So, I think today is the last day I have to wait through in order to get the results of my tests from last week.  I'm nervous.  I mean, I've already got it in my head that everything is clear, I'd hate to get a call late today telling me I have to go back in and have my third surgery of the year to remove a mass of cancerous cells.  The surgery doesn't really bother me, it's the thought of: "what if they leave something behind?".  I mean, a single missed cell could mean that everything could come back.  That's scary.

I'm also nervous about my "Helen" replacement appointment this afternoon.  All my friends who know who Helen is will understand my nervousness. :-)  

I guess I'm just nervous all around today!

A friend of mine recommended a website to me that lists restaurants in Los Angeles (and other cities).  It's got ratings, menus, etc.  You can also filter it down to neighborhoods, type of cuisine and if they deliver or not.  I've never ordered delivery, apart from Pizza Man ("He Delivers!") when I was in high school and didn't have a car or drivers license.  Seriously!  I've never even ordered Domino's!  I've ordered food that I've had to go pick-up, but delivery?  What a luxury!  Anyway, if you're interested, here's the site address:

http://losangeles.menupages.com/

I've heard that LA Bite is expensive because they add a surcharge to your order and a lot of the time there is a minimum $$$ to order.  You'd have to look at each restaurant, but it looks like only a couple have a minimum.  They have a ton of delivery restaurants in my neighborhood, which I think is neat.  One of these days I'm going to order from one of them. :-)

I finished the work project yesterday and got everything out.  Now I'm behind on other things!  Bah!  I should be caught up by Friday.  I hope.  There's no way I'm going into the office over the weekend.

Wow, you guys should have seen the amount of Chinese food I ordered yesterday!  I will definitely be working on it for a few days... I really like spicy food, so I was hoping that by picking the items marked with a little pepper that they would be hot.  Nope - I got Mongolian Beef (kinda bland), Regular Chow Mein (plain), Chicken Chow Mein (same as regular chow mein, just with chicken), Firecracker Chicken (kinda sticky, not hot at all), Crispy Dumplings (chicken) and Brown Rice......  they were all delicious, just not as spicy / hot as I'd like. Good thing I have a new jar of chili paste!  Anyway, I barely made a dent in it.  As much as I enjoy cooking, it was nice not heating up the house just to make dinner.

I also stopped by Trader Joe's since it's in the same shopping center that I got the Chinese food.  I'm addicted to TJ's orange juice, so I needed to pick up a jug, along with some fruit for lunch this week.  I'm kinda bummed that they've been out of the wine I like for a couple of weeks now.  They don't have it at the two locations I usually go to that are fairly close to my house.  I was able to find it at the Monrovia location, but I'm not going to drive all the way up there just for a couple of bottles of wine.  I ended-up getting a new wine that had a cartoon pancake stomping around a city.  My friend bought me a bottle of it a few months ago and I can't remember if I liked it or not.  It's a blend of five different types of grapes, so I bet I can have it with anything!  Here's what the label looks like, isn't it cute?  I got the image from the internet, so that's not my kitchen or my bottle of wine.

The big work project is almost completed.  I gave it to another set of eyes to go over everything and check to see if there are any glaring errors.  After that's done, it gets mailed out to approx. 600 people.  I'm hoping we'll get it out today.  Our mailroom is gonna just LOVE us.  Aye, I have a headache now.  My desk, as well as the two cubicles on either side of me are disaster areas!

I haven't heard anything back about the tests last Thursday, so I'm going to take that as a positive thing.  I figure that if I don't hear anything by close of business tomorrow, that I'm all clear (for now).  No news is good news, right?  I think they usually get the results in two or three business days.  Waiting sucks!

I just got off a conference call....... have you ever been on a call when someone who's participating is on their speakerphone and they don't realize that technology has evolved to the point where they don't have to SCREAM IN THEIR SPEAKERPHONE TO BE HEARD?  Oh my god!  I had the volume on my phone turned down all the way and my ear still hurts!  I'm just glad that the call only lasted 20 minutes.  Small favors, right?

