WHAT HAPPENED TO HALLOWEEN?

My Halloween plans ended up fairly scrubbed. I was gonna have Jackie from my old store come over to watch Ghostbusters for the first time, but I couldn't muster the energy to get the apartment cleaned in time. Sis wanted to do a Halloween party at her house, but everyone but me was busy. Her sis ended up throwing one yesterday, but I needed a nap more than I needed a hangout. Danielle was also gonna do a Rocky Horror dress-up viewing thing for her birthday which I declined to attend in light of my plans, but which ended up postponed anyway. So I ended up just giving out candy today.

That was a waste of time. We didn't get much chance to decorate which ma thinks is why so many people passed by the house, even with a sign I put up on the door saying to ring the bells. But, the fact was, the kids were all reportedly out on the avenues as practically no one came up or down the block. Even when I stood out there for an hour in last year's costume I barely got any "customers." Disappointing.

It was also hot as hell! What is with Halloween ALWAYS being warm lately? I was practically dripping under my mask! I remember when Halloween used to be so chilly I'd need a jacket over my costume most of the time. But, at least the gloomy day was the perfect accent. I think next year I might participate in the Halloween Parade. Seems to only get bigger as Halloween gets smaller.

FILM DUD

In class today I saw the results of our semi-finished movie. Partner added the puppet scene we didn't get to film, but that was about it. Somehow, the cuts we made and reviewed several time the week before ended up too quick and not in the same places we had done them. Dunno how that happened, but happened it did. I managed to insert the ending and credits while the prof was showing other people's projects, but ours ended up not converting to the right format. So, we'll have to show it next week after we fix the error on it.

ALL'S WELL

My online friend stopped being emo and came to her senses, so all is good.

CON AWAY!

So the answer to the question of why my rolling suitcase kept flopping to one side on Thursday is that one of the wheels ripped off of the fabric and can't sustain weight. And weight is definitely what I had after loading my comics into the thing. After cabbing it to the con, I opted to take Rob up on his offer to drive me home with Michele. So since I was now getting door-to-door service, I decided to raid the 25 cent bins I found for the second time to pick up some books I put back. Boy, am I glad I did. Last night I had talked to Walt Simonson about never being able to find the Frog-Thor issues, and what do I find? ALL THREE BOOKS! I grabbed them and the duplicates and went over to Walt's table to have them signed. I just thought that was wicked cool. I LOVE DISCOUNT BINS!

Of course the adventure began after we left the show. We had stopped off just north of Hartford at a rest stop, and Rob left his keys in the car. So we were there waiting until he signed up as part of his wife's AAA plan so they would send out a truck to pry it open. Truck got there pretty quick after the fact, considering, and after some finagling he got us back in. But, thanks to that, we were running real late what with some traffic slow-downs. Michele's house took forever to find and by the time I got home it was midnight. Keep in mind I still needed to eat and I had to be up at 4 for work.

At the end of it all, that rolling bag had to be thrown out. I apparently ripped a hole in it dragging it around town. Oops.

CON-ING AROUND

First day of the con. I decided to get my buying out of the way early and hit the discount bins. I tried to keep my haul small for the trip and succeeded for the most part. I met Craig Rousselau and bought a Marvel Adventures book for him to sign, saw Mark McKenna whom I met last week, Jim Calafiore who apparently remembers me after all the cons I've seen him at and Khoi Pham who remembered my being short a dollar at New York Comiccon and having to get change to pay him. At least I'm not forgettable. I just wish I had time to go through all my books like I wanted, 'cause Herb Trimpe was there and I coulda got any of my first Wolverine appearance reprints signed. Ah well.

The big meet of the day, though, was Walt and Louise Simonson. We invited them to the after-party we were throwing at a nearby pub and they came! Some of us chatted up Walt while others talked to Louise, and we asked him about doing the foreword for Iconic 2. The fact he said he'll even consider it was huge.

The party went pretty good. We had some people turn out besides the group, and it was a nice place. Only problem was the invites had an address on them that DIDN'T exist. So I had a little trouble finding it until I saw Everett through a window on the cross street.

At lunch time, me, Keith, his high school friend and a new member all went to eat at Cheers. It was much more crowded than the other one yesterday, probably because we came right in the middle of the lunch rush. The funny part was we were touring the place while waiting for a table, and after going downstairs when the pager thingy they gave us went off to find out where we were sitting, we had to go BACK upstairs to the "replica bar," as they call it. Ah well...it's an adventure. So we laughed, we talked, I got a new artist for Iconic, and was correct that the portions are MUCH bigger there than at the other one. Definitely worth the money that time.

