Monday, June 25, 2012

Eighteen Years Of Love And Geekdom

It's true, we referenced Star Wars, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The Jerk and Stephen King in our wedding vows. Our wedding that was eighteen years ago today. I fell in love with Alex the moment I saw him in our theater class and when he came over to flirt with me one day before class began, I was in the middle of reading A Brief History of Time. His flirting included a show and tell of his nasty but healing case of poison ivy on his legs, and I was interested. He has great legs, but still. Our first dates included multiple sittings through a John Waters film, dressing up as the Undead to attain free admission to a Stephen King movie premiere, marathon D&D games, attending SCA events and cramming ourselves into a friend's dorm room to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and Twin Peaks.

So it seems appropriate then, that we spent our anniversary weekend with the kids attending PortConMaine. This was our first time attending and we had such a great time with this positive, welcoming, diverse and fun crowd of cosplayers, gamers and geeks of all sorts, that we definitely plan to return next year. (And heads up unschoolers: if you are looking for another unschool-y, conference type of vibe, full of great energy and fun, where you can let your geek flag fly? PortConMaine is just the place for you.)

the Pokemon sing-along group is a happy place to be #PCM2012 #PortConMaine #geeks #unschooling
The Pokemon sing-along room looked like a happy place to be.

Well, @superadamgalaxy has found the video game room to his liking #pcm2012 #portconmaine #geeks #unschooling
Adam made himself at home in the video gaming room.

the game room has this awesome miniatures table #portconmaine #pcm2012 #geeks #unschooling
The miniatures table in the game room was amazing.

more PortConMaine, @oliviaconsiders hosts a game of Werewolves #pcm2012 #geeks #unschooling #instalater
Olivia hosting a Werewolves game.

There was a large room full of screens and video games, music and dancing and game tournaments, there was a large board game room where you could bring your own and start a game or borrow a game from the large selection of available games. The Apples to Apples table was huge and constantly laughing, for instance. There were several discussions and screenings of My Little Pony, Doctor Who, and Pokemon. There was a round table for parents, a cosplay repair room, vendors and a garage sale. All of us attended the Buffy episode screening of Once More With Feeling and belted out all the lyrics with all the other fans. (Right after Olivia and I sang along with Dr. Horrible fans.)

next up, Dr. Horrible #singalong #pcm2012 #geeks
Dr. Horrible himself.

One of the most fun things was spotting our favorite characters from books, films and television. There was plenty of outrageously good cosplay. Because it was our first PortConMaine, we didn't do any serious cosplay, but Adam did wear his Minecraft costume for part of Saturday and Olivia as Amy Pond was pretty spot-on.

here with #Minecraft ( @superadamgalaxy )  and #AmyPond ( @oliviaconsiders ) #geeks #pcm2012


Some of our favorite cosplay was from The Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

these two are awesome! #TheAvatarLastAirbender #Avatar #pcm2012 #geeks
Korra's here! #pcm2012 #LegendofKorra #portconmaine #geeks #unschooling #Korra

I think we were all pleased at how welcoming and positive the entire event was. It was well-organized, the attendees all were enthusiastic and happy to be there. And to Alex, who sat in the Disney Sing-Along room with me and belted out all the lyrics, even to the ones he didn't know (we missed the Ducktales years, I guess)and held my hand the entire time and didn't mind that we were probably the oldest people in the room (it doesn't matter, no one else minded either), I love you. I adore your brain, your legs and your GEEK. I love that we're still doing things like this together after eighteen years of marriage and I love that we get to share our geekness with our geek kids in our geek life. Happy Anniversary, my love!

nearly 18 years of marriage and we're celebrating like the geeks we are at #pcm2012 #DisneySingAlong #marriage #love #geeks

3 comments:

  1. Love, love, LOVE it! We'll definitely have to get to this next year. Looks like an event that is right up the Ray-Smith-Willis household's alley. Happy Anniversary, Bradstreets.

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  2. Belinda, yes, you and yours would be very at home there. We only did pre-reg on Thursday night and all of Saturday and it was enough. Depending on what is offered on each day next year, we may do all or just a day. Plenty of opportunities to take breaks, too. It's busy but loads of fun. Thank you! xo

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  3. Happy Anniversary! I thought it was time I took the time to tell you both how much I admire your parenting skills! You have raised your two kids as the most confident, most unconditional loved two human beings that I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know through this screen between us world!! We could not be more different in religious beliefs 'but' you've taught me that it is our spiritual beliefs that make us live in this world for better or worse as truly one big family. We all wake up to the same sun and go to bed under the same night sky. May your days ahead be filled with more wonderful family memory makers!

    Thank you for the kindness you are sending out to the world. ~Dona

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