I'm in a comic store lookin' for some mistakenly priced comic I could make a fortune on & in walks the Fantastic Four. I say...that last issue is cool

I'm still trying to process what was the last five days of my life. I don't know if it's that I'm getting almost too-old-for-this-shit or that I was coming off of being really, really sick, but during this year's San Diego Comic-Con I was in some sort of daze. I'm not saying it was bad, I'm just so exhausted. I wanted to jot down some highlights before I can't remember any of it!

The Table: For the 4th year, Tired Girl Collective had a table in Small Press. For the 2nd time ever, we had a 4th Tired Girl, who happened to be a boy. For the 1st time ever, we had an honorary 5th Tired Girl who didn't sell any of her own merchandise, but was a great help to us (and fun to hang out with!) Every year, we've been lucky with neighbors on at least one side (and not so lucky....aw, never mind). Last year, both neighbors were excellent. This year we were on an end, so only had one chance and it worked out really well. I loved listening to Canadian accents all weekend!

The Friends: A huge aspect of Comic-Con for most people I know is getting to see friends. It's a little sad to say, but I see some of my L.A.-based friends more during the days of the convention than in the rest of the year before the next one. And then, of course, there are the out of town buddies, who make it a really extra special time.

The Panels: Thanks to some extra help (see The Table, above), I got to sneak away to a few more panels than I usually do. High points included the first-ever studio previews of upcoming in 3-D, including Q&A sessions with Robert Zemekis, Tim Burton, Joe Dante, and others, Caprica/Battlestar Galactica, Big Bang Theory, Chuck (complete with a performance by Jeffster!!!), Family Guy, and a cool TV Guide Sci-Fi hot list panel.

The Photos: Looking through the photos I took, I'm finding they are mostly of the panels and actually quite boring unless you are into those particular shows. It will be a while before they get uploaded anyway, as I'm still working on those from Maker Faire (which was in May!) and others between then and now. I'll make sure I link to friends' sets of the cool costumes, etc.

The Scavenger Hunt: One of the most fun things E and I did was a nighttime event to promote the upcoming Tron sequel, which had us running around the Gaslamp District with black lights and ending up in a replica of Flynn's arcade. Here's a great recap of the event.

The Celebrities: Comic-Con and celebrities go hand-in-hand. I'm generally not too star-struck, but was more amused by some of the folks who strolled, or were whisked by security, by our table. It seemed like more than in the past, which probably has to do with being located right by the back door. Adam West, Ron Jeremy, Richard Dreyfus, and Ray Bradbury passed through. In another part of the hall, I saw John Landis taking Matt Groening's photo. We saw Tania Raymonde (Alex on Lost) in an ice cream shop. Oh, and we saw Chuck Lorre and a few of the Big Bang Theory cast members in our hotel lobby (see below).

The Stalker: Okay, I just said I don't get star-struck. It's somewhat true, but I do tend to get really nervous, and sometimes just plain ridiculous, if I decide to approach someone and talk to them. Let's just say I *may* or *may not* have sort of stalked one of the people in the photo below:

A few of the folks above might have been in one of the bars in my hotel and I just possibly (with some prodding) may have approached and babbled. Oh, and then there's the part where a mutual friend called _____ and was told, "I'm hanging out at the bar with Jodi," on my prompting. I.am.a.dork.

I'll post something once I have photos up, hopefully no longer than two weeks from now. For now, I will sleep and dream of superheroes, standing in really long lines, Adam Baldwin, Hello Kitty Stormtroppers, giant hamsters, half-naked Pikachu, vintage 80's video games, and onions.

San Diego! Here We Come!

Believe it or not, it is that time of year again...San Diego Comic-Con. I'm still busy getting stuff ready, between hacking up my lungs (a different story), and hope to have lots of goodies by Wednesday when I head down for set-up and Preview Night. All the cool kids will be at Blogger Prom that night, but hey, I was never accused of being cool. I'll be hangin' with the dorks, nerds, geeks, and dweebs. And loving it.

You can check out the Tired Girl Collective site for specifics on our location, etc. We'll be joined by our buddy Nathan Hamill, who will be selling his newly released vinyl toy, Boris. Of course there will be lots of other cool people I can vouch for that you should also check out including JustJenn and Paul Horn, as well as many others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

From the vault. Frank the Pug and Jodi
San Diego Comic-Con 2002

You were the one who sent me fruitcake for Christmas. It made me so sick.

The Tired Girl Collective will be representing at a craft show on the LA/O.C. border (Cerritos) this coming weekend. Come by Tall Mouse Arts & Crafts for Handmade Brigade on Saturday, December 6th, head to the back and do some handmade holiday shopping. You'll feel good about yourself. We'll have our usual unique stationary, beautiful new jewelry, tote bags, and the usual assortment of hamster stuff. Come on, you need more hamster stuff, right? (Just humor me, people!)

