I Left My Heart in San Diego

Posted on | July 26, 2010 | 2 Comments

Sometimes I’m not exactly sure how I appear to other people. And if you happen to get to know me online, where I tend to be quite the long-winded little wordsmith, it’s possible you would get the impression that I’m a bit of an intellectual. This is certainly true – I do have my moments of philosophizing and God knows I venture into the “deeper” categories here on this blog. But underneath the love for books and libraries and the straight-A perfectionist tendencies lies the giddy beating heart of a dork.

Yes, folks, as you may well remember, I am, in fact, a big ol’ pop culture-loving fan-girl dork. Which is why it absolutely kills me that I spent the weekend at home, instead of in San Diego, at Comic Con International.

For those sad fellows among us who have no knowledge of the wonders of Comic Con, it is the largest convention in the Western hemisphere and is devoted to all things pop culture. Traditionally, it was comic book and sci-fi/fantasy convention, though these days just about anyone who’s anyone shows up. If it’s in any way popular with any subsection of society, you’ll find it at Comic Con.

Celebrities and regular Joes mingle and bond over their shared love of Star Wars and superheroes. Panels, workshops and seminars offer sneak peeks of hotly anticipated movies and upcoming seasons of television shows. People show up in costumes and fan-girls (and boys) get ample opportunities to practice their screeching and squeals. It’s probably the only place you’ll find big-name movie stars in the same vicinity as television series producers, sci-fi/fantasy authors and comic book artists. It’s like one big pop culture love-in.

And I wasn’t there! So many of my favorite people, in one convenient location, and I wasn’t there! I mean, people – Friday alone was Star Wars day! Just think about all the other things I missed as well. The only thing saving my sanity (besides the blessing of pop culture news media – thank you, Entertainment Weekly) is my sheer and absolute determination to make it to San Diego one year, even if it means starting a special savings account just for Comic Con expenses. It’s not on my 15 Before 30 list because I couldn’t guarantee that I’d make it there before 30, but it is most definitely on my “absolutely, without a doubt before I die” list.

Besides, who doesn’t want to spend four days with 12,000 of their closest friends and end the weekend with a sing-along screening of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s musical episode, Once More With Feeling?

Your turn – what event(s) does your inner dork long to attend? What’s the one dork-ish thing you MUST do before you die? In/when I do have the opportunity to attend, who’s up for a road trip to San Diego? (You know you want to.)

[Photo Credit: CCI website via Google Image Search]

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