First Comic Expo Experience

Today I awoke with the expectation of having a most relaxing Saturday due to the fact that I had no work today--draw, paint, play Lego Harry Potter game--but this was not to be. Chance be it, I opened Facebook to see a post for the Asheville Comic Expo today! I immediately dusted off my Silk Spectre costume and headed over.

 As luck would have it, Oktoberfest was being held this weekend in Asheville, so there was literally no movement in traffic and once I did finally find an available parking garage it was $10 flat rate for parking. Money was no concern today. This was my first Expo and I would enjoy it no matter what. 

The Expo was really neat; it wasn't too big, lots of people were dressed up and looking at booths and taking pictures everywhere. Walk over to a comic book vendor, immediately get asked by like, five people to have my picture taken with them. Okay! After many hours of having pictures taken, wandering around, offers to cosplay at other conventions, I decided to see what gaming was going on. Uhh...MTG Booster Draft. Never played it, but it was $13 and I got to keep the cards that I opened (from the new set Return to Ravnica). So, okay...me and seven guys. Cool. 

Sadly though, I didn't realize that draft took approximately 6784673 hours, therefore I missed the costume contest which I was really looking forward to. To make it even worse, I got completely destroyed in draft. After first round I was like "can I just go? Please?" So I played my two games and left. Got some more offers from people who were "going to get me in for free at the after party", bought a Doctor Strange book, got some more phone numbers from random dudes, and finally left.

Of course, being me, I got devastatingly lost going back to the parking garage. At the busiest time of day in the heart of downtown Asheville--and everyone was drunk. So I was lost, in my Silk Spectre outfit, as all these drunk people kept whistling and making comments and asking me millions of questions (I know I know, what was I expecting, right?). Anyway, finally made it back to my car, completely exhausted. I'm so grateful I got to experience this!

I guess the most valuable part of this experience was that I went by myself. No care was given, so I was half naked in front of hundreds of strangers? Who cares! Don't think twice about it. Own it. Keep a straight face when faced with drunken comments and whistles. I'm me. I don't care that I showed up alone at a convention when everyone else had a group of friends by their sides. I was awesome. Don't care that I lost draft. Own it. It took some courage, people. Really it did.