Mixed Up and Missing Out, But Still Finding The Good

Content Note: Discussion of real world stuff ahead. If you don't want to hear about Covid or masks today, best to skip this one.

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Welp. Last weekend did not go as planned.

John and I had his new cosplay all ready for MegaCon, packed our bags, checked our hotel reservations, and were about to walk out the door Friday morning when we sat down, had a chat, and decided to cancel everything. We unpacked the suitcases, put the cosplay stuff away, and sat down again to absorb our suddenly empty schedule.

I know that sounds kinda sad - and it was - but it also felt right. Without going into too many details, things here in Florida are rough. We keep breaking all the worst kinds of records, and our hospitals are so overrun that Thursday night Brevard county sent out text alerts saying not to call 911 or go to the ER unless it's life-threatening.

John and I are vaxxed and masked, but wading into a crowd of 100,000 felt like an unnecessary risk with all the new numbers, especially to our high-risk friends.

So we stayed home, and let me tell ya: one advantage of being an introvert is no matter HOW amazing your plans are, you're still at least a little excited when they get cancelled. :D (Some of you are nodding along right now. Hello, my people.) Plus it was a relief to skip a week of worry that we'd caught or transmitted anything.

Nearly everyone we know in central Florida DID go to the con, so I got to see plenty of video and photos, which was nice. MegaCon did an excellent job keeping everyone in masks and shielding the celebrities with plexiglass walls, and I'm glad many of my friends felt safe there - though still glad I wasn't in the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds. (And to be fair, at least 2 or 3 friends who went said we made the right call, and left early due to the crowds.)

John and I did our best to keep the weekend fun and not wallow in the FOMO: we ate donuts, drove around to see if any Spirit: Halloween stores were open yet (they weren't, boo), played Borderlands 3 together, and even - this is how you know John's trying to cheer me up - did some crafts:

This is a Dollar Tree mirror, and as soon as I saw it I knew it needed this Firefly quote. John designed the wording, cut a stencil on our Cricut, and I etched it. This blew up in my Stories, so we went back the next day to get the matching T-Rex mirror. I think we'll make a couple dino sets to add to the Squeegineer board. :)

Last month at MetroCon I bought some adorable face masks from NoFlutter to modify to fit our foam frames. I had to take the seams apart completely and start over, but I did it! And now I have this fabulous blorpy unicorn mask:

I made another adjustment to our masks: the fabric cover attaches with velcro instead of lacing through metal eyelets. This makes them so much easier to change out, I think I'll be converting all our covers to velcro.

The other side is a pastel rainbow with candy:

Here's the second mask I bought, just before I finished the final seam:

Chubby grumpy dragon FOR THE WIN. Hee!

I'd promised a few friends that John and I would take photos of their new cosplays on Saturday, so to make up for not being at the con, I invited them over to our house for individual photo shoots. We all stayed masked or distanced and laughed 'til it hurt while I attempted to pose everyone. None of us had any idea what we were doing, and at one point we had 5 people standing around trying to figure out how to make legs look "natural." Bahaha.

So yes, in this post about how we DIDN'T go to a con, I still have a few cosplay photos for you:

First here's Tracey as Keyleth from Critical Role. Her staff lights up!

Her cape is SO SPARKLY, I had to drape it around to show off the embroidery.

Next here's Karen as Persephone from Lore Olympus:



We also tromped outside in the dark after a rainstorm to take pics with our backyard tree:




And finally here's Arielle as Lady Oogie Boogie from Nightmare Before Christmas:

How brilliant is that mask?? She made all this herself!

I'm only sharing my favorite 2 shots for each, so these were hard to narrow down. I think we got 6-8 really excellent final shots for each person.

You'd never know how hard Arielle and I worked to get these angles right - everything feels so awkward and uncomfortable and WRONG when you're trying to pose -  so I'm super proud of us. 

Also local friends, take note: I want to do more photo shoots now. This was fun!

Ahh, but wait, I haven't gotten to the best part of our weekend yet.

We had no plans for Sunday other than work, so I was facing an empty, nothing sort of day when Arielle invited John and I along on a job. Now, Arielle is a theme park designer, so if she ever invites you anywhere, you go. This was no exception: the job was painting part of a new attraction at Give Kids The World, the charity resort near Disney for kids with critical illnesses. GKTW is almost a mini theme park in itself, with rides, theaters, restaurants, and more, and everything is built and maintained by volunteers - often industry professionals, like Arielle.

Anyhoo, GKTW is opening a new ride this month, and Arielle brought us along to do some painting in this rocky cave tunnel:

I can't show you what we did just yet since there's a big media preview in a few weeks, but suffice to say it's very cool, very fun, and I can't BELIEVE John and I got to be a part of it. As a life-long theme park nerd, I've always dreamed of helping create something like this!

You can't see much in the photo - I took it before we started - but the rock walls have embedded fiber optics that twinkle, so the final effect is super magical. I can't wait to see the whole space finished, and of course I'll share my own photos and video once I'm allowed after the big debut.

It was hot and muggy work, but getting to work at GKTW made missing MegaCon worth it several times over. It would have been so easy to spend all weekend focusing on what we were missing, but instead John and I got to spend time with each other and with friends making cool stuff. Can't ask for a better weekend than that.

I'll be honest, I'm still finding my footing mentally, getting used to the fact that we're missing the two biggest convention trips of our year again. (We've regretfully decided to skip Dragon Con in Atlanta as well.) This all feels so much harder in year 2, right? Like we got so close to resuming "normal" life, only to have it snatched away again. I know I'll readjust, and that we're better off than we were last year, but it's still hard. So just know if you're struggling, you're not alone. I get it, I see you.

On the bright side, cancelling both cons has opened up more of our time for volunteer work, and even as I type this John is out framing up an interior wall for a friend. I'm excited to find more ways to help folks and build things, so I'm hanging on to that excitment whenever I'm tempted to be sad. The other day on Instagram Sharon Says So wrote "Action is the antidote to despair." I love that. No matter how small, just doing something always puts me in a better headspace. Give it a try next time you're feeling stuck: anything from taking a shower to donating $5 to a good cause can be a needed burst of seratonin.

Thanks for sticking through my rambly hodgepodge of a post today. I hope my dino mirror and pretty pictures gave you a smile, and I really hope you're finding your own reasons to stay excited about life in 2021. Because, P.S., you're one of mine.

::hugs::


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Oh hey, did you know we're still hosting Movie Nights over on the Epbot Discord? 'Cuz we are, every other Friday and Sunday! This week we're watching The Parent Trap, so come join your fellow bots in the Movie Night text chat if you could use some low-pressure socializing.

The Epbot server also has about 20 different chat channels for everything from funny memes to job advice to discussing your favorite shows, so click over anytime to browse, chat, or share with your fellow geeks. It's a good crowd over there, be sure to tell 'em I said hi.