What initially got me most excited for NYCC wasn’t anything about the con. It was finding out a friend (Jessa/@chichenpizza/Kali) from the Jim Butcher forums would be going.
Actually, her tweet about Yotel was what made me look into it. Very glad, too, that place was nice.
Rob and I met her Friday morning, and she bought us drinks at Starbucks. Rob wanted to repay her, but she wouldn’t take the money. We walked together to Javits, and then we separated for lines—she had a VIP pass.
Unfortunately, we never managed to meet up with her again—Jessa went to several panels-VIP access-and Saturday night through Sunday, she ended up sick and staying at the hotel. But as she’s said since, it adds to the “MYStery” since so few people saw her. And I got no pictures of her, either.
We also met up with Priscilla and Garrett for dinner. Pam (@jeditigger) got a room at the hotel for the night and crashed. Cons can take a lot out of you.
Saturday was all about friends. (And free books, but that’s another thing) Like I’d said before, Rob dressed up as Elwood blues, and one of the first friends we met up with was Shecky (Richard, but no one calls him that but his wife)-he was dressed up as Jake. The costumes had been planned pretty quickly, maybe three weeks before.
Story behind those—Rob and I had gone into the city to meet people for bowling. We sat outside a while-too late to go to the Intrepid Museum—and we somehow got onto the topic of The Blues Brothers Overheard a song, or something. And I told Rob that he and Shecky should go to NYCC as the Blues Brothers cause they fit. Well, Rob told Shecky when we got to the bowling alley, and it must’ve been a great idea because at one point the place played “Think” (the Aretha Franklin song).
The Blues Brothers
They looked pretty good, too, though I kept forgetting to write the letters on Rob’s hands. I don’t think they managed to walk too far on the show floor before getting stopped for pictures.
One of the best was at the DK booth. There were three stormtroopers, and they wanted a picture with Rob and Shecky. One kept saying “I’m a soul man” over and over in a sing-song voice. At one point, he said, “Sorry, that’s the only line I know. I’m a soul man.”
"I'm a soul man."
They were there when we came back later for a signing. That was when we met up with Priscilla(wearing the purple wig) and Garrett, and they saw that Shecky had shaved. Once together, we went outside and had a bit to eat, then back inside for the military sci-fi panel followed by a signing by the authors.
Priscilla's expression on seeing Shecky beardless
Saturday night we all met up at the Irish Rogue, along with several other Jim Butcher fans. The Rogue’s where we had the fan dinner last year, so we knew it’d be a nice place, and that the food and drinks were good. And decently priced for NYC. Rob and Shecky pulled out their Warden cloaks for the finishing touch to their costumes. I’m thinking I should put up another post just for that, and to show off the pictures.
The Blues Squad
On Sunday, we had tentative plans to meet up with Priscilla, Pam, and Garrett, but they’d decided to have a lazy day.
Kiera and Ben
That was okay. We ended up spending almost the entire day with Kiera and her friend Robin. They look cute together, though I somehow didn’t get a picture of them. I did, however, get a picture of her and Ben together when we saw him. Kiera made bracelets for me and Rob, and she gave them to us then. Kiera had mostly stayed away from picking up any books, until she walked around with us. I think she ended up with more books than we got that day. We stayed until around 5ish, and then said our goodbyes to head to the hotel.
