My (own version of my) Weekend in ABQ

As most of you know, the weekend before last—the 14^th through the 17^th—I attended the Albuquerque Comicon. My first ever Comicon, mind you. Upon my return, and after a few days of rest, I was able to post THIS on the ZSC website. Of course, I had insomnia the night before so at the time I wrote it, I’d been awake for approximately 24 hours, which would extend to 35 by the time I finally went to sleep. Juliette helped write the post, though she was exhausted too. The insomnia stems from excitement, stress, and my mind running a bah-jillion miles a second. What else is new, right? You know how this works, don’t you? You’ve been through it with me once or twice before, except I’m not all sad and depressed now. There’s a nice change. *big smile*

Also? ADD—Attention Deficit…oh look, a flower! ADD is inherently pronounced when one is exhausted. That means it takes forever to do just a few things on your To Do list. Apparently, it took me 35 hours to write a post and edit someone’s book.

Ooh, shiny!

Yeah.

The first leg of my trip? Driving for six hours on unfamiliar roads. I’ve driven to Albuquerque before. Four and a half years ago, I made that drive with a friend to watch Nine Inch Nails. After the show, we drove back and were home by sunrise. It’s a six hour drive. No biggie. Being the nocturnal creature I am I’m fine with driving all night. I also used to drive through Albuquerque a lot on my way to Denver or La Junta, CO. But I’d never traveled that distance by myself or along the I-10 to the I-25 and up. I’m used to going through Payson and up to I-40, where I have broken down just outside of Albuquerque before. Remember when the Firestone tires were bad on Ford Explorers? Yeah, lost half my tread that day. Fun! That was when I was married many years ago. My ex-fiancé worked for Firestone until a few years ago. Guess what tires I have on my Avalanche. Not that they’re bad anymore, but I was a little nervous about my drive, yet excited all the same. Luckily, I made it to the Hilton in one piece . . . and so did my ‘lanche.

The decision for me to make this trip was not one I made lightly. I’m about to move again; back up to the Tempe area to take care of Umi. I’ll refrain from beating the shit out of Akhi until after he helps me move. He let our mother eat Ramen for two weeks straight. You want to beat the shit out of him too right now, don’t you? By all means, help a girl out and hold him down. I won’t mind. He’s taller than me now. Anyway, my idiot brother aside, I’ll be taking care of my mother once again and making sure she’s eating right, among other things. You know I wear many hats in all the things I do, right? Where’s my hat for that? I’d thought I’d retired the damn thing. Apparently not.

It cost me two tanks of gas for this trip. Could I have used that elsewhere? Yes. I could have used it for a moving truck. Money will be really tight now, especially since my brother doesn’t feel like paying his goddamn phone bill. Sorry, I’m in a bit of a venting mood and this is my personal blog, not professional one.

Would I have regretted not experiencing this? Abso-fucking-lutely! The weekend spent in Albuquerque was so completely EPIC, that I cannot even begin to describe it to you outside of the post on the ZSC blog. Many things that happened I can’t tell you about or couldn’t tweet at the time. No, it’s not a ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ situation (I always say ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas . . . unless you’re with a writer *evil grin*). It has to do with business and things Juliette and I don’t wish to reveal. We worked incredibly hard that weekend, Juliette in full war correspondent mode—amazing to witness and it sucks that I can’t tell you about it.

But I can tell you a few things . . . .

Anthony Guajardo is a total sweetheart and I adore him. Love his mom Lisa too.

We met all three Boondock Saints the first night. I even got my picture taken with two of them.

David Della Rocco with Juliette and me.

Norman Reedus with me and Juliette.

Although I missed my opportunity to get a photo with Sean Patrick Flanery the first night (because I’m a stupid shy bitch and was tipsy by then—alcohol does not give me courage for certain things, like approaching celebrities, which I DON’T do EVER), I was able to get the photo the next night, which was also stupid because of my lovely hangover . . . er, I mean, because I was sick. *ahem* So, I ended up with this shot where I look like hell and Sean looks like Demon Hunter revisited with those eyes. Sorry, Sean, I couldn’t help it. =p

Sean Patrick Flanery and me.

Why did it take me two nights to get a damn photo with Sean? Because I’m the quiet observer, always. I sit back and watch everything. It’s actually quite entertaining. *evil grin* All three gentlemen were wonderful and nice and I can’t wait to see them again, especially now that they’re all on the crew. We’re happy to have them!

I met Daniel Logan as well (young Boba Fett), and he’s just awesome and hilarious too. Had me laughing so hard on Sunday most of the day.

Jim, the man who put the Comicon together, was great and I’m so happy for him and his success. Dave, Anthony’s concierge, I’d like to keep with me at all times, as he was tireless at taking care of us, bringing us water, lunch, and candy for a boost in energy.

We met some wonderful people too: Cody, Karen, Elijah and Albert. *waves* They gave us a ride home from the bar and grill Saturday night. Albuquerque rocks!

Juliette, Anthony and I did film something on Sunday night, which was hilariously fun, and I can’t wait to see what Anthony does with all the clips. I’m just the camera girl. I made him director.

By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was damn near exhausted from lack of sleep and being in a near constant state of go-go-go. I don’t know how some of you people do it. Seriously. Of course, I used to be like that too. I’ll definitely be hitting the gym again soon and fixing my beach cruiser–The Betty. Time to ride again, baby!

I dropped Juliette off at the airport Monday afternoon and began my trek home, where again I had no issues with the ‘lanche, thank God. It’s just a bit of a lonely drive, that distance for that amount of time. It also had my imagination in overdrive.

BEST WEEKEND EVER! I can’t wait to see if I can top that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go figure out where I’m going to live and how I’m going to get all my stuff there, along with figuring out what to do with my Moonbug because she can’t climb stairs and no lower level apartments are available at this time. I have a shit-ton of phone calls to make on Tuesday afternoon, and I hope some of you will remind me if you see me on Twitter when I wake up. Please?

Thanks. You’re awesome!