My day at LBCC was interesting.  I was supposed to go for the entire weekend, but I only went on Saturday.  It was my first comic book convention in over a year (since last year's LBCC) and I was hoping that by attending, it might get me back into comic books.

I'm so pleased that I was able to reconnect with someone important from my past, however brief our exchange was.  That alone made the trek up and down the crappy 710 FWY worth it.  It even made the uncomfortable chairs (my hips still hurt, but that might be because I'm old) and freezing cold rooms bearable (almost).  Seriously, I was wearing jeans, thick socks, Doc Martins, two shirts, a hoodie and a puffer vest and I was STILL shivering.  Still, it was all worth it.  Although, I wish I could have looked a little nicer.  I was dressed for comfort, not seeing someone I haven't seen or talked to in a few years.  Of course THEY looked amazingly awesome, which only made it worse that I wasn't wearing stilettos and a sexy ballgown.  Okay, maybe that wouldn't be right either.  I have no clue what you should be wearing in these situations, but being ultra casual doesn't seem like the best route to take to impress someone.

What else did I do at the convention?  I watched the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special (it was good), a RAW films thing (Lance Hendricksen, etc), sat through an uncomfortable presentation of "Grindhouse" films, saw the former cast of "Young Justice" show how much they enjoyed working with each other (the show was cancelled), another panel on animation and then a spotlight panel.  Apart from the Grindhouse thing (no offense to the people who did it, just not my cup of tea), they were all pretty good, especially the spotlight panel.  Some people are simply a pleasure to watch and listen to.

As I was driving home I had the news on the radio, trying to keep an ear out for traffic reports.  A story came on that gave me pause.  The reporter announced that Wanda Coleman passed away.  I don't know if you are familiar with her, but she was an amazing poet from here in Los Angeles.  I used to watch her on late night TV performing with Henry Rollins and Exene Cervenka when I was in high school, then I was able to see her perform live when I was in college.  She was electrifying.  I know I'm not a black woman who grew up in South Central Los Angeles with the same battles and struggles she faced, but she resonated with me.She was my generations Maya Angelou.  Maya Angelou without the pseudo intellectual barrier that seems to separate her from her readers.  People say they read Maya Angelou because it sounds good.  It makes you seem smart.  Wanda, on the hand...... if you said you read her, people expected to you to back it up.  What did you read?  Where did you see her?  What was your favorite part?  What's your favorite poem?  If you found someone who read her, they wanted to talk about it and share it with you.  How often does that happen in this day and age with a POET?  Rest in Peace Wanda, I'm going to see if I can dig up the video I have of you reading "I Live for my Car".  What a masterpiece.

It was a bittersweet day.

Typical!!!

Just to show how forgetful I am, I walked out of the house without my phone this morning. I forgot to charge it overnight, so I plugged it in thinking "I won't forget it because my Saturday alarm is going to go off at its normal time and I'll have to turn it off". Welllllll, either I left before it went off (had to run errands) or I didn't hear it.  So now I'm stuck all day without a phone! At least I have my IPad, right?

BAH!!!!

Finally!

Well you guys, I passed it!!!!  It's been about a week and still hasn't sunk in.  I slayed the monster!!!  For years I said I would never take the test.  I had a boss that would periodically ask me about it and my answer was always the same "No way, I don't need it and I won't pass it anyway, so why would I put myself through that?".  I honestly didn't think I would be able to pass it.  I know the way my brain works and it's been too long since I was at a point in my life where I had to seriously study.  Plus, I figured that if I took the exam and got the license, that would mean I was stuck in this industry with no chance of getting out.  Well, 13 years later, I've come to the realization that the simple fact that I've been in this industry so long pretty much means that I am indeed stuck!  I thought about it long and hard and realized that I needed to get the license in order to make better opportunities for myself.

A little background on it:  In my industry, it's the BIG one. Six hours long!  It covers all aspects of this business.  There's math, regulatory questions, legal questions, suitability / recommendation questions, client questions, etc.  Anything you can think of is on it.  With a twist.  The writers of the test want you to fail.  They word the questions with the intent of messing you up and getting you to pick the wrong answer.  It's FAMOUS for it.  I'm not just saying that because I found it difficult.  It's true!

