Boom #1

I'm not sure if I can completely encapsulate the amazingness that was the last week of my life. I'm going to try to detail everything clearly, so anyone who knows and cares can get a full picture of what ComicCon was like for me, a closet nerd who has finally seen that it is ok to like horror movies and comic books. There is a world out there that is accepting of ladies who love things that are typically termed juvenile or masculine, and even embraces these women who have begun to despair. All the things I felt were detriments to me as a female became attributes. And I will probably never be the same.

My flight to LA was delayed but uneventful. My first leg to Atlanta sat me near a crazy lady, who, after drinking a beer, decided to tell me about her pet grooming classes and how she'd chopped off a dogs tail by accident. Luckily, the beer made her groggy and she started snoring against the window before the fasten seat belt sign went off. A delay in Atlanta caused me to get in to Los Angeles at midnight, where I met up with Bailee. She brought me almonds, water, and diet coke. Carmageddon was supposedly in full force, but we made it back to her place in no time, and ended up staying up til 3am nerding out.

Due to some serious jet lag, I was up and at em at 10am, though my body and brain were mush. We lazed about for a good portion of the day, and then we packed up and headed to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where we met up with the gang from Comikaze Expo to watch Evil Dead 2 with a thousand other people in the lawn of the cemetery. Bailee had yet to see the second film, and we both giggled and enjoyed an evening of white zin, food, and Deadite killing. We walked back out through the Cemetery, scaring ourselves silly when we encountered a cage full of sleeping peacocks. Back at her casa, we nerded out some more. It was glorious.

Sunday I had lunch plans with my friend, Jay. We met in Hollywood near the Chinese theater and grabbed ice cream BEFORE we had lunch at a place called The Waffle. It's a swanky version of Waffle House, and I grabbed some Chicken and Waffles. We had a good time, but had to cut it short, as Bailee had planned an X-Men: The Animated Series viewing with her friend who actually wrote for the show! Weee!! Unfortunately, that plan fell through as there were deadlines to be made, so we went to an arcade at CityWalk, drank beer, played games, and acted like idiots. It was amazing.

More to come...

Obsession is best.

The other night I was laying on the couch, in my Batman T-shirt and sweatpants, watching Astonishing X-Men on Netflix, reading Birds of Prey and Fear Itself, and basically nerding out. I had an epiphany as I lounged, and it's one that probably could have saved me a bunch of time, money, and preserved a little of my sanity over the years that I have been a functioning adult.

I get obsessed. When I was in college, I became an improviser with iPlay, and that became my life. When I started doing comedic improv, that became my life. I started working at Shadowbox, and sketch comedy/rock and roll music became my life. Every time I have transitioned into a new career, or decided to try a new hobby, I become fixated. My three years with The Jove were all about The Jove. My waking hours were filled with ideas on how to forward the troupe, reading about improv and as a result I was working too many hours a week and letting a lot of personal things fall by the wayside. Even my own show, The Jiggles and Giggles Comedy Fest, has become an obsession. Marketing it, writing songs and sketches based on my life, and just putting my all into it so much so that I have bruises on both knees and a broken elbow as a result.

This latest incarnation of comic book junkie and writer has started to eclipse everything else in my existence. I find myself imagining scenarios that the girls can experience, relating it to my own life and basically taking my day to day existence and putting it into panels for the world to see. I read, voraciously, comic books and online comics to increase my knowledge of formats, stereotypes, and arcs. I watch comic book movies, read comic book articles, and immerse myself in the culture so that I can be the best nerd that I can be. I've even contemplated a re-haul of my wardrobe to be more "nerd chic" and have finally realized that this is insanity.

So next week at ComicCon, they're going to see the same old Lauren that everyone sees here in Palm Beach. Heels, jeans, and cardigans. This Lauren knows more about Deadpool than she used to and can tell you what her favorite Dr. McNinja online comic is (the one where Ben Franklin comes back from the dead and turns into a headless horseman because of an evil plot created by Dracula.) But she's also a girly girl who works at a country club and wears skirts and pearls to work every day. She'll probably have to take a phone call about an accounting question or how to make a computer work while sitting in the Walking Dead panel.

And that's ok.

BOOM! :)