But also, my boyfriend of 5 1/2 years and love of my life- Phil Balsman aka 'Ballsy' PROPOSED TO ME!! XD
I had no idea what he was planning...
We had quite a weekend planned- Friday I had a small gathering of friends over at one of my new favorite mixology bars The Randolph at Broome on the Lower East Side for some happy hour madness. Lots of drinking! Lots of catching up with friends! I was two-fisting Texas Porch Sippers all night! What a great opener for an amazing weekend!
Then on Saturday my most bestest friend in the world Fenny and her husband J came up from Washington, DC to accompany us on my actual birthday to the Pee-Wee Show on Broadway!! I LOVE PEE-WEE!!! He's my childhood hero! He taught me that not only is it ok to be weird but to revel in my individuality. We had 2nd row center seats! When the curtain came up on the Playhouse I cried, like ALOT! It was amazing! I was THERE! Suddenly I was 7 years old again! I was bouncing up in down in my seat I was so excited!!! We were so close you could see the spittle come out of Pee-Wee's mouth! I didn't want it to end!
Post Pee-Wee glow
After we saw Pee-Wee we had dinner reservations at Havana Central, a Cuban restaurant with awesome drinks and awesomer steaks on 46th street in Times Square. I loooove me some Chimichurri sauce!!!
So slightly tipsy and carrying a 'steak baby', we walked down 46th on what was an unusually quiet strip of street for being Times Square on a Saturday night. Especially being the Saturday night before Halloween. ("Deviiiiil's Niiiight!") So in search of a cab, we head away from Times Square towards 7th Avenue when Phil gets an odd look and ushers me across the street to the arched door of an old school. Perplexed, I thought he was trying to get a little smootchy make-out session before Fenny and J caught up. But he gave them a nod and said to me very low 'I've got something I wanna ask you....' and I saw him dig a black ring box out of his jacket pocket... (queue video)
Which is when this happened.
As it turned out, Fenny had known for MONTHS about Phil's plans. Which is incredible, Fenny and I have no secrets between us. I'm impressed how well she kept it under wraps, as I had NO IDEA. My parents knew about it 3 days before he proposed, he called them to ask for their blessing and Fenny picked up the heirloom engagement ring my grandmother has held onto for me since I was a wee one to bring up to NYC. Phil called his parents to let them know what was up after the Pee-Wee show let out and he had 'popped out for a smoke' while I was at the merch booth. Completely clueless as to what was going on...
So yeah!!! At 11:45 on October 30th 2010- Phil Balsman asked Paige Pumphrey to marry him, and she said yes. ^_^
We're still planning everything, but we have set the date and we'll be getting married for sure on November 2nd of 2011 (on Dia de los Muertos) in Las Vegas by Elvis. So so soooo excited! XD
Holy crap what an INSANE weekend!! So insane that it took an extra week of me recovering before I could even think about updating my blog here with any sort of con report. Get ready for some TL;DR action!!!
So late, late Thursday night after the whole 'meeting my childhood hero Pee-Wee Herman'-thing happened, my BFF Fenny came up from Washington DC to join me in convention exploits for the weekend, resulting in about 4 1/2 hours sleep as we got up for the convention Friday morning at 7:30am to hopefully arrive at 9:30-10 for our set up/opening table shift for Girls Drawin Girls, which so did not happen (we got there more like 11-12). So Fenny and I after we got our insane pin-up girls costumes on trekked to the Javits Center with 2 stuffed suitcases of GDG merch and after looking for our table, found this:
So our space, which was supposed to be a 6x6 booth with a 6' table and 2 chairs looked more like where they put the trash cans. Like it was literally as big as a bathroom stall. And I being the first to arrive with Fenny, and either of us having no idea what the hell was going on, and I being convinced for sure NYCC REALLY hates me, resulted in me having a full tilt fit of crying. Thank god GDG founder/President Melody Severns was on her way, since I didn't have a clue as to who to talk to to alleviate our situation. It literally looked like we had been Punk'd.
