Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Silly Site o' the Day

So I had one of those painful epiphanies this evening. You know the ones, where you don't want to admit you desire something and it just gets to the point where you have to confront yourself as to why you're resisting change, and it hurts a lot emotionally and you get really mad at yourself and your life and then you realize (a) First World Problems and (b) Things Will Never Be The Same and you go through the five stages of whoosiwhatsit. In my case it has to do with travel in general and comic book conventions in specific. I just don't have the wherewithal to walk around and stand in queues for very long any more, particularly at the big cons like San Diego and New York. And if I have no central meeting place I won't be able to see my friends in the industry, catch up with their lives, coo at their baby photos, etc. But it seems more and more that comic cons are a young (and/or more mobile) person's game, and I'm no longer in my 30s or 40s - heck, I'm barely even in my 50s any more. And it's not like I've suddenly become a social shut-in; Robin and I are going to England later in the year to see his (our) friends and family, we get together with our CT friends Tom and Lili every couple of months, I'm actually attending a college reunion shindig this Saturday, and occasionally I do "girls' days out" with ex-coworkers. And considering I've prospered via long-distance friendships dating all the way back to my penpal days in my early teens, I've concluded that if I only "see" my industry friends on Facebook that will do just fine. In short, I guess this epiphany really has to do with reclaiming the habits of my past and bringing them into the future, so I can surmount the mobility challenges that have occurred in between. And, given that I live in The Greatest City In The World, once I get a footwear update I might even start going places alone (although it's definitely better with friends), looking for doppelgangers in museums and such. Stay tuned!

1 comments:

PJ said...

After going to one or two of the NYCC including the first it has just become too much of a zoo. I went to a Con out in Long Island to indulge a friend and I just found it entirely too depressing. Aside from having a chat with an inker there who has had trouble finding work even though he's talented and mainly because of age, the same litany of comic dealers and junk along with the crowd is simply off putting. I neverr liked crowds and the crush and lines of NYCC aren't worth it.