SDCC 2014 Day TWO

THURSDAY IS HERE!

I am still amazed at how completely lucky I was to be able to score some tickets to the Zachary Levi Panel at NERD HQ.  Lemme tell ya, it was NOT an easy feat.

 For those not in the know, Nerd HQ is an amazing place full of interactive displays, presentations, places to lounge and cool gear to buy. It's like it's own little off site Comic Con and it's open to anyone ( read no badge required). This is put on by Zachary Levi and any money that they earn from it goes to charity (Operation Smile). In addition to all of that, Zach somehow manages to talk people into coming over to Nerd HQ and doing panels for a limited amount of people. The panels are much more intimate and are mostly Q&A format.  

The Nerd Machine launched an app this year that gave us a heads up for impending sales, schedule changes, and opportunities to meet celebs. I like that they rolled out the panel announcements and sales a few at a time, however that made the competition to snag a ticket even more fierce. I mean imagine that there are almost 300,000 people that are visiting San Diego and these panels hold around 250 people.  

When the tickets to the Zachary Levi panel when on sale, I was camped out in front of the computer with my finger ready to click on the button the SECOND they went live. I clicked and managed to get two tickets. They were sold out within a few seconds of going live. I'm so happy I have a fast internet connection and that luck was on my side for this year. ( I also managed to get tickets to the Maze Runner panel by some pure stroke of luck)

Hey there Zach! 

We had to be up at a decent hour and ready to bus over to PetCo park by 8am. Again we spent more time waiting in line for the event, than we actually did attending it, but it's worth it. When we went in there was a huge screen behind the stage and one lonely chair just a few feet away from us. Zachary comes out and started taking questions, including one from me! He was entertaining, endearing, and enamoring to watch. I am so happy that I got to be a part of the audience and that I had the courage to ask a question -HE EVEN GAVE ME THE FLYNN RYDER SMOLDER!- that makes me one of the luckiest girls around. They even live stream the whole thing for everyone to watch ( here is a link to this one).

Brandon and I had to grab some lunch and head over to our appointment to donate blood. I signed us up for the annual Comic Con blood drive that was sponsored by True Blood. The wait time was reasonable and the people there were very nice. After it was all over, we even got some fun True Blood swag and a free book! 

Then it was time to work our shift at Artists Alley. I love being a part of this team. It is such a fun place to "work" and I get to meet such amazing people. This year we had some red staff vests to wear so people could tell that we were working. Not the most fashionable, but I think i pulled it off. 

The red vest is not quite as noticeable next to this "costume"

Brando and I hit up the exhibit floor, collected our t-shirts and grabbed a ton of the famous Comic Con swag. I ended up putting a lot of it in my treasure box here at school and have made sure the children know what a serious treasure this stuff really is!

My Swag this year, and the only thing I paid for here was one shirt. 

We must have walked 50 miles that day and we were D.O.N.E at a decent hour. We decided to head to the grocery store and stalk up on food. We grabbed things to make lunches and quick snacks to carry with us throughout the day. This was so helpful and really saved us when we were starting to get hungry, and waiting in a never ending line. Not to mention, that I'm sure we saved a ton of money by bringing our own snacks. We only ate dinners out and saved the rest of our time ( and money) for serious geeky goodness!