At the end of the year, there are two posts I always write. The first is my “End of Year Book Survey” where I review all the books, comics, manga, and graphic novels I read. The second is my “Pop Culture Year in Review” where I reflect on the shows and movies I watched and highlight fun moments throughout the year. I wanted to add another post to this end-of-year post series. This post will link to some of my favorite posts I wrote this year.

Life Lessons That I Will Take Into My 30s

Life Lessons That I Will Take Into My 30s is pretty self-explanatory. I took time to remember my 20s and what I have learned as I enter a new decade. This post is arguably one of the most vulnerable posts I have ever published. I have grown so much from when I was 20 to being a few months into being 30. I had this post in my drafts for several months and each week I would write a little bit and then move on to something else. It took me at least three months for a rough draft to be written, but it was well worth it. I find myself re-reading this post from time to time and every time, I’m proud of the post and how I have evolved into an even better person than I used to be.

Why I Choose “Pay to Play” for TTRPGs

Why I Choose “Pay to Play” for TTRPGs came out of harassment I received online. I like how I turned something that was initially negative into something positive. On top of that, I think the pay-to-play format is becoming more popular thanks to StartPlaying. I had a few people reach out to me privately asking for more information, so I’m glad my post came off as informative which was my original intent.

Favorite Moments of My 20s

Favorite Moments of My 20s sounds similar to my Life Lessons post, instead, I talked about memories that stood out to me throughout the past decade. I wrote about trips I took or major moments during this time of my life. When I wrote this post, I forgot how many trips I had been on. It’s funny how that works. When I had to pick and choose which trips I would highlight, I had a hard time narrowing down what I would write about. I feel fortunate to have been able to travel so much in my 20s. I want to continue traveling in my 30s, but it will feel different in the best way. I don’t enjoy being gone for more than a week as I find value in my day-to-day routine. I find a lot of joy in traveling for three full days even if it’s a quick trip for a weekend. I wrote about how I purchased my car and graduated from college. In my 30s, I probably won’t have those milestone moments, but I think that’s a part of finding stability in my life which is comforting.

How Natural 1s Furthered Vesper’s Story – Axis Campaign

How Natural 1s Furthered Vesper’s Story had to appear on this list. I don’t write a lot about the D&D campaign I’m in. I like having the privacy of my home game and part of the story isn’t for me to tell since it doesn’t revolve around my character. I would never want to tell a story that isn’t mine. With Vesper though, I was re-reading my notes from our sessions and those campaign moments stood out. It’s funny how they both revolved around rolling a natural one on a dice roll. My goal with this post is to put players at ease who may feel scared about lower rolls. While natural 20s are exciting, natural 1s can add to the story and I can speak from first hand experience as to how that’s the case.

Trying Out Colored Contacts in Cosplay

Trying Out Colored Contacts in Cosplay is another post I wanted to include, but not because of the post itself. It’s more about how I’m proud to have improved how I cosplay. I took a risk and tried something new which can be scary. Putting in contacts was something I was not good at, but the more I did it, the better I got. I would see cosplayers wearing colored contacts and didn’t know how they got started. I had to figure it out on my own to some degree and I’m glad I did. With colored contacts out of the way, maybe it’s time to figure out how to apply body paint.

Undergoing Genetic Testing

Undergoing Genetic Testing is the last post I wanted to promote. Before undergoing Genetic Testing, I didn’t know anyone else who had. I think it’s a topic that’s out of sight out of mind for most couples who are going to become parents. For us, it was a must to have Genetic Testing completed, but I would encourage anyone who is thinking about having children to get tested. I walked through how I started the process which I hope would be helpful to those who were thinking about it.

If you have a moment, I’d love a little extra love on some of these posts. If you haven’t liked or commented on these posts, I’d appreciate the sentiment! I am curious to see what I will write about in 2025.

While driving home from Milwaukee, my husband pointed out a billboard. The billboard was an advertisement for Boards & Bricks, a board game and hobby store in Osseo, Wisconsin. Osseo is outside of Eau Claire on the west side of the state. My husband agreed we should stop there and check it out. When we walked in, the store was massive! There were lots of Magic: The Gathering, Disney Lorcana, and Dungeons & Dragons products each in their specific section. There was a LEGO section and a shelf for puzzles. I bought a few things and I wanted to share what I purchased.

On the counter, there were several stacks of dice. I picked up each set and examined them as some sets had items or animals in the dice. I chose to purchase the coffee bean set. The dice are a pretty brown color with gold specs. Inside the dice are actual coffee beans! I thought these were two cute and I couldn’t resist purchasing them.

