Monkey See Monkey Do! ATX Haul - July 2016

I mentioned in my last blog post that we have quite a few guests in town this week so we've been hauling ass all over Austin for the last few days. It is HOT out there, guys. I could feel the sweat dripping down my back as we walked from tourist location to tourist location.

Among these locations was South Congress. As we headed down the street filled with cute local shops and restaurants, we hopped into my favorite SoCo store, Monkey See Monkey Do. The products they sell remind me of a Spencer's but with a much more local, relaxed, friendly feel. I like to run in whenever we're in the area to see what new Batman knick knacks they have in store.

I know I shouldn't be spending money on anymore geeky stuff with SDCC just a day away, but I was super excited for some of the stuff I found.

Here's what I bought at Monkey See Monkey Do this past weekend. When I walked up to pay for my goodies, the cashier jokingly asked, "Getting the Batman starter kit?" Yes, yes, that's totally what I'm doing, not at all unnecessarily adding to my already atrocious Batman collection.

I first grabbed this adorable Batman rubber ducky. I don't even take baths (I take showers... for those of you who immediately jumped to the conclusion that I have bad hygiene). I think I'm just going to display this guy at my desk at work. Add this to the list of Batman things I've purchased, but definitely do not need. Cute/cool, though, huh?

I toted the Batman rubber ducky around the store with me contemplating whether or not I wanted to buy it when I ran across these blue and yellow Batman crew socks. I don't usually wear longer socks, but the design (plus Mickey's sweet enabling nudging voice) convinced me to throw it in the bag. I had Mickey model them for these pictures. Hehe.

At this point, I may have been able to put everything back on the shelf and walk out without having spent a dime, but then I saw THIS!!!

Mickey was standing right next to me when I immediately snatched the umbrella off the shelf and squealed, "MICKS! IT'S AN ADULT-SIZED BATMAN UMBRELLA!"

Adult-sized is very key here. I own a child-sized Batman umbrella thanks to my awesome-sauce friend, Amy. Yes, it's smaller than your average umbrella because I'm pretty sure it was meant to be carried around by toddlers. People would often ask why my umbrella was so small. The design on my children's umbrella is super dope, but the idea of a Batman umbrella proportional to my adult body (and that folds up to be more compact) was always in the back of my mind.

Check out both of the umbrellas side by side. You can see the significant size difference.

The new umbrella was totally worth it. I immediately put it into use the rest of the afternoon to keep the sun at bay... at least as much as I could. (Don't worry, I'll find ways to still use my original umbrella.)

I'm looking forward to the much milder San Diego weather. 1 day until San Diego Comic Con 2016, everyone! GET EXCITED!

What's In My Suitcase? - San Diego Comic Con 2016 Edition

Hi everyone! SDCC 2016 is coming up SO fast, less than 2 weeks. This will be my 7th year in a row. I've started packing early this year so that I had enough time to put together this video and post. Apologies for any mistakes in the video! I was too lazy to re-record some portions, but it got the major points across. Without further delay, here's all the SDCC-appropriate geeky gear I'm lugging with me to San Diego this year.

Correction: I will be attending the Conan live recording in San Diego on WEDNESDAY, not Sunday as mentioned in the video.

Since we're talking about packing, to start, of course I've got some Batman luggage tags! I purchased 3 of these at SDCC I believe about 1-2 years ago and they go wherever I travel now. They were an exclusive SDCC product I purchased from the Quantum Mechanix booth.

First, a backpack is a must. I don't actually own an adult-sized Batman backpack, but I DO have a small Batman backpack that's probably fit for an elementary school student. That wouldn't cut it for SDCC so I'm bringing my Ogio, which is super sturdy. I love it. In my Ogio backpack, I've got the usual convention essentials such as portable battery packs, my lip palm, sunblock, sunglasses, refillable water bottle, and of course our San Diego Comic Con BADGES.

I will not be sharing pictures of the badges because a friend recently told me that scammers are taking people's pictures and posting them on eBay! Then the actual owners of the badges were getting banned without knowing why. Awful. Scammers ruin it for everyone. Make sure to stay vigilant, everyone.

