Becky’s in the Backseat, pt.0: Driving to Comic Con, Driving to Comic Con

Every time I go to Comic Con, I always wind up 2 weeks before being all nervous and hectic trying to get everything together. Making sure that we have everything we’re going to need. Confirm hotel reservations. Go grocery shopping. Go liquor shopping. Buy all the last-minute garments that I might need. Make sure I have promo goods. Make sure I have business cards… and so on. It is a lot of prep.

We managed to get our stuff together, all of it. Well, a majority of it. One always forgets a thing here and there. This time, the only thing that I needed and forgot was a notebook… which is easily rectified.

We left bright and early at 3 in the morning… after a whole whopping 0 hours of sleep. It was earlier than our start time from last year. I figured getting an earlier start might have meant missing out on LA traffic.

That wasn’t quite correct. We landed in LA in the middle of rush hour traffic. So, just before we got to Burbank, I decided to find a good place for us to get a good brunch. When I’m outside of the San Francisco area, I depend on a handy-dandy app called “Find Me Gluten-Free”. One of the suggestions the app had been a restaurant called Bea Bea’s. It’s on the border of Burbank and Toluca Lake, about a mile from Warner Bros. Studio.

We got there about 9 in the morning on Wednesday morning. They have a good-sized menu, and they have plentiful gluten-free options including waffles and pancakes. I went with something fairly simple by having eggs and bacon. The food was good… really good. I recommend them both for gluten-free people and people who can eat gluten. The food is good. It’s not expensive. It was worth the diversion.

Instead of travelling straight through downtown LA this year, we decided to go around LA. While that sounds like it should take longer, I think it might have actually taken less time. We saved ourselves 2 or more hours in traffic, just sitting and waiting. We made it to the place to pick up our badges by 1 PM. This year, instead of the ungodly line of traffic there was last year. It was in and out with no wait. That’s a first. It was awesome just going in, picking up the badge, getting ice-cold water and heading to the hotel. I love not waiting to pick up my badge. It was awesome.

After we picked up our badges, we made our way to the hotel. It was a long drive and we were very tired. Of course, there was an expected line to check in to the hotel. While I did wait in a line, it did move quickly. And soon after we got there, we had all our stuff in the room and could begin to unwind from a long, hot drive… including a brief nap.

After a nap, we headed out for some dinner. We hit the Burger Lounge for dinner. It was OK. As far as burger joints go, I still prefer both the Counter and Roam (though I would only be able to find the Counter in San Diego as Roam is local to me). It was a good dinner, but I’m not sure I would call it great.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and had a couple of drinks at the hotel bar. The bar at our hotel is quite swanky. It’s a great place to sit and have a drink. While drinking we had a great conversation about Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda with the bartenders. The bonus to geek events is that sometimes the people serving you are also geeks. It was fun to talk video games with them. After that is was back to the room and to bed.

A Word About My Health

So, I know at this point that pretty much everyone who’s read this knows that I have had to have a drastic change to my diet due to health concerns. I had to go gluten-free because it seems to be wrecking my body more than I ever realized.

It’s been over a year since I started this. I still find myself wanting to eat food like I used to. I miss being able to find a dearth of things I can eat. I miss not having to worry about if something’s going to make me sick. I miss sourdough bread.

The health benefits that I get from being gluten-free far outweigh everything that I miss.

Sure I miss sourdough and not having to triple-check everything I eat. What I don’t miss is being sick all the time. My immune system has never been stronger. I have noticed that I used to get sick with everything every time someone else was sick. In the past year plus, I have been sick twice, both times were minor colds. This has been an even bigger revelation than not having to be sick after eating anything. For once in my life I’m not being sick all the time.

And while that’s been incredibly amazing… and it seriously has been. I have felt better and stronger than I have in my whole life. So, giving up anything with wheat, barley rye and a majority of food and soda is a small concession compared to feeling healthy.

The downside is, now if I even have the smallest of gluten, I get sick. I get sicker than when I was eating gluten.

In many ways it makes me feel like I can’t go many places to get food. Cross-contamination becomes a huge concern. I’ve got gluten-sick off and on since. Some places have been great places to eat. I generally go back to those places often. Some places give it lip service or the servers might be clueless about what it means to be gluten-free. It’s these places that get me.

