Anyway, it was lovely walking from the ferry terminal to Javits Center in the rain. We were all drenched by the time we got in. I headed over to the books section where I got nothing. HarperCollins had a scratch and win at 11:00. I got in line only to find out the guy in front of me was in front of me yesterday as well. We each won a Terry Pratchett book, but since I have not read any, we switched cards because he already had the one on his card. HC was also giving out Dorothy Must Die buttons. Four are needed to enter a drawing for a gift basket and they were giving away two at a time, so I picked them up and I had two more to go before I could enter the raffle. Once I was done with the Scratch and Win, Cam met me with a couple of friends and we walked the floor together.
They were planning on going to a panel at 12:45 that I didn't want to go to, so I went back by the book booths and sat down for a while. Even though the day had just started, my feet felt really fatigued, bordering on painful. The panel didn't work out for hubby and crew and they eventually came and got me. I didn't have anything going on until 2.
It took me three days to realize that when Penguin was getting ready for a booth signing there were no galleys out. The put them out about 15 minutes after the signings ended. Once I figured that out, I knew when to swing by the booth. Amber Benson was signing at 3:00, but I would have had to get there first thing as the doors opened to get a ticket. I got her ARC the day before, though, so I didn't sweat it.
Anyway, they had a signing from 1 - 2, so I swung by about 2:30 for whatever they put out. I then headed fro a penal to start at 3:00 called "Not Your Mother's Fairy Tales", but by the time I found the room at 2:45, the panel was capped. So I went back upstairs to my little corner of concrete floor and sat down again.
I let Cam know I wasn't in the panel and he told me he was on the floor with some of his LARPing friends, but I declined to join them. That meant I would have had to walk. My next thing was at 4:00. HC was having another scratch and win and giving away the other two Dorothy pins. I had no where to be and I was pretty much shopped out from Friday, so I rested my feet. Can found me sitting in a corner which apparently a wall where there was a sign for CBR Tiki Room. He asked what it was, but I had no idea, so he decided to check it out. What it was was a room of tables with table clothes and chairs with about 2 - 3 inches cushy padding. It looked like there had been a buffet and there were signs on either end saying "Staff Only", but not in the room we were in. Nobody bothered us, so we just sat there. I got up at about 3:45 to head to HarperCollins for the buttons and scratch and win. For the scratch and win, oddly enough, I got the same book I got that morning, but traded to the guy in front of me, so now I had both Terry Pratchett books for a series of books I don't read. Fabulous. I wanted Child Thief by Brom, Covenant by Sabrina Benulis (hubby got book one in the series last year) or Dark Duets edited by Christopher Golden. Oh well. Had to try. I did get my last two buttons though and entered the the raffle for the Dorothy gift basket. With nothing left to do, I headed back up to the Tiki Room where Cam was napping.
We sat there for another half hour. We had been deliberating meeting his friends for dinner after the show. They were at The Heartland Brewery and were going to Times Square to a place called Dallas BBQ at 5:15. We were trying to determine how quickly we could head out. I wasn't leaving until I spun that darn wheel because I was still trying to win The Red Queen. We decided that we would meet them, which was going to be a 5 short block walk and an additional 3 long block walk. That being decided, I left the nice cushy seats at 4:30 to get on line for the spin.
I figured the closer I was the faster we could get out. Walking by the Penguin booth, they had galleys out so I grabbed the last galleys I could. I asked Cam to also pick up a couple since we could only select two and they had about 5 or 6 titles out. We got on line for the spin and I was about 5th in line. Cam stood with me for a few and then started to say he was going to go somewhere for a few, but then he realized since it wasn't much time to wait, that he would stay with me and spin the wheel in case I didn't get the book In wanted. If you recall Friday he said he wouldn't do it again and I was all kinds of grateful that he would spin the wheel for me. Though I don't know why as he is rubbish at it, but then, so am I.I wanted The Red Queen but there was a book on the wheel called A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas that sounded like a good story when I looked it up. So we have 5 good spots to land. In addition to the book strips there was Winner's Choice, Jackpot and I believe Double Take. Finally it was time to spin the wheel. I spun it moderately hard, but it landed on The Prey by Tom Isbell. I will point out it was one slot away from Jackpot. Still, Cam had his chance. He spun it really light and it landed on...The Prey by Tom Isbell. I was crestfallen. I didn't blame him, but I kept thinking "Why did you spin it so lightly?" Still, I appreciated the effort and it was a chance, but one that didn't pan out. It was especially hard because the person right behind us landed on Jackpot.
On the way out, we walked by the Penguin booth, but they were getting ready for a signing. I was prepared to leave, but decided to run by Random House one last time and check out their giveaways. They had nothing, but there was a girl on line who called out and stopped us. She was the jackpot winner behind us on line. She said she could tell how disappointed I was with both Cam and I getting the same book and she offered a book to me. As she said this, she pulled The Red Queen out of her bag and handed it to me because she already had it. She also handed me a copy of The Keepers: The Box and Dragonfly by Ted Sanders because she had that as well. I thanked her profusely and once again realized have book bloggers are some of the best people. She said she turned around after winning, but we had already gone and she was hoping to run into me again. I didn't get her name as she was in line for a signing at Random House and we were headed out the door, but I want to thank my mysterious benefactress from the bottom of my heart. So thank you where ever you are!!!!
Having rested our feet sufficiently, we headed out to meet our friends. I guess I complained a little as three avenue blocks lugging con swag up three avenue blocks was exhausting. We got there by about 5:30 only to find our friends not there and a line of about 50 people waiting to be seated. When we called, they hadn't left The Heartland Brewery yet and they was just chilling until it was time for dinner. Plan altered, we turned around and headed back to meet them where they were. So, an additional avenue block back. But pumpkin ale took the edge off my irritation. We had an awesome waiter, excellent food and really good company, so the day ended up being a good one.
Now, as far as Comic Con goes, I had some thoughts. You have to buy the tickets in June not knowing who will be attending.Last year we only got tickets for Thursday and Friday. I wanted tickets for all four days because last year there were people I really wanted to see, but they were on Saturday and Sunday. This year, four day tickets sold out in the snap of a finger. Three day tickets almost as fast, so we bought one ticket for me for Thursday and one for each of us for Friday and Saturday. This year, moist of the stuff I wanted was on Thursday and Friday. Saturday I was just waiting around for giveaways. And my feet hurt so bad from the two prior days that I ended up pulling up concrete and just resting off and on. I get cranky when my feet hurt.
The reason I bring up the history is that it was really crowded Saturday, so much so that I had wondered if I had mistakenly donned my cranky pants before leaving the house for the show. Two things I lack patience for; hurting feet and crowds I can't navigate through. The zombie shuffle was getting old and everywhere I went people just stopped for no reason or perhaps any number of reasons, but they were blocking up the aisles. So I had no choice but to stand on my aching feet until I could squeeze through. It is for these two reasons that I told Cam I only want to do Thursday and Friday next year. Two of our friends we met for dinner left no later than 4:00 because they couldn't take the crowds.
The other issue I have is that, as I've said before, it is impossible to get into a panel unless you want to wait for more than an hour to get in. To illustrate, there was a Walking Dead panel Saturday at 3:45. When the doors opened, people immediately queued up for the panel. That means they were going to be waiting on line for 5 hours to see the panel. Granted, there were cast members in attendance, but unless I had a 4 day pass, I'm not waiting all day to see something like that. It's different with the books, though. With the books, there are things happening all day at the booths and I don't want to miss any. Still, I tried two panels this year and got shut out of both.
All in all, I really did have a good time despite the little irritations and disappointments, but my feet today are really feeling the past three days.
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