I returned home at about 4:30 yesterday, unpacked, ordered some pizza and played some WoW. Today is my ‘recovery day’… something i learned to appreciate early on in my Con-going career.
Dragon*Con was, of course, amazing. 60,000 people all in downtown Atlanta over 4 skyscraper hotels. even as crowded and hectic as everything was, everyone was so nice, so polite and so helpful. Everyone there seemed to be enjoying themselves and i neither heard of nor saw ANY sort of trouble making or strife.
There was quite a bit of fun to be had.. and not all of it explicitly Con related. i can’t imagine the number of gallons of alcohol that were consumed by the nightlife of this Con. I had read somewhere that “ComicCon is nerd prom… DragonCon is geek Mardi Gras”, and that certainly has its merits.
Its going to take DAYS for me to process all that i saw, all that happened and all the little stories i have to tell about that amazing weekend.
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Its nearly time again for my bi-yearly pilgrimage to the lands of youth, my old stomping grounds; Tha Nooga. I’m leaving Friday after work, heading to AdventureCon that weekend, seeing my Dad for Father’s Day, maybe seeing The Hulk.. and then… lots of videogames, eating out and making witty, snarky comments and pop-culture references.
There’s nothing quite like being around old friends… especially ones that knew you when you were a kid. I still contend that i met Collin and Russ in 5th grade, but they’re somewhat unconvinced and place it more around 6th or 7th Grade before we started really hanging out. Then, of course, the Banana Pirates formed and that little piece of history was etched forever into our personal and shared mythologies.
As i have aged, i’ve come to realize how profound an affect just being around my old friends has on me. I think of the things that i enjoy, the things that center me and the things that ‘recharge’, but, in actuality, none of them beat just simply hanging out with them. I remember what its like to not be alone; what its like to be around my peers. I get to be around people who make jokes and comments of such subtlety that they make me THINK. I feel challenged and yet accepted, because, i think, my challenges are appreciated in turn.
I go throughout my day, feeling like i live in a world made of cardboard… as if i don’t pull every punch, temper every word and filter every thought that i will break something or someone. With old friends who have seen you at your worst and your best, there are no surprises. no shocks. No damage in just being yourself. Its already been done, scabbed, healed, scarred and long forgotten. In its place is a just a familiarity of sensation that I, personally, find extremely comforting. It reconnects me to the world outside my head in ways that i’m just now starting to understand enough to explore and appreciate.
I mean, these are people that actually WANT my presence. In a world full of “what can you do for me”s, just being who i am seems to be enough. The rarity of that sentiment in my life is a deep wound and any salve for it is most welcome and cherished. On most of my travels, i am, at some point, ready to come home to the familiar and the routine. However, my trips to Tha Nooga are always ended reticently. I think because what i am leaving there is far more familiar to me than what i am returning to. A part of me will always be 17, full of meta-humor, philosophical trail-blazing and contests of wit. I always want to retain the imagination, the feeling of ‘life is long; there is time to kill today’ and pausing for a moment to soak it all in, lest it sneak by inside the cracks between moments.
For thats all i really need… just a moment in time to stop and see how much time as passed. I need a point of reference. I need to stop, breathe, forget what i know.. and see the world from the POV that i once saw it, so i can tell the difference.
They’re both basically married… houses, careers, yard-work. the whole bit. But they’re still Collin and Russ. and maybe… just maybe, i can still be just Scott. and maybe, just maybe, that is actually okay.
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