Two weeks ago I took a solo road trip to Colorado driving approximately fourteen hours one way. Colorado was beautiful with the Rocky Mountains extending throughout most of the state. I have seen the Appalachians in Georgia, but the Rockies are extraordinary. I wanted to share more about my trip.

One of my childhood friends recently moved out to Federal Heights which is halfway between Denver and Boulder. As soon as I found out about his recent move, I knew I wanted to go and see him. I left on a Wednesday and made stops in Sioux Falls and Mitchell, South Dakota. Sioux Falls has Falls Park, which is rather pretty. In Mitchell, South Dakota, there’s the Corn Palace. The Corn Palace is a gigantic castle with a history of corn inside. It’s very midwestern which is part of the reason I stopped there. It’s corny, (see what I did there) but I had a fun time exploring the castle. Eventually, I reached Denver by 9:30 PM. I stayed in Colorado for three full days before heading back to Minneapolis on Sunday.

While in Colorado, we did a lot of hiking. I’m surprised at how much the altitude impacted me. I consider myself mostly in shape, but I found I was out of breath faster. The hike was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be. I wish while I was in Colorado I drank more water. I had a tension headache throughout most of the trip which was probably due to dehydration and lack of oxygen. Despite the headache, the hike was breathtaking (I have got to stop with these puns).

The last hike we did was the Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is located in Colorado Springs which is two hours south of Denver. Unlike the first hike in the Rockies, these rocks are bright red in color. This hike was less difficult than the one in the Rockies, but again with a mounting tension headache, I started to lose steam towards the end.

Towards the end of my three days, I didn’t want to leave. I had friends from college who had moved to Colorado as soon as they graduated. I can see why. My friend said I’m welcome back anytime and I might take him up on that except I wouldn’t do the drive again. Colorado was one of my favorite trips I have ever taken and I can’t wait to go back.

As a side note, Colorado is a geeky place. My friend took me to numerous amount of game stores, comic shops, etc. My favorite game store I went to was in Boulder titled Gamer’s Guild. We were able to sit down with the owner and his cute puppy. We even did a Throne of Eldraine draft on Friday night. I didn’t do so well in the draft, but it was still fun to experience the geeky culture in Colorado.

My favorite way to shop is to go to an independent or small business. It’s the best way to get to know people in the community, while also being able to use my limited disposable income to show which businesses I want to support. One of my favorite businesses to support is Cream & Amber which recently opened in Hopkins. I went to the launch with my friend and her husband where we were able to have a pint and chit chat.

It’s really convenient for me to order books. There’s an email form on their website if you want specific books ordered. They take care of the rest and send you an email when you can pick them up. I’m sure they would ship the order to you, but I like being able to stop in and have a coffee to take with me. I follow Cream and Amber on Instagram and they post good deals on used books.

Cream and Amber is not only a small business, but it’s owned by women! It’s not a requirement for me to support businesses owned by women, but it certainly is a plus. It’s also LGBTQIA+ friendly as well. Cream and Amber also has a book club, but I haven’t been following it enough to know what their October book is.

Cream and Amber is a book store I can’t recommend enough. Their customer service is fantastic and they make buying books easy. If I wasn’t going to Colorado this week, you better believe I would be sending them an email of all the books I need.

In two and a half weeks, I will be taking a road trip to see a friend in Colorado. The exciting part is viewing autumn colors, but also seeing a new state. Colorado has been a bucket list trip because of the scenery and the hiking trails. I have known college friends who have moved out to Colorado and don’t have anything negative to say. If anyone has ever been to Colorado and have suggestions for me of places to see, please comment below. 

With this trip, I have actively chosen to drive versus fly. The drive time will be thirteen hours one way. For some, this would be dreadful, but for me, I enjoy driving. I put on my favorite podcast and I have control of making stops along the way. It will be an achievement to say that I drove twenty six hours all by myself. I will say if I do make a return trip to Colorado, I will fly, but because I have never been, I want to drive the distance.

The current trip itinerary includes:

• Boulder, Colorado
• Casa Bonita from South Park
• Rocky Mountain National Park

In between my trip, I have been checking out Atlas Obscura for unique things to do while I’m in Colorado. I would love geeky ideas including escape rooms, comic book stores etc. while I’m there. 

This will be my last trip of 2019. This will allow me to save for future traveling in 2020. I’m counting down the days until I see the Rockies in person.

