Last weekend, I went to C2E2, a comic book convention in Chicago. I’m fortunate because one of my best friends from college lives in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, so I can stay with her while I attend the convention. C2E2 is a convention I always look forward to attending. C2E2 is organized, there’s a lot to do and see, and I always seem to run into someone I know.

Getting to C2E2 can be a trek. Driving in Chicago can be stressful, which is why I have never driven downtown, and I don’t plan to. Instead, I take advantage of Chicago’s public transit system. Beginning the journey, I drive about twenty minutes to one of the stops on the Blue Line that runs from O’Hare International Airport to downtown. After reaching downtown, I have to get off and switch to the Green Line, which runs to McCormick Place, where C2E2 is always held. In total, it’s about two hours for me to navigate to C2E2, although it’s always worth it because I can relax before attending the con.

While meandering through the convention floor, I was able to meet two of my favorite people in comics! The first was Jason Muhr, who illustrated By the Horns, one of my favorite comic series released this year. I was able to connect with Jason as he told me what inspired him to become invested in this comic series. The next artist I met in person was Kami Garcia, the author of the Teen Titans Young Adult graphic novel series. I read her Teen Titans: Raven graphic novel last year, and I loved it! I picked up Teen Titans: Beast Boy, which Kami signed for me. Kami also commented on my Captain Marvel cosplay and recommended I check out the Margaret Stohl run of Captain Marvel. I’m still in awe thinking about how I met these two at C2E2.

Besides the conversations, I attended a panel called “The Five Things You Need to Know Before Creating a Comic Series.” I have no interest in writing a comic because reading comics is a big hobby of mine, and I don’t want to ruin that. I went to the panel more out of curiosity. At the beginning of the panel, the moderator asked us where we were from. I shouted out Minneapolis because of my Minnesota pride. The couple behind me shouted, “Us Too.” I turned around and realized I recognized them through my work at Twin Cities Geek. It’s a small world. The panel was fascinating regarding what it takes to pitch a comic until it is released by a major publisher.

C2E2 is one of the best conventions that I go to. It’s organized, features lots of cosplayers, and there is always something for everyone. I’m sure I will keep attending C2E2 every year, as I know I will always have a blast whenever I go.

My “mini-moon” series is coming to an end. My first post was focused on the day trip to Disneyland, my second post was dedicated to LA, and now I’m writing about San Francisco. While planning this trip, I didn’t know much about San Fran. I knew about the Golden Gate Bridge and the hilly streets, but that was about it. My husband was adamant about spending the majority of our trip in San Fran, and I was okay with that. Exploring San Fran was one of the highlights of our trip.

One of the first impressions I had about San Fran was how walkable a city it was. My husband and I walked to a different coffee shop every day to get breakfast and relax before starting our day. Our first day in San Fran included walking to the Ferry Building. The Ferry Building is a historic building in San Fran right along the pier. Inside, there were various coffee shops, cafes, and a bookstore. After the Ferry Building, we took an Uber to see the houses in Full House. I never got into watching Full House when it aired, so while I liked seeing the houses, I wasn’t blown away either. The houses themselves are neat because it fits into San Fran’s aesthetic with the hills and the houses planted on them. Now that I have seen them, I wouldn’t go see them again.

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is going to a local comic book store and/or game store. After seeing the houses, we walked to a nearby comic book store with a neighboring game store. Comix Experience was the comic book store we visited. It was a small shop with a surprisingly big selection of graphic novels. There was a labeled section for comics written by women, along with an LGBTQIA+ section. I ended up purchasing the first volume of The Weatherman, which I had my eye on for a while. After stopping by Comix Experience, we went to Gamescape, which was right next door. This was a game store with a huge board game selection and a specialized table for painting minis. I was running out of room in my suitcase, so I only purchased dice. Supporting local stores is incredibly important to me, so I wanted to make a purchase at both stores.

As we explored the various parts of San Fran, we stumbled upon a small museum highlighting cartoons. The Cartoon Art Museum is located near Fisherman’s Wharf and highlights the history of animation and comic art. While my husband and I were there, they had an exhibit about the history of Wonder Woman. There were several Wonder Woman comics on display, along with a prop from the Wonder Woman films. After visiting the museum, my husband and I made our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is massive. We walked the 1.7 miles on the bridge before finally settling on having a celebratory beer at a brewery.