LEGO came out with these Dungeons & Dragons surprise sets where you open it and you’re not sure what you will get. I talked about how much I wanted the Strahd one. The store associate helped scan the boxes and chose the box containing Strahd. I’m going to put Strahd on my TTRPG shelf in our bedroom next to Levenia, as she got the final killing blow on Strahd in our game. Next to Strahd, I have four d10s. Vampire: The Masquerade uses d10s and I wanted extra dice in case I need to put some dice in dice jail. I picked out any that looked red or would fit the darker vibe of the game. I will set them aside in a separate dice bag for when I play Vampire.

The final purchase I made was stickers. I like to decorate my TTRPG notebooks with stickers because it personalizes my notes. The two stickers I bought were Sorcerer and Paladin. Those are classes I have played, so I felt a personal connection to them. I’m going to stick them in my notebook before our next session.

Boards & Bricks is a store I would stop in again. It’s nice to have these local spots because it makes the five-hour trip from Minneapolis to Milwaukee much more enjoyable.

Last weekend was Twin Cities Con at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I look forward to Twin Cities Con every year as it always feels like a last hurrah to end convention season. I like how Twin Cities Con is in November and right before the holidays. I volunteered at the Twin Cities Geek booth like I usually do which I always enjoy. It’s great to talk to local geeks and many of the people I talked to said Twin Cities Con was their first con. I wanted to summarize my thoughts about this year’s convention as a whole. This will be broken up into two parts: the first will be my experience at the con and the second part will discuss the logistics of the event.

I had a blast at Twin Cities Con. I was there both Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I was there for two hours and Saturday I was there for 4 1/2 hours. Saturday was the busier day by far. I was shocked at the amount of people waiting in line! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it’s clear Twin Cities Con has grown in the years since they have been putting on the convention. After volunteering at the Twin Cities Geek booth, I wandered the vendor hall. The crowds were there! It felt like I was at C2E2 or Planet Comic Con. As far as the vendors, I saw quite a few artists and a lot of vendors selling TTRPG stuff. There were a few dice vendors and I had to refrain from spending too much money. There seemed to be a good mix of vendors selling a variety of different products.

One of the highlights of my day on Saturday was attending a panel. I went to the “Women in Cosplay” panel on Saturday at 3 PM. The panelists did a phenomenal job at making the panel light hearted. It was equal parts talking and engaging the audience. They took questions on social media, so if anyone felt shy to ask a question directly, they could submit it instead. I liked this a lot. It made the panel more personal than other panels I have been to in the past. I would love to tell you who was on the panel, but on Twin Cities Con’s website, it doesn’t list who the panelists are which is a bummer. I believe the cosplayers were from South Carolina, but that’s about all I can tell you.

I can’t recap Twin Cities Con without talking about the logistics of the event. I have been following several social media posts made on both the Twin Cities Con Fans and the Twin Cities Geek Facebook groups. There were several people who expressed frustration with how Twin Cities Con was organized and I feel it’s necessary to summarize some of this if I’m going to talk about Twin Cities Con effectively. One of the major complaints was with the security line. This year, Twin Cities Con had a security line with metal detectors outside of the Exhibit Hall. Once you pass through the line, you can find the photo ops area, celebrities doing autographs and the vendors tabling there. However, once you leave the Exhibit Hall (let’s say to go to a panel or to play a TTRPG game with Badwolf Adventure Studios), you would have to wait in the security line again.

Why does waiting in a line matter? Depending on what time of day and who you ask, I have heard of people waiting in line for 45 minutes or over an hour. This matters if you were someone who bought an autograph or a photo op with a designated time slot. For a security line, I would expect to wait 20 – 30 minutes, I feel that would be reasonable. It seems that lines for Twin Cities Con were much longer than that. As a side note, since I was an exhibitor / volunteer, I could go through a separate line versus the longer security line, so I didn’t have to wait long. I think this is important to mention because this probably plays into why I had a good time at Twin Cities Con since I didn’t have to wait as long as others.

I do want to take a step back and compare Twin Cities Con with C2E2. C2E2 does have security, but the way C2E2 does it, you go through a separate area that’s right across the aisle from the exhibit hall. Once you’re through security, you have access to everything. The exhibit hall, the food area, alcohol, and the panel rooms. The only reason you would have to leave is if you were done for the day or you wanted to go out to eat at a sit down restaurant. When I have gone to C2E2, I have never had to wait longer than 10 minutes to get through the security line. Seeing how other conventions handle this, I think Twin Cities Con has room for improvement in creating a seamless experience for anyone attending the con.