After I went back to the North Church to get one more souvenier. I had gotten something for Tina and thought of a way to package it when I was already back at the hotel. Always get good ideas too late. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a big mistake 'cause Boston's streets aren't a grid so much as a swirling vortex that sends you every which way, and after all the walking I did yesterday this extra little bit just killed my legs and feet. So yeah, the rest of the day was pretty painful.

TOURISM

Today I decided to finish up the Freedom Trail that I started last year. I opted to catch the subway (similar to Philly's but a hell of a lot cleaner) to the end of the line and start backwards since I already covered everything in the area I'm staying.

I started out at the Bunker Hill museum and monument. Nothing like climbing a 221 foot structure to make you realize how out of shape you are. By step #100 (marked) I was gasping. But I did it, and I got some pictures. I can basically describe it like climbing through the stairwell of a castle tower.

Next was the U.S.S. Constitution and its museum. Boy, I thought the Intrepid was short...I was almost crawling by the third deck. Then it was over the Charleston Bridge to Copp's Hill Cemetery, the Old North Church, and then on to the Paul Revere House.

Walking through the house I couldn't help but think how funny it was. I mean, here you have all of us who live somewhere, but a good percentage of our houses and stuff will never be saved or toured. Wonder if Paul ever thought his junk would be on display in a house he only lived in for a decade or two? Not everything in the house was originally his, though, but a good few pieces were.

I ended up back in Quincy Market to have lunch/dinner at Sam's Cafe. That was a bit of a mistake. Paid $11 for a burger and fries that were much smaller portions than Cheers proper. I was also gonna look for an ice cream parlor, but ended up finding one down the way from the cafe. Lucky break there.

I ended up dropping a lot of coin on souvenirs for people. I think I bought too many, gonna need to lay 'em all out and go through them. Decide who to give what. People might get multiple this time.

The only real bad part of the day was when I went on that online game I mentioned. The friend I made on there just got dumped by another friend she made because her boyfriend didn't like how close they were getting. So, in response, she went all emo and decided to withdraw entirely and keep things on the public forum, rather than us two just talking independently. Hoping she'll come to her senses in time, but at least THIS one wasn't my fault!

I also kinda hate my new jacket. The chest pockets are slightly higher and tighter than my old one. Man, I miss it. It was just so...me. I guess I hafta get used to it, eh?

Tomorrow: The Con!

BOSTON BOUND

Megabus never sent me my tickets and I couldn't get through to their customer service number, so I ended up booking with Bolt Bus instead. Means I have to come home 2 hours earlier than planned, but small price. I stayed up till almost 2 packing my bag, and still had to pack more in the morning...the stuff I needed to charge or use before work. Ran pretty good all day for just 2 hours of sleep, maybe less.

After work I caught my bus and got a nice surprise of wi-fi access on board. Unfortunately, my inability to read in a moving vehicle also extends to the online stuff, so when I started to feel sick I started to watch the movies I brought along. I'll say this much; Megabus has MUCH better seating for bus napping.

Got to my hotel without incident, checked in, dropped off my crap, and set out to find the Subway I saw nearby for some dinner. Ended up finding an awesomely massive church along the way I'll grab a picture of tomorrow.

I got the unpleasant discover of NO complimentary internet at the damn hotel. Ending up having to pay $10 a night to use it. Dammmit. Oh well, tax write-off! My room is also pretty small compared to the one I had at the Sheraton in CT, but it seems like it was made just for me. Why? When I put the radio on for when I went to bed, it was already tuned to a CBS-esque station. Perfect! No radio searching.

Tomorrow: tourism!

1.21 JIGAWATTS!

After work today I headed to my local Staples to pick up the last of the plastics so I could finish the badges for Boston. I was treated to a pleasant surprise when I passed the parking lot to find a DeLorean parked there. I've never seen one outside of a car show before. So that was pretty cool. Took some pics with my phone for posterity.

I also passed by a place on 86th to finally get myself a new jacket.

ON ROUTE?

Some changes coming down at the job. Leslie put in for a swing position, which means his route is gonna be open as well as the truck parking job. His suitable replacement for the latter, Ken, also put in for a night position and got it. That leaves the new old girl, Crystal, as the last ditch solution to that problem. Carmine is out since he got flustered having to only park TWO trucks one day. And then there's Rory, who on the DL put in for a swing position as well. What that means is they're gonna collapse our two priority routes together into mine, and give the other packages to the other two in the area. If I can swing it on my own I will, if I need help and it's available they'll give it. So I'm back to having to hustle...hope I still have it in me.

MIDTERM SCREWED

So I didn't keep up with my school schedule and missed my midterm was today. And sincce I had the con over the weekend I didn't have time to make my study sheet OR study. I banged it out last night and studied as much as I could, but of course the question phrasing made it impossible for me to apply what I know accurately. That and I missed two sections of information so yeah, not expecting too well a grade on this one. What can I say? I've got no time to work AND go to school.

