SDCC- Saturday (Our Longest Day)

Saturday, July 26th was my first official day at SDCC and let me just say- holy humidity San Diego! It was nasty. I woke up that morning feeling really, really sick. Maybe it was the lack of sleep (we didn't get back from the Hollywood Babble-On taping  until 2:30am), maybe it was undiagnosed issues, but I was feeling so terrible. I loaded up on all  my meds in the car, but the twenty minute drive to the Campus parking lot hadn't done me any favors, I was still feeling horrible. Stepping out into that humidity was a shock. I'd been hearing from other people how nice the weather in SD was, and that there was even a storm expected for the weekend. So smart girl that I am, I wore jeans. Double ugh. By the time my husband and I had made it off the Skywalk I felt like I was dying, and I don't use that term loosely. Once we made it upstairs in the convention center, I thought I was going to pass out. I was so shaky and could barely walk. Not the way I wanted to start off my convention experience.

My husband and I rushed to the Blizzard Entertainment booth because there were some exclusives and premieres that we wanted. Come to find out, the line had been capped, with no say in when it would be reopened. And we were pressed for time, because we were attending a panel at Nerd HQ not too long after we got the convention center. The Blizzard employee told us that the convention had put a bunch of new rules in place about vendor lines, that they couldn't obstruct the walkways, they couldn't have people lingering around. I will touch on this more in my final recap, but I think that while those rules were meant to be helpful, they also caused a lot of problems. So needless to say, we didn't get our loot before we had to haul buns to Petco Park and Nerd HQ.

By this time, I was still feeling pretty bad, but also feeling a little better. That quickly changed once we got seated for our Conversations for a Cause panel. It was hot in that little area, and heat does nothing for me. I think I spent the first ten or so minutes planning an escape route in case I had to vomit (yeah, it was that bad). Eventually that wore off and I got to enjoy our panel, which was Alan Tudyk with Zachary Levi moderating. It was very funny and it was definitely worth the stress of the ticket sales. I'll talk about Nerd HQ more in my final recap as well, but I was very impressed with what I saw.



I liked that Alan wasn't put out about talking about Firefly. I know some actors don't like to be remembered for just one role and sometimes hate talking about that said role, but he was so enthusiastic about it. And I loved that he answered a question in his King Candy voice. Wreck It Ralph is a favorite here in my house, so that was pretty great. After the panel, he did a Smiles for Smiles photo op, and my husband and I did that. If my scanner wasn't broken, I would share it with all of you :) They even let me hold a sign I made (very last minute, like while standing in line for the photo) that said "Hi Dad", because my dad is a huge Firefly fan.

After Nerd HQ, we went back to the convention center. We went back to the Blizzard booth, and this time we were able to get in line and get the stuff we wanted. I bought the Nether Faerie Dragon and my husband got the Heroes and Villains lanyard. We also got a Tyrael nightlight for our kids and the World of Warcraft Trivial Pursuit. We also bought these really cool pins that people were trading, it was crazy. Our adventures with that happened on Sunday though lol, so thats for another post.

We walked around, looked at a few more booths, then I remembered that there was a panel in 6A that we'd talked about going to see. It was a Skybound panel, with Robert Kirkman and some other guys. But the person we were most interested in seeing was Norman Reedus. Having no previous experience with panels at SDCC, I thought this was a smaller room and that it wouldn't be that hard to get into. So with thirty minutes until the panel started, my husband and I rushed over there to try to get a place in line. We managed to get a spot, but it was like, buildings away from 6A. We almost left the line, we didn't think we had a chance. But we stuck it out, and it paid off. We managed to get seats in the panel, and it was pretty awesome. They talked about some stuff they had going on with The Walking Dead, not the teevee show, but some of its other ventures, and they showed the trailer for their movie Air, which Norman Reedus and Djimon Hounsou star in. It looks pretty neat.



Once that panel was over, we headed to the Heroes Brewfest. I don't drink, especially beer (it doesn't even smell good), but my husband does, so this was more for him than me. He had a lot of fun tasting all the different beers (there were a ton). I sat under a tree and tried to feel better. It didn't help that a girl at the table near me had like, a mass exodus of everything she'd ingested that day. I can't deal with vomit, especially other people's. She did actually pass out though, which was sad. The EMT that was at the event took his sweet time getting to her, I'm sure just dismissing her as another girl who can't hold her liquor. The event staff didn't bother to clean up her mess (even though a maintenance man had volunteered to, the security guy told him not to), so plenty of people screamed when they saw it (and eventually the sea gulls came.....ugh....).

We stayed at the brewfest until it ended, then took one of those bikes that blasts rap music back to Petco Park so we could get ready to run The Walking Dead Escape. Now, I was still feeling like crap and I really didn't want to do it. But my husband got a little put out with me because he wanted us to do it together (and he also thinks I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, so I don't even think he really thought I was feeling shitty), so I decided to try it. Big mistake. I was still in my jeans, and just wearing Vans, and it was still super humid. So we start, and it doesn't take long before I almost crash into a wall because I feel like passing out and one of the workers called EMTs to wheel me off the course. That was embarrassing. Seeing all those zombie faces pity me was sad. The EMT that treated me was super nice though, and I appreciate that. He didn't make me feel stupid for being an out of shape heatstroke victim, even though thats probably all it was. I wouldn't mind doing the course again next year though, as a walker. That seemed like a lot of fun, and you don't have to run :)

After all that is over, our night still isn't complete! We then have to haul ass to Balboa Theater to see The Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick and crew. His special guest was CM Punk, and it was a really good podcast. I feel like I should mention that I've never listened to the Nerdist podcast before, but my husband and I are huge Chris Hardwick fans, and thats why we went. It was not disappointing. There was even a marriage proposal in the audience, it was the weekend of geeky love on podcasts I suppose. Click the link here to listen to the Nerdist podcast from July 26th.

And that concludes my Saturday at SDCC. Come back tomorrow for the Sunday run down!!