New York City Comic-Con ‘08
Posted by Gypsy on Apr 25, 2008
Last weekend, geeks from around the world swarmed on Manhattan for the 2008 New York City Comic-Con. I am not ashamed to admit that I was one of those geeks. Also choosing last weekend to swarm onto the city were Catholics from all over the tri-state area as the Pope was also in town. What does one have to do with the other? Nothing. Well nearly nothing as the weekend was slightly affected thanks to the leader of my religion. The min effect was trains running later than usual, which made a mess of things for those of us staying out in New Jersey for the weekend. It also had a bit of an effect on those of us flying out on Sunday night as JFK decided to close down for about 30 minutes while he boarded his plane and took off. The cool thing about that was my plane was fourth in line behind his for take off, so I got to watch it take off from the window of my plane. I will admit that was pretty cool.
Beyond those small snags, the weekend was pretty awesome. Almost everyone was in town by Thursday night or Friday morning and we all arrived at the Con on Friday a little bit before it opened. That was the real day to shop and check out all the booths so we could spend Saturday enjoying panels. For me shopping entailed buying an insane amount of Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, which I’ve been reading since my return home. We also had tickets for the Neil Gaimen reading, who was introduced by Bill Hader. After Con was the big group dinner at Virgil’s, which included 27 people when all was said and done. Highlight: Wendy shoving warm washcloths into her shirt so she could look like she had boobs for once. I couldn’t help myself from copping a feel.
Saturday’s big plan, at least for Drena and I, was to hit up the signing Seth Green was doing and then chill in the IGN theater watching the movie panels. Reality was not even close, as it ended up with us sleeping in and finally making it there in time for the only two panels I wanted to hit up: Devil’s Due and Robot Chicken. While I was bummed about missing the signing, I still had a great time at the panels, getting to see Milo Ventimiglia of Heroes talk about his new comic coming out in August and Seth Green talking about Robot Chicken. Two highly entertaining panels that were completely packed. For dinner, a small group of us (well, 10 of us, which is relatively small compared to the night before), headed to Juniors in Times Square, which is a place where you definitely save room for desert. Of course, with our group, things got a little rowdy and I think we bothered some of the diners around us, but we had a good time. Another big bonus for Saturday was that the totally awesome Gavin was able to snag a Con exclusive Ninja Turtles action figures set signed by the creators. It now sits in a place of honor on my dresser. Told you I was a geek.
Sunday was the last day of the Con and more a day of relaxing than anything. I picked up a couple comics to send to Andy and then just chilled with everyone, avoiding saying goodbye. Unfortunately, ever trip must come to an end. But not before one more shot of Wendy and I in my classic pose.
Whirlwind
Posted by Gypsy on Apr 15, 2007
I love last minute vacations. They are always so much fun because they are spur of the moment. Yesterday I got home from an insane five days in New York City and New Jersey. The whole thing started last Saturday when the husband of a friend of mine decided to fly a few of his wife’s friends to New Jersey for a surprise birthday party on Wednesday. The plan was to fly in on Tuesday, go to the party on Wednesday and be back in Los Angeles by Thursday night. But as any fun weekend can go, I decided to extend my trip until today to get the most of my time on the East Coast.
The party was on Wednesday out in Red Bank. Since I was staying with Matt in Manhattan, we had to take the train to get out there. We got there just in time to get our reserved corner of the restaurant decorated for the surprise party, finishing up with some time left to bullshit before the guest of honor arrived. Once she did, though, it was quite the party. She definitely was surprised as she didn’t know any of us were going to be there and I’m sure it was quite the shock seeing people who were supposed to be on the other side of the country in New Jersey of all places just to give her a happy birthday.
After we were done with dinner and a few bottles of champagne, we moved the party down to the Stash, where poker had already started. Rather than played, we all hung out some more until the party broke up and then it was on to poker. Well, for everyone else. I was a little tipsy and decided to sit out. Since Matt and I had already missed the last train back to Manhattan, a few of us decided to hit up a bar down the street for a drink and then heading to a diner for some food. By the time that was done, we only had an hour to kill, but I was starting to get a migraine, so I ended up curled under a t-shirt rack taking a nap.