Even getting to the point where you are sitting down to take the exam is a trying experience.  My test appointment was set for 7am.  I got there 30 minutes early, per the instructions (actually, I got there an hour early, cause that's how I roll).  I had to lock my car keys up in a locker and was only allowed to bring in my drivers license.  I even had to leave my watch in the car!  Keep in mind that if you are caught cheating on this exam, you are barred from the industry for life, so it's dumb to even try it.  I heard about a guy who got caught hiding a text book in the mens room, how dumb is that??!!???  So, once I put my keys in the locker, I had to go in, pull out the pockets of my jeans and hoodie, I had to pull the hood out so they could see that there wasn't a cheating device hidden in it, I had to push up my sleeves to show my arms were bare and nothing was there to help me cheat, I had to pull up my pant legs to show that nothing was strapped to my legs or in my socks to help me cheat and I had to get "wanded" so they could make sure that they didn't miss any electronic devices that may be strapped to my person to help me cheat.  If I wasn't nervous before, I was then (and this was my second license, so I'd already been through it a year ago).  After all that, I had to get my thumb scanned, my photo taken and sign in on a log sheet to confirm who I am and that the personal information they had is correct.  Once all that was done, I was given my driver's license back,  a basic calculator, two sheets of laminated paper, two crappy thin black markers and a laminated sheet with the number of my testing cubicle on it.  One I was escorted to the cubicle (that was wired for sound and had a camera on me), I had to start the test before I could write anything down on the crappy laminated paper (which kind of sucked since I had formulas, diagrams and charts I needed to copy down).  On the last licensing exam I took, I got a talking to for drawing three lines on the "paper" before I started the exam.  Three lines!!!!

I took 10 minutes to copy down all the stuff I needed to write down and then I took a few deep breaths and then dug in for the first three hour segment.  It wasn't too bad.  I'm sure I made careless mistakes, but I felt good going into the mandatory break.  When I got back 30 minutes later, it was a different story.  The second half was a KILLER.  Taxes!  Limited Partnerships!  Hedge Funds!  GAH!!!  Everything I was weak on in the study materials was on the second half of the exam.  Of COURSE it was!

When you're done, you have to click on "exit".  Then it asks "are you sure you want to exit?", you click on "yes", then it asks "you are about to exit the exam, is this was you want to do?", "YES!!!", then it says "you are exiting the exam, click on cancel if you do not wish to" (or something like that).  Are you serious?  You're asking me THREE times if I'm good with finishing this test?  So after you click to get out you have to sit there and wait for your results.  It's the LONGEST waiting period in your life.  You can almost see your heart beating in your chest.  When the notice came up that I passed, I just sat there, stunned.

I studied for this exam for an entire year and I took a week long class down in Orange County given by the best in the business.  Not counting the ast six weeks before the exam (which the study time was amped up by a zillion percent) I put in, on average, three hours a night during the week and 6 hours a day most weekends.  I even studied at Gallifrey this year before my friends woke up for the day.  I fucking earned this!!!!

Like I said above, it still hasn't sunk in though.  There are times that I feel guilty that I'm not studying!  I'm going to get one more license, but I heard that the one I want to get it isn't that hard.  Maybe after Christmas.  This will be my first Christmas in two years that I won't be studying for a licensing exam.

Changes (again)!

You know, no one else will, but I find it interesting that I spent almost 10 years living in the same apartment in Korea town and then, once I moved out, I find myself moving really often.  So far it's been:

K-Town
M-Town
S. City
P-Town

Now I find myself back in the vicinity of my old hood!  I'm in LA again. YAY!!!!  I'm back in the land of inconvenient marathons, tar pits, traffic gridlock and every type of food you could ever want!  I'm home!

