Zombie Prom at Dragon*Con

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here.

Once the world is overrun by zombies, some of the comforts we've come to take for granted will be harder to get. One of these things will certainly be the internet and access to the web. So today, I am writing to you all in true post-apocalyptic fashion-- from stolen internet! It's hard to believe that I have been living in Chicago for exactly two months to the day. And I still don't have my own internet access. Usually I have to go to the nearest Starbucks or Borders to utilize their free WiFi. Every time I have bothered to turn on my own computer in my apartment, I have checked to see what my Airport (fancy Apple term for wireless picker-upper thingie) finds. It always finds about twelve different signals. Unfortunately, all these signals are always password protected. Until now! Someone in the building is actually too stupid to set a password up. So here I am.

I mentioned last week the reason for my absence of late. Again, I apologize for this. But now that I am settled back in Chi-town, I'm excited to bring you a few more updates and stories from my time at Dragon*Con and specifically my evening at Zombie Prom!

For the most part, Dragon*Con was awesome! There were a few downfalls, but on the whole I had an amazing time again this (my second) year. Probably the most notable negative aspect was the con's organization, or really lack of organization. This fact didn't really come as a surprise as it was also fairly unorganized last year. For example, last year we waited about two hours to purchase our badges. This year, we decide to pre-register and thought this would save us time. Wrong. We actually had to wait for OVER FOUR HOURS to get a badge we had already purchased. Lame, right? Nonetheless, fun was still found while waiting in line. We met some cool guys whom we kept running into at various points throughout the weekend. Also, vendors and promoters were using the line time to pass out their wares-- notice the cool "Here zombie, zombie, zombie" sticker above? Yep! I got that while waiting in line!

One of the best Zombie events to attend was Friday night's Zombie Prom! I never went to my own high school prom, but I imagine it would have been similar-- I spent a long time doing my make up and hair, snuck in my own alcohol, and had a lot of fun dancing with my friends. Of course, for this prom (unlike what I would have done for my HS prom), my make up consisted of cuts, bruises, sunken eyes, and lots of fake blood. The dancing was more like shambling. The alcohol was still alcohol. And ironically, I ended up wearing the dress I originally bought to wear to Alicia's wedding! I ended up buying a different dress, and this one sat in my closet for almost three years, only to resurface as Zombie Couture!

Oh, and also like a real prom... the music mostly sucked.

Still, despite the sucky music, fun was had! While at Zombie Prom, I tried playing the part accordingly. I shambled. I drug my limp foot around. I groaned BRRRAAAIIINNNSSS like any self-respecting zombie would do. If some unsuspecting prom-goer walked by who wasn't dressed as the living dead, my hoard would attack! When Zombie Hunters would walk by we'd "run" in terror. At one point, people were hitting balloons around. Inevitably these balloons would pop and my friend and I thought it would be hilarious to act as if the popping were gunshots to the head that took us down. The crowd seemed to appreciate our little act!

For the crowning of Zombie Prom King & Queen, actors from the new AMC series The Walking Dead (don't worry, I'll be talking about this show in future weeks! Just don't forget, it premiers on Halloween night!) were in attendance. I was hoping they would screen a sneak peek of the show not available yet or at least have some swag, but no such luck. Still, it was cool of them to stop by, even if it was only for five minutes.

It was definitely a fun night! I kept up the zombie act all the way back to the elevators where I proceed to try and "push" the button over and over with no skill or coordination. I even kept on the zombie make up when we went to play a midnight game of "Are You a Death Eater?" which was a Harry Potter style Mafia game (you might have played the regular version back in grade school). If you were wondering-- yes, it was awesome and I'd love to play it with a group of friends in the future!!

If you are a fan of zombies, pop-culture, and other dorky fandom stuff, I really recommend you get yourself to Atlanta next Labor Day weekend. There is something for everyone and I promise you'll have fun! I have some other zombie stuff to share with you all, but it will have to wait until next Thursday. As a side note, the fabulous Zombie Thursday hostess and main writer here at Slice of the Blog Pie, Alicia, informed me today on the Twitters that the Zombie Sex-tacular! post about Haeckel's Tale has been the most viewed post since June. Woot! As I 'retweeted' back to her (or reply twitted? Whatever!), it just goes to show that zombies and sex will always be the most winning of combinations. She claims this is disturbing. I say, "Here zombie, zombie, zombie...."

Go get your zombie sex on and join me back here next Thursday for some more zombie lovin'!!