What’s the solution for something like this? I am not an event planner, so I can’t say how much of this is on Twin Cities Con or how much of this is on the Minneapolis Convention Center. I saw someone suggest moving the entrance to the security line to the front door of the Convention Center. While this isn’t a bad suggestion, this would also have people waiting outside to get in. The weather this year was mild, but November in Minnesota can be a hit or a miss. For cosplayers, it sucks to have to bring cold weather clothing and then carry it around for the entire convention. Another suggestion I saw was putting stickers on badges for those who already went through security, so they could come and go as they please. There is a safety risk for this. Let’s say someone goes through security, then decides to bring in something they shouldn’t. With big guests like Hayden Christensen, there does need to be some way to make sure guests feel safe attending a larger event like this. I am not sure what the solution is for this. I hope Twin Cities Con listens to some of the fans and offers an alternative for next year.

With all that said, I have a few minor critiques for Twin Cities Con. The first is to list who the panelists are on the panels. I’d love to shout out the panelists for the “Women in Cosplay” panel. Another critique is when you go to Twin Cities Con’s website, it lists vertically all the panels and events for each of the days. It’s difficult to read because when you scroll down, it’s not clear which day you’re reading from. I think it would be cool to see a virtual convention book online or even printing a few convention books to have on hand. It would make it a lot easier to plan out my days and what I want to do on what day. These are all pretty minor tweaks versus the security line being called out by many people.

I was not expecting to go into this level of detail over Twin Cities Con, but here we are. As mentioned, I like Twin Cities Con and I will be back next year. I didn’t experience as many of the pain points that other people experienced. I think it’s important to mention that everyone’s opinions and thoughts are valid even if you disagree with them. I think Twin Cities Con could improve on a lot of things, however, I’m glad Twin Cities Con is here. It’s nice to not always have to travel several states away when I want to attend a bigger convention.

By the time this post is live, I may or may not have secured tickets to one of Critical Role’s live shows. I was at work when I heard about Critical Role’s live show announcement and could not be more excited. I told my husband repeatedly that if Critical Role was in the Chicago area or a city nearby, I would make the time to see them. My husband is so sweet and offered to go with me, so I wouldn’t have to go alone. Since I’m a Beacon subscriber, I get early access to purchase tickets. I’m trying not to get overly excited in case I can’t get tickets for their live show.

Another exciting portion of this announcement is their live show in Indianapolis. I quickly confirmed that Critical Role will be in Indianapolis the same weekend as Gen Con. This makes me hopeful that Darrington Press will also be at Gen Con promoting Candela Obscura and Daggerheart. It’s too early to tell if that will be the case, but I missed seeing Darrington Press at Gen Con this year.

No matter what happens, I’m happy to see Critical Role hosting live shows. I went to NADDPOD’s live show a few years ago and it was great to be around fans. TTRPG live shows are a unique experience and I’d love to be a part of the audience at one of these live shows.

Before the pandemic, I used to go to these comic conventions called SpringCon and FallCon. Hosted at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds, they focused heavily on comics and featured local comic creators. I’m not exactly sure why, but this event went through a hiatus in which this convention didn’t happen. I’m not aware of the exact reason, I’m sure the pandemic had something to do with it. I’m happy to say the convention has returned and is trying to gain traction in the Minnesota convention scene. I tabled at FallCon with Twin Cities Geek and hope to see this convention back at the Fair Grounds.

FallCon is a different type of convention than other conventions I have been to. With the heavy focus on comics, this event doesn’t have gaming or a ton of panels. Instead, it’s like an indoor market where vendors are set up. Vendors range from local comic book stores to independent artists, and booths like Twin Cities Geek handing out free stuff. Since that’s the case, I would highly recommend bringing cash to spend. I like walking down the aisles and seeing what I find. I stop and flip through comics in bins or I listen as someone tells me about their comic and why they created it.

I wouldn’t say FallCon has a big cosplay scene, but that doesn’t stop me from cosplaying. I was mulling around what cosplay I wanted to wear and settled on Jessica Jones. I cosplayed as Jessica Jones at Twin Cities Con one year and it’s nice that I have everything in my closet to pull from. I wore a black body suit, faux leather jacket, black gloves, light blue jeans, and black combat boots. I like this cosplay because it’s subtle. For those who aren’t familiar with Jessica Jones, you would think I’m wearing my normal clothes. As I was leaving the convention, someone stopped to take my photo. I wasn’t expecting it as this is a pretty normal cosplay.