I think I managed to spend the entire weekend in the shower.  Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.  I may not have spent the entire weekend in the shower, but it was so hot that I did manage to spend a good chunk of it in there.  Unfortunately, I was also a dumbass one of the times I was in there.  I'd forgotten about the tags I had removed Thursday and went about my normal routine of exfoliating with a shower brush and my body scrub.  So, in addition to just the regular pain of having chunks removed from various parts of my person, I had the burning pain resulting from having a stiff brush and scrub tearing over them. 

The only time I was truly comfortable this weekend was when I was in the shower or just getting out of the shower.  How very sad.   It seems like every time I checked the temperature, it read 107F.  Even with the air conditioner on it was uncomfortable.  I tried to keep the house as cool as I could without using the a/c, but I ended-up turning it on around 11am each day.   Gotta be comfortable while I'm sitting on my ass watching tv, right?  Or eating.  I ate a lot this weekend!  All of the food was bad for me too. 

I must be getting more sentimental as I age.  Yesterday I watched Season Two of the the Justice League Unlimited dvds I have and I got all weepy when I watched certain episodes.  Same thing on Saturday when I was listening to music while I was cleaning.  At least with the music, I figure it was all the memories I was revisiting, but I don't know why I got all emotional with a cartoon!  Especially the episode called "A Long Way from Home" where Kara decides to stay in the future with the L.O.S.H and that hunky Braniac 5.  Awe, it was so sad.  Clark was proud of Kara, but never told her.

I'd forgotten what a good show Justice League Unlimited was.  Really good stories, PLUS I like keeping an eye out for fairly obscure characters in the background.  Like the "Challengers of The Unkown" scrambling around the Watchtower (I gotta give props to CBLMW for introducing me to them, I didn't even know who they were until about a 16 months ago).  It was neat seeing them yesterday and actually recognizing them, whereas before I would have just thought it was some guys in coveralls.

What did I do other than watch TV over the weekend?  I tried to clean the oven, wash the kitchen floor (on my hands and knees!), empty all the trash cans, etc.  I lead such a GLAMOROUS life!  I ended-up having to cut the oven cleaning short and locking Gotham up in the bedroom because the fumes got really bad.  I was afraid I was going to kill us both!  I think I got all the cleaner out of the oven, but I'm a little afraid to turn it on, in case there's still some left.  That stuff really stinks and seems quite dangerous.  I'll try clean it out again with water this afternoon.  I also made sun tea, but forgot the main rule of sun tea, which is "make it in a glass container".  I made it in a plastic pitcher and it kinda tastes like plastic, not tea.  I need to find a glass pitcher that will fit in my fridge..........

I also watched one of my favorite Australian movies of all-time, "Starstruck" on Saturday.  It's not so much a great cinematic achievement as it is a movie that brings back memories.  It's from, I think, 1981 / 1982 and is about a girl trying to win a singing contest.  The Swingers are in it!  I'm not sure if it could be considered a musical per se, but the songs and performance bits are really good.  Lot's of Split Enz, Swingers, etc.  Anyway, like I said, it's very "of it's time" and I really like it.  I was going to keep the theme going and watch "The Coca Cola Kid" as well, but decided to save it for another day.  Eric Roberts trying to find "The Australian Sound" for a new advertising campaign for Coca Cola.  It's got Tim Finn AND Paul Hester in it!  Maybe I'll watch that tonight.  I think I've gotten used to not having tv........