Outside of the essentials and obvious items, I'm also bringing some reading material (Batman and Son as well as Batman: Under the Red Hood) and my Batman Moleskine journal. I don't know if I'll actually have time to write or read, but it's nice to have something for the plane or for any lines I might be standing in.

On the plane, I love to wear sweats no matter the weather so definitely packing those and I'll probably pair it with whatever extra clean geeky shirt I happen to have on hand. Let's talk about what I'm wearing AT the con, though.

We fly in on Wednesday, preview night, which is the night where they open up the exhibit hall to the lucky bunch that have badges for preview night. That includes Micks and me! ALSO on preview night, I scored 4 tickets to see Conan record live. Conan Con involves recorded shows live from San Diego from Wednesday through Saturday. He'll be interviewing the cast of Silicon Valley on Wednesday so I decided I'll rock my Pied Piper shirt that I scored for free at SXSW.

I've only seen a handful of episodes, but I do know that Pied Piper is the main character Richard's start up company. I haven't watched enough to have a real opinion yet, but as some one from the Silicon Valley, I'm mostly just excited to see all the Bay Area references. A lot of my friends from the area also say the show is very true to the tech company environment.

On Thursday, I'll be rocking some of my newest gear that I bought from Dustin Nguyen's Threadless shop: http://duss005.threadless.com/. He's the artist behind our proposal painting as well as the Descender and Lil Gotham comic book series. He's done a lot of work for DC Comics recently. If your'e a fan, I suggest you support his Threadless shop too!

I'm going to try to rock this Batman-inspired crew neck sweater on Thursday, but if I get too hot in the SoCal weather, I might just change into the Descender shirt. If you haven't picked up Descender yet, I highly recommend it. I think it's a really good robot sci-fi comic book series. Click on the images to get a better view of the designs.

On Friday, I think I'm going to take a crack at cosplay. In the last 6 years that I've been, I've cosplayed ONCE as a gender bender Ra's Al Ghul (Batman: The Animated Series). I think it ended up being too obscure and I don't think enough people really understood who I was. It was also very HOT in my costume. Since them, I've been too lazy until this year when I had a couple of friends who were planning to give it a try. I decided I could give it another try too since I had some Halloween costumes that I could easily reuse such as this Linda Belcher (Bob's Burgers) costume (featuring Mickey as Bob)!

This picture is from Halloween 2015, but I promise to take better ones in San Diego. My hair will be much too long so I unfortunately won't have the proper bob going on. I also can't do my hair for the life of me so it won't be a perfect cosplay, but it'll still be fun. I think my friends will be dressing up as the daughters, Tina and Louise Belcher, so it'll be a little group cosplay! Yay!

Don't worry! For when my long pants and long-sleeved shirt get too hot, which I'm sure it will for me, I've packed a back up outfit which will include my favorite Batman shirt. It's just a giant Batman logo on a white shirt that I purchased from Hot Topic years ago. I never go to a San Diego Comic Con without it.

Saturday will be cosplay day #2. If my friends are going to dress up, then I'll break out my Halloween 2014 costume, my Dragonball Z Bulma costume that I proudly put together myself. I sewed the name on to the shirt, I sewed the little blue pouch, I sewed the leg warmers... all by hand because I can't remember how to work a sewing machine. It's not a perfect cosplay, but it looks close enough, yea?

Bulma art by SrMoro on DeviantArt

The wig is going to make my head SUPER hot so I may not be in this costume for more than a couple of hours so of course I've got something else to wear. If you know me, I wear this tank top A LOT. I bought it off Etsy a couple years back and I love the cut. I wish all my tank tops looked like this.

On Sunday, I'm hoping to show off the Nightwing shirt I purchased on HotTopic.com. I've been on the lookout for a women's Nightwing shirt for a long time and it finally popped up on Hot Topic so I jumped on it with the quickness. I think I've probably only worn this once since I bought it (I want to say earlier this year) so it's definitely due for a public appearance and what better opportunity than the geek event of the year.

