Excuse me for Scribblin'

Today was one to remember! We arrived at Comic Con in San Diego after a somewhat noisy train trip (it was opening day at some horse track, it was very remeniscent of the Melbourne Cup in terms of dress/noise) only to find that my good friend Tariq had canceled my accommodation. It was based on a misunderstanding, but it seemed a little harsh considering San Diego plays host to about 120,000 visitors for the convention and is therefore pretty much booked out. Fortunately (so very lucky for us) I remembered my mother recently describing hostels in a kind light and there was a USA Hostel with room only four blocks from the convention, in the heart of the city. Feeling intense relief we checked in, signed up for the pub crawl, and headed back to see what all the fuss was about.

As we streamed in to the convention centre (after waiting for an hour in the first of what I'm sure will be many lines) I couldn't help but feel a combination of excitement and disappointment. It's basically just a huge market with displays that, whilst impressive, are purely sales driven. People clamouring not for artists work, but for sneak peak snippets of films and crappy tv shows. We wandered the grounds looking mainly for high quality figures for Luke's desk, until finally I could put off my primary mission no longer: I met Mike, Jerry and Robert of Penny Arcade fame. They are genuine and friendly people and I was wholly satisfied. I bought their anniversary book which not only celebrates their 11 years of writing/drawiung PA but also my 11 years of reading it. They are going to be very busy during the lead-up to PAX but they shook my hand for making the effort to come from Australia and said they were happy to do an interview if it gets quiet some time. Awesome!

Then we came back to the hostel very tired but content. There was a pub crawl which we took partook of and I'll have to go into that when I get some more 'net time. Which I now have! So we decided to fully embrace our hostel experience and join a bunch of Austrian guys on the pub crawl. This was good as we met Michael from Sydney (Bro) and Tim from Seattle (Nerd) who would keep us company each night we were there. Tim was a particularly useful friend as he was also attending comic con and taught us how to wait in line like a pro. Although I didn't share his enthusiasm for 'Chuck' we went with him on Saturday morning and managed to get into the infamous Ballroom 20 for the whole day. But I'm getting sidetracked. We went to four bars on the trip and had about 15 standard drinks worth of a combination of beer, vodka and tequila. One venue offered mechanical bull rides and, after seeing Luke get thrown bodily across the floor to land completely upside-down, I chose not to ride although I did slip the guy controlling it a little extra to take it a bit easy on Tim. Another venue had a dance-floor covered in dicks. No venue had girls. I was surprised that none came from the hostel as, in the days that followed, I found the occupancy of the hostel to be heavily in favour of blonde european girls. Single men take note. The highlights were definitely Luke-centric; at one point he vaulted clear over a bar to land amongst some girls who, overwhelmed by his awesomeness, immediate disappeared. Outside another club he did an impressive 'kong' over a small garden which ended with a less than 10-out-of-10 face-concrete interaction. Finally on our way home, arms about each other; best friends forever, we were harangued by a cute russian girl on a rickshaw. The rickshaws (they call them pedicabs but I think that sounds a little sus) buzz about constantly but this time there was the right combination of drunk/tired/appealing to warrant a ride. Unfortunately we were pretty much home so the three of us (four wouldn't quite fit) took a turn around the block. At one point I leapt out and pushed. I can't quite communicate the moment, but it was close to sheer unadulterated bliss. The kind of giddy joy only a drunkard can obtain.

Weeeeee!