Ash and Me VS. The Evil Dead, or ComicCon Tulsa 2015

I meant to show you my second comiccon in November, but I've been disinclined to sit in front of the blank Blogger page. Plus stupid facebook and work and kids and laundry.

In 2014, I went to my very first ComicCon, and I WENT ALONE. If you know me and the social anxiety I've developed over the last 10 or 15 years, then you realize what a big deal that is. You can check it out here: My First ComicCon - A mostly pictorial essay (it was AWESOME and I felt like part of a tribe)

I GOT TO HUG MY BOYFRIEND JAMES MARSTERS OMG.
The thrill has not gone away yet.

In 2015, I was lucky enough to find a fellow nerd and Bruce Campbell-lover to go with me - my friend Nicole. It was even more than double the fun! Check it out.

---

First there was a tearful goodbye with my children - I knew that I would barely be able to stand being away from them for nearly three whole days! *sob* They just clung to me and begged me not to leave - I almost gave in.

Luckily Nicole showed up and gave me the strength to leave, and we hit the road for Tulsa! We checked into the hotel and got ready for HAPPY FUNTIME WEEKEND!

We had a nice view outside...

But inside was a little terrifying when we got to the elevator. Apparently the Zombiepocalypse has already happened in Tulsa. Or maybe it was like all those creepy kid handprints on the wall in Blair Witch house. (SRSLY what happened here?? **embiggen to see better)

So we set off to find ourselves a good time. We fit right in with the crowd.

**There was actually a little girl in there, driving it around. I wanted one of those - I would go around in it all the time!

We decided to take a joyride in this....

And ended up going BACK IN TIME (maybe we shouldn't have been using Reverse gear?) and ran into a much younger Ash (although truth be told, I much prefer his older self, RAWR #SilverFox):

As you can tell, he was very happy to see us!  Then we found jokers and aliens and clowns, oh my!

And sweet transvestites from transsexual Transylvania. Because natch.

And his housekeeper, whom I tried to employ but she was all I DON'T DO WINDOWS. OR CLEANING. OR ANYTHING.

We found The Dude, abiding as usual. Tried to get him to Netflix & Chill with us. I can't say any more about that because of the nondisclosure agreement, but I do have a new rug that really ties the room together.

Eventually Nicole was excited to run into her First! First Doctor, that is --

We were trying to abscond with him in this...

...but then these guys got in our way.

Captain Jack would've taken us away on his ship, but he was drunk as usual.

I was taking a picture of some people dressed up and David Tennant photobombed my picture!

And then we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the doctor's next incarnation - I guess they decided to go from one extreme to the other, from Old Geezer Capaldi to this guy:

By then we were hungry and tired so went in search of food and then rest because the next day WE WERE GOING TO MEET BRUCE CAMPBELL.
Found a little Mexican food place that we all agreed on - as you can see Ash was bogarting the salsa and had a leeeeetle too much of my margarita. I could see where this was going.

YEP, HANGOVER TIME. Luckily Captain Mal brought me and Bruce some coffee

He wouldn't get up, he wanted me to come back and snuggle some more. Awwww!

Time to head back to the convention center and get some shanking tips from Taryn Manning - you may know her as Pennsatucky on Orange Is The New Black. We really enjoyed her session - she seemed pretty humble and down-to-earth, very friendly and receptive to fans.

BUT THE BEST PART OF THE DAY WAS BRUCE. (Did I mention we actually MET him? And he touched us? *wink wink* And we had our pictures taken with him? BE JEALOUS)

And I took a selfie with EVERYONE. Well, everyone on my side of the room. 

Then it was sadly time to say GOODBYE COMICCON and we hit the road home, stopping in to see a few local sights between Tulsa and Midwest City.  First stop - center of the universe! No seriously, this is actually a thing. Plus it's very cool. Click that link I just gave you and read about it. We'll wait here.

This is where the center of the universe (me, doy) met the center of the universe. I'm surprised you all didn't feel the earth move or get lightning struck or something at that exact moment.

Every town needs a giant gold man. Right? He's a real "driller" #IfYouKnowWhatIMean (Tulsa is an oil town, doy. Why, what were you thinking I meant??) Nice belt buckle, dude.

And there is a CEMETERY IN THE PARKING LOT of a strip mall. WTAF?
But it was very old and nicely kept and probably they wanted to make sure they didn't stir up a whole Poltergeist thing.

We found some cool graffiti here and there, and I was wondering if this was Tulsa inviting me to stay there forever:

Buh bye, T-Town...until next year!

HUGE kisses and hugs and thanks to Nicole, without whom this trip would not have been possible for me. XOXOXO

My First ComicCon: A (mostly) Pictorial Essay

#WWTulsaCC
So I got home today from the Tulsa ComicCon. It was sort of a surreal experience; not only did I get to actually leave hearth and home (and children OMG YES) for the best part of 3 days, I went to this huge event ALONE.
Yes.
ALONE.
Which, as you know, is how I typically prefer things, but most of you also know I am not really sociable on my best day and  I tend toward introversion and wall-hugging in large crowds, parties...dates. Whatever.
Let me take a quick moment to say THANK YOU to the considerable number of people it took to make this trip possible and hella fun (since it almost got sunk a couple of weeks ago when my original sitter backed out): Mom, Mary, Karly, Becca, Shawn, Cathy, and Brad.

You will be surprised to learn that I was shockingly social this weekend, including asking to sit at some stranger's table in an overcrowded cafe, talking to people with whom I stood waiting in lines, and of course actually being able to speak to my heretofore pretend boyfriend, James Marsters (some of you know him as Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer). It's totes okay to be jealous of me. I encourage that.