This past weekend, I attended Gen Con for the first time. Gen Con is a four-day gaming convention located in downtown Indianapolis. This convention encompasses several facets of gaming including board games, PC gaming, trading card games, RPGs, LARP (Live Action Role Play), and more. Detailing my experience attending Gen Con is difficult. It’s challenging to put into words how much this convention meant to me as a gaming geek. For those who are looking to attend Gen Con, I would highly recommend it. 

My journey to Gen Con started in February of this year. I applied for a press badge on a whim because why not? I was approved for a press badge for C2E2 in Chicago, so why not try it for Gen Con. My press badge was approved within a couple of weeks. Within a month before the convention, my email was flooded with board game developers wanting to set up a time for demos and interviews. I settled on two demos with Goliath Games and Games by Bicycle. To prevent this post from being incredibly long, I will write a separate post on the games I did “demo” from both developers.

After realizing I was going to Gen Con, I recruited my brother to come with me. I was already planning on driving to Indianapolis, but I didn’t want to go alone. Having my brother with me throughout the drive made it more bearable. We listened to NADDPOD as we drove to get hyped up for the convention.

Me and my brother chose to stay in an Air BnB versus a hotel downtown. Part of this decision resulted because I couldn’t find any hotel on Gen Con’s website with a room available. As soon as passes go on sale in January, hotel rooms are reserved. By the time I was looking for a room, I was coming up with nothing. Our Air BnB was about 25-30 minutes away from Downtown Indianapolis. One of my regrets was not staying right in the heart of downtown. I wanted the full Gen Con experience, but I felt that was stunted because we knew we needed to take a Lyft. We also had to bring almost everything we needed for the day because we didn’t have anywhere to store our stuff. This didn’t take away from the convention, but it made me realize what I want to do for next year.

When I first approached the Indianapolis Convention Center on Thursday, I was in awe of how big the vendor hall is. There are 30 ROWS OF VENDORS. 30 ROWS!? I was overwhelmed. How could I look at all the games where there are that many developers who appear at Gen Con? It wasn’t until after the third day of attending that I felt I had seen every vendor. I brought $300 of spending cash with me and even though it was enough for me, I could have easily saved more.

As far as the gaming, it’s extremely organized. On Gen Con’s website, I signed up for a couple game demos before the convention began. However, I discovered I could also buy generic gaming tickets if I found a game I wanted to demo, but didn’t have it in my schedule. I demoed an intergalactic strategy game, Lander which doesn’t launch on Kickstarter until March of 2020. I will write a separate post about game testing Lander. I plan on “kicking” the game once it launches because I enjoy the strategy of what the game has to offer.

Another reason I loved Gen Con was I felt I was at the center of board game news. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I played Lander which hasn’t even been released yet. It felt like I was getting a “sneak peek” of a game that hadn’t launched.

To end my post, I wanted to sum up the turnout of Gen Con 2019. Gen Con had a record-breaking year with 70,000 attendees. There were 19,600 ticketed gaming events, over 2,000 of these tickets were electronic tickets found on the Gen Con app. Finally, Gen Con took measures to cut down on waste that the convention produces. For their efforts, they prevented 24,000 cups from ending up in Indiana’s landfills.

Gen Con was a life-changing experience for me. I never felt more proud to be a gamer and to be in a place where I fit in. This convention is one I hope to attend again in 2020. Hopefully, I will see some of you there.

This was a tiring work week. I was working extremely long days which led to me coming home and passing out on my couch. The break from writing was much needed. I wanted to recap my sixth CONvergence. This year was different because CONvergence moved hotels from the DoubleTree in Bloomington to the Downtown Minneapolis Hyatt. This CONvergence was one of my favorite years I attended due to the change in the hotel.

The Downtown Minneapolis Hyatt Hotel was a perfect location for CONvergence. Since the hotel is located in the heart of Minneapolis, it’s easier to drive to. I ended up staying with a friend who lives slightly south of the cities, but we ended up taking an Uber each way which was convenient. It’s freeing to not have to worry about the status of my vehicle and whether or not I’m parked in an illegal space. This was the first CONvergence where I didn’t have my car on site and it was worth it.

One of the highlights of CONvergence besides the hotel was the accessibility to the gaming floor. In the DoubleTree hotel, the gaming floor was on the 22nd floor. To play a game, you had to leave the festivities on the main level and wait for an elevator only to get to the 22nd floor with all gaming slots being filled. Instead, this year, there were more empty tables to play games with friends. Additionally, since the gaming room was on the fifth floor, it was easier to play a game here and there while being able to return to the con at any given moment.