I knew I either wanted to go back to where I was before (or thereabouts), or maybe end up in the Los Feliz district. So one Saturday I grabbed my clipboard, apartment sheets, IPad and headed over.  Found a street fairly central to the neighborhood I liked, parked my car and just walked up down the streets looking for interesting apartments for rent.  The minute I got out of my car and started walking around, I felt back at home and comfortable.  It's a nicer area than where I was before (and I have the higher rent to prove it). At least all utilities are included, right? Plus, I have a dishwasher and garbage disposal.  My landlord went to great lengths to stress to me that my apartment is the only unit in the entire building with those two things.  It used to be his apartment, so I guess he made sure he had all the best amenities.  Too bad I'm not really a dishwasher / garbage disposal type of person.  He also REALLY pushed the fact that I have a courtyard with a fountain outside my apartment windows and "you know, with a glass of wine, it's very, very romantic".  Agh!  I don't want my apartment manager waxing lyrical about the romantic possibilities of a fountain.  Of course, that doesn't stop me from chiding him that the fountain has been out of order since I moved in, so I haven't been able to experience the full romance of it yet.  With my cat. :-)

My new apartment building is really cool.  It was built in the 1920's and has loads of character.  The world's smallest and oldest elevator can be found right down the hall from my unit!  It matches the mailboxes, which I think were installed when the building was erected.  Sometimes I can get my key to work, sometimes not.  It's a crap-shoot!  I don't think the lobby has been decorated since 1986, it's really kind of shabby and threadbare, so I try to come in through the back.  Besides, going through the back means I can use my key and not punch in the security code.  Not that the code is a big deal, I'm just lazy and bad at remembering numbers.

Gotham has settled in well.  Unlike my temporary pad from November to September, he doesn't walk around the place crying day and night!  He's back to being his old self.  I think he likes the layout of the new place with all of the closets and stuff.  Plus, I HAVE A DRESSING ROOM AGAIN!!!!!  Granted, it's not a separate room down the hall and you have to pass through it to get to the grotty bathroom (the bathroom really is gross. I need to do some work in there!), but it IS a dressing room.  Built in dresser, shelves and armoire,  It's also got a lighted vanity with table (a small one).

This last weekend I bought a cheap drill and put up curtains in the living room (and the usual fairy lights), rearranged the furniture and hung some of my art up on the walls (both items I purchased and those I painted myself). I still have boxes all over the place, but it's starting to look like home.  I just need to find the wall studs in the bedroom so that I can hang curtains in there.  The walls are plaster and lathe, so if I put a screw in the wrong place it just punches through (yes, I've done this once already).  Luckily every window has blinds, so privacy hasn't been an issue (yet).

The "Walk Score" of my new place is 91, which is awesome!  I can walk to bars, food places, two different Ralphs grocery stores and Trader Joe's PLUS I've found a new place to get my hair done.  I decided that I really liked being able to walk to my last place, so I chose I place a couple of doors east of La Brea.  I've also noticed that there's a "Five Guys" burger place nearby.  I heard a while ago that they were really good, so I may have to try them.  "Whimsic Alley" is a new place I want to check out that's close by.  They're having a Doctor Who event in November!  I don't have to worry about driving, cool!  Kinda expensive, so I'll have to see if anyone else wants to go.  I'm not gonna spend $100 to stand by myself all night wjen I can do that at home for free, LOL.  Too bad I moved in to my new place after the price jumped up to almost DOUBLE, I never had a chance!

Parking is kind of an issue, but it will sort itself out.  I went through hell (and survived) and got a parking permit and a visitor pass.  Since I take the bus to work, I have to make sure my car gets moved for street cleaning, which is a pain.  Not a huge deal though.  Most of the time I don't park on my street since, for some reason, parking seems easier on other blocks.

So, that's it for this entry.  Things are moving along pretty well.  All I need to do is study and try to drop all the weight I gained when I lived at my last place (I miss all that home made food cooked in fat and all the evening cocktails!!!!).  Fingers-crossed the weight goes and the studying pays off!

Happy Father's Day, I love you daddy!!!!

I called my dad this morning, it was the first time in about four phone calls to my parents house that he's actually been home.  It was good to catch up with him! He sounds good and everything is going well. He got the flowers and card I sent, so that's good!!!! I think he said he had an iris (or orchid) club meeting later today. I'm glad he's doing things he loves!

