I can’t believe we are almost halfway through 2023! This year has flown by it seems. I find that April is the last month where I’m the least busy as May usually starts to ramp up with activities leading into Summer. May is going to be a busy month for me and I wanted to share what I have going on throughout the month!

Free Comic Book Day – Saturday, May 6th

Free Comic Book Day is always the first Saturday in May. I tend to have a plan on which comic book stores I want to visit throughout the day. This year is a little different since I’m based in the South Metro in the Twin Cities which means the stores that I have visited in the past, I may not visit this year. For Free Comic Book Day, I never look for anything specific. I like to show up to each store and browse their selection. Last year, I ended up purchasing almost the entire run of Poe Dameron along with some other back issues. I’m looking forward to finding new comics to read!

Besides Free Comic Book Day, there’s a comic meet-up at Gambit Brewery in Saint Paul. One of the Facebook groups that I’m a part of, Minnesota Comic Exchange, has meet-ups occasionally. I went to one last month and I had a blast! I went even though I didn’t know anyone and I ended up staying for 2-3 hours talking to people. Saturday will be a jam-packed day.

Duluth / Up North Trip

For my husband’s birthday, he wanted to take a trip up to Duluth with friends. Duluth is two hours from the Cities and it’s a beautiful city. It’s right on Lake Superior. It feels like a New England / Coastal town in the Midwest. I have been to Duluth several times and my husband loves the beauty of the North Shore. Duluth is always a fun place to visit.

Winnipeg? Toronto – Trip

This is going to sound weird, but I have never been to Canada. It’s a funny thing to say since Minnesota is on the border of Canada. I wanted to visit Canada this year as it felt like something to cross off my travel bucket list. I suggested Winnipeg because it’s one of the closest Canadian cities to drive to from where we are. My husband suggested Toronto as it would be a quick flight. I’m not sure which city we will decide on, but both are good quick trip options.

If all of that wasn’t enough, I’m still doing my May the 4th Star Wars challenge. May will be a busy month and I’m ready for it.

A few weeks ago, I drove to Chicago to visit one of my good friends along with attending C2E2. Attending C2E2 is always a highlight of my year. It’s one of my all-time favorite out-of-state conventions that I go to. I always go on Friday only, so I can spend Saturday with my friend and her husband before driving home on Sunday. I wanted to share a convention/weekend recap as this was definitely a highlight of my year.

On Friday, I woke up fairly early to work and get ready for the day. For Planet Comic Con, I cosplayed as Harley Quinn. For C2E2, I rented a cosplay from my usual go-to, Royal Fashions Costume Emporium. The cosplay that I picked to rent and ultimately wear was Buttercup from The Princess Bride. The cosplay was straightforward; the red long dress, the brown belt, and the long flowing blonde wig. This wig was much more comfortable to wear versus the Harley Quinn wig I wore a few weeks ago. The cosplay was easy to put on and was comfortable to wear all day.

Since C2E2 is located in downtown Chicago, I never drive. I always take the Blue Line to get there. It does take an hour and a half to get there, but it’s so worth it. It makes for a stress-free commute as I typically bring a book with me to read while on the train. As I walked into the convention center, I felt at ease. There’s a certain energy that C2E2 has that other conventions do not. There’s a huge C2E2 banner that’s right at the entrance which feels welcoming. Towards the entrance to the show floor, there’s a DJ playing songs with nerdy soundtracks mixed in. It’s so high energy and I love it. It makes me excited to be there.

Another fun part about C2E2 is the photo opportunities. It’s a tradition for me to take a picture in front of the big C2E2 sign. I make a point to do it every year and it’s usually the first thing that I do when I get there. There are also various other signs, movie props, etc. that make for great photos. After wandering the show floor, going to a panel, and buying some comics, I was ready to head back home.

On Saturday, I had my cups of coffee to start the day. Me and my friend ended up spending hours talking which was honestly needed. I don’t get to see her that often meaning there’s so much to catch up on. Traveling for these weekend trips can be exhausting with all the driving, so it’s nice to have some time to relax. We ended up getting dinner and having a few drinks before heading back to her house.

I’m happy to be back home after a fun weekend away. C2E2 is always a fun convention to attend, and I’m already looking forward to C2E2 in 2024.

Living in Minnesota, it helps to play a winter sport. I’m a figure skater primarily, my friend’s husband recently got into cross-country skiing. Winters in Minnesota can be brutal, so finding a way to enjoy them certainly helps. Occasionally, my team at work schedules team outings to help create a collaborative environment amongst our bigger team. The most recent outing was a trip to the Saint Paul Curling Club. I can’t say that I have been curling before, so I was intrigued as to how this was going to go. I was horrible at curling and I can confirm this isn’t a secret talent I have. Although, I would try curling again in the future as it was a fun way to pass the time.

