2005 Dragon*Con

WARNING:  Some of these photos may contain mature content.  Please use caution when viewing. All photos were staged for the pleasure of the viewing audience

Wow it is hard to believe that Dragon*Con 2005 is over.  Yes I am totally late with the report AND the photos…but hopefully it was worth the wait.  If not, too bad so sad.

Dragon*Con 2005 was fantastic.  Ok all done.

No seriously, it rocked.

Here is the short review:

The Pros:  the three F’s… fun, friends and … you can make up the last one.  The best things about Dragon*Con is the socialization.  Great costumes, great friends, great photos… the experience is hard to beat unless you are into the drama. But we are drama free.

The Cons:  The con is actually outgrowing the venue.  Each year the con grows via word of mouth from all of us who rant about how much fun we had.  People see the photos and want to go too.  It is getting really crowded…so crowded in the Hyatt for example that the Fire Marshal almost closed the hotel a couple of times.  They weren’t allowing photos in the Hyatt Lobby until like midnight which pretty much sucked because that is where the party was.

The Longer Review:

I have organized the photos into the days of the con.  So I will also do an overview of each day and covers some of the highlights of each day.

Wednesday:
We arrived on Wed (a day earlier than normal) and just enjoyed Atlanta.  We went out to dinner with friends (Adam and Alison), they showed us around and then we hung out at their place for a while and talked.  It was a great way to kick things off and may decide to do it that way next year too.  What was nice was that we had a chance to get a good night sleep before Thursday came around which is typically crazy due to getting badges and pre-con parties.

Thursday:
After a good night sleep we got up and had some lunch.  Then it was off to the airport to pick up our friend Riki from the airport.  She had a giant tub without wheels and it is fun to haul around, so we gave her a hand.  Once back at the hotel we went to go and Register at the Hilton.  The Hilton was a new “Con” hotel this year and they moved registration there.  Along the way we ran into several friends like JP and Julie (from CIII) and Karen and Ed (GG Garrison), so we created a caravan of people who wanted their badges.  Registration wasn’t too painful (compared to past years) and we were in and out before we knew it.  It seemed better than the past couple of years.

Once we were done there we were off to Adam and Alison’s Dragon*Con kick off party.  After the party we headed back to the Hyatt and to our surprise, the Hyatt decided to have a party of their own complete with food and several bars.  There were already people in costume and it seemed as if the event had officially kicked off, yet that was a good 9 hours away. We ran into Randy and Bob who were already celebrating.  Randy was feeling no pain and the video that will be posted soon (watch for link) is pretty funny. We finally went back to the room where we were greeted by our other roomy Christine who was all nice and comfy in bed already.

Friday: Friday Photos
Friday was our first opportunity to check out the dealer room. During this process we said hello said hello to several old friends, went to lunch with some of the ShutterGirls crew (thanks guys) and then eventually went back to the hotel room to "suit up". Riki wore her Emma Frost, Tracy in her Jean Grey, I wore Cyclops and Christine wore an amazing red dress. Down we went to the Hyatt floor for photos and fun.  As super heroes, we ran into a new breed of super hero “L.A.S.H.” or the League of Alcoholic Super Heroes (see more ). Eventually my visor was messing with my eyes and Tracy and I decided to get out of our costumes. Tracy and I changed into our Gunfighter costumes and went back downstairs. Once back in the Hyatt Lobby, we ran into several friends, JP, Julie, Kathy, Albin, Fin, Spat, Valle, Shannon, Mike, Kristen, Alisa, Adam, Alison, Holly, Lindze, Greg, Luba, Serge, Cristi, Chris, Daniel, Jack and Sarah (I know there are more but my memory is fading. It was great catching up with several old friends. We also ran into Yaya(www.angelicstar.net/) who happened to have a Gunslinger costume and wanted to join us on Sunday when we did it again, this was great news because then we would have four of us doing this theme.  We finished off the evening by dancing in the Regency Ballroom where our friend Weezel was spinning.  We tried to get to bed early so we could go join the parade the next morning…so I think we were in bed by 3 or 4am.

Saturday:  Saturday Photos
Alarm goes off, Riki turns it off, we all grown and lay in bed a while longer...that is until we heard the parade coming back to the hotel. We watched it from our window, and yes, it was another year missed. Next year!

The girls all put on School Girl outfits and we were off again. We went to lunch with Ken (http://www.elvistrooper.com/) Justine, Chris, Draco and Riki, the food was questionable with some bad turkey, but at least lunch was free for our trouble. Then we wandered for a while and eventually went to dinner with Todd, Riki and Ryan. Yes we eat a lot.

After that we broke away and Riki ran off to get "suited up" and we went to the 501st Party and said hello to everyone and then proceeded back to "suit up" into DC costumes. With me as Batman, Tracy as Catwoman, Chesh as Ivy and Riki as the Huntress, we proceeded to the Hyatt lobby. Which apparently had some problems with the Fire Marshal and all of us were sent away and were not allowed to take photos until midnight. So we wandered around to the Marriott and took a few photos... then came back to the Hyatt for a bit and then to Spat's Ms. Spat contest where Tracy and Chesh entered. They did not win but had a great time... more on that at The Spat Cave

After that we came back to the Hyatt and changed. Tracy put on some pants that were way too low to even call pants (we had to tape them to her hips to stay up). We proceeded to a party and hung out there for a while (spin the wheel of drink). After that we were almost going to head to bed when we ran into our friend Jose who was dressed as Indiana Jones at the time. He convinced us that is would be worth our time to go dance downstairs where Arturo and Kristen were. Along the way we ran into Sarah, who proceeded to molest Tracy. Then Vera joined in on the fun and also some random stranger...f@#$ing Dragon*Con, got to love it. Onto the dance floor we went... photos will tell more.

Sunday:  Sunday Photos
Sunday came and we were ready for round four. We opted not to costume during the day but just to shop around a bit and visit with friends. We ended up just wandering around until we had a nice dinner with The Brother Hood of the Bat and League of Heroes members. After that we got into the Gunslinger gear, met up with Bob (who was a great Clint Eastwood) and Yaya and proceeded to engage in the craziest series of photos of the entire weekend. Apparently gun slinging is a worth while thing for people to take photos of. I really think it was Tracy and Yaya. Who wants photos of me and Bob?  We met up with Alisa, where we grabbed a drink and some photos. It was great spending time with her again. Sometime during the evening, Tracy and Yaya served as judges for the "Spattle in Atlantle" The contest between Spat and CC to see who could be the most outrageous. Spat took home the prize incase you missed it (http://www.spatcave.com/). Several hundred photos later we were all ready to get out of costume and get some food, so several of us ended up at the 24 Hour diner near by. And that finished out Dragon*Con 2005. Thanks to everyone who shared their time with us.