In happier news, Sis finally got engaged to her BF. It's about damn time.

BIG APPLE CON IN SUMMATION

This weekend was the first Big Apple Con since Wizard took it over. Having only been to one Wizard show, I could tell ya it definitely felt like a Wizard show. Basically they held it in a long pier building and had celebrities and non-comic stuff up front. The middle section was dealers and retailers, and in the back were us comic people. I met a couple new creators and chatted with some old ones, but for the most part I was all over the place.

The early part of my day was spent running to the Staples on 57th and 6th to get the name tags I had made printed up and cut into size. Unfortunately, they didn't even cut them till I got there so I was waiting a good hour and a half till they did. And they didn't even cut them all that well. To top it off, I bought 150 plastics for them, and ended up with ONLY 110. Bastards.

The first night, I met John Schnieder and Tom Wopat, got autographed pictures. Tom was a lot more approachable than John, and even gave me a free copy of his upcoming CD with the date for a show he's doing in December here. Think I may just go to that. I tried to meet Adam West but got snubbed. And, of course, I raided the discount bins. I thought two garbage bags woulda been sufficient to carry them, but I shoulda brought the rolling suitcase like I wanted to. I found some treasures in a lot of good books, but the best came in finding a Dynamic Forces certified autographed book and two other hand autographed books. I love it!

Day 2, I got my picture taken inside the Batmobile replica that was there and raided a 10 cent bin. We all went to eat at a Greek restaurant where I ended up with these nasty-ass chip things, and then some of us went back to the pier to check out the Taylor Dane concert for networking opportunities. However, that turned out to be a bust. Everyone came and left leaving a sparse crowd, and Taylor Dane only performed four songs and one encore.

Third day I got there pretty late, but got some GWP business out of the way. I'm hoping to get our books started in December so this way we can have both out over the course of next year. I also got to fix up the Hell's Blood script like Hector wants so we can get it over to Liam so he can get his name in the book at least.

The only bad part of the show was I didn't get to hang with Liz, like, at all. I miss talking to her and our hanging at cons. But now she works the cons and she's too busy to chat or text so whatever. What can I do, right? At least she lasted longer than most of my new friends before they went MIA.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!

Film day! The prof let us come in the period earlier so we would have time to film and then get on to editing during our regular period. Things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped.

First, I had trouble finding my costume from last year, but finally made good late into last night. Then I ended up getting to the school 10 minutes later than I planned, so there went that time there. Plus, my partner didn't have the gumption to go and get the camera so we could be ready to roll. Then they both took up a little time on their cell phones when we were ready to go on with a scene. So that took some precious minutes.

But in the end, we managed to get everything. My attempt at creating a dolly with his skateboard and some flat FedEx tubes came out a little shakier than I'd've liked, so I just free-styled it and they came out pretty good. I also had Amaryllis film one scene but being in such a rush I didn't adequately explain what she should do so the shot came out horrible. Basically we got in everything but one segment which he said he could film at home and splice in. So hopefully he does.

In editing period I picked and chose all our good shots and got them organized so we could just get on to editing next week. This project ended up more involved than I thought, but then what project do I do that doesn't?

RETURN

Today I came back. Yay. Traffic was light, and my load was easy to carry. The funny thing though is my bad knee was fine all weekend, but as soon as I headed upstairs it went back to being bothered. Now, keep in mind yesterday I jumped all around a mountain with no problems. Bad omen, eh?

Didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to. Only read some of my comics, did some script work and got part of my prose story done. I did get the edits on the prose finished so that's a plus. And tonight I put up the first two Iconic scripts on Google Docs so my editors could gleam them and do their things.

Not really looking forward to work tomorrow, but then, who is?

HIKE!

Woke up this morning to discover the power was out, including the water. If it got fixed or not would decide when I'd be returning, but fortunately it was all fixed by the time I got back from breakfast in town. So one more day for me! Yay!

Weather was nice enough I got some hiking in. Tried my best, but still managed to kill another pair of sneakers. Maybe next year I'll try some waders and just follow the brook from the INSIDE. I could only get to the smaller waterfall because of heavy erosion in the area. But, I did get some nifty pics and even used my phone to record some of my expedition. Gonna hafta see how I can upload it from the phone when I get back.

It was an adventure, though. Scaling the mountainside, swinging from the trees, knocking over dead ones that I used to stabilize myself. At one point I even had to use some fallen trees as a guide-rail over this one spur of the brook. For fun I also followed some of the pre-marked trail the conservancy had set up there, thinking via the sign they had posted it'd take me back to the main road, but that turned out to be bunk. Got some cool pics from there, though. It was quite the adventure. Too bad nobody was around to see/experience it with me. Then again, not sure if anyone I know coulda kept up. I didn't get tired till I got on the foot trail and discovered it was taking me up the mountain in the WRONG direction. Then again, at that point I had been hiking for over 2 hours so yeah.

