Happy St. Patrick's Pi!

Guys, it finally happened. Little bits of spring started popping up this weekend. The snow melted from our parking lot, t-shirts made their way out of the closet, car windows rolled down, and things started looking green. Although Wheat had a game smack-dab in the middle of the weekend, we did our absolute best to embrace the spring-ness. Mission accomplished in my opinion.

Saturday afternoon was spent all over town in an early celebration of St. Patrick and the ultimate Pi Day (3/14/15 9:26:53). Wheat performed his annual tirade against St. Patrick's Day, exclaiming that the man was actually British, not Irish. I shrugged him off and laughed when he was deservedly pinched by strangers for not wearing green. Serves him right, yeah?

Downtown was a crowded, fabulous mess of people. Participants in the Shamrock Beer 5K, clad in green head-to-toe, squeezed between attendees of Indiana Comic Con, dressed as Doctor Who or Pokemon or whichever fictional characters their hearts desired. Others celebrating the holiday imbibed green beverages while live music from My Yellow Rickshaw blared across Georgia Street. It made for people-watching gold.

We began our afternoon at one of our local favorites, Scotty's Brewhouse, where we enjoyed lunch and some college basketball. After checking out the festivities, dodging joggers, scoping out costumes, and dancing, I decided it was high time for some pie, so we made our way to Shapiro's. Again, Wheat poo-poohed my festive plans and ordered a sugar cookie. I, on the other hand, embraced the day and dove headfirst into a slice of coconut cream pie.

At this point, Wheat headed off to work, so I curled up on the couch with a book (I finally finished Allegiant!) and some old episodes of Ellen. I neglected to mention last week that I won a ticket to the aforementioned Indiana Comic Con. After checking out the schedule of events, I decided that my inner nerd desperately wanted to attend and with a little doe-eyed begging, Wheat agreed to buy a ticket and go with me.

So, on Sunday afternoon, we made our way to the Convention Center for my very first Comic Con experience. Needless to say, it was wild. The people-watching was well worth the price of admission. We saw people dressed as Star Wars characters, Disney princesses, Jay and Silent Bob, Batman villains, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, etc. Shortly after our arrival, there was a costume parade and we spent the first half hour enjoying the view and eating hot dogs. The main convention area was filled with vendors, memorabilia, art, comics, and just about everything you can imagine, including the Rancor and the Ninja Turtles.

We met up with my coworker Wendy for a bit before getting in line for the Game of Thrones Q&A session with Rory McCann (The Hound) and Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo). The guys were hilarious, drinking beer and cussing up a storm. Momoa spoke in Dothraki and played ukelele, McCann played the harmonica, they posed for selfies, and gave a little bit of insight on the show. Momoa was also recently cast as Aquaman, so he got a lot of questions about that. After the panel, we walked around the convention a little more before sitting in on the Disney Princess panel with Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle) and Linda Larkin (the speaking voice of Jasmine). I didn't think I would be so emotional, but my eyes welled up when people started talking about how much Beauty and the Beast meant to them as a child. O'Hara sang a bit from "Little Town" and talked about the live-action movie coming out (she approves of Emma Watson being cast as Belle). They also gave a little advice to hopeful voice actors before ending the session.

After the panel, we rushed back home for Selection Sunday and some Chinese food, the perfect end to a wonderful, spring weekend.

Have you ever been to a Comic Con/Pop Con?
Am I a total dork for wearing a Muggle shirt?
Did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day early?