On our final day in San Fran, my husband wanted to go to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is on an island, so we had to purchase our exhibit tickets, which included the ferry to get there. Alcatraz was a prison until it was shut down by Robert F. Kennedy in the 60s because it was too expensive to maintain. Since then, Alcatraz has been restored and has become an exhibit to explore. When my husband and I arrived, we were handed a remote that had an audio tour. The audio tour was well worth it. It was easy to follow and highlighted the experience of both the prisoners and the wardens. Visiting Alcatraz is something I would recommend while visiting San Fran.

I’m glad that my husband and I were able to go on a trip to celebrate our marriage. Europe is still a long-term honeymoon trip that we want to take, but it was nice to be able to get away.

Happy Monday! Before too much time passes, I wanted to write the second post in my “mini-moon” California trip series. My first post was about my trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. As someone who has never been to any of the Disney parks, I had a blast. Before visiting Disney, my husband and I took some time to explore LA and the surrounding areas.

When my husband and I landed in LA, I made a comment about how I didn’t realize LA was surrounded by mountains. That sounds like such a silly thing to say, but I genuinely was surprised. Once we checked into our hotel, the first place my husband and I visited was In-N-Out, located near Hollywood Boulevard. I have never been to In-N-Out, so I never understood all the hype. In-N-Out was delicious! I never knew banana peppers could appear on a burger. I’m a big fan. I would say that I think the fries were okay; it was the burger that solidified In-N-Out’s status for me.

As we finished lunch, we took some time to wander Hollywood Boulevard. Wandering through Hollywood Boulevard was okay. Seeing the Hollywood stars was fine, but a lot of the stars were dirty, so they were hard to read. One highlight of Hollywood Boulevard was the Funko Pop store. My husband and I had a lot of fun roaming the store and taking pictures with the life-size figures.

One place that my husband wanted to go see was the Griffith Observatory. It’s an observatory high above downtown LA and it’s a great place to take photos. The view was well worth the drive and the Uber cost to get there. Me and my husband took many photos and selfies with the Hollywood sign in the background.

Besides downtown LA, my husband and I took a trip to Santa Monica. Santa Monica was one of my favorite places to visit while staying in LA. Santa Monica Pier is right along the Pacific Ocean, and there’s so much to see. My husband and I walked along the pier, including taking a pit stop to drink some fruity cocktails. We ended up taking a long walk along the beach, and I felt we could truly experience the California culture. There were skate parks everywhere, surfers carrying their surfboards, and street performers selling art or dancing to music. We took some time to watch the skateboarders and saw a kid who couldn’t have been older than six years old skating around. Santa Monica is a place I would love to come back to.

I’m glad I was able to visit LA and the surrounding cities. I will say, I enjoyed the surrounding cities more than LA itself. I think part of that is because we visited more tourist spots in LA versus trying to find areas that were where more locals would hang out or recommend. If I were ever to go back, I’d like to stay in Santa Monica or not right in the heart of LA. My next post will be summarizing San Francisco, and it will be the final post in my California “mini-moon” post series.

Last week, I was in California with my husband. While our full honeymoon trip will be to Europe sometime next year, we still wanted to take a trip to celebrate our marriage. As we were debating where to go, we decided on California because neither my husband nor I had ever been there. I plan on writing three posts for this trip: one for Disneyland, one for Los Angeles, and one for San Francisco. I decided to write about Disneyland first.

Growing up, my family never did a Disney trip. When my husband and I planned a trip to California, I made it clear that I wanted to go to Disneyland. My husband and I stayed in downtown LA, so we planned on taking the Amtrak train from LA to Anaheim. It was so slick. The Anaheim Union Station was only ten minutes from the park. We arrived at Disneyland around 8:15 AM to wait in line.

The first thing I noticed entering the park was the spooky decorations. I was in love with all the pumpkin Disney characters that lined the park. Any Halloween enthusiast like myself would love the park during this time. My husband and I ended up taking various selfies of the pumpkin characters as we didn’t want to wait in line for a professional photographer to take our picture. As we entered the park, we sprinted for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as we wanted to do this first before it became busy.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge was mesmerizing. Immediately upon entering the park, I ran to Kylo Ren’s TIE Echelon ship and forced my husband to take my picture. The ship looked like it came out of the movie and was on display at the park. After staring at Kylo’s ship, we meandered to the life-size Millennium Falcon. To no one’s surprise, I ran over to this ship and again politely asked my husband to take my picture. The Millennium Falcon ride was epic. We were with a family of four who fought over who got to pilot the ship, so my husband and I took the less coveted positions of engineer. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into making a realistic Star Wars theme park, and it shows.

