This past weekend the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando hosted MegaCon, an annual three day science fiction, comic book, and anime convention. If you have never been to a con, you should really go at least once - they are an awesome celebration of fandom and creativity where you can meet the most amazing and talented people. Sure, there are lots of stars there (this year's convention featured a celebration of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the vast majority of the lead actors from the series were there), but it is really the people that are so much fun to see and meet. Some of the costumes are absolutely amazing, and everyone tends to be very friendly and welcoming.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest where my two major cons were Norwescon and Rustycon, and I have many fond memories of them from my teenage years into my early 20's. Around the time Ben was born I stopped frequenting cons, just because life got in the way. I decided this year to check out MegaCon because I really missed it, and I thought it would be a good experience for Ben as well. As it turns out, overall we had a very good time and got to meet some pretty cool people. Check it out.

To be perfectly honest, I had no illusions that Ben would particularly enjoy going to the convention. In fact I knew that it was going to be extremely crowded and noisy, and would very likely be a difficult environment for him to be in. I will admit that my desire to go was largely selfish, but I genuinely did think it would be good for Ben to test out his coping skills and also for him to understand that although I try to take him to the places he wants to go as much as possible, sometimes he has to let other people take a turn and still behave graciously. On this count I think he did surprisingly well.

When we got to the convention center on Saturday it was a madhouse. International Drive was backed up for miles, and the convention center parking lot was rapidly approaching capacity. It took about twenty minutes to make the drive from our house to International Drive by the convention center, and then over an hour to finish the last little leg and get into a parking spot. Even then we were something like a mile away from the convention entrance, and had to wait nearly a half hour for a bus to shuttle us to the door. Ben was perfectly happy listening to the music on his iPod, and liked the bus ride a lot. He became more concerned as soon as we walked into the convention center itself and were confronted by a wall of people. Still, he remained calm and stayed close to me. I should mention that I had specifically put him in white pants and an orange shirt that morning so that he would stand out as much as possible in the crowd, should we become separated at all, but fortunately that never became an issue.

It didn't take long at all for us to get our tickets and wristbands, and then we were inside the main convention hall. We never did make it to any of the panels, but we spent a few hours walking around the convention floor checking out all of the vendors and appreciating the amazing cosplay happening everywhere (cosplay is short for costume play, and a significant percentage of the convention attendees come dressed up for the occasion). Fairly early on we came across Jen Yates in her Lady Vadore costume, so we stopped to say hello and to take a picture.




If you aren't familiar with Jen Yates, she writes the very popular Cake Wrecks blog as well has her other geek-oriented blog Epbot. Even if you don't have any particular interest in cakes, you should read her blog anyway. She is a very funny and talented writer, and she manages to make me laugh out loud several times per week. Her Sunday Sweets columns are always a treat as well, and makes you appreciate the artistry that is out there in the baking world. Her blog at Epbot is also a lot of fun, and frequently inspirational to boot. She is a staunch supporter of parents who are raising awesome geeky kids, and she never fails to amaze with her posts about whatever crafting project she is working on at the moment. That picture above? She built that entire costume herself from scratch. The detail work is phenomenal, and pictures don't do it justice. Beyond all of that, I owe Jen a debt of gratitude. It was her linking to this blog last June that drove more visitors to the site than I have ever seen (before or since), and it was in part due to her early encouragement that I actually sat down and wrote 3500.

So anyway, when we saw her I just had to walk up and say hello. I introduced myself, and then prompted Benjamin to say hi, at which point Jen exclaimed, "Wait a minute, is this Benjamin?!? I had no idea you would be here!" We talked for a few minutes, and I also had the pleasure of meeting her husband John (who took the above picture). It was great to finally meet both of them in person, and I sincerely hope that our paths will cross again. Of course it didn't take long before someone else came up and wanted to talk to her and take her picture, so Ben and I waved goodbye and moved onward to enjoy more of the convention.




Not long after that we came across this family, and I just had to stop and take a picture. If you don't recognize the costumes from Doctor Who, the mother is dressed as Idris - literally the TARDIS in human form -- the boy is dressed as the Eleventh Doctor, and the girl is dressed as the cutest dang Dalek in the world. I am a huge Doctor Who fan, I started watching the show as a child in the early 70's when Jon Pertwee played the Third Doctor, and just last December when my wife and I took a trip to Great Britain we specifically set aside two days to go to Cardiff in Wales where much of the show is filmed. We went to  The Doctor Who Experience and saw many of the props and costumes from the history of the show, and of course we stopped to take our pictures on top of the secret entrance to Torchwood located in the Roald Dahl Plass.  So yeah, I was really tickled to see this family having fun at the con and spreading the joy of Doctor Who.

After we had been there for a while, Ben began to get stressed. To his credit (and I am so very proud of him for this), instead of getting upset and violent like he used to do in these situations, he took my by the hand and looked me directly in the eyes while saying, "Take a break, please!"  We managed to find a fairly quiet spot where Ben could sit down on the floor facing a wall and with his back to the crowd. He had on his headphones, and he sat there cross-legged listening to music while eating a snack and drinking his juice. The other con-goers in the area were kind enough to let him have his space, and after about a half hour he was relaxed enough to spend more time exploring the expo hall.

The other highlight of the afternoon was getting to meet Wil Wheaton. If you are not familiar with him, he is an amazingly awesome dude. You might remember him as a child actor when he played the lead in Stand By Me, and then he played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately he was the victim of frequently horrible writers, who made the character of Wesley annoying and unlikable through no fault of his own. He received of a lot of fan backlash, and for a long time after Star Trek ended I gather he had a difficult time making a career. But somewhere in the last decade he fully embraced social media and has become a genuine geek rock star. He is extremely kind and energetic, is a huge proponent of tabletop gaming, and in recent years his acting career has re-energized with frequent appearances on The Big Bang Theory, a recurring role on the sadly-cancelled Leverage, and a hilarious part in Felicia Day's awesome web series The Guild. Meeting Wil was a real treat for me, and he does now have a copy of my book. He was very, very nice (he even pretended to actually be interested in the book), and he was sincerely kind to Benjamin as well. I have no idea whether or not he will actually read 3500, but I hope he does and that he enjoys it. If nothing else he signed my copy of Memories of the Future Vol. 1, so that's pretty cool.

Not long after that meeting, Ben had finally reached his saturation point. He took my hand and pulled me towards the exit, while pleading "take a bus!" Overall he actually lasted much longer than I thought  he would, and I was very pleased with how well he behaved himself in what must have been an extremely tiring environment for him. It took us a good long while to make it back to the car, but even before that Benjamin was visibly relieved once we got outside of the building and away from the crowd and the noise. He spent the rest of the day hanging out in his play room sorting beads and watching videos, and at one point I actually heard him say, "Wil Wheaton..."

So that was pretty dang cool.