This morning I moved out of the hostel and into the hotel – which, as it turns out, is even further away from downtown than the hostel! I couldn’t even move into my room on account of it wasn’t ready; fortunately they held my suitcase for me. Had to take two buses just to reach downtown, including a run down the freeway, but by the time we got into downtown the traffic slowed down practically to a standstill. An electronic traffic sign bore the legend above, which turned out to be a good metaphor for the day in general.

It was bordering on intolerable, the level of people roaming the aisles. I wouldn’t call myself afraid of crowds, but i do have a certain trepidation towards them that I’m sure is a direct result of living in New York. Yes, it’s a comic convention, but being around soooooo many people all at once just heightened my sense of… I don’t know. Paranoia? Misanthropy? Something like that. Top that off with the size of Comic-Con and it felt unpleasant somehow, like I would be consumed by all these people or something. It’s not a sensation I normally associate with comic conventions. I didn’t like it.

Fortunately, I had friends to help take the edge off. The Antidote Trust’s booth is Fabulous – in addition to having shelves of their comics, they had tables with bowls of candy and lounge chairs and sofas! Yes! It felt so great to plop deep down in them after wandering around and around feeling like my head was gonna explode. And I got to talk with many of the TAT crew: Robert Roach, Mike Sales, and the rest.

I saw Stephanie Brandford and her husband Russell for the first time today – I’m typing this from Stephanie’s laptop, in fact. I arrived too late for the Rosario Dawson panel though I saw them on it. They told me afterwards that had I gotten on line (which looked super long), I probably would’ve made it. Instead, I went to the Morrie Turner panel and that was really good. Keith Knight and Dwayne McDuffie, among others, were there.

Later on I went to the Star Trek panel – and no, they did not announce the cast for the new movie (although earlier today it was made official that Zachary Quinto from Heroes would play Spock). Got to talk to this one lady on line about all things Trek and other sci-fi shows. She’s an SD native yet this is only her second Comic-Con. Nice lady. Good company. Too bad she’s married, though…

Finally caught up with Pam and will have dinner with her after I’m finished here. Tomorrow I’m going to Michael Davis’ big dinner. Might have to miss the Eisners. Hoping it’ll be worth it.