Gotham seemed really sick yesterday afternoon. He was sitting in the corner, staring at me but not reacting to anything I said. I scooped him up and he just sort of went limp and felt warm. I laid him on the bed, directed a fan at him and put a bag of ice on him ( you know he must have been sick if he let me do that!). I tried to get him to drink water, but he wouldn't. I held him for a while and stayed up checking on him. His breathing was okay, so I didn't take him to the emergency room.

He must be okay now because he woke up early and bit me on the ear. Good kitty!!!

I'm thankful that both my dad and kitty are doing well and are happy!

Post birthday, er post! I had a great time on my birthday. I am truly lucky to have friends to celebrate with. We went to dinner at The Addiction Bistro before the show. I HIGHLY recommend their desserts! We shared a fresh brownie with Eskimo Pie ice cream. I. Have. No. Words. It was incredible!

Here is a photo of us post-food! The bottles are fancy foreign diet cola. That sucked.




The Thrilling Adventure Hour was amazing and I'm glad I was finally able to go after the last few years of meaning to make it over.  We got performances of Sparks Nevada AND Beyond Belief.  Saw Len Wein in between performances. Stayed at a distance though. I almost wish I would have gone over to say hello. It was my birthday after all!

So, turning 43, all in all, wasn't so bad.

Went to my skin doctor Friday. I'm down to once every few months now, which is good. He took a few biopsies, but I'm not worried. They haven't come back positive in two years, so why would they now? The only crappy thing is that one of them was taken from my ear. I got almost no sleep last night! It KILLED! Every time I turned over, BAM!  Pain shot up my head.  I finally took the band aid off this afternoon and was horrified to see a chunk gone!!!!! No wonder it's been painful! I guess I will have to keep my hair long for a while. :-( I've been really tempted to get it all cut off to my old pixie cut and that's now out if the question. Bummer!!!!

Well, that's about it for now. Let me know if you have any haircut suggestions! They must cover my ears!

Finally, Some Gallifrey Photos!

First, I haven't posted a photo of Gotham in a while and here's one with a snazzy green ribbon.  As you can see, he's still the most handsome cat in the universe.  And I have way too many pillows on the bed.

This blog is going to have lot's of typos and bad grammar.  Sorry.  I haven't had much time to proof and it's been written in three different locations on different devices / computers.

Yes, I'm really going to post some photos my friend took at Gallifrey One this year.  I know you’re thinking, “It’s about time”…..right?  I would say that I've been busy, and that’s partly true, but in reality, the logistics of actually being able to post them has been what’s taken so long.  My laptop doesn't seem to like the Wi-Fi at the house and I got rid of my air card a while ago.  The only other option was to hook up a hard line, but that’s gone missing.  I've had to resort to putting some of them on an external and bringing them to a computer that doesn't hate the Wi-Fi it’s attached to.  I’ll probably post more when I've had a chance to look through all of them, but this will be a good sampling.

Before I post the photos, I’m happy to report that my birthday plans for this year are going to be really cool.  I've been wanting to go to the “Thrilling Adventure Hour” for the past couple of years, but since I always wait too long, it’s usually sold out when I think to get tickets.  Well, this year it falls exactly on my birthday and I’m going to BOTH shows.  J  If you want to learn more about the show, go to www.thrillingadventurehour.com

A little about Gallifrey 2013.  It was an odd convention.  Lot's of fun, but nothing really amazing.  Now that a couple of months have passed and I'm looking back on it, not a whole lot stands out.  That sounds like a bad review, but it isn't.

FYI - I usually go straight from work on Friday, so it's a struggle to stay up much past 9pm (hey, I get up at 3:45am!).  I believe I managed to stay up until after midnight this year.... hooray!