The illness is similar to what I would get with a flu… with certain exclusions.

I wind up in pain all over my body. I feel fatigued, run-down. My brain feels foggy. I get constipated followed by a very unpleasant stomach explosion. I bloat. I start feeling emotionally… well, blah. I become moodier. I’m sure that there’s more to it than that… but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

It’s this illness that makes me have to spend a lot of downtime at home. It’s not a time that I enjoy or relish.

So, I’ve learned that now, I’m going to need to eat at home almost all the time. And that’s what I’ve done. I still will go out to get things like tea or something like. I just don’t eat out as often.

That might be able to change though. The FDA is now going to compel restaurants to be as safe as food manufacturers. If they’re going to have food they’re saying is gluten-free, they need to keep it to 20 PPM (parts per million). I’m curious how this will play out. Will it make restaurants more aware of their gluten handling and they will do better or will they drop gluten-free altogether? I think that’s something we need to wait and see.

All I know is that being gluten-free has been one of the best things I have done in my life (only one of them). And I’m super happy I have. I’m not saying that I think that everyone needs to be gluten-free… actually, it’s to the contrary. If it’s making your health better, do it. Otherwise, it’s not worth it. It’s constrictive and you’re depriving yourself of a lot of vitamins that are naturally found in wheat and wheat variants. It’s not for everyone, but it is right for some people.

Comic Con, Day 1, pt. 1: the Dawnening

We hadn’t intended on getting the convention center too early in the morning. We didn’t have any panels until noon, so we were trying to pick up our badges the night before. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out too well for us. There was the huge traffic line just to get to the area badges were being distributed… and our vehicle was almost out of gas. So, that meant us waking up early and making a beeline to the convention center to wait in line to pick up our badges at 6 in the morning.

I must say, it might be the sleep that I actually managed to get, because the wait didn’t bother me as much this year. We were a bit further back in line… but I think I had more fun this time around. It also seemed like the badges were given out earlier than last year.

There are two lines in this picture. Thankfully only one of them is for Registration. The other was for Hasbro.

Thankfully, the line, when registration was finally open, was very quick. I think we maybe stopped moving for a whole five minutes before the line started up again. I still marvel at the efficiency of the Comic Con registration line. Especially after being stuck in Lineagedeon at Fanime this year.

Once we finally had our badges, we made our way to brunch. We weren’t concerned about our panels Thursday morning as we didn’t have anything until noon. We made the trek (albeit, a brief one) to a restaurant called The Mission. It was highly recommended by people who are gluten-intolerant/Celiac and people who love gluten alike.

They have a pretty decent sized gluten-free menu. It wasn’t just an item or two, there was quite a bit available if you can’t eat gluten. The food was good, and more importantly healthy. It’s hard to eat healthy when you’re at a con and most of the stuff on-hand is highly processed and… frankly, not that good.

One of the gluten-free breakfasts at the Mission

We got to relax and enjoy a flavorful breakfast. That was something that was missing from last year. We also had the time to pick up some toiletries that we needed as there were some things that we had forgotten to pack.

After all of that, we headed back to the convention center.

I still had about an hour before my first panel, so we sat in on the panel that was before. The panel was titled “Witty Women of Steampunk”.

Now, I’m not going to lie, I’ve been burned out on Steampunk since before it became a big thing. It’s an interesting aesthetic, but it’s not really my cup of tea. A more scientifically advanced Victorian era is quite interesting, but I think I like to think more about Dieselpunk or something like that.

A pedicab outside of the Mission. They are everywhere at Comic Con.

The panel itself was actually quite interesting. It was put on by women who are creators of Steampunk art, comics, video games and books. The women were funny and it was interesting to see some of the Steampunk things out there. One that appealed to me as a comic called “High Society”. It’s a Filipino speculative comic. They also talked about Steampunk erotica. Given that the Victorian era did give us the vibrator, it’s not a huge stretch have Steampunk fiction include erotica.

After that panel was the panel I was interested in. I went to the Pitching Hour last year to try to get some interesting information about how to forward a career in the film/television/comic industry. It didn’t let me down this year. This year also was rife with information that they didn’t mention the previous year. There was more information on video game pitching and what is needed to pitch a video game to a game company.

