Corin Made Me Love Being a Geek Again

After arguing with the poor girl for a while, I dug into my email archives and realized Corin had booked us at the Hyatt. I checked quickly on my phone, and the Hyatt was only a block and a half away, so I decided to just walk over.

Only the blocks in Orange County are nearly a mile long, and with my luggage it took me twenty-five minutes to cross the distance, hopping over fences that seemd to arbitrarily divide one section of empty parking lot from another. It was hot too, and I when I finally checked in at the Hyatt I was sweating, and a little dirty from landing in a flower bed.

Ah, Southern California.

Corin had been trying to get me to go to a "con" with him for years, actually. Finally, with us both on opposite sides of the country, and with him presenting a panel at WonderCon, I gave in.

Unlike Corin, I don't often embrace my geekdom, so it was fun to be surrounded by people who love what I love, and to not feel weird about it, for once. We spent the whole day at the Anaheim Convention Center:

• Oogling girls cos-playing as Rogue, Optimus Prime, and Dr. Who companions;
• Seeing HD footage of Star Trek: The Next Generation coming out on Blu-Ray;
• Debating which franchise was better: Star Wars or Star Trek;
• Hearing from Whedonverse luminaries like Jane Espenson about storytelling across different media – TV, movies, comic books, novels, etc;
• Learning how PR and marketing works for comics books;
• And trying on $600 real leather browncoats at a costume supply booth specializing in Ren-Faire wear and Firefly. Of course.

I came back with a new sense of how cool it was to be a geek. I downloaded two apps for reading comic books on my iPad, and bought the new Star Trek comics, as well as some classic Iron Man and X-Men titles, and the Serenity comics.

I think what happend was, as a I kid, I loved being a geek and read or watched everything sci-fi or fantasy that I could get my hands on. Then, through middle school, high school and college, I was terrified of being uncool, so I buried those passions deep down.

Ever since living with Corin in DC, he's been trying to get me to love – and be proud of – being a geek. WonderCon may have finally been the tipping point.