Part of the reason I love tabling at conventions is talking with people. All it takes is for someone to walk by our booth, make eye contact, and by me saying hello, they come over to talk to me. I tell them about Twin Cities Geek and what we do. It’s entertaining and it makes the day go by fast. With FallCon, there were fewer people there than I had anticipated there would be. Having fewer people attend means less money is spent on vendors who are paying for a table to be there. I wasn’t there on Saturday, so I hope Saturday was busier. It felt oddly desolate for a convention when in years past, there would be several groups of people walking up and down the aisles.

With that said, I was glad I made it to the convention. It reminds me why I love reading comics and why I am glad to be a part of this part of the geek community.

I don’t go shopping often, however, when I do, I try to thrift or go to a Marshall’s or TJ Maxx. I like saving money and I find enjoyment in finding something on sale. For my birthday, my mom bought me a Marshall’s gift card and it is spooky season, so it was a great time to go shopping. I found a lot of Halloween decorations to add to my growing collection and I figured I’d share them.

Besides the Halloween decorations, I did buy normal things. I bought a new work blouse. It’s a plain black long sleeve except the sleeves are floral and fluttery. I’m doing a terrible job describing it, but it’s flattering and professional. I also bought a long-sleeved black sweater. I wear a lot of black, but I can’t help it, black is a flattering color. I don’t think it’s possible to have too many black sweaters.

Now for the Halloween decorations. The first thing I bought was a decorative throw blanket for our white chair upstairs. Upon first glance, I thought it was a Frankenstein holding a Halloween basket, but oh no. It was avocados which made the blanket ten times better. I’m a stereotypical millennial who loves Avocado toast. This blanket was made for me. I bought two new decorations upstairs. The first one is a snow globe with a skeleton astronaut with a raven on its left shoulder. When you shake the globe, black glitter falls around it. I didn’t realize Halloween snow globes existed, but here we are. I bought another decorative item for the upstairs nightstand. It’s a stack of books labeled potions and curses with a gold spider resting on them. Finally, I bought a new water bottle. It’s a black thermos with a gold snake in the center and gold moons and flowers surrounding it. Having a new water bottle to drink from makes me want to drink more water and I like rotating out my water bottles per the season. It’s the little things that sometimes bring me the most joy.

One of the running jokes I have with our friend group is whether or not I can convince my husband to buy the 12-foot-tall skeleton from Home Depot. I don’t think this will be the year for that, but I am hoping with time, this skeleton will eventually become a haunting presence in our yard.

One of my favorite traditions I have with one of my friends is attending the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We have been going since our college days. As we were reminiscing, we realized we had been going to the Renaissance Festival for ten years. That’s such a long time! There were years I had to miss including the year when me and my husband were planning our wedding and last year because we were in Europe. With that said, I always look forward to our trips to Ren Fest and many more trips in the future.

The last time I went to Ren Fest, me and my friends took a bus which helped immensely! I have addressed this before, but parking at Ren Fest was a nightmare. There were times we had to wait in extremely long lines to park a car. After Ren Fest’s event in 2022, Scott County threatened to pull Ren Fest’s event license if they couldn’t figure out their parking situation. I couldn’t agree more because it was becoming a safety issue. I didn’t go last year, so I wasn’t aware of the changes Ren Fest made to parking. When we were planning our day, she preferred driving versus taking the bus. In recent years, Ren Fest started charging to park a car. Before, parking onsite had been free. I don’t mind paying to park if it means a better experience with more staff to direct us on where to park our vehicles. Paying in advance, I paid $15 which I felt was reasonable. For those who didn’t pre-pay, it was $30 on sight with cash or card. As we approached, I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the festival, showed our pre-paid parking pass, and parked within fifteen minutes. It was a huge improvement compared to other years we went. Additionally, it seems Ren Fest added way more park and rides. The only caveat is that most of the park and rides were in the south half of the metro. I’d love to see more park and rides in the northern or western suburbs because that would also help with decreasing car traffic.

While every Ren Fest trip is fun, this year felt extra special. This was the first year that both me and my friend dressed up. I have dressed up in the past and my friend always mentioned how she wanted to, but it didn’t work out. She made it a priority this year and her whole blue outfit was beautiful. She clearly had a fun time with it and it was great to see her having a blast. Her boyfriend took pictures of us which we would have forgotten about had he not said anything. I think we both agreed that dressing for Ren Fest is something we are going to commit to in years to come.