I should preface everything with a bit of a side story.  I have a friend at work who went to a numerology workshop and she decided to figure out the "numbers" of her friends.  Turns out she and I have the same number (6).  Since we're the same, she gives me all of the information she gets from this woman who figures out the types of days you're going to have based on that number.  Anyway, she gave me a 2013 calendar and it has a symbol on each day for what type of day it's going to be for people with the number 6.  I look at the calendar, usually after the fact, to see if it was accurate or not.  Well, about a week ahead of the convention, I looked at the weekend of Gallifrey and it turned out that Friday was going to be "ok", but that the rest of the days were going to be bad.  "Forwarned", I thought!  I'll be prepared, so nothing can disappoint me or upset me.  Let's get the weekend started!

Friday was indeed "ok".  After a "meh" day at work, I got to the hotel in good time.  Hauled all my crap up to the room.  Luckily my other friends had already checked in and were waiting for me, so everything was easy.  We went down to the Con and sat in on some panels and the opening ceremony, went and got something to eat, went to the room for a bit and then went back downstairs to join in on some of the fun activities.

Now, to the Gallifrey photos:

This is us on the first night.  Yes, I know everyone else looks great, but I look terribly rugged.  DON'T REMIND ME!  You would too if you’d been up for almost 24 hours straight.  Make-up gone and hair in need of a good brush. This photo was taken during Karaoke.  If I remember correctly, Tony Lee did a great Bohemian Rhapsody, even with a sore throat!  Believe it or not, we’re all sober. I didn't want to be hungover the next day!  I had to get up early Saturday to study and then go get my hair done in my old neighborhood in Studio City.....all by 9am.  I was up at 6am like a good girl who needed to study.  A hangover would have been really bad.

So, keeping in mind that the number-lady said Saturday and Sunday were going to be bad days for me, I did all I could to mitigate the damages.  As I said, I woke up nice and early to go down to the lobby to study.  I brought my Ipad and headphones and needed to use the Wi-Fi.  I spent over an hour logging on to it and being booted off.  I managed to make reservations at the steak restaurant for dinner that night though (even though they told me on the phone that they weren't taking them).  I finally gave up trying to study and decided I should leave for my hair appointment.  I had some extra time, so I was going to take the scenic route (i.e, up La Cienega, over to Laurel Canyon and over the hill to Ventura Blvd).  When I was at about Mullholland, my phone rang.  It was my hairdresser calling to say that some guy wasn't going to be in today as he was sick and could they reschedule?  I laughed and told her that my appointment was with her, not him.  She basically said "oh shit, I can't take you today".  I was almost there and she was cancelling!  I was determined to not let it bother me though, so I told her not to worry about it.  I needed to pick up some orange juice, so I stopped at the market at Laurel and Ventura before heading back.

The panels were good.  Costumers, spin off shows.  Character actors, all of it good fun.  Only hard part was the comic book panel I went to. I had a really hard time paying attention.  Plus I was kinda lost since (sadly) I haven't picked up a comic in quite a long time.

That night, we went down to the steak restaurant in the hotel.  Bang on time for our reservation.  We were seated quickly and then promptly forgotten about.  When the waiter finally came back, he got my order  wrong.  No problem, I thought.  Just roll with it.  Then he forgot about us again!  We finally got our check, which was wrong, paid and left.  We had programming to go to!!!  Masquerades!  Comedy shows!  Went back up to the room for a little bit and headed back down to programming.

Sunday was pretty much the same, but in smaller ways.  Panels saw me having babies right in front of me (not me actually having the babies, but they were on the floor in front of me), people with Funyun breath.  One older lady farted, burped and coughed her way through an entire panel.  Seriously.  If it wasn't so gross, it would have been hilarious!

Well, I can't say I wasn't forewarned!  Glynis said it would be a bad weekend!  I'm glad I didn't let that stop me from having a good time though.  We really did have fun!

On to more photos!!!

The Doctor at this convention was number 7, Sylvester McCoy.  It was my second convention with him and he was marvelous.  I think it helped that he’d just come off the Hobbit and was asked quite a few "Radagast the Brown" questions, along with the normal, boring ones about being the Doctor .

He was all over the place. More energetic than I've ever seen him!  At one of the panels he decided to take all questions while wandering around the audience.  Brave man!

