Daily Diary (Fanfare Week Edition)

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Saturday—I wake up at 7:15 to pee and decide to stay up. Bots joins me in 20 minutes after that. I update blog, do some social media plugging and other stuff on the net. It’s a low key day with us mostly hanging out. I do manage to squeeze in some writing and I get another 8 pages into one of my books. Moving right along! I pass out around 11:30.

Sunday—Bots gets me up at 7:20 and I go downstairs and spend all morning dropping flat colors on new Starslam pages and 8 pages of commissions for a long time client. Baby gets up at 10 (slept in long!) I keep coloring all day and watch the Lions lose to the Bengals at the last minute and then the  Colts beat the Broncos. But other than that, I am coloring pages. I finish the commissions and send them to the client who emails back that he loves them. I get an email of reference shots for an upcoming card set.

The wife comes home and I head to Walmart for some groceries and another gate to keep bots from climbing onto our oven. I get back and clean out the fridge real good and take out a bunch of trash. Then break to watch the new Walking Dead and Talking Dead. By then bots is finally passed out and I follow suit around midnight.

Monday—Bots wakes me up at 7:22 and I update blog and other net stuff. I get an email from my Detroit Fanfare hotel with the wrong date attached. I knew they’d mess up my arrival date! So I call them and they fix it. Someone the first time put me as “ADAM PALLEY” and thus when I called to change the date, they couldn’t find my reservation. Dopes. So I fix that, get bots on the bus and then drive with baby to the bank to cash my check from sketch cards. Baby falls asleep so I decide to take a quiet drive and let him sleep. I love driving in the quiet. I just listen to podcasts and enjoy time with myself.

Around 1pm, I get home and play with baby. Kelly and bots get home at the same time and we head to Subway for eats. Then we hit the Halloween store for bots a Halloween costume. He chooses to be Spongebob. So it is. We get back home and I go back out for some vodka and rum cause the wife decided she wanted to drink after the kids go to bed. I get online and pull some comedy things to watch. The kids fall asleep and so we sit up boozing and watching comedy roasts. We pass out by 1am.

Tuesday---I get up around 8am and the wife does too. We all go out for some Mcds breakfast and then head home. I call and talk to my dad while taking care of minor things online. I get offered another sketch card pin-up girl gig and I am happy with it. I email back and forth with Brian who needs more Sherlock Holmes cards. Bots goes on the bus, I put baby down for a nap and then call maintenance to come fix our central air (the heater isn’t kicking on). He comes and fixes it. Meanwhile I sketch on commissions and email back and forth some more with someone about a potential comic project I might be hired for. I pitch an initial story concept and the gig is all but approved! Very exciting prospects.

Bots gets off the bus apparently very moody. We hang out all day and I pencil some more at the kitchen table. Brian Maze calls and we shoot the shit. Baby goes back to bed and so does bots. Wife comes home with food and we sit up talking for an hour. Then we hit the bed around midnight.

Wednesday---I wake myself up at 7am from a weird dream and go downstairs to email an ex employee about a job opening I heard about. I update crap online and email some more with my editor about some things.  After bots gets on the bus I head to Hobby Lobby and the car wash place to clean my car. We get back home and baby passes out upstairs. I do some writing and clean the house real good, also do some laundry. I even vacuum the whole place. And (drumroll) take out the trash! (sexy!)

In the mail, I get a package from Durden with my Puzzle Jam cards, some blank trading cards and some blank sketch covers! And also a pack of cards I got for bots as a present. I pack up my gig bag for Fanfare. The wife gets home and I head to Walmart to get a new bin and some duct tape. I get back home and stay up all night finishing the Sherlock Movie Stars card art and then join the BigFanboy Podcast til 3am. Then pass out.

Thursday---I get up at 8am and play with bots and baby. Bots gets on bus and I try to get baby to sleep. He’s resistant so we drive to Okemos to see if the Toys R Us there has the wave 2 of Black Box edition Star Wars figures, which they do not. We head back and he passes out in bed. I take an hour and a half nap-ola on the couch. Bots gets home moody and the wife comes home after 5pm to take over.

I head to Belle Tire to get my tires looked at and rotated for the weekend’s trip. After an hour, I’m done and head to Kroger to get bots some snacks and things he’s out of. Then back home. I toy with going to see the new Jackass movie, but don’t want to fight the crowds. Instead I watch a new Toy Hunter, South Park, and a Jackass original TV show marathon on MTV2. I pass out in bed around 11pm.