I know there are other local craft events this weekend. No, I'm not going to tell you what or where they are, but why not hit more than one? Maybe you can even cross everyone off your list!

No Time For Naps

Felt Club. We will be there.

What a great opportunity for getting those holiday goodies!

Of Mice And Midgets

Today's the day. San Diego or bust. Due to my extraordinary skills of procrastination, I feel less ready for the San Diego Comic-Con International than ever before. My panic has started turning to excitement though as there will be friends I only see there once a year and online friends that I get to meet in person. So I'll be up late tonight making stuff in my hotel room while everyone else parties the night away. No biggie.

I will once again be yawning selling with the Tired Girl Collective (Small Press L5, in case you want to visit us). There will be the usual (well, with updates of course) wonderful items that the other girls provide. I'll still be pimping buttons, craft pom pom hamsters, and Hamster Haiku. I also have a couple of new items:

Amigurumi Craft Hamsters

and

My New Book!

Squirrel Sonnets and other Rodent Rhymes is similar to Hamster Haiku. It's all original poetry and photos by me. It should be waiting for me at my hotel in San Diego. If it's not, or if it sucks, I won't be selling it.

I have been challenged by L.A. Metblogger Jason Burns to be photographed with a Darth Vader, a Cylon, and a midget*. Bonus points if we are all holding a drink. I take your challenge, Mr. Burns. We'll see how much time I can get away from the table to pursue this!

In the interest of more shameless self-promotion roll here, I've updated my Etsy site, where craft hamster goodness can be purchased. Also, I have a new site GoAmi.com to promote my upcoming comic book Go Ami Go.

*E of course said to me, "Well, could you count as the midget?" Harumph!

Where It's At

Tomorrow, this is where I'll be with another Tired Girl, Ren. We'll be selling some crafty kinds of things, so if that interests you, come on by. First 50 people get a bag 'o swag! You can't beat free stuff!

Crap Fair

Geez. The Tired Girl Collective's first real 'craft fair' experience could not be summed up as successful. Granted, I'm not too sure many of the vendors who participated in the Handmade For The Holidays show did gangbusters business. It was pretty pathetic. Several sellers didn't even show up today. We were optimistic that today would be much better than Black Friday. It was worse. Worse. Between the three of us, we did not even make the cost of the table back in sales. Eep. I don't think we were completely a wrong fit for the event, which though fairly well organized, suffered from timing, lack of promotion, and location.

All was not completely lost. The lovely Nina, who professes to really dislike crafts, stopped by to say hello anyway, along with her mom. I also got to meet a certain Ambitious Hamster's dad! That was a fun surprise. I also did have a couple of completely insane-for-hamsters customers.

I guess one of the benefits of not selling out of merchandise, as I'd hoped to, is that I already have prizes to send to my two contest winners: Nanette and Nicole! Not that it did anything to boost comments. In fact, I got fewer than on some other posts. Maybe I should not try to bribe folks!

What Now?

Reading: Roasting In Hell's Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay. It was a blast to see him in person this past week. It was a little disappointing to not have him yell at me. I'd probably cry though, so it's for the best.

Listening: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon. This is a great album and I can't stop listening to it. We saw them live a couple of weeks ago and they were fantastic. I was really happy they had a horn section on stage.

Watching: Pushing Daisies, one of the newer shows I like and will miss when all of the current episodes have aired. It's wonderfully quirky.

Selling: Hamster balls and Hamster Haiku with the Tired Girl Collective at the Handmade for the Holidays Craft Fair.

Dreading: Work tomorrow. Ugh. I'd rather be at the craft fair (see above).

Dreaming Of: Sleep. I will be fulfilling this very, very soon.

Con And Gone

Comic-Con was once again an exhausting blast. I'm still reeling a bit from all of the past week-and-a-half. I took the few days before Comic-Con off, which was a good thing. I had really procrastinated in getting ready for the Tired Girl Collective table, that the weekend before the show was a frenzy of button and hamster making. In the midst of manic crafting, all three of the dogs got sick. I fed them something different, and apparently bad, which did not agree with them. My work was interrupted by frequent bathing of the long butt fur two of them have had. After the fifth bath or so, I took scissors and hacked away. It's not pretty, but it had to be done. After a couple of trips to the vet, some medication, and a prescription diet, all seemed better and we determined we could actually leave them, with a friend looking in on them a couple of times a day.

We'd hoped to make it to San Diego before the doors to Preview Night opened, but with traffic and a stop we needed to make in La Jolla, we were a little late. But, we arrived before it was over, which is better than previous years. Frantic set-up ensued and 3/4 of the Tired Girl Collective had a nice, quiet Mexican dinner.

