Strangest Layover Ever

Friday night I flew into Atlanta for a long layover, during which I had hoped to put a dent into the greatest book ever written, which I'm still waiting to become the greatest book ever written.  I had no idea what I was in for.

Vampires, demons, superheroes, fairies, aliens, ghostbusters, video game characters, starfleet officers, stormtroopers, jedis and more, swarmed the city.  Dragoncon had come to Atlanta and geeks took control of my hotel.  Never in the history of my life have I seen such a spectacle.  70,000 sci-fi and fantasy fans partied like it was 2399.

Now, I've never had much interest in this type of thing, and since it was close to midnight, I was ready for bed.  But when the van pulled into the city and we caught our first glimpse of freaks in costume, I was suddenly wide awake.  I ended up staying out until 3 am.  These geeks can party!  And no matter what you might think of them, they, at least, were having a good time.  And so was I.

There were rock concerts, movies, a 5 hour rythmic drumming session, a parade featuring all the crazy costumes, lots of drinking and the biggest surprise of all -- lots and lots of good-looking women.  I'm talking hot girls in skimpy costumes.  Who knew?  No wonder Dragoncon is so popular.  It seems, at least once a year, geeks can get laid.

They even had a couple of writing seminars, which I snuck into, and learned something.  What I learned is that I knew everything they had to say from attending previous conferences and online research.  Not to say I know everything, but they were talking about the process of getting published, none of which was new to me.  It only confirmed it's time to get out there and do it.