A Witch's Journal

The wife and I just attended Montréal Comiccon. We did not go to any autograph signings or photo-ops, this year, despite three out of four Hobbits being there (Dom Monaghan was supposed to be there but ended up backing out due to other commitments, filming overseas... a guy's gotta work!) there was also Andy Serkis, as well as Mike Colter (OMG!!!). We decided to dip our toes back in after years of not having the time or the money due to it falling on the weekend closest to our wedding anniversary.

Friday, we bought a ton of merch and stuff... and got tattoos. There was a booth doing flashes for under $200, including minis at $65 each, 2 for $100 and 3 for $125 if I remember correctly? I ended up getting a mini Starfleet badge on the outside of my right wrist, and Mary Poppins (Dogpool, who loves her papa) higher up on my forearm. They ballooned up within hours, because my immune system always has to go to red alert for anything and everything, but now the swelling and redness are gone. I remember tattoos hurting much more than this, it had been at least two decades since my last one, but they were using these smaller, rechargeable, battery-operated "guns" and I think that made all the difference. Also, techniques have changed a lot and they tend not to go as deep as they used to.

Saturday was more of the same, minus tattoos, and eating lunch at a mid-range restaurant and had absolutely delicious steaks, seriously, close to the best I've had at much more expensive steakhouses! The Exhibition floor has gotten huge! The photo-ops and celebrities used to be packed on the same floor as the rest, so it was actually possible to see nearly everything in one day, but it took us two just to walk the whole floor! It was intense. Also, Saturday is the suckiest day to go. Most one-day ticket holders go on the Saturday, so, word to the wise, if you want to just do one day and can go another day than the Saturday, do it. The floor was still crowded Friday and Sunday, but nowhere near as bad as the Saturday. So many bodies the AC was barely cooling us!

Today, we were going mostly to be audience members for a panel titled Pride of the X-Men: The Queer History of Marvel's Merry Mutants by my wife's friend, and the co-moderator of her Discord server (the server is for the Montreal trans femme community). It was a super good conference, I almost teared up a few times. There was an oblique reference to Ed Buczynski, the founder of Edwardian Wicca, because the store he owned with his partner hosted a former writer's wife's coven meetings. This was also the era when X-Men started having more and more social justice and queer themes, even though it couldn't be shown explicitly. No, not like in pr0n, you pervs! As in, showing same sex couples kissing and so on.

Then we roamed the floor some more, and around lunchtime, we took off to go run errands in the Western part of the Island, then went home.

I'm realizing that I am rambling a bit incoherently, but I am exhausted, the front of my thighs are numb from so much walking and standing, feet are fine, though, and the knees are holding up!

Oh, and a good strapless bra is definitely a game changer to wear sundresses!

We had quite the lightshow earlier. We fell under Severe Thunderstorm Watch at 7:18pm, quickly followed by a Severe Thunderstorm Warning at 7:19, and the thunder started thundering at about 7:30pm.

The thunder sounded like someone was waving a giant sheet of metal outside, at first. Not at all like it usually does. It was super strange and, well, metallic. The worst of the supercell went over the town in a matter of 20 minutes or so, with a bit more lightning and thunder again at the 1-hour mark, but nowhere near as loud or dramatic.

Lightning struck something relatively close to the house. I had our bird on me during the worst of the storm because the poor thing is terrified of thunder, and she went all skinny and long-necked from fear. I just gave snuggles and kisses until it was over. It's funny how this conure is so stressed about thunderstorms and my two cockatiels I had before her did not give a hoot, unless there was a particularly loud clap of thunder, at which they would both hiss loudly and briefly, like they were annoyed at it. Normally, conures are the braver birds, while cockatiels are timid and skittish. Why are birds?

It's now 11:05pm or so, and the warning and watch have both been lifted. I'm still up, there is nearly an hour left to my shift. At least I'm not on-call for the overnights, this week. That's next week. Thankfully, I do all this from home. It's all evening shifts, essentially, until vacation at the end of July.