For my outfit, I went for a green, druidic look. I ordered this green dress as a backup to my Keyleth cosplay. I rummaged through my costume accessories and pulled out this black, faux leather belt I use in my Kylo Ren cosplay which cinched the look together. Finally, I had an autumn leaves and butterflies headband that I also ordered for my Keyleth cosplay and didn’t need. It all came together and I already had all the pieces in my closet. It helps to be a cosplayer sometimes!

Since we have gone so often, we have a few staples or things we have to do while we are there. For the most part, we don’t see any shows. Instead, we wander around the fairgrounds and do a bit of shopping. I tend to purchase new earrings, lotions, or perfumes whenever I go. This year, I stuck to a budget and I didn’t buy anything except for food. Every year, the food I eat varies except for the Apple Cider Float. The Apple Cider Float is so good. It’s Apple Cider and I always get Cinnamon Ice Cream versus Vanilla Ice Cream. It’s the quintessential fall beverage. It’s become such a classic thing for us that my friend’s boyfriend reminded us that we had to get it before we left. He kept us on track, that’s for sure.

This was a Ren Fest trip for the books. I think both me and my friend will put more of an emphasis on dressing up as something every year. As a cosplayer, I always like having an excuse to create a new costume. Here’s to ten more years of Renaissance Festival trips.

My husband and I have been having many serious conversations about having kids. Choosing to become a parent is a big decision and one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. In these ongoing conversations, my husband and I decided to undergo Genetic Testing. One of the main reasons I wanted to write about this is because I haven’t seen other people discuss this. I know Genetic Testing exists, but most of the time when I hear couples announcing their pregnancy, they skip over the decisions they made prior. If one person reads this and finds it helps them or even if someone does not want kids at all, but finds this interesting, then I think making this well known is worth it.

My husband is the main reason why we chose to get our genes tested. My husband’s aunt on his dad’s side died of Cystic Fibrosis before he was born. For those unfamiliar, Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a genetically inherited disease meaning it’s not a disease that can be spread like the flu. CF impacts the amount of mucus the body generates. The mucus is thicker, blocking various passages, and can damage organs. There is no cure for CF and while treatments have steadily gotten better over time, some individuals with CF can have mild symptoms while others have severe symptoms.

My husband wanted a formal confirmation through gene testing if he was a carrier for CF. The first step was to contact a genetic counselor. They asked my husband a series of questions to determine the risk level and if genetic testing was needed. Based on little information my husband had about his family history, they ordered a genetic test to be delivered. To get genetic testing, you can either go into a medical facility and get blood drawn or they use an at-home testing kit. My husband chose the latter. His results took about 2 – 4 weeks. We found out my husband was indeed a carrier for CF.

It’s not surprising that my husband was a carrier for CF. However, it meant I now had to undergo genetic testing as well. I contacted the same genetic counselor who walked me through the process. She said they would test 613 of my genes. With my genetic test, they would be testing more of my genes than my husband’s because if we were to have a boy, I would pass everything on my X chromosome to my son. I was sent the same test and repeated the process. Now all we could do was wait.

Before I reveal my results, I wanted to share what would happen if I was or was not a carrier. If I were a carrier, this would mean that we would have a 25% chance of passing CF to our children. If I was not a carrier, we would have no chance. For someone to be positively diagnosed with CF, they need the carrier gene from mom and the carrier gene from dad. If I don’t have the gene, then our kid may be a carrier, like my husband, but would not have CF. I received my results shortly after Labor Day and am NOT a CF carrier. I let out a sigh of relief. There is nothing wrong with being a carrier, my husband is and he is a healthy person. CF will not be a reality for our kids and it’s one less thing for us to worry about.

There is a cost associated with getting genetic testing done. I hate when people discuss medical care and don’t share the cost. Each test (before insurance) costs $19,000. $19,000!?!?!?!?!?!?? That’s wild. After insurance, my husband (who has way better health insurance than I do) would pay $200 while I would be looking at anywhere between $500 – $600. I can use my HSA (Health Savings Account) to pay for the cost of genetic testing which helps make it more affordable.

I wish more people would be more open about genetic testing and the decisions that they make before having kids. Having kids is a big decision and with the power of the internet, having more resources available makes it easier to make the best decision for you. I want to be clear, not having kids is valid and I will defend anyone’s right to choose not to have children. Getting genetic testing is something I’m so glad I was able to do and it provides more reassurance if and when we decide to have kids.