I read "Buried Prey" by John Sandford over the weekend.  Excellent book!  After reading "Bad Blood" earlier this week, I was eager to read another one of Sandfords books and I hadn't read that one yet.  I also attempted (one more time) to read Patricia Cornwell's "Port Mortuary".  I hope it gets better, because as of now, I'm not that engaged in the story.  I've had that dumb books for about 9 months now.....  I need to find another book to read on my Kindle.  I'm getting really spoiled with it.  It's nice to have so many books on a small device like that.  Plus, I can make the print as big as I want, so I don't have to wear my contacts or glasses.  Bonus!  I think I'll get Jasper Fforde's most recent Thursday Next book called "One of Our Thursdays is Missing".  I'd try to explain the premise of the series, but I don't think I can do it any justice.  It's really complicated.  I highly recommend the first in the set, "The Eyre Affair".  It might take a little bit to comprehend the premise of the story, but once you do, it's really very interesting.  They've got time travel, book travel, historical changes, footnoter-phones, fictional characters coming to life.  All sorts of good stuff!

I was going to make an appointment in Santa Monica (HELEN!!!) for sometime this week after I get off work, but I decided to try someplace new instead.  Since Samantha and David bought a house, I won't have the excuse of going to hang out with Sam and going for dinner after I'm done with Helen anymore.  They're going to be all the way over in the San Gabriel Valley, near my old neighborhood.  So if I go to Helen during the week, that means I'll go there for 30 minutes (give or take) and then sit in 405 traffic forever in order to get home.  This new place is in Hollywood, kind of on my way home from work.  It's about 40% more expensive, which sucks, but they have a very good reputation.  Plus, their hours are better.  They're open from 9-9 every day.  They take credit / debit cards (Helen is cash only) and have pretty cheap valet parking, instead of really limited metered street parking.  I figure that I can try them and if I like them, I've found a new option.  If not, I can go back to Helen or ask around and find a new place.  Imagine -  I'll save at least 30 minutes in drive time and road rage, probably more in rush hour weekday traffic.  I should be able to either swing up and take Highland home or hop on the 101, depending on how gridlocked it is. 

I've been working on a big project at work since Friday.  I should have everything done and sent out by tomorrow afternoon, so that will be a load off my mind.  I was going to come in over the weekend so I could have some quality copier time, but I'm glad I didn't.  When I came in this morning and got everything going, it ran out of staples pretty quickly.  I would have been pissed if I came all the way into the office only to have the staples run out after 175 sets.  What a bust that would have been!  PLUS, they don't have the a/c on at the office over the weekend...... it would have pretty awful on all fronts!  See, it's good to stay home and not work extra hours on the weekend!

What should I cook for dinner tonight?  I'm hungry now, but only managed to grab some fruit this morning when I was going out the door.  Maybe I should just pick something up on my way home from work so I don't have to heat up the house?

*UPDATE* I just ordered a ton of Chinese food to pick-up this afternoon.  Guess what I'll be eating for the rest of the week? :-)   I can't believe I got as much food as I did.  Seriously.  I think I got five things.

Had my doctors appointment yesterday afternoon and it went okay I guess.  He took three tags instead of four as neither of us could remember where the fourth one was supposed to be taken from.  We should have the test results early next week.  I have a good feeling about it and I don't think any of them will come back positive.  I hope I'm right!

Good thing - I got home early.

Bad thing - I got home early and it was 103F.

Everyone who knows me knows that I absolutely hate the heat.  I mean, I HATE THE HEAT.  I always have.  There has never been a time in my life where I liked it, I always preferred Fall  / Winter to Summer.  Since I hate the heat as much as I do, I ended-up running my air conditioner for a while, but couldn't do it overnight since the cool air doesn't reach the bedroom and I can't sleep in the living room.  I've tried, but have been unsuccessful each time.  It's just not comfortable.

At least the office has good a/c.

I have an appointment today, so I get to leave work at noon, hooray! 

Please keep your fingers-crossed that it goes well............ if I'm lucky, it will and then I won't have to go back to that doctor for three months, then if that one goes well, I won't have to go back for six months, and if THAT one goes well, then I only have to go back once a year.

I'm tired of going to the doctor.

