My Comic-Con 2019

My 11th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con is in the books! I had a lot of anxiety leading up to the trip because I haven’t been feeling my best lately. The con was rough for me at times, but I survived…and even managed to have some fun. 😛 I’ve been back home for almost a week and it’s taken me some time to sit down and write this post. Beware: as with all my SDCC recaps, long post ahead!

View from our hotel room
View from our hotel room

SUNDAY AND MONDAY

John and I flew out on Sunday this year—earlier than we’ve ever gone to San Diego for the con. We got there so early that the airport baggage claim didn’t have its con wraps, and our hotel (the Manchester Grand Hyatt) didn’t have con-designed room keys yet. And workers were putting up hotel wraps when we arrived.

Also, the convention center was a ghost town…which was eerie and also amazing:

Empty convention center

John and I went to dinner at Seasons 52 on Sunday and had a couple drinks at the Marriott Marquis and Marina pool bar afterward. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend arrived on Monday so we hung out with them, grabbing dinner and drinks at Top of the Hyatt (our hotel’s 40th floor bar).

TUESDAY

John went on a kayaking and snorkeling trip with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend on Tuesday morning (I skipped it because I wasn’t feeling strong enough for the kayaking).

While they were on the ocean I got a manicure! This was my first manicure in probably ten years; I usually just do it myself. I picked out a fun glittery indigo, with a shimmery gold accent nail:

Con manicure

When I returned to our hotel room, this beautiful flower bouquet and “Happy Anniversary” balloon had been placed on the desk. My parents had sent them for our sixth wedding anniversary on July 17, and they were such a lovely surprise! The flowers were still going strong by the time we left town.

Anniversary flowers

On Tuesday evening we did a three-hour sunset sail with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, along with another random couple. We set sail from Shelter Island on a 40-foot sailboat. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast so we didn’t actually see the sun set. But the sail was a lot of fun, and we got to see some dolphins!

Dolphins!

We’re on a boat!

Sunset sail

After the sail we grabbed food at Bali Hai, a famous tiki bar on Shelter Island with very strong Mai Tais. (I stuck with wine.)

WEDNESDAY

The next day was our sixth wedding anniversary! My brother and our friend K arrived in town, and that night we all had dinner at Casa Guadalajara to celebrate our anniversary. That’s where we ate dinner after getting married at San Diego City Hall, and we’ve had at least a couple anniversary dinners there since.

Happy anniversary!

THURSDAY

Finally, the first day of the con! To be honest, I was already feeling a little worn out by the time the con started. Arriving several days prior to SDCC was a bit much for me. But I managed to rally and go with K to pick up our con bags and lanyards on Thursday morning.

I walked the show floor for a bit with K but rather quickly decided to head back to the hotel and rest for a bit before going to a beauty community friend’s panel at the Comic-Con Museum. Her panel was about legal issues in the MCU and it was fun, even for a non-lawyer such as myself. From there we took a Lyft to her hotel, met up with a couple other beauty community friends, and hung out for a bit in their room. Then I headed back to my hotel to rest because we had tickets to a party that night. I needed to reserve some energy!

I did see this incredible Dragpool on my way out of the convention center in the morning:

Dragpool

Our tickets were for a Stranger Things Upside Down-themed party thrown by Nerdist at Fluxx nightclub. The party didn’t start until 8pm, so beforehand, my group grabbed dinner at our hotel’s pub, Brew 30. I did some fun 80s makeup for the party using my new ColourPop Blue Moon palette!

There was already a line to get in to the party when we arrived, but we did get to see Andrey Ivchenko (the Russian Terminator-like character from season three) doing press out front.

Andrey Ivchenko, Stranger Things

While waiting in line, I met a couple other friends from the beauty community, so I’m happy I got to see them! The party itself was so-so…overcrowded and just not our scene. The 80s music was great, though, and so were all of the Stranger Things costumes. Lots of Scoops Ahoy Steves and Robins, Hopper Magnum P.I. shirts, and Billy mullets. We stayed for a couple drinks and then headed back to the hotel.

FRIDAY

The next morning I decided to skip con stuff entirely; I just didn’t have the energy to deal with the crowd. The introvert struggle is real! So I met up with K at the Marriott Marquis pool and we hung out there for hours. Later in the afternoon we headed over to another friend’s hotel suite at the Hilton Gaslamp to hang out. We walked past the convention center on the way there and I snapped a pic of these awesome Stranger Things cosplayers:

Eleven and Hopper cosplayers

We had a couple cocktails in my friend’s suite, and my friend let me use her T3 styling wand on my hair. It was so easy and I was so excited to actually have some waves in my hair! I’ve already ordered a wand for myself.

Curly hair
I got curlies!

From the hotel suite some of us parted ways because a couple of the ladies were off to a party. Two friends and I had dinner at the Blind Burro (a favorite of ours!) and then met back up with another friend and got a drink at the Pendry lobby bar, Fifth & Rose. While sitting there, we saw Colbie Smulders (Robin Scherbatsky!) stroll through the bar to enter the hotel. She was statuesque and stunning. Amazing celebrity sighting! I recognized another actor in the bar but couldn’t quite put my finger on where I’ve seen him. Probably one of the CW shows. [UPDATE way after the fact: it was Jack Quaid, who plays Hughie on The Boys, which premiered right after SDCC in 2019. I didn’t realize that’s who we saw in the bar until we began watching the show!]

