dolari | Oh, do come and see the skulls! You are a young man out for a holiday, and you want to enjoy yourse

DAY NINE - Durham

A nice sleep later, Emily and I went our seperate ways. She basically circumnavigated the entire town of Durham, while I got ready for the wind down day of the con. The entire morning was spent with all the webcomic artists, all swapping stories in the the artist's alley, a great big informal powow, where we got to see Jennie's crowbar fairy wand, and I got to tell the crowbar story.

Now...the crowbar story wasn't started by me, I'm just an appendix to it. Sometime ago the artist for Antarctic Press' Albedo went to a con, where a very mousy fan stuttered out a request for a sketch: "Would you draw Irma?" "Sure!" "Would you...draw her naked...?" "Sure...." "Yould you draw her naked...with a crowbar?" "No." It became a running gag at that convention, where the artist came next year with a painting of Irma, naked with a crowbar and so on. The story I told was an extention of that where a friend of mine wanted a sketch...when I asked him of who and what, he said "Will you draw Carrie? Naked? With a crowbar?" I drew up a postcard for him tht was Carrie, fully clothed in a Victorian Crinoline gown, holding a crowbar saying "I don't do nudes."

Guess you had to be there. :)

We literally just jabbered and talked all morning long, and eventually Emily joined all of us. I did some quick 2 minute sketches. Nothing to write home about, but I wanted to give everyone a sketch, even if it was a fast cheap sketch. I really should give everyone "Cleaner better" sketches, but since I'm so slow, each sketch would have taken an hour or two. I wanted to draw you a sketch, McKenzee, but how do you draw a sketch for someone whose comic if all photos and text? :) Ask and ye shall recieve.

Lunch dissapeared on me. Housekeeping had trashed out pizza VERY early (There was a half pizza left!). We were very unhappy bout that, so we raided the con suite for snacks instead. We'd have a good meal later, if my plans held out.

Once we got back from the con suite, all the webcomics panels were over, and we were now just milling about, watching the con wind down and fade away. It wasn't a great con at all this year, but I had a lot of fun with the webcomics guests and the few guests who did come (I know you're out there Dedicated Webcomic Audience Members!), so a good time was really had by all. I did one last round, and said my goodbyes. I also made a promise to next year's con runner that I would be there with bells on.

After the con was over, we invited Liz, Jessica and Sherri for dinner at Fiddruckers and a screening of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Sherri turned it down, but came Liz and Jess came along. We bought our tickets and found a Fuddruckers where much joy and hilarity was made. The movie was excellent, very Tim Burtony/Michael Jacksony/Roald Dahly. I think he'd be proud of this version, which is just as maniacle and sinister as his book. We were literally dancing in our seats. Deep Roy deserves a best supporting actor role. :)

For Emily and I though, it was magical. Our real first date. And between musical numbers, we held hands and nuzzled together. :) She's lovely, and wonderful. I kept telling myself that we still had time together....

We had a last night with Sherri and bid our goodbye to her. If it weren't for her, I never would have been able to come, or see Emily, or for that matter, see anyone else. She's a classy lady, and I hope I see her again next year. After she left, Liz and JEss continued with the funniness (including a donald duck moment that deserves archiving in the video hall of fame) and I repacked...I couldn't believe this would be the last night I had with Emily.

Emily is a one of kind person. She's sweet, wonderful, beautiful, intelligent, knowledgable and funny. The weekend we spent together felt like a lifetime. We were old friends meeting again for the first time in a long time. I kept telling myself that these weren't our last moments together, but that they were the first moments until I saw her again....