I took a vacation day yesterday to deal with stuff I couldn't get done over the weekend and to run a couple of errands.  I am classifying it as a complete waste of a vacation day. 

Bright spot?  I had Del Taco for lunch.

Small rant - I hate AT&T. 

I guess that's more of a statement than a rant.

The handyman is on site at my apartment building today, so I had to corrall Gotham in the bedroom (with box, food and water).  He was crying with his face at the bottom of the door when I left for work this morning, poor thing.  It was so sad!  I left the radio on for him, but I don't think he cares too much about that.

I took this picture when I was walking to my apartment from my car yesterday, isn't it cute!  I've seen the dog many times, but this is the first time I've seen the cat.  I walk under their apartment as a short cut to get home if I park my car around the corner.

Not much else going on. 

Man, all of a sudden I have a wicked craving for Mexican food.  I think I'm going to stop by the supermarket on the way home and pick up the stuff I need to make salsa, guacamole and soft tacos. 

I forgot that I ordered another top hat online and it arrived out of the blue.  I'm not sure if it fits right.  I've tried on so many and bought two others (sight unseen) that don't fit, I'm not sure what fitting correctly actually entails anymore.  It doesn't matter anyway, I'm just going to pack the dumb hat away with the rest of the costume and put it in the closet.  Waaaaay in the back.

I need to go through and see if I have any other outstanding online orders due to arrive!  It's almost a compulsion now.  Not an obsession, a compulsion.  There's a difference!  When I see stuff that I think will work with the costume, I buy it (if it's reasonably priced).  I really don't have the room to store a complete Zatanna costume with an ever expanding list of options that I'm never going to wear again. Even though I did look good in it!!!!  LOL!  How many of you out there ever thought that you would see me admit that I ever looked good in anything, let alone a sessy Zatanna costume?  I do have to admit that I wish I looked as good in it as this woman (she's way prettier than I am!).  She's got the Zatanna look down!!!!:

http://www.meagan-marie.com/?p=290

That's about it for now.

Audry's wedding Saturday night was magical.  She was such a beautiful bride and Harold was a handsome groom.  The wedding colors were black, white and green, so it looked very elegant.  Everything took place at a friend of the brides house out in Whittier and it was beautiful!  I'm not that familiar with Whittier, so seeing the amazing house the wedding was at was truly a treat.  The food was great (Heirloom Catering in Silverlake, check them out!).  The lasagna cups with beef short ribs inside were truly magnificent.  I'm going to try and make them myself at home!  Pasta, ricotta (instead of robiola cheese), tomato sauce, short rib meat and a little cheese for the top.  I'm hungry now!

One thing though, I swear, I must look like crap when I go to work every day!  Seriously.  I've never received so many compliments or surprised expressions at how I looked before!  You know people, I CAN clean-up nice when the situation calls for it.  :-)  I'm not going to go to any trouble if I'm just going into the office (plus, I get up at 3:45-4:00am, what kind of glamour do you expect that early?), but when I'm outside work, I do.  I ended-up wearing a shiny semi-formal / formal burgundy and black sleeveless knee length dress with matching jewelry and black sling backs and hose.  I'd never worn this dress before and I was really happy with how it fit.  I guess everyone else agreed with me, LOL!  If I get a photo I like, I'll post it here.

Another bonus good thing from the weekend:  I found a new hair color and brand that I like.  John Frieda Precision Foam Hair Color in Dark Brown.  It doesn't stink, doesn't burn and doesn't get all over the place.  It was kinda weird using it as the process is so different from my normal hair coloring routine, but I much prefer it to the old way.  The color came out a touch darker than I'd wanted, but it's nice to be back to having brown black hair, as opposed to medium brown with faded red highlights.  My hair was getting way too light and I don't think it suited my skin coloring and eyes.