Me, post fit of crying.
Fortunately Melody had the proper contact info and information and wasn't afraid to pull her bitch card to get shit done around the con. One of the options the floor managers had for us was moving the table altogether, but with a completely sold out convention plus having ordered a thousand postcards with our booth number on them, unless that spot was awesome we weren't gonna move. Especially since the only options it seemed right off the bat for moving to was the Anime Festival floor, which was in the basement. Which was not an option, we had a decent space and we weren't going to give it up for something even worse. So after realizing that the reason why the size of our booth had shrunk was because of the whiny, over-weight middle-aged men on either side of us who didn't seem to realize 6 foot wide booth plus 6 foot wide table equals no extra space for them to waddle in and out of, so that extra foot of they commandeered on either side of their tables to get in and out of is actually encroaching on our footage. And once we reclaimed that space you couldn't hear the END of their incessant whining about fire hazards and how they're supposed to get out. Ugh. So once we got the booth the correct size (with the help of some teamsters we batted our eyes at) and got ahold of our table and chairs over the span of 3 hours that morning, we were set up and I started my booth babely duties while Fenny got her cigarette tray on and walked the floor with promotional items.
So after we got everything set up and started getting into the groove of selling, one of the Reed Expo floor managers who was really going above and beyond helping us out came by to check up on us and told us that there was a 10x10 corner booth in the next aisle that was a last-minute cancellation and if we wanted to move there. And wow- before we can even give her an answer- dude next to us interjects with a condescending 'Well, if YOU GIRLS don't wanna move because of all those postcards- *I* can move there instead.' Like, yeah- really. To which Melody asks the floor manager- but you're offering the table to US, right? Floor manger nods. Melody- let's go. But yeah, really- how much of a gaggle of idiots do you think we are, dude? Ugh. So we move to the new space, which is AWESOME and they even throw in another 6 foot table to cap off the L shape to the booth at no extra charge. It is glorious, the amount of cross traffic from the two aisles converging results in us being consistently busy all weekend. Even when we were still setting up we were swarmed.
So with the stressful morning behind us, and our relief shift of Daisy and her husband finishing pricing and setup, Fenny, Melody and I hit the super-nice, super not crowded at the time Lucky Strike bowling lanes up the street for a good solid 3 hours of drinking alcoholic Arnold Palmers and talking about boys.
Afterwards Fenny and I departed for dinner then headed home where we got to work on finishing up our costumes for Saturday.
Thankfully I had a closing shift at the table Saturday, so I could sleep in a bit and relax before the barrage of people that awaited me at the con. We didn't actually arrive til about 1 and took our costumes in trash bags so we could change in one of the bathrooms at the show. We got quite some interesting looks from the overcrowded ladies room as we attached feather bustles, applied flash tape to our boobs and laced ourselves in corsets.
The cigarette girl costumes were definitely a hit, alot of people stopped us to get pictures taken and get one of our postcards and buttons. I seriously can't wait til the next time I get to wear these costumes, they were so much fun to wear.
We actually got some inquiries from other companies on our cigarette girl promo idea who showed interest in hiring us to represent them at other conventions. Hopefully that'll pan out, cause that would be soooo sweet!
We were also interviewed by my friend Tameeka for her pop culture blog Tameeka Time- I was a bit overwhemed by the con and exhausted at the time so I don't have too much to say. Fenny however totally rocked it.
Even though Saturday is usually the 'big party night' at the con, the sheer exhaustion I felt from way too much interaction along with spending a little too much dinero at Lucky Strikes lanes on Friday had me wanting to head home after the show. Even Fenny went out to party, I just gave her my spare keys and let her have run of the city. From what I remember I changed into my pj's, ordered Thai food (Drunken Noodle- my fave!) and watched The Losers with my boyfriend.
Sunday morning Fenny actually left early, so I donned my Wonder Woman costume and went to the con with Phil later that afternoon. And how funny- one of the first pics taken as I came into the convention ends up being for UGO.com's NYCC 2010: Babes of Comic-Con photo spread.
