Emerald City-Epilogue

Shortly before the trip to Emerald City I started getting kinda stressed about it. I'm not really sure why. I anticipated selling a ton of prints based on the sales Jake and Ben had experienced the year before... so much so that I thought maybe I might run out! But I needn't have worried, haha.... I had plenty left to take home.

Our Air B&B rental in Kirkland was... weird. We'd actually tried to cancel before we left because Al's sister offered to let us stay at her place for free, but Mauricio isn't one to answer his phone or emails. So much so that he failed to answer his phone several times as Ben tried to coordinate meeting up with him to get the keys. The condo was clearly lived in, which is the case for a lot of Air B&B places, but usually the person makes an effort to accommodate guests. Mauricio left his fridge packed full of food... not food for us mind you, like half eaten sandwiches and eggs and stuff. We had to smash in the groceries we bought. He also "forgot" the keys for two of the three days we stayed there so we were unable to lock the door. His only wall decorations were a Seahawks jersey and a CD labelled "Yetzka!" thumb tacked to the wall which had some shmutz on it. I shudder to think, haha. Mauricio called Ben several times asking if he wanted to "hang out". On the last night we stayed there, he called Ben and said he needed to pick something up. We waited a while for him, he didn't show up until 11 when Jake was already asleep. He showed up with his girlfriend (reeking of weed) and she immediately ran into the bedroom as Ben and I tried to stop her. Then she ran out screaming "Somebody's in there!" So Ben went into the bedroom where Jake was sleeping and got the snowboard they wanted. Who needs a snowboard at 11 at night? It was weird.

Traffic getting to the convention center from Kirkland was pretty bad the first two days. Sales were very slow. Jake said he was disappointed that it wasn't like last year. I had a hard time talking to people, as I usually do... but I warmed up to it by Sunday. I didn't even come close to covering the cost of the trip and the table. But I have heard that it takes 3-4 years of going to conventions to really turn a profit, so I'm not discouraged yet.

Finding vegan food proved a bit more challenging than I anticipated. I have only ever been to Seattle with other vegans so we always ate at vegan places. The first night we went to the Cheesecake Factory and there wasn't anything suitable for me to have for dinner. I was able to grab a few things at the grocery store before it closed. There was a Veggie Grill nearby the convention center which is where I got lunch on Friday. I made sandwiches for Saturday and Sunday, haha.

On Saturday I ran around for a while looking for Links I could take pics of. I always see a lot of them at cons, I think I will continue trying to get them all at the rest of the cons this year. On Sunday I met up with Al's sister Gin. On my way down to get her I found out that Adam Warren was tabling right by us. I had to run back to our tables and let Jake know that he was there. We both went all fanboy/girl on him and accosted him with art which he may or may not have promptly thrown in the trash, haha. If you haven't read Empowered, you should certainly check it out!

I bought some more markers and refills from the Copic booth. I got some of their paper too since I was unable to find any good birthday presents for all the March birthdays. So I will draw them something.

On the drive home Ben requested I tell him stories to keep him awake so I ended up describing the plot of the Saw movies to him. Then we talked about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He thinks I should have a podcast where I just describe the plot of movies, haha.

Overall I had a pretty fun time, even though I lost a lot of money. I don't think I will return to Emerald City next year. Not unless I do really well at the locals cons this year. I'm going to share a table with Jake at Rose City again and return to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo. I will try to make it into Newcon PDX and Kumoricon too!