I feel like I accomplished a lot yesterday.  I spent most of the day cleaning the bathroom and rearranging closets.  I decided to move Gotham's box permanently from the shower to the tub.  He doesn't seem to care for the new locale and he REALLY doesn't like the fact that I put the top back on the box.  I just hope I don't come home to an apartment with crap all over it because he's mad at me for the change.  As much as I enjoy bubblebaths, I've really been in the mood for showers lately (probably because it's been so hot outside) and it was a pain moving his box out and putting it back in when I was done (plus having to wipe down the shower each time was a pain).  Now that I'm using the shower regularly, one weird thing I noticed is that it doesn't drain while I'm in it.  I don't know if it's because the water is on or the weight of me standing in it or what.  But last night I noticed that water wasn't going down the drain during the shower and I didn't feel any suction when I put my hand over it.  I thought "Damn!  I don't have a plunger and I've been meaning to get one!".  So I got out and when I turned around and looked inside all the water was gone.  Strange eh? 

The whole shower is weird.  It's fairly big and square shaped, but has a small door.  I mean, it's not so small you can't get into it, but it's narrower than any other shower door I've ever seen.  I think I need to get one of those pole organizers to put in one of the corners.  The only place to put anything up high is the soap dish on the wall and that doesn't cut it!  I've got all my potion bottles (shampoos, conditioners, scrubs, etc) lined up on the floor and I'm lazy enough that I don't want to have to bend over to get everything!

So now I have a super clean bathroom (it smells like bleach!...kind of), everything is dusted and the clothes in my closet are back in order.  Hooray!  The only things I have left to do are: vacuum the carpets and wash the kitchen floor / counters.  Maybe I'll do that this afternoon when I get home from work.  Oh yeah and I still need to go through my possessions, yet again, and cull stuff out, but I'm not in the mood to do that right now. 

Hey, do any of you guys know anyone who wants to buy some Tick action figures?  I have a bunch still in their packaging that I want to get rid of.  I'd put them up on Ebay, but there doesn't seem to be much of a market for them.  How about a talking Dan Marino figure?  Anyone want one of those?

Yay, it's Friday!  It took a looooong time to get here!  I can't wait for 3:15pm to get here so I can go home and relax!  I've been up since 2:12am this morning (exactly!) and, I tell ya, an afternoon and evening of lounging around my apartment is looking pretty good!

I'm going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon / evening (congratulations Audry!!!).  Should be super nice, but I hope I get home early.  It's at 5:30pm...... I wonder what the appropriate length of time to stay at a wedding is?  The whole thing is at a residence, so there won't be any driving around from place to place, which is nice.  I hope this doesn't sound really bad, but I'm hoping to be home by 9pm at the latest.  I figure the ceremony will take, what, 30 minutes?  Then there will be the usual commotion of settling everyone at their assigned tables, serving of food, eating, toasting the bride and groom (diet coke for me!), then cake, right?  That should take us to, what, 8:00 - 8:30pm?  Then it shouldn't take more than 45 minutes to drive home (it's out in the San Gabriel Valley). 

I probably sound kinda calculating, but there are going to be co-workers at this wedding and I'm the supervisor of three of them!  Including the bride!  They'll probably be way more comfortable when I'm gone anyway!  Once their supervisor has bailed they can drink the night away and get crazy!  At least I hope they do!  I've got a really good staff and they work really hard.  They deserve to cut loose and have a good time.  Okay.... and I'm not taking a date and weddings are no fun when you don't have a date to be romantic and dance with.  Pathetic, party of one?  RIGHT HERE!  I feel really flattered to have been invited to the wedding at all since the guest list is so small.  It makes me feel good that the bride thinks enough of me personally to ask me to share in this big day.  She didn't invite a lot of her co-workers and didn't invite my boss (who is also her boss).  I guess I'm not such a hard ass meanie afterall?  Damn!  I gotta work on that!!!!

Now the question is: What do I wear?  It's afternoon / evening, so should I wear my wine and black semi formal dress (if it still fits)?  Or can I wear lighter, more summery colors since it's going to be light  out part of the time?  What would Emily Post recommend?