And do not be afraid - I will be back in normal misanthropic form as soon as my James high wears off.

The bonus part was getting to spend some (excellent in quality but sadly short in quantity) time with one of my oldest friends (agewise AND longevity-wise)(hahaha keedeeeen)(sort of).

There was one guy there who looked JUST like Hugh Jackman as Logan (Wolverine), but since he was married to Wonder Woman I decided I better not ask to get a picture.

Let me just say that this weekend was the first time I've felt the pain and regret of not having a smart phone, because (as you shall see for yourself) my crappy little phone only takes crappy little pictures, blurry and dim and horrible. Fortunately for me, I still have all the memories and they're in HD.
Unfortunately for YOU, you'll have to use considerable imagination.

So here I am on the day, getting ready to head to T-Town for my Happy Funtimes Weekend:

And of course I hooked up with my boyfriend James right away:

Sadly, it was not hooking up in the biblical sense. #HisLossToo #JustSaying

**Please forgive the utter blurriness and poor quality of the following fotografs**

ALSO: Let me just add that Norman Reedus, while I did not get a photo of or with him, seemed to be a pretty spectacular, personable guy. He went hours over and above scheduled photo-op and autograph times, often stopping to pop his head out and say HI to the people standing in various lines. I got to see him and spoke to him, and I'm almost fairly kind of sure he might have smiled and/or tipped a wink in possibly my general direction or perhaps to one of the people surrounding me...but I'm not quite 100% on that.
He appeared to make himself pretty accessible to fans and was definitely the hot ticket at this convention.
Also ALSO he was very sexy. A little dirty looking. I like that. #SupaHot #DixonsVixens
For him I would volunteer to be

ANYWAY.

Speaking of The Walking Dead, I sat in on a panel with Shane and Hershel:

They were very entertaining, and also I learned a new Waylon Jennings song that Shane/John Bernthal loves:


Also the Formerly Alive Other Dixon Brother (Merle), Michael Rooker. He sort of gave off an arrogant, bad boy vibe ( but SO FUCKING CHARMING!) - I would hit that in a red hot minute:

Someone asked how he enjoyed working with (my other pretend boyfriend) Nathan Fillion, and he said, "You should ask Nathan Fillion how HE enjoyed working with ME!" which is totes a fair point but DO NOT DIS MY BOYFRIEND NATHAN EVER EVER. #BrowncoatsForever #Shiny

I also enjoyed sitting in with Freddy Krueger - he is definitely a talker. Is it just me or is Robert Englund starting to look like Gandalf?

BIG NEWS: I SAW THE SHAT in all his Captain Kirk-y Denny Crane-ness:

He is actually just what I expected. Also? His roles are #Typecasting, for sure.

After all the Shatner goodness, I had to step outside for a breath of fresh air. It was chillier than I thought it would be (and me without my jacket!) and I soon discovered why:

Then all of a sudden, I was compelled to shout...

...and immediately was transported through a wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey vortex of some sort

where I immediately encountered a very young, sweet, and handsome Harry:

Who was heard to say, "We're not friends. I don't like him and he doesn't like me. What if he sees me and calls me POTTAH?!"

At which point I noticed Draco Malfoy lurking through the crowds, looking evil and wicked and smug as always...

Actually Tom Felton was extremely nice and accessible, wandering through the lines of fans, speaking with the girls, asking them questions (and making them so giddy and giggly I actually smiled)(shut up, we will never speak of that again), just very casual and lovely and sweet.

I was thrilled to run into one of my favorite romantic couples, Daenerys and Khal Drogo:

Although to be honest I was a little worried that a typical GoT bloodbath would erupt in their wake. Luckily, I made it out alive.

I have to be honest and tell you I pussed out on Sunday, Day 3 -- many of you know I have a lot of chronic back pain and sciatica and unfortunately I was not up to the challenge. Probably I missed some of the best stuff on the last day but I DO NOT CARE BECAUSE JAMES MARSTERS.
Also as #BadMotherOfTheYear I feel it's important to note that my decision had zero to do with getting back home to the children; I could've easily stayed away several more days without a single squidge of guilt. Oh, you #PerfectMoms and #Hoverounds can shut it. I will cutchoo like...someone with a sharp cutting thing.
Plus I know for a fact that I'd've ended up spending $50 for a damn autograph (and OMG REALLY $50?? For THAT??) which we all know I'm much too cheap frugal to do and would've regretted later when I really needed to buy something, like new books. Or, you know, food.

AND OF COURSE I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST.

James Marsters. During his panel I wanted to ask how it was kissing John Barrowman on those episodes of Torchwood but I was too skeert. Fortunately for me and great minds that think alike, the very last person they took a question from asked it. I can't really remember the answer because I was too busy remembering the actual scene.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.
What?
Where was I?

Right-o.
So I got to actually meet him in the flesh, and he made such direct eye contact when he shook my hand that I'm surprised the smoke alarms didn't go off with the sudden rise in my body temperature. He hugged me and I had to make a concerted effort to keep my hand off his ass...and then he squeezed my hand as I was leaving. I'm pretty sure he's in love with me. Because what's not to love?

See how he was looking right at me? Can't you feel the sexual tension just oozing between us? I KNOW.

He was delighted to dress up as Spike for me for a little role-play fun as we spent some time together in the amazing hot tub in my hotel room:

And here he is, just waking up this morning - James, you're such a cover hog in the middle of the night!

And then...dun dun DUN...it was time for me to leave. I will miss being in you, T-Town:

Now...when can I sign up for Tulsa ComicCon 2015????