Meeting Ahsoka (or Faith is a Star Wars Spazz)

If you've ever been to Dragon*Con, you know the wonders of the dealers' room. It's stuffed to the roof with geeky vendors and people and anything you could possibly want to buy (with the notable exception this year of a flask, which is all I really intended to purchase). So of course, we spent a considerable amount of time wandering, not really buying, and seeing what we could find. On Saturday night we were getting ready to leave when I saw a booth of Star Wars clothing. And who was in the booth, but Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano herself (Anakin's padawan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars), promoting her clothing line Her Universe I cannot rave enough about how nice she was. Not only did she take an interest in talking to me, but she also signed one of her cards for me. And that is before I bought anything.

The next day I went back and bought one of the more expensive items-- the Star Wars zip-up hoodie. Have you seen this thing? Let me tell you about it.

First off, check out that Darth Vader on the front. So cool! All of the artwork on the surface is really nice and well done (the back says "May the Force be with You" along the bottom). I love the fact that the front only has one small image. So many girls' tops have giant pictures on the front that really throw off the balance of the look. It's also super soft. I mean seriously. I rave about cashmere, but, lets just say I've been thinking about turning up the air conditioning so that I can wear it more. And the right front pocket? Yeah, it has a hidden ipod pocket with headphones opening. Brilliant. The hoodie is priced at $50, but if you buy it at an event you don't pay tax and you get a lovely [new knitting] bag. I'm adding different shirts to my wishlist for birthdays and Christmas because I love the idea of having Star Wars shirts that did not come from the boy's section in Wal-Mart (i.e. they actually fit properly!)

Even if you're not a Star Wars fanatic like me or have no desire to spend $30 on a tshirt (I understand. But trust me, from what I've seen these are really well made), you should still go check out Ashley's blog. Star Wars is something that connects every generation and appeals to every age level. It's something that young girls can latch on to, as I did, and find comfort in the stories of strong female characters. However, as much as I love Carrie Fisher, there has not ever been anyone I would consider to be a good female role model for these girls. Until now. I really think Ashley is changing this and I hope that even after her character's story ends (I hope she dies in some tragic way that has me bawling over a cartoon) she continues to be a strong force in the geek verse to help change the perception of girls who would rather play Star Wars in the backyard then dress barbies. Being a geek is a desirable characteristic.

How Many T's to Atlanta?

Once again, Dragon*Con was amazing. We had so much fun.

On Friday we drove down to Atlanta, which is quite the drive from Raleigh, NC.  But we made it!  Of course, once we got there and started changing into costume the zipper on my super cheap, super awesome leather skirt broke.  Andrea and I actually sewed the zipper shut so that I would not have to abandon my Faith Lehane costume.  Fortunately it worked!

Me and my BFF Andrea - our Merlot's girl for the night

We even managed to get through the registration line in a reasonable amount of time and went to the Buffy Horror Picture Show and Doctor Horrible Live.  Epic does not describe how much fun they were.

On Saturday we met Summer Glau.  She is so nice!  She treated us with such consideration and friendliness, even after she had been signing autographs all morning.  The only panels I attended were with the Firefly cast, so we saw Summer several more times.  And she loves Chuck! (the cast of which we cosplayed that day)

Yes, we all know that I should never be blond.

I also met three of my favorite Star Wars authors -- Kevin J. Anderson, A. C. Crispin, and Michael Stackpole, all of whom were nice enough to sign my books.  A. C. Crispin is one of my all-time favorite authors.  Her books are the reason I got into genre sci-fi and her Han Solo trilogy is my favorite set of Star Wars novels.  She has a new novel that will be released next semester.  A prequel novel about Jack Sparrow for Pirates of the Caribbean.  You can bet I will be preordering it.

Who else did I discover on my wandering?  I met Georges Jeanty, who was very nice and signed my Buffy Season 8 issue one.  I'm working on finding a frame for it.  I know it's not currently available for purchase, but I don't want to risk anything happening to it.  We'll see what I come up with.  I also met Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars) who was at the con promoting her new clothing line Her Universe.  I bought a hoodie from her which I will be reviewing in a later post.  She was also super nice and chatted with me for a while.  She also gave me an autograph for free, and this was before I went back to buy something from her.  

My overall impression of everyone I met was very positive.  Everyone seemed so excited to meet the fans and interact with them.  And all con attendees were having so much fun cosplaying and meeting people whom we look up to.  I loved it!  If you want to hear more about our trip and all the fun we had, you can check out Echo Alert in the next few days.  I took my handheld recorder, which we made quite entertaining use of (or at least we found it entertaining.  We were rather tired).

Oh, and I tried to do some knitting, but I was having so much fun I was not very successful.  I am still working on the initial shoulder increases of my Featherweight, but it was a nice light weight project to cart around with me for standing in extreme lines and keeping my hands busy during panels. 


PS: The Indiana Jones costume was a hit.  People actually stopped me to ask to take a picture!

Stowaway!

Mr. Irish Bear was up early this morning, helping me pack.  Unfortunately he seems to have the mistaken idea that he's going to Dragon*Con with me.

I had to explain to him that no, the Indiana Jones costume is mine and he has to stay home and watch the stuff just in case we get a hurricane.  This is the reaction I got:

Poor Mr. Irish Bear.  We just can't risk getting him lost in an Atlanta hotel.  I think he'll understand eventually.

Then again, maybe not.

Preparation

Tomorrow I leave for Dragon*Con! We actually won't get to Atlanta until Friday, but tomorrow I'll be driving to Raleigh to meet up with the rest of the gang and then set out for the best weekend of the year. I'm taking three costumes this year. Currently everything is sitting on top of my suitcase because I haven't figured out how to make three pairs of boots fit in my bag. Plus I have to take some school work.

Of course I'm taking knitting (uh, hello, 7 hour drive, lots of time spent in lines). While I was knitting the Blue Marigold Vest I discovered the Featherweight Cardigan. I have three skeins of Cascade Alpaca Lace in this gorgeous dark red colorway that my mom gave to me. She accidentally bought it when she first started knitting but has no desire as of yet to knit lace. So what does a girl who lives at the beach do with over 1000 yards of laceweight do? Knit a cardigan! And yes, I bought it specifically to knit at the con. I have already swatched and done my setup rows. I also picked up a small circular so that I can knit sleeves without worrying about double-pointed needles.

If you haven't been paying attention to the weather, or are fortunate enough to not live on the East Coast, you might not have heard that we're bracing for a hurricane here in North Carolina. It's not supposed to hit until after I leave town, and actually the full force is supposed to go north of us, but I'm still making a few preparations. I have two rubbermaid tubs sitting in my kitchen just in case the windows break or the roof leaks or something. Thanks to the flood last summer, the amount of items I cannot live without has shrunk drastically. In moments of crisis I'm down to one box of a few irreplaceable sentimental items, recording equipment, external hard drive and another box of dvds (my tv box set collection is getting a little too big to replace). The fact that I can compress my life into these two boxes is a little scary, but it makes hurricane precautions a snap. Hopefully these will all be unnecessary preparations, but since I'll be gone for the duration of the storm, I want to be ready.

Now, I must get back to packing. And reading.