Maybe I'll just get something new tomorrow.  I still have gift cards for Nordstrom and Macy's I can use. :-)

*UPDATE* Hawaii 5-0 Season One just arrived!  Jack Lord!  Yesssssssss!

Wow, I spent all day yesterday in bed.  I went into the office for about three hours, but ended-up going home around 8am.  I took a shower, threw on some boxer shorts and a t-shirt and went to bed.  I thought the left side of my head was going explode.  The jackhammering in my neighborhood didn't help things, but I managed to tune most of it out.  Now the right side of my head hurts, but it's not quite as bad as the left was yesterday.

Gotham was great, he stuck by me all day.

I think he got bored with Quincy and Rockford files DVD's though.  We switched back to his favorite, Gilmore Girls, Season One around 3pm.  Hopefully he will be more excited about Season One of Hawaii 5-0 when that arrives than he was about Rockford and Quincy. 

With all the sleeping we did, I'm kind of surprised that I could still catch a few more hours right now!   Off to sleep............

I still don't feel well.  I think the best course of action would be to rest, which is what I plan on doing for the duration of the day. 

Yikes, I don't feel well today.  Actually, I haven't for a couple of days.  I've got a lot to do at work today, so I don't know if I'll be able to go home early or not.  I'm going to try and leave around 1pm if I can.  I wonder if it's the heat or if I'm really getting sick?  This is not convenient.  At all.  I don't have time to feel unwell.

The weekend was quiet.  I spent most of Saturday cleaning and waiting for my Rockford Files Season One DVD set to be delivered.  It didn't arrive until almost 7pm!  Thank goodness the Quincy DVD's I ordered got there on Friday, so I at least had something new to watch. 

Weird thing - I slept walked Saturday night.  I haven't done that in a while!  I found a bunch of stuff re-arranged around the apartment and I put stuff in the kitchen that you wouldn't ordinarily have there (pillows, shoes, etc.).  It was weird waking up Sunday morning and finding everything misplaced and wondering how it happened.  First thing I did was check all the doors, windows, etc. to make sure they were still locked and that I didn't wander around outside. 

I didn't do much on Sunday since that's when I started to not feel well.  Pretty much watched DVD's with the lights off and blinds / curtains closed.

Have I mentioned that I got a 97% in that class I took?  Our entire grade was based on the final and I only missed one question.  Out of all 12 quizzes I took, I only missed a total of two questions (they didn't count towards our grade though).  Too bad I have absolutely no interest in the subject matter, so it doesn't do me any good.  :-(  This reminded me how much I hate school.  I mean, I REALLY don't like studying, quizzes or tests.  Ah well, at least I have a certificate that I can look at.  At least the dumb class is over.

Just ordered Season One of the Rockford Files and Seasons one and two of Quincy from Amazon.  Should arrive Saturday (Thanks Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping!), just in time for me to watch it all weekend!  Hooray!  1,156 minutes of crime drama from 1974 / 1975!  That's almost 20 hours!  Laundry, cleaning, messing with my hair color and Jim Rockford.  My weekend looks like it's going to be pretty darn good. 

Yay, I got an appointment to get my hair cut in Arcadia tomorrow at 3:30pm!!!!  I'll have to leave a little early from work, but that's ok.  :-)   It also means I'll be getting home a bit later, I hope traffic doesn't suck too badly.  The 134 / 101 West are usually packed Friday afternoon / evenings.  Too bad Yvonne didn't have any openings this afternoon that I could book.  LOL, I don't know why I'm sweating getting home a bit later tomorrow, it's not like I have any Friday night plans that getting home later will ruin! I haven't been to see Yvonne in MONTHS.  She's been booked every time I've wanted to go in, so I've gone to see Alex in B. Hills.  I just don't feel up to dealing with him right now (deflecting Mr. Grab Handy is a pain sometimes, while, oddly, being a compliment other times).  I'm still kinda peeved at him for wrecking my hair color the last time I went in and got highlights.  It took forever to get rid of my red hair and he went and put it back!  I had to go home and re-color my hair to make it brown again......I paid a lot of money for highlights that I went home and covered!  Plus he's way more expensive for a simple cut / trim.  There's a big difference in cost between going to Beverly Hills and the Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, that's for sure!  Location, Location, Location, I guess.