Finally, being in Downtown Minneapolis meant there was access to great food. There were many restaurants, breweries, and taverns located within walking distance. We visited the local brewery, Lakes and Legends, quite a few times. I may have been the only one in cosplay at the brewery, but I had no shame.

This CONvergence was one to remember. Severe con depression sank in the Monday I returned to work because of how great my weekend was. CONvergence is always a highlight of my summer and I always count down the days till next year.

This past weekend, I attended CONvergence at the Minneapolis Downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel. This will be my sixth year attending the con, and I always have a fun time hanging out with friends, wandering around in cosplay, and taking lots of pictures. Whenever I attend CONvergence, I try to choose a couple of panels that pique my interest. This is what inspired me to write this post.

My friend’s husband and I sat down for a panel discussion about antagonists we sympathize with in pop culture. The white panelists dived into discussing Killmonger from Black Panther which led to a discussion about race. It’s not that white people can’t talk about race, but it looks bad especially when there are no POCs (people of color) on the panel. A couple of audience members chimed in and their points were thought-provoking. The fact is being white eliminates us from understanding racial bias since it’s something we don’t experience. This racial bias contributes to Killmonger’s story. Diversity among panelists would have avoided this issue entirely.

Besides the discussion of race, there was another instance in the panel that left me feeling irritated. A female panelist was discussing a book series she liked, but had given a content warning for the sexual assault in the book. The discussion went as follows:

Female Panelist: This is a book series I really enjoy and the female villain is put through tremendous trauma, so I’d like to give a content warning regarding sexual assault to any female audience members.

Male Moderator: I didn’t think the book was that bad.

What rubbed me the wrong way was it felt dismissive of her experience. Sexual assault is a topic I am sensitive to, so I appreciate content warnings ahead of time. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to this panelist because he did seem to backtrack after she made a response back to him.

Overall I had a great experience at CONvergence, but this panel left a bad taste in my mouth. If you happen to be on a panel where the panelists are one-dimensional, I would involve more audience participation to retain an adequate discussion. Let me know in the comments section if you have ever had an experience like this with attending a panel at a convention, I’d like to hear about it.

This August I will be attending Gen Con for the first time with a press badge! Instead of attending under Bizarre Brunette, I will attend on behalf of Twin Cities Geek. As a board game and DnD player, I cannot wait for Gen Con. I have already started putting money aside to spend at the con because I want to purchase all the board games. This will be the first road trip me and my brother take together because I invited him to attend Gen Con this year. I’m already counting down the days until Gen Con begins.

The road to attending Gen Con began in January 2019. I have a friend from college who used to own a game store. He has been attending every Gen Con for years. I had always wanted to go, but being in college made that difficult to afford. He reached out inquiring about whether I would want to go this year. For shits and giggles, I decided to fill out a press badge with the full intention of paying full price for a badge in case it didn’t work. In February, I received confirmation from Gen Con that I would be receiving a press badge. I was elated and began to research where me and my brother would stay for the convention.

Speaking of hotels, I started looking too late for a hotel room. Hotel rooms usually sell out when Gen Con badges go on sale in January. Virtually every hotel I had checked was full. This is where I decided to look for an Airbnb. I found an affordable Airbnb northeast of downtown Indianapolis. I’m slightly worried that it’s too far from the convention center, but that’s what Uber is for. My lesson was learned if I want to attend Gen Con and have a hotel downtown, I need to book it early.

Last month, the event lists were released. These include various DnD campaigns, MTG 2020 Core Drafts, and a group fitness class titled Buff Barbarian. You better believe I signed up for the Buff Barbarian class. Besides the Buff Barbarian, I also put down a couple DnD campaigns. However, when I clicked to register for events, I was 6,119 in the queue line. 6119!!!!! It was safe to say I didn’t get many of the events I pre-registered for. I also didn’t realize events were paid. Each event costs anywhere between $2-12 dollars. I wonder if that’s to pay for the DM hosting the event? I’m not quite sure. This limited the events I wanted to do because of the cost per event.

As far as cosplays, I haven’t quite established which cosplays I will bring. I’m my Viking Wonder Woman-inspired cosplay and my Harry Potter Gryffindor student cosplay. I’m not sure how many people cosplay at Gen Con or if it’s more of a gaming convention meaning fewer people cosplay. No matter what I will wear a cosplay because cosplaying is fun.