PAR-TAY!

Nothing much of note today. Did some writing, did some reading. I intended to go hiking but the weather hasn't been too kind. But tonight, there was a birthday/halloween party I wish I knew about sooner. I headed down to check it out. There was a lot of dancing (thanks to all the drinking) and DJ music. I hung by the wall mostly, picking at the food. I don't know anyone here any more, which is the downfall of this place. If only I could get friends up here then it'd be PERFECT. I'd love to take my friends with me and then I can transplant up here guilt-free.

Anyways, I did talk to the owner and the groundskeeper some, but otherwise just enjoyed the show. And more great timing, I slipped on one of the Ghostbusters shirts I bought yesterday. Best I could do for the theme at least.

I'm resolving to get back on the silm-out train. I'm kinda sick of my pants being one-size too big. I can't wear anything smaller and bigger, sheeyeah not. So, when I get back I'm gonna make my follow-up doc appointment and get the bike fixed at the same time finally. I didn't get to do it much this year thanks to that botched repair job. I probably coulda made time to bike, but not schlep all the way to the 90s to get a patch job.

Oh, and in case you didn't guess, she nor D showed up.

WALLY WORLDING AGAIN

Ended up going to Walmart today because I left some food stuffs back home. Ma had me bring some stuff from home so I wouldn't go out to eat all weekend. I thought it was a good idea. As much as I like living on burgers, probably not a good idea in practice. So I got Mac & Cheese, but forgot the butter. Got some chicken breast, but forgot the bagged salad. Also needed to get some tomatoes for said salad.

I decided to try out the McDonald's inside the store after my disappointment with Burger King last time. I know, I know...I just said no living on burgers, but I haven't sufficiently explored Monticello yet, and it's like there! Same prices as back at home, that was a pleasant surprise. Finished up and picked up a couple DVDs, some t-shirts, some underthings, a new hat, a tire gague, and some art supplies along with those groceries I mentioned. I plan to do something with that comic strip I have in mind. Dunno how much of a something, but something. I passed by Peck's for the burgers, buns and milk, and swung by town for a little fudge for myself. It's damn good fudge.

Now dumb me, I cleaned myself out of quarters. Dumb because the new regime doesn't keep the Rec Hall open like it used to be. Only on holiday weekends really, not dead weekends like this on here. Crap. So I have my ashtray full of quarters (which needed to be refilled anyways) and one cup holder. Ah well. I got enough to do up the trailer anyway.

Scripts have already started coming in for Iconic. Surprised at the turnaround for that. I guess my threats of "on time or expultion" worked. Won't start looking at them till I land a couple more editors to back me up. This damn prose project ended up being a semi-albatross 'cause of one editor ditching the group with no explanation.

BACATION!

Pretty standard work week. Monday was a Jewish holiday which meant extra freight on Tuesday. I ended up having to go out with 10 of the WORST stops Rory coulda stuck me with given the time I was leaving. Yeah, I had lates, but whatever. They should know better. Wednesday I got held in and caught up on some station stuff, and today was standard all around.

Except for the fact I'm going upstate! Booyah! However, I didn't get much time to pack and needing to use the bathroom forced me to leave a tad late. I ate dinner at the rest stop and stupidly took one of my Lyme pills which made me nice and drowsy almost halfway there. But don't worry, folks! I made it in once piece through a LOT of struggling. Fortunately, I'm experienced in operating under extreme drowsiness. I did have to pull over for a couple of minutes to collect myself with the cold air, but that was about it. Don't take those while driving!!! So much crap for a theoretical disease I'm SURE I don't even have.

I unloaded the truck, got everything set up, and just set down to do some writing and watch a movie. I had gotten Brisco County, Jr. and My Name is Bruce yesterday days ago, so I got to enjoy those. Nice timing! My Name is Bruce is a total fan-service movie, and is just awesomely bad. I mean it's not great filmmaking by any stretch, but goddamn if I didn't laugh my ass off the whole way. Hafta get D's view on it when I get around to showing him.

Speaking of D, both he and Tina are invited to come up for the weekend. D's got some crap going on he could use some time from, and from what little I gleam from Tina's Facebook she could as well. I don't expect either to show, though. 1) It's a "hangout" I instigated and 2) I just know my friends.

Oh well, more quiet for me. Though it seems kind of a waste all the trouble I went through to get an extra heater for them. See, the thermostat took a dump so until that's replaced, space heaters is all we got for the cold nights. Oh wells.