I took a break from posting.  I've been busy and, quite honestly, I just didn't feel like writing anything.

San Diego Comic Con 2011 was terrible.  Worst con in the 11 years I've been attending.  I did, however, get a 4-day pass for next year.  As of now, there's no way that I'm going, but I wanted to get a pass just in case I change my mind.  I believe I have until next June to return it for a refund.  There's no way I'm going to go through the pass on-sale fiasco I went through this year again next year.  No.  Way.  In.  Hell.  So yeah, I got my pass.  Just to show you how retarded the people running the convention are, this is how they ran the pre-sales for next year:

What they said was going to happen - They published that they were going to sell the 2012 passes from 8am - 11am each day of the convention at a hotel just down the street from the convention center.  In order to purchase a pass for next year, you needed to be holding a current pass for the day you planned on buying the pass for next year.  For example, in order for me to buy my 2012 pass on Friday, I had to hold a valid "Friday 2011" badge.  If I didn't have one, I couldn't buy the pass.  That's all they posted (that I could find).

Reality - Without telling the public the exact details, SDCC only planned on selling a very limited number of passes each day, so in fact, they weren't going to be selling passes for three hours.  The sale only lasted until the number of passes allocated for that day ran out.  I think the number was 2,400 with a limit of 2 passes per person.  They created the "panic" atmosphere that we all had to endure while standing in line.  If people think passes are scarce, they freak out and that's exactly what happened.  I didn't panic, but I could feel people around me going through it.

Effect - Because of the fiasco of the onsales for 2011 and the low number of passes being sold each day, the line to get next year's passes started forming overnight, every night, with the line going from the ballroom door, off the hotel property, around the shops / restaurants, down the breezeway and on to the little island across the way from the hotel.  Attendees far back in line were usually turned away well before 8am.  There were so many people in line for next year that the line for the 2012 passes rivaled the line to pick up badges for this year's convention!  I got up early Friday (3:30am) to shower, change, pack and stow my stuff at the concierge desk for the day.  Then I checked out of my hotel room and walked down to stand in line.  I got there a bit past 5am and was probably # 1,000 in line.  I kid you not.  Even though I got there before 5:30am, I was so far back in line that I was way out on that little island and I didn't think I'd get a ticket. 

If you look beyond the American Flag (behind the girl in the photo), that's the convention center waaaaay far away.  I took this photo from where I was in line Thursday morning to pick up my badges to get in to this years convention.  I was at about that same spot at 5:15am Friday morning to stand in line get the passes for 2012.  The hotel is to the left of the convention center.

They had a guy at the door of the hotel ballroom who would ask each person who walked past him how many passes they were going to buy, and then hand them the appropriate number of tickets to hold.  When he ran out of his tickets, they shut the door (keeping a couple of people outside in case some purchases were cancelled).  Surprisingly, I was able to get in and it looked like I was about halfway back in the Disneyland line from hell. 

Here is a photo of the line inside the ballroom.  If you look to the back on the top of the right side, you can barely see a blue curtain.  THAT'S where the computer terminals were to purchase your badges.  I was about halfway back.  Dig the guy sleeping in the foreground!

