I’m smack in the middle of midterm week, which means super late nights and super early mornings. Fortunately, this eighth level of hell (which Dante knew not of) will be interrupted by my very first geek convention!

I’ve been dreaming of my first convention since I was in middle school. My ultimate dream adventure was (and still is) RingCon in Germany. However, I was willing to settle for any gathering of geeks. (RingCon is next week, by the way. I am sooo jealous of any of our readers who is going!)

I’ve also been extremely interested in cosplay—of course, when I first looked at it, it was just called “dressing up.”

Now, for the first time, my dream is about to come true. I’m actually headed to New York Comic Con!! I’ve done my research, bought my day passes for Saturday and Sunday, and listened to many, many of Andrew’s crazy stories (he hasn’t even shared the half of them with y’all so far).

So as I head into this weekend, on the few moments that I’m able to look up from my computer screen, I’m excited about quite a few things:

I’m actually really pumped for the trip up to comic con. For the past few years, I’ve driven to every place I’ve visited (often between 12-19 hours each way) and it is always exhausting. By the time I get to the fun part, I’m too tired to enjoy it. Instead, this time I am taking the train, so I will have time to relax and enjoy myself.

I’m really stoked to hopefully meet (a few) of the entertainment guests. Felicia Day, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart (<3 him so much!!), Seth Green, Judy Greer (please, please, please, let this one happen… I will be so excited), Kevin Grevioux (We’re both Minnesota Vikings fans—and I love that we have multiple things in common. Geeks should be well rounded, in my opinion), and Hulk Hogan!! [Ok, I was JUST kidding about the last one.] I was really looking forward to seeing James Cosmo, from Game of Thrones as well, as I do love Commander Mormont, but he unfortunately cancelled his appearance.

The comic guests who will be present are fantastic!! David Finch, Max Brooks and OF COURSE Stan Lee will all be signing autographs. Of course, I will be lucky to get to see one of these guys up close and personal, but a girl can dream! Andrew has told me that Max Brooks is an especially cool dude, so it would be nice to get a chance to talk to him. I also wouldn’t be upset if I got to meet David Lloyd, from V for Vendetta.

I will be skipping the Ya-ya Han “celebrity cosplayer” autograph session. Honestly, if I didn’t already love cosplaying so very much before I first saw Heroes of Cosplay, the show would have really turned me off! Geeks are often mocked and looked down on by outsiders because of what they look like or what they love—there is no need to do the same to each other /endrant.

Avatar Press has a panel on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. to talk about the news and big new projects. Panelists are Caanan White, Kieron Gillen, Simon Spurrier, William Christensen, and Max Brooks. This one is definitely on my hot list!

On Sunday I’m really looking forward to getting some discount geek gear as well. Thank goodness I have a “Convention Guide” of my very own to show me where the best stuff is!

So yeah, I’m giddy and excited and almost dizzy with excitement for Comic Con in just a few days. I know there is no way that I will be able to see all the things I want to see, but it’s awesome to at least try to plan for them! Are you going to Comic Con? If not, is there a panel or person you would like to see if you did? Let us know in the comments!