While I have seen Curling at the Olympics, I barely knew much about the sport. In Curling, there are four roles on a team. The first role is the lead. The lead is the one who sends the stone across the ice hoping that the stone will land in the ring. There are two sweepers. Once the stone is released, the sweepers will sweep in front of the stone. Sweeping will warm the ice and extend the path of the stone. Finally, there’s a person at the end of the ice near the ring. This person will try and sweep when the stone extends near a certain line. This can help keep the stone moving, so it moves out of the ring. Each team wants to score points by having their stone in the ring.

When we arrived, we had a twenty-minute instruction on how to curl. There was a video combined with an on-ice demonstration. With Curling, there are things added to the ice to aid in traction. It wasn’t like walking on a figure skating rink which is what I was afraid of as I didn’t want to fall. I was slightly nervous, to begin with. While we were taught what to do, it’s a whole different story to have your body do the motions for the first time. I think the toughest part for me was doing the curling portion. There are certain blocks that your feet align to and then you lunge into a position on the ice to release the stone. I think it took me five different false starts to finally figure it out.

Curling, in a lot of ways, reminded me of putting in Golf. It’s a delicate balance of releasing the stone with enough force, so it glides into the ring, but not too much because then it will slide too quickly and pass the ring altogether. I’m a terrible putter in Golf because I always misjudge the distance to the hole and Curling was no different. It was nice because most of my work team had never Curled before either, so we could all learn together. I didn’t feel intimidated that I was the only one who sucked at the sport.

I was a little shocked at how much Curling felt like exercise. There’s the lunging into position to slide the stone, along with the actual sweeping portion. My Fitbit recognized that I was exercising, but wasn’t quite sure what to log the exercise as. I found myself running after the stone on the ice which led me to breathe a little harder. It looks so easy watching Curling compared to trying to replicate the movements in person.

In the end, I didn’t score at all for my team. My team did win, but not because I helped at all. I would consider Curling again especially if it gives me something to do in Winter.

I’m fortunate to have friends and family all across the United States. It allows me to travel cheaply and safely. Last weekend, I drove to Kansas City to attend Planet Comic Con. I have been to Planet Comic Con three times including this trip. Every time I go, I stay with my cousin who is gracious enough to put up with me for a few days. I always go to the convention on Friday only, so then I can explore Kansas City with him on Saturday before driving home. I wanted to summarize Planet Comic Con along with sharing pictures of my weekend in Kansas City.

For Planet Comic Con, I cosplayed as Harley Quinn. I shared a little bit of my process a few weeks ago, but now I got to try it out! For Harley, I did a makeup trial a week before the convention. This allowed me to try out different types of makeup styles. Additionally, Harley’s makeup has more eyeliner and I typically don’t wear eyeliner all that much. I felt like I had to re-teach myself how to put on makeup. Doing the makeup trial was well worth my time. I felt that on the day of the convention, I was able to put on my makeup faster, so I didn’t take as long to get ready. The only thing I would do differently was the wig. I felt that the wig that I ordered was uncomfortable to wear throughout the day. In between conventions, I will probably order a new wig if I cosplay this version of Harley again.

Normally, I attend Planet Comic Con by myself. This year was a little different. My cousin moved in with his partner and her daughter also attends Planet Comic Con. It was fun to roam around the convention with someone else and have someone else to talk to. She’s a huge anime fan, so I got to hear about her interests and she would explain cosplays to me if I didn’t understand the reference. There was one cosplay from a manga called Chainsaw Man which I have never heard of before. The cosplay was awesome! There was a foam chainsaw on his head and bloodied foam chainsaws on his arms. I was impressed.

Besides the convention, me and my cousin did some exploration around Kansas City. Every time I visit, I end up doing something different. We went out for lunch at a new BBQ place that I haven’t tried. Tin Kitchen is a BBQ place located in an old historic building. I ordered a beer, along with a pulled pork sandwich and mac and cheese. It was delicious! After that, we drove to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library to check out the museum. It was fascinating since Truman took over when FDR passed away. There was a lot that happened during Truman’s presidency including the atomic bombs, the Korean War, and the Red Scare to name a few events. Once we finished at the Truman Presidential Library, we drove to one of my favorite breweries, Boulevard Brewing Company. Like Minneapolis, Kansas City has its share of breweries. Boulevard is one of my favorites, their tap room is huge! I had their Space Camper IPA which was featured at Planet Comic Con. After Boulevard, we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant before unwinding for the rest of the day.

Planet Comic Con was so fun! I always have a great time visiting Kansas City as it’s one of my favorite US cities to visit. I can’t wait for my next trip.