By then John and our other friends had finished dinner and we wanted to merge groups, but there wasn’t enough room at the Pendry bar. So some of us stayed there while John and the others went to Salt + Whiskey at the Horton Grand, then K and I met them there after we finished at the Pendry. Suddenly it was after midnight (I rarely stay out that late these days!), so we headed back to the hotel. You know you’re having a good time when you don’t realize how late it is!

SATURDAY

Despite the late night of socializing I actually felt up for checking out the exhibit hall. I headed over there by myself and wandered for a bit. Here’s my annual exhibit hall crowd shot:

Comic-Con Exhibit Hall

Sideshow Collectibles killed it as usual. I fell in love with this Ser Brienne of Tarth figure. I would 100% pay $208 for her.

Ser Brienne of Tarth - Sideshow Collectibles

After wandering the floor for a bit, I wanted to check out the Nerdist offsite. And spotted this group of awesome Game of Thrones cosplayers on the way out of the convention center…I’ve definitely seen that Khal Drogo in previous years.

Game of Thrones cosplayers

There was a line to get in to the Nerdist offsite, but a friend had messaged me about meeting up so I met her at a Johnnie Walker Game of Thrones whiskey tasting pop-up. No line, free booze and snacks, and places to sit! It wasn’t even that crowded. A Comic-Con miracle! We hung out there for a little bit and then I met up with John, who was with another friend just a block up the street. On the way I saw this Delorean blasting 80s music:

Delorean in San Diego

From there we wandered down Fifth Avenue back toward the convention center. And saw these It cosplayers…AGHHH, THAT PENNYWISE:

Georgie and Pennywise cosplayers

I went back to the hotel room to rest, because my beauty community friends planned to meet up later. After some rest, food, and makeup application I ended up back at my friend’s hotel suite while she glammed up for a party. Then I met up with a couple of the beauty community ladies for a party at Altitude Sky Lounge. We had a drink there, then walked over to the Hilton Bayfront for drinks in the lobby bar, where more beauty community folks met us. We all had a great time hanging out, even though the place got SUPER busy and loud!

John and a couple of our other friends were at an art auction at the Bayfront, so they came down to the bar once the auction finished. We ended up having another late night because we were having such a good time. I didn’t go to bed until about 1:15am. Worth it!

SUNDAY

Lazy morning resting in the hotel room after two late nights in a row. It was another day where the thought of being surrounded by tons of people felt super overwhelming. But I did want to walk the show floor again before the con ended, so I headed over to the convention center with John in the afternoon. I looooooved these talking Grady Twins Living Dead Dolls:

Living Dead Dolls Talking Grady Twins

And this creepy-ass Jack Torrance Living Dead Doll:

Living Dead Dolls Jack Torrance

Speaking of The Shining, The Prop Store had Jack Torrance’s hero axe on display. They’re auctioning it and value it at $50,000 to $80,000. Holy shit.

Jack Torrance's Axe

Is it weird that I find the 1990 version of the Pennywise Living Dead Doll adorable?

1990 Pennywise

The Lego booth always has incredible life-sized Lego characters, and this year they had Iron Man on display:

Lego Iron Man

John and I walked the show floor until about ten minutes before closing time. Then we met up with friends and grabbed a bite at the Marriott Marquis pool. Once we finished eating I wasn’t feeling well so I went back to the room and packed. I got in bed around 9pm because I was worn the fuck out and we had to get up early for our flight home the next morning…which actually went smoothly!

COMIC-CON 2019 HAUL

Wanna see the stuff I got at Comic-Con?

Comic-Con 2019 haul

I actually didn’t buy any of this myself! K bought me the amazing NECA Pennywise on Thursday; as she was wandering the show floor she spotted a rare lack of a line at the NECA booth. Probably because they were only accepting cash at that point. How cool is this figurine?!

NECA Black and White Pennywise

My brother got me a super cute Nerdy Novelty Design cat apron when he went to Cat Con a couple weeks ago. So it’s not technically an SDCC gift, but it’s still a con gift. And the vendor who makes these aprons did have a booth at Comic-Con…so it totally counts. They also make pot holders and I almost bought a Dean Winchester one.

I got the Game of Thrones pins for free at the Johnnie Walker pop-up bar, and the SDCC 50 pin came in the mail with my badge. K’s boyfriend got me the Con Rangers merit badge, “Met a Celebrity in an Elevator.” I didn’t meet a celebrity in an elevator this year, but John and I did ride the Marriott Marquis elevator with Stan Lee (RIP) a few years back so I say that absolutely counts.

John bought the pirate clownfish mug, and together we decided to get the adorable Halloween Hobbit Hole from Weta Workshop. How cute is this?!

Halloween Hobbit Hole, Weta Workshop

Overall, Comic-Con 2019 was not my best year. Though it was somewhat rough for me physically and mentally, looking back, I did manage to have a good time. So I’m happy about that! Plus, the Hotelpocalypse gods smiled on us by giving us the Hyatt, which is my favorite hotel we’ve stayed at for SDCC. I’m SUPER grateful we got a hotel close to the convention center this year. Having a hotel nearby makes a gigantic difference for me!

If you’re a Comic-Con-goer, let me know in the comments how SDCC 2019 was for you. I hope you enjoyed reading my loooooong recap!