Part One.

Okay.

Last weekend L and ended up in Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon. It. Was. Fun. We left Saturday morning at 5:30 in the damn morning to meet our 6:15 bus. Luckily, we live really close to the bus terminal. The border was no problem; a grumpy, mumbling border guard at the crack of dawn will not prevent me from participating in my first con. Never. We took some food for ourselves and ate it up before we arrived at the border. When we finally got into Seattle we hustled to the hostel (not a spelling error, we did, in fact, stay in a hostel) which is five seconds away from the Pike Market Place. We had coffee and crumpets at this cute shop nearby and took a bus to the con. The local, downtown buses in Seattle are free! Didja know that? I think we spent only $2.50 on transit the whole time we were there. Anyway, the con was super busy - the line-up for Vasquez was long, like intestinal tract long, for the entire weekend. But I was there to meet Bendis, and Bendis I did meet. We attended his panel, which was basically a collection of Marvel writers answering questions from geeks in costumes (my favourite was the priest, WTF was that all about? Preacher? God, I hope so) and luckily, there were only a couple complaints about Hawkeye's death. I walked over to his table and he signed my Daredevil #40 - he was really cool. When the writers made fun of the questioning geeks at the panel, he totally validated the fans. He chatted with me briefly about #40 and how cool it was for him to work with some of his favourite artists. It was an incredible experience. I just hope my nervousness wasn't too obvious. I attended a few panels, like comic book history and self-publishing. I also picked up some old DD comics and met Tim Sale and Tony Harris. I never had a chance to meet Jim Woodring or Robert Kirkman. Oh well.

Seattle is awesome - most stuff is marginally cheaper, yeah, but everything is open later! We had Nepalese food on Saturday night, and L picked up hummus sandwiches from our favourite kosher deli. Seattle coffee is not overrated. And what about our heroine, L? How did she fare being around nerds all weekend? She was there for Saturday, but on Sunday we checked out the underground tour, where for ten bucks you can check out the old tunnels under Seattle. You also get a brief history lesson (whee!) that has inspired me a little to write about Vancouver. After the tour we went out for coffee because it started to rain and we wanted to warm up. So on Sunday we parted ways: I went to the con and L did a little touring of her own.

School and work has gotten interesting. My one act play is due Thursday and the school will be shut down on Monday from the strike. I haven't decided yet if I will picket. I can really use the time to finish my work, including an essay for a scholarship. I know, I know; it's my duty as union member to picket. More in sec, the library is closing.