I cannot believe I’m attending Gen Con as press this year. This is an amazing achievement for me and I hope to spread the word about Bizarre Brunette while I’m there. If you’re going to Gen Con as well, I’d love to meet up! Let me know in the comments below.

June is one of my favorite months out of the whole year. It’s the start of summer, but it’s also Pride month. I’m technically not a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, but I want to show my support in any way that I can. I wanted to share what I’m doing this month

Not Spending Money on Rainbow Stuff

It’s not that buying rainbow-themed stuff is bad, but buying rainbow clothes doesn’t necessarily go back to the LGBTQIA+ community. Some retailers are donating certain proceeds to various organizations. I did a quick Google search and found this article on Mic which lists various companies who are giving back to the LGBTQIA+ community. Please spend money on this merchandise versus the random rainbow stuff corporations are selling.

Supporting through charities or through purchasing art or books from LGBTQIA+ authors

To start off, I wanted to share a Kickstarter I recently backed by an LGBTQIA+ artist. The Prometheite is a lesbian retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in a graphic novel format. The Prometheite was created by Ari Mulch. Frankenstein is one of my all-time favorite books in Gothic Literature, so when I stumbled upon this Kickstarter, I knew immediately I had to back it. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, here’s the link to their campaign. Ari can be found on Twitter or through their website.

As far as charities go, I personally like the Trevor Project. The Trevor Project focuses on helping LBTQIA+ youth under the age of 25. It provides access to suicide prevention hotlines and community resources for those who need it.

Encouraging Corporations to Support LGBTQIA+ All Year Round Instead of in June Only.

Victoria’s Secret is in hot water because of recent comments made about supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s great to pledge support, but this is also the same company who said they wouldn’t hire trans or plus-size models because it wouldn’t “fit their fantasy.” This is what a lot of corporations will do. They will mean well when they say “Happy Pride.”, but it’s often filled with hypocrisy since that same company probably said something transphobic earlier in the year.

I want to wish you all a safe and happy Pride.

It’s been more than a month since my fiancé popped the question on May the 4th. We haven’t been doing any wedding planning but instead basking in the fact that we are engaged. Our intended goal is to have our wedding sometime in Fall of 2020 and to hopefully budget our wedding, so we aren’t spending thousands of dollars. I have already been thinking a maroon, burgundy and orange color scheme though that’s subject to change. When me and my fiancé visited his parents over Memorial Day, his aunt brought her camera and took some amazing pictures of us. I’m going to share a couple of them because it’s rare that we are both this photogenic all the time.

I was never the girl who had her dream wedding planned with a Pinterest board. Now that I’m actively planning this wedding, I’m discovering I’m more opinionated than I realize. I’m excited to get married, so me and my fiancé will truly be united together.

One bucket list item I haven’t achieved yet is leaving the United States. I have always wanted to travel to Europe, Australia, Japan and more. Travel is a huge passion of mine as I like to experience new places and go on mini adventures. The most difficult part for me to accept is the expense of travel and not being able to financially support the trips I want to do. The reason why I bring this up is I constantly think about how I’m not doing enough meaningful things in my life.

When I reflect on travel, I need to keep a couple things in mind. The first would be that all my trips have been self-funded. I never got money from my family to travel while I was in college. I’m not trying to shame anyone; I’m happy you had that experience, however, I’m proud to say I can travel on my own money. Another thing I have to be thankful for is that I’m here. Every day I hear of another school shooting or violent outburst. Some people haven’t lived for as long as I have. I’m attempting to confront the feelings I have, but also recognize how fortunate I am.

The definition of meaningful is having a serious, important, or useful quality or purpose. Even though I want to travel more, I could argue my life is meaningful now. The impact I have with people I see week to week at my day job or continuing to support my mom by driving her to her dentist appointment. These are all important facets of my life. I’m sure I have an impact on many people I interact with, but I suddenly forget about that when I think of my travel plans.

I wanted to write this personal post because I figured I couldn’t be alone in this. I wanted to say, you’re enough. Every day is a blessing to have you on this planet. I need to remind myself of this as I want to remind my readers now. To anyone who took the time to read this whole post, I thank you. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to express my thoughts or feelings. Hopefully, this post serves as a reminder, but also to say that if this is something you have been feeling too, you’re not alone.