Two weeks ago, I visited a close friend of mine who lives a few hours away. She lives in a smaller town outside of the Twin Cities. As we were planning on what to do for the weekend, she let me know that there was a small business event where small businesses in the area were offering discounts throughout the day. I thought that could be fun as I like window shopping. I ended up with a small haul of sorts, so I figured I’d share everything that I found.

The Call of Cthulhu Purse

This is probably my favorite purchase of the day. We were at a bookstore and my friend spotted these purses based off of book covers. This purse shows the cover of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s infamous stories, The Call of Cthulhu. This purse is cross-body which is an absolute must for me. It’s also surprisingly bigger than I expected and can fit my phone, wallet, keys, and chapstick comfortably. I always like showing off elements of geekdom in the things that I wear, so this purse fits well into my closet.

Titans Hunt Issues #1-8

After purchasing the Call of Cthulhu purse, we went to the second bookstore of the day. This bookstore has more of a vintage feel to it. There are records and CDs for sale along with comics towards the back of the store. There are these white long boxes, but instead of having single-issue comics, there are comic bundles with a complete story. I found this Teen Titans series for relatively cheap. I can’t wait to start reading the series.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman

It should come as no surprise that Wonder Woman is one of my favorite comic book heroes. I have cosplayed as her several times with various differences between each cosplay. I found this book and it was a must-buy for me. It’s a non-fiction book explaining Wonder Woman’s history throughout the years. I plan on reading this book this month in between all the events I have in March.

I’m happy with my purchases! I have a new purse to carry around and new things to read. This was a successful shopping trip!

I wanted to start this post by telling a story. Writing my blog is a hobby of mine and it’s something that I’m proud of. I decided to be brave and share a blog post I wrote on LinkedIn. Within twenty minutes, I had someone comment on the blog post that I shared. They had written “Too Pornish” in the comments. This was someone with who I wasn’t previously connected, so I had no idea who this person was. I immediately felt a flush of embarrassment and deleted the post linking back to my blog. I didn’t think much of it, but then I tried to access my blog through work to gather some pictures for an “About Me” presentation. My work had blocked my website because it was deemed as an adult site. I laughed and it clicked why that person commented “Too Pornish”. It made me think, is my blog name too sexual?

When I told my friend that I was thinking about starting a blog, she helped me come up with the name. The first name I picked was “The Geeky Iceskater” The name didn’t feel right to me, but I wanted to start writing as soon as possible. My friend helped me figure out some other blog name contenders and she came up with Bizarre Brunette. It clicked and I knew immediately that was the blog name I wanted. It’s funny how Bizarre and Brunette on their own aren’t sexual words, yet when they are put together, it becomes “Pornish” as this one man described. It makes me slightly uncomfortable how something that was a hobby of mine has suddenly become sexualized which was never my intention, to begin with.

I mentioned earlier how I liked that Bizarre Brunette was feminine. The reason why this matters is because of the harassment I have faced both in person and online over my hobbies. I have been made to feel unwelcome at comic book stores even though I love reading comics. When I started playing video games, I was told that I was doing it to get attention from men even though gaming helped me destress after a long day. I was harassed online because I chose a Gamertag that was more feminine. I have had people question if I’m truly a fan of something if I wear a pop culture t-shirt. It’s been draining to be made to feel like I don’t belong.

As a side note, I’m a cis, white woman, so the amount of harassment I have faced is substantially less than other women. There’s still some work that needs to happen so that all women can feel welcome in comics, video games, and geek culture in general.

I was mulling this around, but I don’t see myself ever changing my blog name. If I ever do a rebranding, it could potentially happen in the future, but I have no plans right now. I’m going to continue writing about the topics that I’m passionate about because I want women to feel more welcome in these spaces. Unfortunately for the random guy on LinkedIn, Bizarre Brunette will continue to exist even though it might be too Pornish.

I’m excited to say that I will be attending Gen Con in 2023! For those who are unfamiliar, Gen Con is the largest gaming convention in the US. There are so many different gaming events occurring along with the biggest vendor hall that I have ever seen. There’s so much going on at Gen Con that I find that there is something for everyone. I have been to Gen Con once and I always had it on my radar to go back. I may end up writing a few posts here and there as Gen Con gets closer. To start, I wanted to share the journey of attending Gen Con and why this con means so much to me despite only attending for one year.