As I walked around Disneyland, I was debating what I wanted to purchase as a souvenir. I had way too many t-shirts, and I wanted something that I could look at to reflect on my trip. I ended up settling on pins. At the Disneyland souvenir shops, they sell lanyards with collectible pins. Pin trading is a big deal where you can trade pins with people at the park. I liked the concept of this because I could hang my lanyard on the same hook as my other convention badges. I already had a special place in my head as to where this would go, so I knew this was what I wanted to purchase. I purchased pins that represented a movie or franchise that held a special place in my heart. This included pins from Hercules, Monsters Inc., Belle, Star Wars, and Inside Out. Since getting home from our trip, the lanyard is exactly where I wanted to place it. I can look upon it and reflect on my time at Disneyland.

Once 1:00 PM hit, we were able to park hop over to the Disneyland California Adventure park. This park features the brand new Avengers Campus. One of my husband’s biggest complaints was not being able to buy a beer. However, once we entered Disneyland California Adventure, we were able to purchase cocktails at Pym Test Kitchen. My husband was happy. Avengers Campus was fun! We didn’t ride any of the rides as the Guardians of the Galaxy ride was one of the drop rides, and I’m not a fan of heights. We did get to see a brief show of Spider-Man climbing the buildings. I think Avenger’s Campus has a lot of potential to grow into something bigger than it is right now.

While Avengers Campus was neat, I did like Pixar Pier. Pixar Pier, as it sounds, is where most of the Pixar-themed rides are. The ride I see most often on social media is Toy Story Mania!, where you sit in carts and shoot things. This was one of the longer waits we had for a ride; however, it was worth it. Of course, my husband scored more points than me. I blame this on his experience playing first-person shooters. Once we hit Pixar Pier, my husband and I were exhausted, and soon after we ate, and left the park.

Disneyland was everything I hoped for it to be. It was seeing my childhood coming to life, along with reminiscing on various Disney or Pixar movies that meant a lot to me when I was younger. I’m fortunate that after this long pandemic, Disneyland was my first trip, and it was worth the wait.

I wrote a post summarizing general life updates, which included marrying my husband earlier in October. I wanted to include everything wedding-related in this post, versus writing multiple posts. If you’re more of a fan of my geeky content, this might be the post to skip since it’s more of a life update. However, I was able to incorporate some geeky aspects into our wedding.

Saturday was a partly cloudy day with 70-degree weather. Our party arrived at Four Daughters’ Vineyard & Winery at 10 AM. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t on edge for most of the morning. Being a bride, I had gone through in my head what could go wrong. A vendor doesn’t show, a guest arrives who forgot to RSVP, or I forgot to bring something to Four Daughters. As the morning continued, I started to feel at ease. The hair and makeup artists I picked did a great job. I went with PrimpedMN, who specializes in on-site hair and makeup services. All my bridesmaids looked stunning. As we were getting ready, we played music in the getting-ready area while the hair and makeup team worked. The hair and makeup artist was dancing along and talking with us, which helped create the fun getting-ready environment.

Besides the hair and makeup team, our floral arrangements were fantastic. Fox and Fern Floral made all of our floral arrangements. All the flowers were locally grown. My husband and I aren’t huge flower people, so we didn’t have strong opinions as to what floral arrangements we wanted. There was a floral arrangement on our arch that was so beautiful and helped create the wedding I was dreaming of. All the wedding bouquets were beautifully arranged. My bouquet was huge! It got heavy carrying it after a while. Our florist did a great job.

As the morning ticked by, it was time to get ready for the ceremony! I put on my dress and it fit perfectly. Our ceremony began at 3 PM and because the weather was nice, we set up in the middle of the vineyard. As I reminisce on this part of the day, I think about how it was a blur. I remember lining up with my brother as he was the one to walk me down the aisle. We waited for our special song and then we started to walk.

Our ceremony was about fifteen minutes long. As my husband and I planned our script, we knew we didn’t want to stand in front of everyone for a long time. I have been a guest at weddings where the ceremony was thirty minutes or longer. I remember feeling impatient. I didn’t want my guests to feel this way, plus short and to the point can be just as special as a longer ceremony. There was a brief hiccup in the ceremony regarding poem readings, but once we got through that, everything was smooth. My husband and I kissed, signed the paperwork, and walked down the aisle hand in hand, ready to begin our lives together.

