HeroesCon!

I’ll admit, I was nervous.

Jarrod had planted the seeds months back that he was going to be at HeroesCon in Charlotte and would like to stay at my place. HeroesCon, if you didn’t know, is a comic book convention. Jarrod is an artist. He’s also one of my best friends in life. Having him staying at my place wasn’t really an issue. But there were definitely other issues.

Thanks to Jarrod, I’ve been podcasting for about a year now. We’re podcasting together on the Longbox Crusade (longboxcrusade.com) where we talk about comic books of years past, sing song, crack jokes, and basically have both a hoot and a holler of a good time. We don’t do this alone, though. His older brother Jason is a part of the insanity and the guy who owns (and mostly edits) the show is Pat. The issue is that Jarrod, gregarious as I’ll admit, I was nervous.

Jarrod had planted the seeds months back that he was going to be at HeroesCon in Charlotte and would like to stay at my place. HeroesCon, if you didn’t know, is a comic book convention. Jarrod is an artist. He’s also one of my best friends in life. Having him staying at my place wasn’t really an issue. But there were definitely other issues.

Thanks to Jarrod, I’ve been podcasting for about a year now. We’re podcasting together on the Longbox Crusade (longboxcrusade.com) where we talk about comic books of years past, sing song, crack jokes, and basically have both a hoot and a holler of a good time. 

We don’t do this alone, though. His older brother Jason is a part of the insanity and the guy who owns (and mostly edits) the show is Pat. The issue is that Jarrod, gregarious as hhe is entrepreneurial, let everyone know he was going to attend this con. He then intimated that the three of our podcasters from the Longbox Crusade should go to the con together…and stay at my place.

Why is this an issue? I wouldn’t say I’m much of a hoster. Hoster isn’t a word, I don’t care. It fits. Not being a hoster is completely at odds with me knowing I’m a leader and really enjoying taking care of people but if I’m being open an honest here, it’s true. I don’t mind having friends over to visit but I’ve never really been one to do the hosting, I’ve always been the one to travel. Having three guys over at once, one who I’d never met before, was a challenge for me. Oh yeah, and asking the Mrs if it was ok too. Because, yeah. 

HeroesCon also became a magnet for people who were in our podcast community as well. Podcasters from as far as Australia wanted to come to the con and then the idea quickly blossomed that we should ALL meet for a dinner. 

You might guess why this was an issue. I’m the only one who lives in Charlotte and as soon as that was discovered the entire group was relying on me to find a decent place to eat, which meant making arrangements at a restaurant and communicating the results back to a group of people, literally one of whom I’d met before. I have project management experience. I’ve worked with strangers before, but this was a little bit of a challenge.

As the time drew closer to the Con it was clear this was going to be a thing and it was going to happen. Pat was going to fly from Wisconsin to Atlanta. Jarrod was going to drive from Alabama, pick Pat up, and drive to Charlotte. Jason was going to fly in from Washington state to Charlotte, with me to pick him up. Oh yeah, in a great case of timing I arranged to go to a jiu-jitsu seminar (Royce Gracie) and so I had to go to Denver, NC to do that before I picked Jason up. That now meant I wouldn’t be at home when Jarrod and Pat showed up, which meant the Mrs had to help me out with this high wire act.

Look, I know marriage is a team but I try not to get anyone involved in my madness if I can help it and I didn’t want her to have to get super involved…I’m not the smartest guy all the time. Or half the time. Whatever. Whether I meant to or not, she was going to be involved because 3 extra guys were going to be in her house. She started talking me through and making sure that air mattresses were put in the appropriate rooms. She took care of making sure the sheets and pillows were on the bed and that the towels were laid out. On Sunday, she even cooked the boys a healthy, home cooked meal after three nights of dining out. She was the MVP of the weekend.

But let’s back up to the dinner! I did my best to firm up the exact numbers to tell the restaurants and I got a few “definitely maybes” (which drive me crazy) and the number ended up at 16 (ish). I told the restaurant 20 people would show and in the end I think 25 showed up (d’oh!) But let me tell you something, the dinner itself was a huge success. The restaurant (Seoul Food in Charlotte) and their staff was phenomenal and the group of podcasters, who’d already been chatting on twitter and messenger about this event, started off warm and ended up on fire! There was chatting and laughter and nerdom and geekdomand the only time the group was quiet was when food showed up.

I mentioned before how nervous I was about all these strangers coming together and that was so much wasted energy…this crew of misfits gelled together so well. To the point that our new friends from Australia, Paul and Jeames, had a rousing conversation with my wife, who they had never met or seen before, like they were old friends. To the point that Dave, one of the fans of the podcast I’m on, the Longbox Crusade, showed up and you’d think this was the 47thor 53rd we’d met and not the first. We came to the table as near strangers and left by the end of the weekend as friends. I’m super happy to write that sentence.

HeroesCon itself was more of the same from the dinner. Jarrod had a booth at the ‘Con (he’s known as The Yard Sale Artist) and all of the podcasting crew from the dinner came by at some point over the next 3 days to say hello or hang out. I spent a few hours at Jarrod’s table helping him sell items or just getting to talk with people as they passed by. Even better, the guy who sat next to Jarrod, Eastin, turned out to be awesome (he wrote a werewolf story called “Howl” that was fantastic) so that just added to the weekend. Many pictures were taken; many good times were had. Much money was spent on artist commissions and comic books! By the time I said good-bye to Jason at the airport Tuesday morning, I was tired from exhilaration. 

I think I needed a weekend like this. Meeting new friends was great and HeroesCon helped amplify a super important message: we all have things in common and we must work to be accepting to all who want to exist in civil spaces. Just taking that extra step to talk and break bread with each other can work wonders and maybe, if you’re lucky like I was this weekend, create great memories that won’t go away for a long, long time.