In 2019, a few of my friends approached me about Gen Con as they felt that I would really like the convention. Gen Con takes place in Indianapolis which is only a nine-hour drive for me. I didn’t want to drive all that way myself, so I invited my brother to come with me. It was comforting having him to talk to and it made it more pleasant to be able to experience this with someone else for the first time. When I first arrived at Gen Con on Thursday, I was amazed. There were food trucks that lined the entrance of the convention which is pretty smart considering gamers need to eat. I was in line waiting to get into the vendor hall on the first day and the crowd behind us was one of the largest crowds I have ever been a part of. Another amazing part was how much there was to experience. Gen Con was hosting a brewery tour, a 5k, and other non-gaming events. I have never heard of a convention having that many events occurring simultaneously.

Immediately after getting home from Gen Con, I knew that I wanted to go back. Me and my friends were planning on attending Gen Con in 2020 which obviously did not happen. Our group kept in touch throughout the years of the pandemic. Both 2021 and 2022 were a miss as the pandemic was still around and there’s no denying that there would be a crowd. When I reached out to my friends this year, they were adamant that they wanted to return to Gen Con. All of our passes have been bought and our hotel room has been booked. It will be nice to stay at a hotel on site for parking and be able to walk to and from the convention at any time.

I cannot wait for Gen Con and I’m so happy to be going back. I know my brother is looking forward to it too and it’s been great to be able to spend time with my brother as well.

February is a pretty quiet month in my life. It’s still pretty chilly in Minnesota, so I find myself cuddled indoors. Since I have more free time, I tend to devote more time to my hobbies. I wrote about trying to get back into cosplay, so I figured I’d share an update on where I’m at. I’m currently working on Harley Quinn and having everything put together.

The first essential part of Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad is the red dress. I ordered the red dress from Amazon from a company called Rubie’s. Rubie’s is a costume shop that sells on Amazon whether it’s a Halloween costume or costumes that can be used for cosplay. I have ordered many of Rubie’s costumes and they usually are pretty decent. I ordered a medium in the Harley Quinn red dress and it fits me perfectly! It’s a little loose-fitting, but I figured I could wear something underneath to help take up any extra space. The only thing I noticed when I tried on the dress is that the white layer underneath sometimes shows. I’m thinking I could buy a red tutu to wear underneath the dress to give the dress more volume.

Besides the dress, the wig is another Harley Quinn essential. I bought this wig also from Amazon. The wig is comfortable to wear, but the two blonde parts of the wig are a little awkward. I might have to style the wig right before I wear it. Another thought I had was to tuck the ends of the blonde wig into the braid to make it more natural. The wig itself I think was worth the purchase as it seems like a good quality wig for the price. The only other thing that I have left to do is figure out the makeup. Harley Quinn’s makeup shouldn’t be too challenging, but I’m also not very makeup savvy. I’m going to watch a few makeup tutorials to get some ideas for Harley’s look.

I’m excited to put everything together! It’s been fun making cosplay more of a priority instead of a last-minute project.

If there’s one thing I’m looking forward to with attending conventions this year, it’s planning a new cosplay. It’s been a while since I have spent months preparing a new cosplay for a con. I usually figure something out last minute and it looks okay, but I’d rather have something ready to go. I have two big cons that I’m attending in March: Planet Comic Con and C2E2. This gives me about four full weeks to get everything ordered and ready. I wanted to share how I get inspiration for cosplay and the steps that I take to have the cosplay ready.

The first thing that I like to do is go to Pinterest. I have a cosplay board where I will pin cosplays that I like or that I want to complete someday. I have recently gone through my board and deleted any pins of cosplays that I’m not interested in. This is to help consolidate what types of cosplays I want to complete and when. Once I did this, I start searching different fandoms or characters to get an idea of what could be done versus what might be too complicated. I don’t cosplay professionally, it’s more of a hobby, so I’m not interested in doing any body paint or any massive art project for a cosplay. Once I get a few ideas, I have to figure out how to purchase or put together the look.

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this earlier, but I created an Amazon wishlist titled “Cosplay”. This is where I have been saving clothes, wigs, jewelry, or anything else I need to cosplay a character. I created this wishlist a few days ago and it’s helped to keep me organized. With cosplay materials, it can take weeks to ship on Amazon, so if I can have the items saved to order ahead of time, that would be ideal. I have two cosplays saved in my Amazon wishlist and I plan to order some of those items this week.

This leads me to the two cosplays I’m leaning towards. The first is Harley Quinn from The Suicide Squad specifically the red poofy dress with the combat boots. Harley Quinn is one of my favorite characters to cosplay as because she has so many different styles throughout her appearance in video games, comics, and movies. The red poofy dress is such an aesthetic and it fits Harley’s personality. The second cosplay I’m thinking about is a splicer from Bioshock. Splicers are enemies with wrenches or a fish hook that attack you throughout the game.

I’m excited to start putting more of my energy into cosplay! It makes me look forward to future conventions because I will have a new cosplay ready to go.