How I did it: Our third venture to Atlanta's premiere fantasy scyfy convention was a little last minute.   Frolicon is my annual event, but Dragon.Con is my wife's favorite because she gets to be very creative and make her own costume.  She's gone as a blue fairy, a geisha, and this year decided to be Medusa.  I usually cobble together something unrelated, but because of her theme I decided to be Perseus.  She worked on her costume for about three weeks, putting in hours of labor,soldering, crafting, molding, glueing, painting, sewing.  I waited until nearly the last minute, and my first attempt was a bit of a disaster.  I replanned and recovered and used some old costume components, built some new elements and glued, painted and stitched the whole thing together.  Even though it is a four-day convention, we decided because of our work schedules we would only go on Saturday, getting a one day pass for $50 each.

Saturday found us doing last minute alterations and adjustments to our costumes.  We spent nearly two hours doing and redoing S.'s make-up.  She had some fabric that allowed us to create a snake-skin effect with paint on her face and neck.  In the photo above it is not evident, but close up is was very neat.  We ended up leaving about three hours later than we wanted to, but got downtown quickly and parked close-by.  We approached one of the four hotels where the convention is held (there are about 50,000 people and 300+ guest speakers who attend this convention) and came across security guards who were not letting people in without either a badge or a room key.  No problem, our favorite place to hang out was across the street anyway.  We went across the street and found they had totally remodeled the hotel and done away with the "hanging out" areas we were used to.  Grousing, we went to the third hotel where we could get day passes, but by this time it was after 8pm and we really couldn't see paying $100 bucks to just wander around for a few hours.

Our friends R and M, and H and C, had invited us to hook up with them, since they were going to be there in costumes.  We texted and called, but got no response from either couple.  We wandered around but it was like a ghost town in the two hotels.  The one we were banned from with out our badges might have had hanging out going on, but we never got farther than the street and valet area.  We walked around a while, had a drink in the refurbished bar, which sucked.  We saw other people who were in costume, but ended up only taking about a dozen pictures.  More people took pictures of us than we took of anyone else.  We got a ton of compliments.  S. was ohhed and ahhed over quite a bit, and people loved the fact that I added "Bobo" to my costume.

After about 4 rather disappointing and uneventful hours we decided to pack it in and go home, since we both had to work the following day.  We figured we had a good head-start on our Halloween costumes, we just need to find a not-lame costume party to attend.  We got home and even though S.'s costume was not enough to actually turn people to stone with a glance, she threw me some glances that made me rock hard.  We had a mock chase and struggle that ended with me not taking off her head, but definitely disqualifying her for Vestal Virgin status.  Good to know the costumes can stand up to a little horseplay.

Lessons & tips: Plan ahead and don't procrastinate.  Do some research and find out if your favorite hotel has been remodeled and now sucks.  If you don't have to, don't pay, but be prepared to be left on the curb with the hosts of young people who carpooled from out of state without funds, smoking dope and wandering up and down the streets.  If possible, get a room.  It is easier to get made up and dressed and then go downstairs than it is to transport your costumed selves throught downtown traffic, to the shock and crossing of other motorists.

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Sep 04, 08:00PM PDT | 4 comments | 26 cheers