There was more discussion of what actually works for protecting your copyright and your intellectual

Because this was totally a thing.

property, especially in this era of everything being so attainable online. This year a greater importance was placed on networking. After all, it’s the best way us creative folks have to meeting each other.

Another Sickie Post

I’ve felt quite sick for the past 4 days. I know exactly what caused it (no, it’s not the flu). I was accidentally given some gluten.

Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do about it except weather the storm. So, that’s what I’m working on.

Also unfortunately, it seems to be sapping my ability to think coherently about what to write. I’m hoping to be better on the mend by tomorrow.

So, here’s to hoping that I can get some more writing in for this week.

Holiday Food Blues

There are a few holidays that I truly enjoy. They’re some pretty awesome times of the year where fun abounds. I love Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day.

And then there are holidays that I enjoy for food alone. Those food holidays are very few and far between. Thanksgiving has historically been one of those holidays for me.

I do love a traditional Thanksgiving meal. I love almost everything about the food. Though, honestly, I could go without pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes. But I love everything else.

However, this year is going to be drastically different.

This is the first year where I’ve been gluten-free. This year I can’t really eat everything that I love. I can’t have stuffing and gravy. I can’t have the green bean casserole that I love. While I would love that my family would actually attempt a full gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner… I know that they’re not going to make that big of a change to the dinner for just one person.

So, instead of eating what everyone else will be eating (or trying to eat it and making myself sick for days afterwards), I’m going to be eating something different.

While I like the sound of what I’m eating. I feel as though I’m missing out on something I love. This is the first time that I’ve felt like I’m being excluded because of my dietary restrictions.

And, I’m going to admit it, it makes me quite sad that I can’t eat the traditional Thanksgiving meal.

Watching all the ads about Thanksgiving food and all the cooking shows that are focused on all those comfort foods that I love. I have to admit, I feel left out. I can no longer enjoy the food of the day that I love.

And now, I’m at the point of where do I go from here?

All I can figure is that I need to mourn that I can no longer partake of what I love. I could cheat and eat everything, but what would that do for me? What would that do for my health? Since we’re still not 100% sure if I have Celiac’s Disease or not, I can’t take too many risks.

These are the time of year that make it difficult for me to eat. I want to eat everything that I can’t have.

All I have to do is remind myself that I have 2 more months of this… only 2 more months. If I just tell myself that, maybe it’ll make it better. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around next year, I may have properly mourned not being able to eat the normal holiday meals that I love.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

If there were one word that I could use to describe where my life was now, it would be massive amounts of change. I might even say that it’s too much change to deal with at one time. I feel like there are massive changes happening. Some are for the best, some probably aren’t. That’s the nature of change.

I have had one massive change in my life. One that both enriches and limits things in my life.

I’ve lived my entire life with stomach problems. I have a stomach condition where I almost always maintain a certain amount of nausea. My mom has plenty of stories of how I was given medication for my stomach when I was a little child. I have spent years and had countless different tests. I’ve had a colonoscopy, upper GI. I’ve had numerous blood tests. We haven’t been able to put a finger on this problem.

I’ve even tried an elimination diet, but it was cut short by an allergy test.

Turns out, maybe it was cut too short.

It turns out, maybe the problem all along has been that I’m gluten intolerant. It was that simple… and that difficult.

Since I’ve spent a week not eating any gluten. In that week, for the first time in my life, I have just felt full. I haven’t felt full and sick, I’ve simply felt full. I feel as though I have more energy. I feel revitalized in a way that I couldn’t have imagined.

It’s also a bit heart-breaking. There’s a lot of things that I really wish I could have. I want sourdough bread. I want ravioli and tortellini. I want to be able to go to a restaurant and not worry if what I’m ordering is going to have gluten in it.

So, I way the positive changes versus how I was feeling before.

It seems that I can go on missing those things. There are ways around eating those. There isn’t a way for me to take all these positive physical changes and compare it to not being able to eat certain foods. The truth is, I’d rather feel better. After 32 years of being sick, it’s wonderful to finally not feel sick.

If only all the other changes could yield equally positive results…

Well, only time will tell.