After the ceremony, we hosted a cocktail hour for our guests while we took pictures. It’s nice because Four Daughters has these garage doors that open out, which allowed us to set up yard games, and guests could wander the vineyard during cocktail hour. Once we finished the pictures, it was time for the grand entrance. My husband and I were adamant about doing the grand entrance. With some convincing, I was able to get my husband to agree to march into the dining hall with the Doctor Who theme song. When my husband and I first started dating, Doctor Who was the first show we watched together, so it has a special place in my heart. Once we sat down, dinner began.

The other highlight of our meal choices was the dessert! We went with Nothing Bundt Cakes. I wanted cupcakes versus a wedding cake because I thought they were small and cute. We had several flavors, including pumpkin, red velvet, vanilla, and chocolate. They were a hit. Everyone I talked to said the cupcakes were decadent. Cupcakes were the perfect choice in my book because we ordered enough that our guests could try multiple flavors. Plus, we had a few kids at our wedding who would probably eat more than one.

Dancing began at 7 – 7:30 PM-ish after my husband and I had our first dance. We danced to Everything I Need by Skylar Grey. My husband picked this song from the Aquaman movie with Jason Momoa, which I felt was fitting for us since we are big DC fans. The song was beautiful, and our DJ did a great job at setting the tone. We went with Ever After Entertainment for our wedding. Brent was our DJ, and he did a great job. Once our first dance was done, Brent continued the energy all night long. He made our night extra special and took us into account when picking songs.

Throughout the night, we had a photo booth for guests to take pictures. We even had late-night pizza prepared for the guests who stayed with us all night. Finally, the garage doors stayed open into the night, so guests could cool off in between dancing. Once midnight hit, it was time to pack up and end the night. I remember going to sleep at 1:30 AM and having the best night of sleep in a long time.

My wedding was everything I wanted it to be. It was special for us, and I’m glad our most important guests were able to attend. My husband and I have been together for seven years, and now we have started to celebrate our forever. I became a Bodmer on October 2nd, 2021, and I’m so glad I did.

It’s been a hot minute since I last wrote a post. I’m glad to be back, as I don’t foresee any barriers to writing regularly again. I enjoyed my break and not feeling bound to pre-writing posts every week. I wanted to share a couple of life updates now that I have had time to unwind.

Wedding Bliss

On Saturday, October 2nd, 2021, I married the love of my life at Four Daughters Winery in Spring Valley, MN. My now husband proposed on May 4th, 2019, which was both Star Wars Day & Free Comic Book Day. During the wedding planning process, we decided to get married in 2021, which allowed us to be stress-free during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding. It was partly cloudy, Fall colors were showing, and we were able to get married outside in the middle of the vineyard. My husband is my life partner, and I’m thrilled to make it official.

Visiting Disneyland

My husband and I are planning a huge honeymoon trip to Europe next year. We wanted to wait to ensure that we wouldn’t have to quarantine for two weeks. I still wanted to go on a trip to celebrate our marriage. We planned to fly into LA, stay a few days in San Francisco, and I wanted to spend at least one day in Disneyland. This will be my first trip to Disneyland; however, my husband has been to Disney World before. I’m planning to spend extra time at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, along with visiting the newly opened Avengers Campus. I have also heard Disneyland during Halloween is all decked out with pumpkins this time of year. As someone who is a big fan of Halloween, I’m looking forward to seeing a Spooky version of Disneyland.

Back to Reality

I’m relieved to be done with wedding planning. Both my husband and I have spent long hours crafting the perfect wedding, so it’s a nice feeling to be done. I have been spending my time catching up on Critical Role, reading spooky books, and playing video games. I’m looking forward to Critical Role‘s third campaign premiering towards the end of October, although I’m not halfway through their first campaign. I’m currently reading The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, and I’m into it. It’s been nice to focus on my interests and happiness versus the wedding.

I’m excited to be back writing regular posts again! I have missed spending the time writing posts, and I look forward to catching up on what I have missed.

Last weekend, my fiancé and I drove to Green Bay, WI, for a wedding. Green Bay is in the Northeast part of Wisconsin, and it’s somewhere I had never been to before. With my fiancé’s family living in Wisconsin, they are all big Green Bay Packers fans. The Green Bay Packers play at Lambeau Field, which is a pretty historic Football stadium. My fiancé and I decided to schedule a tour of Lambeau before attending the wedding. For someone who isn’t a major Football fan, the tour was pretty interesting.