Friday—I wake up with bots around 7am and he plays with his ipod and I gather maps for Fanfare. I toy with the idea of leaving tonight for the show and put out feelers for anyone’s floor I could potentially sleep on. The wife gets up and I tell her my potential plans, which she shoots down immediately. I email everyone back saying the wife nixed my idea. She heads to work and I listen to Stern and clean the house. Bots gets on bus, baby to sleep and I make Tuna Helper and get some writing done. Then I break and watch South Park.

At 3:30pm bots gets home and the wife comes home an hour and a half later. She’s hungry and so we go to Red Robin. Then I drop her back off at work so she can do something she forgot. Then we head back home. I text with Dean to hear how the show is going in my absence. Seems its slow but everyone is asking about me. So I am sour about not being able to go. The kids fall asleep and I hit the bed around 9:30 so I can get good sleep cause I’m getting up early to get there. 

Saturday---For some reason I wake up at 4:30am and cannot go back to sleep. I decide to head out anyway and beat the sun and the traffic. I gas up, get breakfast and head to Dearborn. I get there in a couple hours and its way too early for me to check in or start set up, so I sit in the lobby for an hour checking online shit on my phone. I run into some old friends and chat up some new ones. Finally at 8:10 we’re let onto the show floor and I start set up. Then I do a cover sketch to get warmed up. Slowly everyone starts to arrive and I run into all the old pals. The day starts and its slow but steady. I make a pretty decent amount. Enough to cover my expenses for the weekend trip. I go check in and give the key to Uko in the other room, as he is my roomie for the night. I head back and finish out the day. By 7pm I am STARVING so Robert, Erin and I head to the mall and eat Sbarros at the food court. The pizza is extra spicy and I am airing out my mouth hardcore.

After the mall, I drive them back to their car and I head up to my room with my bag o clothes. Uko is in there putting the finishing touches on a piece. On the way in, I am grabbed by a room neighbor to see if I want one of their beers. We figure out that we actually talked on twitter that morning and he’s a media guy covering the con. (Later I see him with a painted bra on, very drunk. Everyone is having a good time!) So Uko and I sip a beer and catch up. Then I head downstairs and get a couple screwdrivers and wait around for the party to start in the ballroom. It finally does and by then I need more alcohol. In the course of the night I drink 2 beers, 4 Screwdrivers and 4 Daquaries. I tip very well so I think they hook me up with very potent doses. Uko, Robert, Jay, Dean, Bruce, Erin and many others eventually join me and we watch everyone dance and the costume contest get judged. By that time I am talking to someone and I realize that I feel like puking. So I excuse myself rather quickly and head to the room. I get in bed and pass out by 12:30am. I drank way too much.

Sunday---The wife texts me at 8am waking me up. Uko is still asleep and I gotta piss real bad. So I quietly get dressed and head out the door. I’m thirsty as shit and hungry as fuck. I hit the lobby, seriously considering going to the hotel breakfast café and pay $22 for an egg and toast. But like magic, Dean and Jay Jaycot walk down the stairs announcing they are heading to a diner nearby and I could tag along. Jay loans me his jacket cause I left mine in the room. We head to a place called “Gus N’ Us” and its quite good breakfast. We get back and by then I am holding in a monster shit. I barely make it back to the room, pleading in my head that Uko isn’t using the bathroom to shower, or else I wasn’t gonna make it. Luckily for me, he was in the room, post shower! So I shit out a Godzilla and wipe the sweat off my face in relief. We chat some more and then head out to the show. I walk around the dealer area and don’t see much that I want to get. (suprising for me!)

I set up and the day goes slow and steady. Everyone reporting low sales. But I don’t care as much cause I made my money back and met some great new people. Plus it was great to get out of the house and check out a show once in a while. It felt good to be there among everyone again. It was lonely at Wizard World Chicago as none of my friends were there. This time, lots of them were there and it was great to see them and what they are doing. Always great fuel for me when I go home.

I get the new Cynicalman trade from Matt Feazell and a couple dollar comics. A few books here and there from friends and that’s about it. At 6pm, I pack up, say my goodbyes and head home. On the way back I hit the monster of all traffic jams, where 4 lanes go down to one due to construction. About an hour and change of a delay. And surprise! When I get to the spot of the one lane: NO ONE IS WORKING! No one Is even there! Its blocked off for NO REASON WHATSOEVER! ARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!! Anyway, I get into Howell, MI and gas up, hit the White Castle and head home. I get in the door right at nine as the wife is putting bots to sleep and Walking Dead starts. I watch the show sort of underwhelmed. Then retire to bed, chat with the wife and pass out around 10:30.