Somehow throughout the night, I was convinced to change my flight from Thursday to Friday and had made the call to JetBlue. Since there was nothing available on Friday, I figured what’s one more day and changed it to Saturday. Catching the first train out of Red Bank, Matt and I made it back to Manhattan and were passed out by 8 a.m. only to wake up by one and head back out to Red Bank for the night. Since my friend’s husband had plans, she wanted some of us to hang out with her. So back to New Jersey we went, this time sharing a hotel room with Kate and Josh instead of trying to catch the train back immediately. Though, again, so sleep wasn’t to be had as we ended up awake all night bullshitting and hanging out.
The rest of the trip is just a blur from total exhaustion. I know we left Jersey around 7 a.m. and at some point hit up the Shake Shack and a comic book store. And I surfed the Internet and watched some of the British version of The Office. Yesterday we got up early so I could catch my flight home, which ended up arriving 30 minutes late. Last night I ended up sleeping for 10 hours straight out of utter exhaustion. But even though I’m still a little tired, it was totally worth it and I had an amazing time.
Is it still considered a vacation if you are unemployed?
Posted by Gypsy on Feb 28, 2007
I recently spent five awesome days in New York City, with a side trip to New Jersey for an Oscar party/poker game, attending my first View Askew vacation of the year. This vacation celebrated the one year anniversary of my first VA vacation where I actually connected with other people from the message board. The whole weekend centered around the NYC Comicon, which my lazy ass refused to get up early to go to, so for me the weekend centered around the surrounding events and meet-ups as well as just relaxing with friends. The trip started off at dinner at Junior’s, a restaurant near Times Square with some of the best cheesecake I ever had. I went with Crystal, Ed, Adam, Joe and Nicole and even though I was exhausted from taking the red-eye the night before, I still had an amazing time.
The next day, Brett and I decided to do some sightseeing and head downtown to Ground Zero, a site I haven’t been near since 1999. While we were there we went to the visitor’s center and got to see some artifact’s taken from the fallen World Trade Center. An interesting and emotional experience to say the leave. After that it was time for dinner at Virgil’s, Adam’s favorite BBQ joint (again in Times Square) and where he takes everyone when they are in NYC. Diners included Jon, Dom, Crystal, Nicole, Gavin, Adam, Joe, me, Brett and Matt (needing to be different by kneeling):
As with every event, the fun really happens at night, and this event was no exception. After catching up on sleep the next day, we all head off for the evening’s events at a bar called Stitch, where we had the Taming of the Askew, which was basically a fancy name for a night of drinking and debauchery. I’ll refrain from posting the more scandalous photos (not that there are any, of course) and stick to this tame one of Nicole and I.
Again, a full day of recover was required before heading to New Jersey for my last night on the East Coast. The night was meant to be spent playing poker and watching the Oscar’s, but somewhere in the night I forgot all about poker in favor for Oscar fun and lots of wine drinking, as can been seen by the wreckage Ming is looking through:
And the causes of said wreckage: Amy, Matt, Shane, Jen and me (note the glass we are using as an ashtray and the plastic wine glasses, we are so classy):
All in all, it was an awesome weekend from which I’m still recovering from lack of sleep. Check out all the photos on my Flickr page.
And yes, I’m working on another installment of the series I’ve been writing. I just need one more day to recover.
Everything
Posted by Gypsy on Nov 19, 2006
I had something completely different I was going to write about today but then I saw this and decided this was far more important. Jennifer Ann, one of my friends who came to the LA events a couple weeks back, made this amazing photo montage from all the photos from the weekend. In an odd sort of way, it made me feel really homesick. Not homesick for a particular place but for the old friends I saw on that trip and the new friends I made. Enjoy.
