Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
So you’ve just gotten back from Comic Con. Your feet feel like lumps from a decrepit tree. Your throat hurts from yelling over crowds. You’ve taken two showers, but you still smell weird. And yet, you’re happy. Weirdly, contentedly happy.
That’s the post Con Coma.
If you’re just getting back from your first Con, here’s what I always recommend:
1. Sleep. Sleep as much as you possibly can. Take naps at any random moment just because you have a free hour and it’s possible to squeeze it in. Sleep on your ride to work if you can. Sleep on your lunch. You will need this sleep so you don’t cry.
2. Don’t look at all you pictures right away. Sometimes the truth about life is that looking at happy things can actually be sad. Just watch Inside Out to see what I mean. Give it a few weeks before you get into all the feels.
3. Make fun plans for the week after Con. Go out to dinner and a movie with your girlfriends. Get to yoga every night. Start planning your next vacation. Take on your next big craft project. It’s really hard not to look back at the weekend and not feel a bit of “wah wahs” about it. So, make plans and distract yourself.
4. Engage in your nerdery with verve. A midnight premiere is a perfect decision post Con. Binging Netflix? Another perfect decision. Basically, anything that allows you to escape into a fandom you’ve been ignoring or find a new fandom all over again.
5. Don’t start planning for next year. Yet. The Baker Street Babes always take a hiatus after SDCC before starting all the emails on SherlockeDCC. Even if it’s just talking about how to do things better next year, it’s so much more articulate and helpful to wait a month or two to dive into details.
So tell me, what do you do after a Con to get through it?
For years, a big blue box has been invading my dreams, filling my closet and improving my Saturday nights. So it only made sense that seeing a “real” TARDIS was on my travel to do list last year when I made my way to Cardiff, Wales for the Doctor Who Experience. I said then that it was glorious, because it was. But I wanted to expound on that a little for people who are considering spending a ton of cash going there OR who may never have the chance to see it for one reason or another.
Big Blue Box isn’t just a silly name the show’s writers came up with in a moment of whimsy. The TARDIS is quite simply put, a giant blue prop, upon which many a nerd have placed a fantasy or a thousand. Many a drunken night has ended with a wish for a Big Blue Box. And with science fiction, time travel seems to be one of our key tools of choice. Whether Hermione’s Time Turner or Doc’s DeLorean, we nerds have a fondness for controlling time. For me personally, it’s a bit of an obsession. I have said to friends once too often: if it’s about time travel, I don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes says, I’ll watch it. Remember, The Butterfly Effect?
And so the TARDIS holds special meaning to me and seeing it was undoubtedly a fun memory. But the truth is, I didn’t NEED to see it for it to hold such importance to me.
I couldn’t open the door. It wasn’t truly bigger on the inside. I wasn’t going to travel to another space or time. It’s meaning was truly attached to how much I love the sentiment of the show.
This post isn’t mean to discourage you from making the trek to Cardiff if you want to see the real deal. Trust me, it is fun. But I would like to remind us all of something that can become so true when you are a fan of something: you don’t NEED the THING for the THING to be the THING. That can be a very expensive movie prop, or a trip to a set or something as simple as a tee shirt. Sometimes, we celebrate our nerd loves in a way that can be financially costly… and forget the main truth: It’s already in your heart. You just need to tap into it.
http://beinggeekchic.com/post/91302023302/geeky-travel-guide-cardiff-wales-the-doctor-who
