I Walk the Line

Saturday was the NYC comic con. Now, I should say that I'm a veteran of sci-fi conventions, so obviously I'm a geek. I've also been to my share of comic conventions. Nothing prepares you for one in NYC though...except maybe LA or San Diego, neither of which have I experienced. It was chaos! But sit back and I shall spin you a tale...

Saturday morning I found myself running late. This was not good. I needed to be at Tom's at 8 and I was guessing I would get there at about 10 after at this rate. I was right. When I pulled up he was at the door and across the lawn before I hit the grass. After a big hug we decided to take my already warmed car to the bus stop. Arriving just before the bus we managed not to have to wait in the cold.

The ride up was nice, as we got to catch up on our weeks, talk about some lingering issues and then Tom explained a few odds and ends of the DC universe to me (I don't tend to read mainstream comics). Bear Bear came along as well, because he wanted his picture taken for Dan-Bear. Soon we were at the Port Authority and ready to find the Jacob Javits Center...let the fun begin!



Well, as I had planned out taking the bus to the Javits or a taxi I wasn't really clear on how to walk there, and that is what we decided to do since the weather was okay and it wasn't far. But which way? Of course all the info booths were closed and we couldn't find anyone who could give directions...so I bought a map. Once I was spied with said map several other lost souls descended on the newsstand, pointed at me and wanted one too. It was quite funny.

The walk was less than a mile and here is how it panned out:

Considering I am still not as fast on my feet as I once was, I did pretty well.

So as you can see the line went across a few blocks and then headed for the water. Happily it moved fairly quickly. Soon we could actually see the Javits Center.

And here we knew we were in the correct line. Sucked for the woman who thought she was in line for the travel show though...

This is the couple ahead of us in line. Chatting with them made time go pretty fast. They were from Queens and ran a convention in Jersey. She worked in managed health care (poor thing) and he worked with a design firm. We actually chatted over vacuum form at one point, praised autocad, and shared convention stories. Soon the end was in sight...

Well, almost. This was the point where I spotted what seemed to be a pair of pants floating down the side of the building. Don't see them? Here's a closer shot:

We debated the pants/not pants conundrum for a bit but were distracted by a 40 something year old man telling a police officer that someone had cut in line. We were all impressed by the officer's restraint in not back handing the guy. But the line has it's own brand of justice:

We agreed this was probably some one else who decided to try to butt in line. But there was still a ways to go. The line went down another block, then back up and into the convention center:

Then finally we were inside! Yet still in line...and we had a view of those still in the cold:

But things zipped along at a nauseating pace from here on and we were soon in the middle of complete and utter geek chaos! To be continued....