From the rest of the day:
The Wonder Woman costume was extremely well-recieved! Alot of people even said it was the best WW costume they had seen all weekend and gave me praise for the old school sensibilities and how classy it was. It's really comfy and I love wearing it as well- it's got such a great amount of personalization to it since it's made from things I found in my closet. The only things I had to do were add the stars and get some yellow nylon rope from the hardware store.
So with NYCC over with for another year it looks like the only con standing between me and 2011 is King Con Brooklyn in about 3 weeks, which I will be a guest at and looks like I will be speaking at my first ever panel for, about the Sexualization of Women in Comics. Which for some reason I feel I'm going to be playing the Devil's Advocate for.
Soooo... I follow Pee-Wee on Twitter and he said he was going to be at Katz delicatessen at noon, so I BOLTED down there from work (in Midtown) and actually got to meet him and give a fan testimonial! He was going around the city all day today for a promo thing with foursquare and his upcoming Broadway show, which I'm actually going to for my 30th birthday at the end of the month (2nd row center) as a birthday gift from my BFF Fenny. Let me just say- this was a dream come true. My hands were shaking so bad when I met him. Pee-Wee is totally my childhood hero and one of the first people in life who taught me that it's totally awesome to be yourself, no matter how quirky that might be.
Soooooooooo..... New York Comic Con is THIS FRIDAY! Holy crap. This is the big one. Mentally preparing myself this week for 'being on' a full 3 days. Haven't worked a 3 day con in looong time. The costumes will help. Not that I don't love working comic book conventions, I fucking LOVE THEM butttt it can just get a bit exhausting on soooo many levels.
I've got my con outfits all picked out- doing a blonde Barbie/Betty Draper look on Friday. The much-hyped dual showgirl action of me and my best friend Fenny will happen on Saturday and my pinup girl Wonder Woman will be worn on Sunday. I'm kinda stupidly excited about busting out my blonde wig on Friday. I love how it fucks with people.
Fenny's been busting her ass on our showgirl costumes. In case you missed it- the plan is for us to dress up as red and blue showgirls with cigarette trays full of promotional material, namely postcards and buttons. This being a fun way to combine Fenny and I's checkered cosplay past into something productive and a little more respectable, as we'll be working while wearing ridiculous outfits. Plus they're entirely of our own creation.
I'll be wearing a red outfit and Fenny the blue.
Fenny got to work on the costume portion of the outfits, including customization of some excellent quality steel-boned corsets we bought online from http://www.corsets-uk.com/ with satin and sequins and our awesome starry bras.
While Fenny was constructing the costume portion, my job was to build the cigarette trays we'll be handing out cards from and work a deal with my friend and burlesque performer Kita St. Cyr of the Rhinestone Follies of an art trade for feather headdresses and bustles. In return for her craftsmanship I am doing a portrait of her burlesque troupe. Also can I say how much I looove being able to work out a barter of art for stuff? It's frigging awesome.
The cigarette trays I constructed from wooden 'breakfast in bed' trays that I bought at a craft store. Spray painted them black and added two boxes that will hold the postcards that are glue gunned to the bottom of the tray. I also added some black foamcore board to the edges to increase the depth of the tray. I still need to pick up some thick black ribbon for it to hang around our neck. Tested out how the trays look 'fully loaded' as well- postcards and buttons for the kiddies! Postcards will be handed out indiscriminately, buttons will be given to folks who actually come up and talk to us about Girls Drawin Girls. (While supplies last...)
We've got PLENTY of postcards for both Girls Drawin Girls and my own Paigey! cards that we'll be giving out.
I've also started to promo-bomb on subways and ATMs and bars and comic shops around NYC to get a little local interest going.
I'm hoping everything goes off without a hitch. Just thinking of next weekend is making me tired, but it's an awesome, exhilarating tired that I could never do without.
