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THE LAW IS A ASS for 05/13/2003
JOURNAL ENTRY
"Court's Adjourned" Installment # 5
Originally published on World Famous Comics May 13, 2003
For the past two weeks, I've told you about my trip to Orlando and Walt Disney World, which Roger Price, Thom Zahler and I did this year before MegaCon. It was fun. Now the fun's over and I tell you about Friday and the first day of MegaCon.
No, somehow that didn't come out right. So let's try it again, below...
******
"Court's Adjourned"
Installment # 5
by
Bob Ingersoll
MegaCon is a fun, little show. I enjoy the opportunity it and other cons offer me to re-acquaint myself with friends I only see two or three times a year. (Probably closer to two. I can' really count Comicon International: San Diego; that one is so huge, you can't really see, or re-acquaint your self with, old friends there except by accident. But what can I say? A con is a con is a con. There's a dealer's doom with lots of stuff I can't afford; an Exhibitor's area hawking lots of comics I don't want to read; an independent publisher's area with lots of people hawking books they can't give away; a media guest area which has several 60s and 70s stars, who do these shows between Infomercials and have autograph lines about as long as my NBA career, and a couple of high-profile media guests who attract all the hopeful autographees and have lines as long as the two-mile span of the Orange County Convention Center; and Artist's Alley, which is where I spent most of my time doing that whole re-acquainting thing I talked about earlier.
I also connected my portable keyboard to my PDA and wrote much of this report there. I also fielded the same question from most of the people who walked past me, "Oh, is that one of those portable keyboards for a Palm Pilot?" Huh? I mean there I was obviously typing on a keyboard and, equally obviously, looking at a PDA for a monitor, what else could it be? I was usually polite and said "yes," but that's only because I couldn't channel Al Jaffee and his "snappy answers."
So let's breeze past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I conned. It rained. We did meet up with Herd brother Tony, who was doing MegaCon as the first leg of his Tony Isabella's Farewell Tour, but I'll let him explain to you what that's all about. I showed Tony how to do some things on his new notebook computer and program numbers into the phone book of his new cell phone. Yes, Tony has both a notebook computer and a cell phone. Me I'm looking into that plastic wrap and duct tape, after all, because Tony with these many gadgets must be the fifth, sixth, and seventh signs of the Apocalypse.
Saturday night also showed us how impossible it was to find a parking spot in a hotel that had not only a cheerleader convention booked into it for the weekend but also a family reunion. Let's just forget Saturday night and move onto Sunday.
So, as we move to Sunday, the last day of MegaCon which included taking Tony to the airport and moving Roger, Thom, and myself to our next home away from home, the Hard Rock Hotel--we also move into Thom's, Roger's and my day of decompression at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I wanted to stay at one of the oh-sight hotels for the Universal parks, because you can use your room key as a permanent FastPass and skip the lines. I figured, it was the best way do both parks in only one day. And I wanted to show Roger and Thom the Hard Rock Hotel, as they're both Rock fans. So Roger and I moved all our belongings to this new hotel, while Thom stayed at MegaCon to sell more copies of Raider the graphic-novel he introduced at San Diego and which will soon be in Previews, but you should all buy it at www.raidercomic.com, so that Thom doesn't have to cut Diamond in on the profits and because it's a good book which you'll enjoy.
Roger's and I had hoped that our day at the Hard Rock Hotel would start on Sunday, after we checked in. We hoped to get our room where we could both enjoy the luxurious room and change into our suits and go take advantage of the wonderful swimming pool the hotel has to offer. No such luck.
We couldn't actually check into our room until 4:00, which pretty much eliminated both the "enjoy the luxurious room" and the "have someplace to change into our swim suits" parts of the plan. So Roger and I stayed by the pool bar, alternately lamenting the rain and the fact we had no place to change to our suits and take advantage of the wonderful-looking pool at the Hard Rock Hotel. Ultimately, it turned 4:00, which was time for me to go get Tony to take him to the airport then pick up Thom to take him back to the room. As I was doing that, Roger called my cell and told me he had checked into the room and it was every bit as luxurious as we had hoped.
Sunday was not, however, a complete bust. I mentioned before that Thom, Roger and I had dinner reservations at Emeril Lagasse's newest restaurant, Emeril's Tschoup Chop. It's a Polynesian restaurant in the Universal Escape Royal Pacific Hotel and is pronounced "chop chop." This was the night.
Everything about our meal on Sunday--the decor, the service, the food, the food, the food and deserts; hell even the salt and pepper shakers--was wonderful. So wonderful, in fact that we stopped at the check-in station and made reservations for Monday.
Monday took us to Universal Escape in Florida's twin amusement parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I mentioned earlier that the room keys at the Hard Rock Hotel act as FastPasses. What I didn't mention is that they also act as credit cards. After you guarantee incidentals for your with a credit card , you can use your room key in the Universal resort and part area--both theme parks and CityWalk--as a credit card. You can charge everything for sale in Universal Florida to the room, convenient if you don't want to carry cash around in the parks. Roger and Thom spent most of Monday telling me all the things they charged to the room, which was guaranteed on my credit card. But I wasn't worried. Not because Thom and Roger aren't so self-centered, mean, and selfish actually to buy all the things they claimed they had purchased and charge them back to the room which was guaranteed on only my credit card; they are. I wasn't worried, because there aren't enough freight trucks in the world to have carried all the things they claimed to have purchased back to Ohio.
At Universal Studios, Thom picked up the one old ride he really wanted to do; Back to the Future; and the two newer attractions he had never done; Terminator 2 3-D and Men in Black. I told Thom and the two other people riding with us the trick of insuring everyone in the car gets the 100,000 bonus points, which also insures the car's average score is high enough to get the "you're good enough to be a Man in Black" ending and got my sun glasses on quickly enough that Will Smith's neutralizer didn't wipe out my memories of the triumph. After that, we went over to Islands of Adventure, which Thom had never done; so it was all new for him there.
We pretty much did every ride in Islands of Adventure, including the drenching water rides; and this despite the fact that the weather looked threatening and ready to rain all day. What they hey, we were going to be wet anyway, so what did the rain matter? Thankfully, the rain did hold off until we finished parking, but then, not only did it start raining but turned decidedly cold.
We figured that it was Al Roker's way of preparing the three of us for our return Ohio--which was enjoying record cold--the next day.
Speaking of said next day, said next day, Tuesday, arrived all too quickly and we all did return home. We found at the airport that the cheerleaders were all leaving on that day, too, so the check point lines were even longer than one might have anticipated. And we left the Hard Rock Hotel without ever having a chance to enjoy the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Life just isn't fair sometimes.
Bob Ingersoll
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