There are a couple of people I look forward to seeing every year, one of those people is Gary Russell, not only because he came to my defense a few years ago when Paul Cornell basically said I was ugly when it was my turn to ask a question at a panel, but because he is a very smart, funny and an incredibly nice man.  He simply loves the Doctor and it shows.  One of these years my friends and I are going to hang out with him.  He seems like he would be a kick!  Nah, I can't see me hanging out with him.  He's far too cool!  

Side note, Paul Cornell is supposed to be at the convention next year.  I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  And by "cross that bridge", I mean probably avoid him.

Lucky Gary got to interview Freeman Agyeman.  Can I tell you that she’s even prettier in person and just as sweet as can be?  Very generous and kind to everyone she came into contact with.

Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Daleks!) and Jason Haigh-Ellery are also two people we’d love to hang out with.  Actually, I’d love to work for these guys!  I've heard the lunches are amazing....  Each year they tease us with new things on the horizon for Big Finish and always have interesting stories and gossip.  I was pleased to see that they would be back next year.

Villains!  Or ARE they?  We had Sontarans and Silurians!  No, that’s not Debra Messing.

Ian McNeice's Winston Churchill made another appearance this year.  I’m always amazed at what a bombastic personality he is on stage, compared to the shy man you see walking through the corridors of the hotel.  He never fails to make us laugh.

Mark Shepard was there (what sci-fi convention would be complete without him?  I mean he has been on ALL the shows).  Last year was the first convention I'd seen him at and he had us all in stitches.  All he does is make comments and answer questions.  Very casual, but it really works for him.  It was too bad his dad couldn't be there this year.  They were a good double act last year.   At this point, I could complain about the dirty hippie clan of shrews breast feeding  / baby situation that worked really hard to ruin his panel, but I won’t…

Pete Tyler!!!  Shaun Dingwall.  He looks a lot younger in person than he did on the show. Another person who was kind and friendly to all the fans. 

Turlough!  Mark Strickson has done a lot of interesting things since his Who days.  He's also the documentary director / filmaker who brought us Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

WIGGLES!!!!  The best service dog / convention goer ever!  Each year she has a different costume, but always brings the same, sweet demeanor.

Ben Browder ("Isaac" from Doctor Who episode “A Town Called Mercy”).  This is another guy who has been in loads of sci-fi. - Star Gate, Farscape, etc).  He sounds like Nick Nolte and is funny as hell.  To be honest, I only sat in on his panel because I had some time to kill, but I’m glad I did.  A very humble, likable family guy who can't seem to believe he's been able to make a living at being an actor.

Anjli Mohindra from the Sarah Jane Adventures being interviewed by Tony Lee and his waistcoat.

A panel we sat in on.  Don’t ask me which one it was.

That's it for now.  I'm sure I'll post more when I've gone through them a bit more closely.  Suffice it to say, we had a good time, bad numerology and all.  I've got two amazing friends who go with me to Gallifrey each year and I'm truly lucky that we have the same nerdy interest.  They make this convention for me.

We're all set for 2014, only glitch was that the hotel sold out before we knew the blocks were even open.  Fingers-crossed there are some cancellations!

Thank you to everyone who we met or had fun with this year!

As usual, it's been a while since I've blogged.

Gotham and I have settled into the new digs nicely.  Not sure how long we're going to be here, but for now, it's nice.  I've been thinking about the West Side, but I'm not sure.  There are a lot of things to take into consideration.

I've got some photos from Gallifrey to post, but I don't have my external drive handy to put them up.  Will try to do that later.  We had a good time.  We didn't even make a dent in the booze or food we brought.  The apples I brought in a weak attempt to be healthy went completely untouched, apart from one I took.  The cookies however.......  Anyway, will post more about that later.

I got an Ipad about 6 weeks ago and am still trying to figure out how to use it.  I've figured out the basics, but haven't really spent the quality time necessary to learn other stuff.  Once I get the hang of it, I should be able to do a lot.

Well, better be off.

Oh yeah, I'm still off Twitter (other than posting if I update the blog), so if you are reading this and make mention of it or anything, chances are I won't see it. Soooo just shoot me an email.

Happy Birthday CBLMW.  I'm terrible with dates, I hope I got it right.