Sci-fi forever y'all.