The mere fact that I was able to get in with this many people in front of me leads me to believe that most people were only getting one pass.  Once they got everyone in the room, they announced that each of us were guaranteed to be able to purchase admission for four days for the 2012 convention..... BUT that those four days may be via 4-day pass with preview night (this one cost more than the regular 4-day for the first time ever), Regular 4-day pass, or single day passes.  They only had a limited number of each to sell that day.  Then we all hunkered down on the floor to wait.  We were grouped in clusters of three lines each between cloth barriers, so you really got to know your neighbors. Get this, one of the more f-ed up things that they announced was about 2.5 hours into being inside the guy gets on the PA system and says that they will not be accepting Discover cards.  Seriously!  I expected fights to break out!  You don't tell a bunch of sleep deprived nerds that their possible form of payment will not be accepted AFTER they've been in line for that long!  At a little after 8am (late) they started calling people up to the computer terminals (I think there were about 50 of them).  At 9:30am on the dot I received my receipt and walked out the door to go sit in room 6DE for the 2nd day in a row.

Keep in mind that, in years past, SDCC has been able to set up an unassuming booth in the main entrance causeway that people could walk up to and buy their passes for next year.  I've never seen a line at that booth and the person manning it usually looked bored.  You can see it in the background of this photo from 2009 (look for the banner at the center top of the picture).  See?  No line with thousands of people in it!  I'd be willing to bet that the attendance numbers from 2009 aren't too far off from 2011 either.:

I have no idea why they changed everything this past year.  Everything about their tickets / badges / passes was a nightmare from the get-go.

I wasted over FOUR HOURS standing in line.  That's on top of the approximately SIX HOURS I spent online trying to get tickets for this years convention.  They don't see a problem with that?  Seriously?

The whole line situation cast a shadow over the convention, so I didn't do much.  I sat in one room the whole time, room 6DE.  Ah, two days in a row, from 9am (Thursday) and 9:45am (Fri) until 5:30pm I sat in that room.  No bathroom breaks.  No leaving to wander the convention floor.  I was miserable.  With the way they've been running it, you weren't guaranteed to get back in the room if you left and it was announced a few times that they had run out of passes to let you back in if you needed to leave to go to the bathroom.  Luckily I brought water and fruit so I didn't die of starvation and thirst. :-)

I never got to the convention floor.  I didn't go out to any bars as my best friend who was going to come down Thursday night ended up having to work late.  I didn't go to any shows.  No parties.  No events.  Nothing.  When I left Friday night I was so disheartened that I (and I am loathe to admit this) cried part of the way home.  The drive home that took me over THREE hours.  It only took an hour and a half to get down there, but over THREE to get home?  I still had a Sunday pass to use, but I knew that there was no way that I was driving back down just have a miserable time.  I stayed home the rest of the weekend and sulked, pouted and felt sorry for myself.

Apart from a couple of interesting panels, the only nice thing that happened was when new Super Boy writer Scott Lobdell, who was bored before his panel started, commented that he liked my hair.  Seriously.  That's the high point of the convention for me.  A writer telling me, from the dais, that I had nice, full hair.  Gah.  Thanks Scott Lobdell!!!!  Shout out to you!  Sadly, you were the bright spot of my convention experience!

I was planning on going to the Long Beach con in October, but I've cancelled everything.   I know it's a low-rent convention, but it's usually fun because there's hardly anyone there and you never have to stand in line for anything.  Anyway, I'm not going this year.

I dunno.  Maybe it's time I put the comics down?  Should I pack up the books, action figures, artwork, costume, nick knacks, shirts, watches, DVD's, etc and just grow up?  I am a single 41 year-old woman, maybe I shouldn't be reading comics anymore.  It's hard to imagine *not* reading them, they've been a part of my life since I was a little girl in the 70's.  Maybe it's time.  None of my friends read them, so I don't have anyone to talk to about them anymore and that's no fun.  That was one of the best parts of reading comics and buying comic-related stuff.  Showing everything to friends and discussing them.  Sure, I can post stuff here, but that's not the same.  Trashing or praising a writer here where I'm on my soapbox is one thing, having a back and forth discussion and an exchange of ideas is another.  I like that back and forth.

Why do I feel weepy all of a sudden?