The stadium was HUGE. Our tour guide said Lambeau was the fifth-largest Football field. Before stepping on the field, there were several pieces of artwork displayed. This included a piece of art depicting the “Ice Bowl.” The Ice Bowl was a Packers game in which the wind chill was low, and players were freezing as they watched the game. Lambeau is an outdoor field that has its benefits and drawbacks, including the potential for snow. Another piece of artwork featured bicycle wheels. It’s a tradition that Packer players, when starting training camp, ride on children’s bicycles. This has been a famous tradition due to kids biking to see the Packer players train during the off-season. There’s a lot of history tied to the Packers that I wasn’t aware of. It made touring Lambeau feel more like a museum than a sports stadium.

During the tour, we could walk around the field to at least see what it looks like from the player’s perspective. I think this was my favorite part of the tour. My fiancé and I lucked out because we had great weather on the day we toured. It led to some cute pictures of us that the tour guide took.

I wouldn’t classify myself as a Football fan, yet I thoroughly enjoyed the Lambeau Field tour. It was something fun to do while we waited for the wedding to start, and it was great exercise walking around the stadium. I may never be a fully devoted Packers fan, but I can at least respect the history of the team.

For Planet Comicon, I set a budget. I knew if I didn’t set a budget for myself, I would overspend. Before the convention, I pulled out $100 in cash and told myself that I would only spend this much unless I saw anything I had to have. While roaming around the con, I made notes on anything I wanted to revisit. This allowed me to stick to my budget and purchase merch I was satisfied with. I wanted to share my haul from the con.

Plume by K. Lynn Smith Volume #1

This was my first purchase of the con. I’m a big fan of K. Lynn Smith and her work in comics. I helped back For Goodness Sake on Kickstarter, which is a series I adored. Smith is mostly recognized for her webcomic, Plume, which exploded in popularity. At Smith’s booth, she had the omnibus of Plume along with each printed volume. I decided to purchase the first volume to see if Plume is a series I would be interested in.

Unstable Unicorns & Llamas Unleashed

My final purchase was at TeeTurtle’s booth. I had been eyeing purchasing my copy of Unstable Unicorns after playing it at a game night with friends. Unstable Unicorns is a game that’s perfect to bring to a brewery because it doesn’t take up much space and it’s easy to teach to friends. I bought the NSFW edition. Along with Unstable Unicorns, I also bought Llamas Unleashed. I have no idea what the game is about. I saw it and wanted it because who doesn’t want a game featuring Llamas?

Attending Planet Comicon meant a lot to me. In addition to being able to go to a con post-2020, it was nice to be able to support smaller businesses and creators.

Last weekend, I drove to Kansas City, MO, to attend Planet Comicon. This was my first convention since COVID. Before the pandemic, I attended C2E2 in February, right before lockdown began. This trip was spontaneous as I only planned it a couple of weeks prior. While I understand the pandemic isn’t over, I felt this was worth the risk. I was vaccinated, wore a mask the entire time, and tried to limit the time I was near people. I felt Planet Comicon did the best they could, and I was grateful that this con was able to run. If there’s anything I missed in 2020, it was conventions.

Planet Comicon required masks. I didn’t see anyone take off their mask or wear it down to their chin. It seemed everyone took the mask requirement seriously. The only other improvement I could see was that Planet Comicon could have required vaccinations. I brought my vaccination card in case someone wanted to see it. Getting vaccinated is the best way to protect everyone, including the immunocompromised. I know Lollapalooza required vaccinations or a negative COVID-19 test, and I wish PlanetComicon did this too.

My favorite part of Planet Comicon was the photo ops! There was a display of Predator, a LEGO Baby Yoda, and the Ghostbusters were there with the Ecto-1. There were cars from Supernatural; however, I had to pay extra for that, and I’m not a big fan of the show. I had a fun time running around and taking endless masked selfies. I will say, I found myself taking fewer pictures of cosplayers. I think the pandemic had something to do with that. With the masks, it’s more difficult to go to someone or get their attention. I had more than enough fun hanging out by myself and doing what I wanted to do.

I would say the only disappointment was the lack of panels. I like attending panels because they allow me to sit down and relax. I walked 17,500 steps on Friday! I did sit in on the Star Wars Costuming panel about putting together Star Wars cosplays, but nothing else in the programming caught my eye. After spending my cash, I ended up leaving early because I didn’t see anything else worth staying for.

Reflecting on Planet Comicon, I’m thrilled that this was able to happen. I felt hopeful for the future of conventions. I felt so happy waiting in line and walking around the show floor. Conventions are my happy place, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.