Mickey has a shirt with the same design so I'm going to trick him into wearing it on the same day. He hates it when we match clothes. HAHA. Kidding about trying to match, but dibs on Sunday.

I'll be pairing everything with some comfortable walking shoes and various shorts. Under my shoes shoes, I've got plenty of Batman socks. Here's the variety of Batman socks I've decided to pack for this trip.

I'm also bringing a bunch of my Batman jewelry to mix and match as I see fit. I blogged about my geeky jewelry collection a while ago. You can check out that blog post here if you'd like to see what earrings and rings I might be wearing. On top of the jewelry, I own a few Batman caps that I'd like to bring in case I want to accessorize with those, too. These are the caps I have out here in Austin. The rest are still in San Jose. Hopefully I can share the rest of the New Era Batman collection in the future.

I won this snapback at a $5 "carnival" game at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was totally worth the $5. I haven't really worn it anywhere yet so can't wait to rock it at SDCC.

This is one of my New Era Fitted caps. This is probably my favorite only because it's easy to pair with almost anything since it's all white with a simple Batman: The Animated Series logo.

This New Era Fitted is unique because the logo is off to the side. It features a vintage Batman logo with a gray, yellow, and light blue color scheme. There's also a hidden Batman on the inside lining!

We have several friends who live in San Diego that we like to hang out with after hours so in case we head out to the bars in the Gaslamp Quarter, I'm also packing some casual summer dresses and low boots for something easy to walk in, but slightly dressier than sneakers. It's usually pretty casual during Comic Con so I could probably go out in my day time attire, but I wanted to give myself other options. I also wanted an excuse to bring my Batman stockings. In keeping with the geeky theme, I'm going to pair the dresses with my Batman stockings. Even though it might be too hot for stockings/leggings/pantyhose, I love these and want to wear them as much as possible. You probably recognize them from my last Hot Topic haul post.

For after the bars when I am ready to pass out, I'm bringing an oversized Batman t-shirt (that was actually generously gifted to me and signed by Dustin Nguyen back in 2011) and my glow in the dark Batman pajama bottoms that I purchased at GameStop (just the "Batman" portions are glow in the dark). Just looking at this set makes me want to fall asleep already. So comfortable. I didn't HAVE to pack specifically Batman-themed pajamas, but why not, right?

I'm bringing a few more "just in case" items including some extra geeky shirts "just in case" I sweat through everything else I planned to wear. You laugh, but it is definitely a likely outcome. Hah.

The tank top on the left was purchased on Etsy and lists all 7 names of the direwolves from Game of Thrones. The middle tee is also Game of Thrones themed and from Tee Turtle. It features the cutest chibi Jon Snow with a confused Ghost, Jon's direwolf. The tee on the right is also from Tee Turtle and kind of speaks for itself. Never thought Batman could be so adorable riding a coin-operated Batmobile.

Continuing on down the list, I have friends who are pretty into staying healthy so I'm bringing a set of workout clothes complete with a Batman Under Armour shirt in case anybody motivates me to hit up the hotel gym. I'll be honest and say that I probably won't be the one to initiate a work out session, but I'm prepared if anybody else does. This is one of 4 Batman workout tops that I won. I feel like I need more. It would totally inspire me to work out more often.

On the other end of the spectrum, if my friends feel like vegging out by the pool, I'll be ready for that too with my Batman bathing suits! Whoo! If you've been following along, you'll recognize these bathing suits from an older post.

I'll need to figure out outerwear, probably just a light jacket, which likely won't be a huge deal with the great weather we're expected to have. I'm also bringing a small purse for evening outings and an extra duffle bag in my luggage for all my SDCC purchases and swag that won't fit on the trip back.

Pro-tip: Always bring extra luggage for your trip home from SDCC. You never know what you're going to buy or get.

With that last bit of advice, hope you enjoyed my edition of "What's in my suitecase?" and let me know if you have any questions about where I acquired any of the stuff I talked about above. If you're going to SDCC this year, I'LL SEE YOU THERE! LESS THAN 2 WEEKS TO GO!