SLCC15

Last weekend I went to comic con with my sister and Husband. This the second con Husband and I have been to, the first for my sister. Originally I wasn't going to go. They didn't have any celebrity guests I was super excited about. Somewhere in the mix though, my sister convinced me to sign up for the Superhero 5k with her. And then they announced Chris Evans was going to be at comic con. (That's Captain America for those who aren't in the nerd loop.) That's a HUGE deal. And my sister happens to think he's pretty cute, so I managed to convince her to go to see him and maybe get an autograph or photo op. Then it was announced that his autographs and photo ops would be sold for $150 a pop. Ouch. That's a bit out of range for a good chunk of us, I'd say. So I felt like a horrible sister because I'd convinced her to go for him, and now she wouldn't even get to interact with him. (They released some of the photo ops in a lottery, but of course we didn't win.)
All this was happening in the months and weeks leading up to comic con, I can't remember the exact timeline. Meanwhile, we were doing our best to get in shape for the 5k. Fast forward to a week or two before comic con. SLCC announced that the Chris Evans panel was going to require a ticket, which would be issued, again via a lottery. This was very likely due to the fact that it was going to be extremely popular and we don't have the capacity for people to camp out like they do at San Diego for Hall H. Not to mention, we don't have a room the size of Hall H. So we entered to win for that, thinking little of it as the panel was going to be the same morning as the race.
Fast forward again to Friday night, my sister and I are sitting in a panel at the end of the day. She decides to check her email. She has won a ticket to the Chris Evans panel the next morning!! We're shocked. We leave the panel because it was boring and my sister now needs to decide what to do. So we wander the vendor floor for a bit and participate in some retail therapy. I'm telling her to go to the panel, as is Husband, and her friend she's texting. We sit down in the final panel of the night and she checks her email again. She's won a second ticket! I get to go too! However, the entry times for the panel are roughly an hour apart so we wouldn't be together and we'd have to miss the race. I'm fine with this as I took a month or so off from running after I thought I was pregnant and wasn't. My body's just mean. But she's having a really hard time with this because of all the effort she's put towards it. After much anguish, it's decided we'll go to the panel.

The next morning, we both made some friends while waiting for the panel to start. The girl next to me had flown in from Wisconsin, had a photo op with Chris and Sebastian Stan (the Winter Soldier), and was getting both of them to sign said picture. She said she'd spent about $1000 on all this. That is commitment, right there. But most importantly, the panel! Chris is adorable. He seemed like a very nice, down to earth kind of guy. I didn't know this, but I guess he has social anxiety and wasn't even sure if he should take the role of Cap because of it. I tweeted my favorite quote from the panel, which was this: "If you're truly grateful for everything that's happening in your life, I don't think brain noise can exist." An amazing perspective on dealing with anxiety, if you ask me. Our time with Chris was much too short, as they had to whisk him away for more photo ops. But then we got Anthony Mackie (Falcon) and he was hilarious. I have to say it was a really cool experience even though things turned into a big pain getting there. All in all, yes, I think I'd do it again. Congrats on another great con, SLCC.

Watson

My sister in law told me I should post about him, so here we go:

This is Watson! We adopted this guy back in April from Best Friends Animal Society. They are a great organization, and I highly recommend them to anyone in my area looking for a new fuzzy friend.
Watson is the name they gave him at the shelter, and at first I wasn't too fond of it, but Husband liked it so it stuck. And it's grown on me, much like how much I adore this fluff ball. He is the sweetest, snuggliest cat I've ever met. The first few nights home, he slept between me and Husband on the bed, up by our pillows. It may sound crazy, but it really felt like he was grateful we adopted him.

Just a few days after we brought him home, he was exploring and hopped onto the kitchen counter. I told him to get down, and instead, he hopped up onto the fridge.

He wouldn't get down, so I had to climb onto a chair to get him. Ever since then, he's loved getting into mischief.

He's been known to take naps in a cabinet in Husband's desk.

This is one of my favorite pictures of him.

And he likes to use my chest as a pillow.

Sometimes it seems like he's more dog than cat, though. He runs to greet us when we come home, drinks from the toilet, and begs for food. Not like a dog begs, but he'll come sit and just stare at you. Or, since we often eat dinner sitting on the couch rather than at the dining table, he'll jump up and sit next to you on the couch and sometimes put a paw on your arm. Subtle, yes?

He does have FIV, but you wouldn't know it looking at him or watching him play with his favorite toy. FIV is basically the kitty version of AIDS. It cannot be transferred to humans, only cat to cat through blood. Just like we couldn't give him some human blood borne disease, which now I can't think of any new examples of. It doesn't require him to have any special food or medications, we just have to watch him to see if he gets sick and be quick to get him to the vet if he does. If you'd like to learn more about FIV cats, you can go here.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram and/or are friends with me on Facebook, you're going to have to just put up with all the pictures of him. Until I'm pregnant again, he's our baby.