I remember bits and pieces of the next few days, but in some ways it is kind of a blur. Maybe it's like what they say a lot of people's wedding days are like. Having eloped in Vegas with a 7-minute ceremony, I pretty much have a clear memory of that event. Anyway, there was lots of traffic at our table and it seemed like we were all selling pretty well. Sherri noted that it was cool that we all got excited when any of us sold something. And we all talked up each others' merchandise. It was quite a collaborative collective.

I was able to sneak away for two panels and one film. I was skeptical about the 24 panel, as the past season was lackluster. The director and writers/producers who spoke were quite funny though and gave us some insight into what went wrong and how they are working to make it a good show again. No, no Kiefer. I also made it into the Heroes panel only because I ran into Chris and his lovely family and they let me to cut in line. It was lots of fun and I took lots of photos. The film that E and I watched was Big Top Winkle. I've been a Mr. Winkle fan for a long time and was delighted by this charming movie.

Besides the table, the exhibit hall, the panels, etc. Comic-Con always seems to be about friends...old and new. Since starting this blog for a couple of years ago, I have met blog-world friends the past couple of years. I also get to hang out with some people...Jason Ho!...that I don't see very often. Invariably, we run into people that we didn't know were coming.

Comic-Con ended with a flurry of packing, getting the car out of valet (apparently Lou Ferrigno's truck is more important than our car), and driving up to Orange County to see Tears for Fears in concert. I realized that after the 2005 Comic-Con, we also went to their show. They were really good, by the way, and we had amazing seats! We also ran into a friend who had also driven up from Comic-Con, but who we did not see among the thousands of other people.

We returned to San Diego for one more night of sleep. It was so nice to sleep in on Monday as I'd been getting only 3-4 hours a night for over a week. We had a nice lunch at Seaport Village and then went exploring on the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier. It was fascinating and took about 3 hours. I will eventually post a few photos from that day.

So, the photos are being uploaded and tagged. I finally opened my Harry Potter book the other night and will probably be savoring it over the next couple of weeks. Sure, I've heard some spoilers, but that was inevitable and I think I'll still enjoy it. Oh, and the dogs are fine.

The Girliest Table At Comic-Con

I've been coming to the San Diego Comic-Con for several years now. It all started a long time ago when E dragged me, kicking and screaming, to the show for a day. Since that first time, I've really embraced my inner geek and have come to enjoy what is now an annual event for us. Most people who read here probably know that not only do I now love Comic-Con, but that I am also exhibiting in the Small Press area for the second year in a row with the Tired Girl Collective.

Over the years, I've learned that a good portion of the attendees are sweaty fanboys. So, it makes sense that most exhibits are geared toward guys, with their robots, action figures, superheroes, and scantily clad booth girls. What's a nerdy girl to do?

We intentionally made our table pink, in hopes of attracting the girly contingent and it has worked. Over and over, women and girls get excited when they see an adorable homemade hamster or precious note card. A pretty consistent reaction at our table is, "Oh my god! That is so cute!," which is exactly what we were going for. A lot of the she-nerds who visit have a somewhat tentative dork boy in tow. It's fun watching them enjoy the pink, girly oasis we created in the sea of testosterone.

If you want to see more of our wares, go to the Tired Girl Collective site.

Ready Or Not...San Diego, Here I Come

I feel like I've finally made a fair amount of progress toward being ready for this year's San Diego Comic Con. I've been making buttons and hamsters like crazy. There are tons more to make, but I'm finally feeling better about it all. The things I ordered via the mail have all arrived.* I think I just need one more trip to Michaels and I'll be set.

Of course, there are the daunting tasks of laundry, packing, and cleaning the house hanging over my head. And, one of the dogs has had diarrhea all day, which has lead to several unplanned trips to the bathtub.

So, I'm taking a little break to write here, shower, go to some friends' joint birthday party, and possibly an open house at a theater. After that, I'll burn the 3-4am oil again and cut, glue, and press like nobody's business.

The point of this was to tell any of you reading this who will be attending 'Nerd Prom' next week, to come by the table I'm sharing with a group of creative and talented women to say hi. We are the Tired Girl Collective and can be found at table N4 in the Small Press area.

After countless explanations of the whys and whats of Comic Con to my less nerdy co-workers, I was interested to see an article on the event in this week's Entertainment Weekly. As if it wasn't crowded enough! I'm actually really excited about Comic Con as it's always lots of fun with excellent people watching opportunities. Like last year, I'm excited to meet at least one, if not more, friends I've made through the bloggy world.

*Apparently, I'm not such a good nerd. Or I'm just cheap. I pre-ordered my Harry Potter book months ago, but chose a shipping option that will get it to me by Monday at the earliest. It will potentially arrive when I am away in San Diego. Not that I really have time to read right now.

**4:15pm: My book actually arrived and yes, I did a happy dance. I'm not opening it yet, in fear I'll not do anything else!