time to recollect my thoughts about this year's new york comic con. i don't mean to mostly write about the negative aspects, but i really only care to share my experiences as a paraplegic. many times (possibly most of the time) i have bunches of advantages when i visit places or events, such as not having to wait in any lines, or special seating areas (not necessarily always an advantage), or sometimes (but rarely) even free stuff. most of the time when wheelchairs get to skip the line, i assume it's because the chair doesn't actually fit where the line is, or it's more of an inconvenience to have the chair there. there could be other reasons, but i can't come up with any. plenty of times there has been more than enough room, so i don't fully understand why i get the advantage, but i'll take it. unfortunately for me, the nerd community doesn't care so much about their fellow disabled friends, so i was treated the same way as everyone else at the convention, which means no advantages for me this time. psh. i didn't sign up for this handicap thing to be treated just like everyone else..
so i would be talking about all the line skipping, free stuff, and celebrity meeting that went on (not that that ever happens), but instead you get the privilege to read about all the annoying things that boiled my blood all day. for those of you who don't know, comic con is a huge convention full of comics, movies, toys, tv, and all things in between, basically making up a huge nerdfest. thousands and thousands of people attend, tons in costume (which may be the best part). so just picture all these people squeezed in aisles trying to look at or go into each booth, and at certain points not even having room to breathe. i imagine it's frustrating on feet, but i got to a point later in the day where i went down numerous aisles without looking at a single thing, because i couldn't see over or around the monstrous flood of people surrounding me. meaning, there were people touching me and/or my chair from literally every angle, and all i could do was squeeze my hands down to my wheels and push ever so slightly and slowly until i managed to get through the chaos. a lot of people moved or waited for me, some people pushed other people out of the way for me, some made no acknowledgement to me at all, and a few actually climbed up and around me like undisciplined five year olds. basically what i'm trying to say is, maneuvering a wheelchair in crowded tight spaces is not a fun task.
now my favorite part of the day was finding a girl while in line for the bathroom wearing this really elaborate and amazing hellboy costume. it was literally perfect, until she went into the handicap stall (you know, the only stall i fit into) and just kind of hung out in there for the next 20 minutes. after seeing everyone i was in line with go in and out, and watching several new lines of people form and disappear... while i'm still sitting there waiting for ms. hellboy, i realized that this girl was an inconsiderate asshole. this was one of the not-common-enough occurences where the handicap stall has a mirror and sink, so she decided to do her make up in there. of course i've been cursed with a shy and non-confronting personality that gets stepped on all the time, so instead of banging on the door and telling her she's rude, i sat and waited, impatiently. finally a woman, realizing i've been waiting forever, gave me the "what the hell?" look, peeked into the handicap stall, replaced her facial expression with shock, and said "she's doing her make up!" then she did what i should've done 15 minutes ago, knocked on the door and told her someone actually needs that stall. there were some mumbles from the stall, the woman told me good luck, left, and maybe 5 minutes later ms. hellboy drags her big butt out and waddles away with her sour-puss face. i should have torn off her stupid tail. this is a lesson to all you people to be respectful in public bathrooms and not do your make up in the only handicap accessible stall while there's a completely empty bathroom with 4 vacant sinks under a giant mirror! she is so lucky i didn't have to pee that badly..
i could write more but i've already taken too long to write so little, so i'm going to end on one last thing. at the end of the day, we decided to sit through some comedy central panels.. which turned out to be about 3 hours. we sat in a row towards the back, right next to a giant column-pole-whatever they're called, figuring it was the best place to rest a wheelchair out of the way of anyone. it couldn't have been a worse spot. instead of people going around the pole like they should've, they all decided to squeeze between the pole and me/my chair. for me, that meant someone bumping into me, pushing me, or getting caught on me every two minutes, or, i had to move my chair to get out of the way... and still get bumped. i ended up moving out of my chair and into one of the seats, and continue to watch my chair get beat to hell by everyone who still couldn't seem to grasp the fact that there was a big bulky wheelchair there. granted, it was my/our faults for not changing our seats, but seats were filled up and we didn't have a choice by the time it became a problem.
otherwise comic con was a fantastic fun time with tons of cool stuff! i can't wait for next year, and don't get me wrong, just because i'm able to ramble endlessly about a few little issues, doesn't mean i dwelled on them even half as much as it seems. i didn't want to write such a long post, but i tend to enjoy talking way too much about things that annoy me and can easily elaborate on them than anything else. it's a big flaw..
my one advantage of the day was a free train ticket to new york. i win!
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