The road to Rhode Island

A few friends of mine went to the Rhode Island Comic Con last weekend and invited me along.  One of my friends has already written two posts on his blog about our trip, which can be found here and here.  Josh is a great writer and a much better blogger than me, so if you want a better account of the trip, follow the links to his blog!

We went to the con on Saturday.  I hadn't been to any sci-fi or comic convention since high school, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  It was fantastic!  There were lots of talented artists there, as well as vendors selling interesting, geeky things.  I also saw Lando Calrissian.  I thought it would be creepy/stalkery to take a photo of Billy Dee Williams from a few feet away, so I don't have one.  Sorry.  Still, it was kind of cool to see Lando in person.  I was already familiar with one of the artists I met there.  Her name was Karen Hallion, and I have a few t-shirts with her work on it.

I have this on a blue tee.

Another artist I met was Chrissie Zullo.  She was very friendly, and I loved her work so much that it was hard to pick just one print.  So I got two.

A lot of people were dressed up in amazing costumes that obviously took a lot of effort.  My friends' daughter wanted photos of quite a few of them.  People were always very nice about having their picture taken.  Sometimes they'd strike a pose.  I know I'd think it was neat if I dressed up and people thought it was so cool that they wanted a photo.  The con had a great atmosphere.  It's wonderful that people can celebrate stuff that they love with other people who love the same.  Ray Bradbury once advised, "Love what YOU love."  That sentiment was in abundance.  Now that I'm addicted to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, maybe one day I'll be able to convince my friends to cosplay as the Endless with me- as long as I get to be Death.

On Sunday, we went to Swan Point Cemetery to visit the grave of H.P. Lovecraft.  The cemetery is enormous.  We had to drive around a bit before we found him.

"I am Providence."

One friend did several gravestone rubbings and was kind enough to let me have a green one.  My friends' daughter did a couple of them, too.  Hers were multicolored.

Leaving the cemetery, we drove past Brown's stadium.  I had never seen it before.  I think this amused my friends a great deal.  IN MY DEFENSE...the stadium isn't very close to campus, and I was always competing on Saturdays when they held football games.  Truthfully, I don't like college football, so I never would have gone, anyway.  It was nice to be back in my old stomping ground.  I miss the area very much.

Some other highlights from the weekend?  My friends came up with my ultimate Jeopardy board- Jane Austen, photography, and bars in New England.  My friends' daughter does great high fives.  One time she told me to put my hand higher.  She jumped up to reach it, yelling "SKYSCRAPER FIVE!"  She's awesome like that.  It was a fun weekend.