beanside | They say that all good things must come to some kind of ending

Greetings from Baltimore! Rather unfairly, it's Monday again, and I must go back to work. It's going to continue to be busy until Jan 2, when it should slow down a touch. How is everyone doing?

Yesterday was a fun, albeit odd morning. We got to the con early and got better, if not good parking. We parked by the photo and panel location, which was still a good 1/3 of a mile to the con. Then, we hiked to the autograph and dealer building to do some shopping.

I finally got a picture of the bag I got yesterday! This is the cute horror icon bag's fabric.

Today shopped around a bit. There was a chocolate vendor that we hit for little truffle bars, which we'd tried on Saturday. So we got 10 of those. They're about 2 1/2" x 3/4" little bars that are pretty freaking amazing. We got a bunch of flavors, none of which do we remember what they are, so every bite is a mystery. A tasty, tasty mystery.

Then, we stopped by an artist's booth and picked up a couple of prints. One for us, one for my sister and one for us. I did not take a picture of the one for my sister, but it's up on the artist's site, called "Be Wary the Silent Night." It's a huge kitty loooming our of a winter forest.

Ours is called "Together in the Malestrom 2021." It's a gorgeous painting of two horned figures standing on a precipice in front of a beautiful raging cloud.

I also got my sister a Snoopy magnet since she did watch the puppy for the weekend. We're sharing the chocolate.

Then, we got a drink, a big insulated mug into wich we put a delicious butterscotch cream soda. We could have had free refills, but we never got around to it.

Then, it was down to the other location, except it wasn't. The local church does services at the Event Center that the panels and pictures were in. And they were having a service. So, we got to stand outside for about 45 min, in a parking lot before we were let in. Once inside, we got to listen to the preacher rant for another 30 min while we waited for our photo op. It did not sound like the kind of church I would enjoy. Eventually, we got our picture with the voice actors for Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Megatron (Frank Welker). I got a handshake/clasp from Frank Welker. There was rumors that this was going to be Peter Cullen's last con, as he is 84, so I'm glad we got them now.

The Transformers' panel was supposed to start at 12, but we got done at 11:15, and I had a sneaking suspicion that the megachurch was going to go over. There seemed to be some animosity with the con. So we left before the panel and headed for home. We would have been waiting in the cold again for them to finish up. We were strictly allowed in the building for the photo ops, and they had a narrow roped off area that we were allowed to walk in. We did convince them to let us get coffee from the stand just outside the roped area before we left. There were a couple of churchgoer's at the shop, and they kind of gave us the big sneer as we walked up.

The coffee was themed and amazing. Jess got the Bumblebee, which was honey and cinnamon and really good. I got the Freddy, which was a mocha with a pinkfoam on top follwed by more chocolate sauce and topped with glittery iridescent black sugar that did not look unlike Freddy's blade. I wanted to drive immediately back and get the recipe, I swear.

Apparently the preacher was in the parking lot yesterday ranting about the con being evil. He got into a heated argument with a dude dressed up as the lead singer for Ghost, in full Satanic Pope regalia. I'm sorry I missed that.

A quick stop at a kitch place called Hillbilly's for lunch and we were winging our way home. We pulled in at 4:03, which was nice, because it meant no driving in the dark.

The rest of the night was quiet--Chinese food and a quick walk for Yoda and we were in bed by 9. I had a little trouble sleeping, so I went to sleep around midnight.

Today, I'm achy and a bit tired, but I'm so happy we went. It was a lot of fun, and I fulfilled some of my childhood dreams. Everyone was super nice and made if a fun experience. Absolutely no regrets.

I told

poisontaster that this is my year of yes. If I see something that I want to do? Yes, lets do it. If there's something Jess wants to do? Yes, absolutely. We've got a lot planned in the next six months, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other stuff we can get into along the way!

And now, it's time go go forth and think about getting ready for work. First day of leggings directly on the tattoo, so we'll see how that goes. It's healing well, and has hit the itchy stage. But if you touch it, it's still tender. So that stage is fun. Okay, time to go forth and get dressed. Everyone have the very best Monday!