GeekDad John Booth and daughter in the Ralph McQuarrie original art exhibit. Image: Jim Carchidi
My daughter is 13 years old, which means, of course, that keeping her cool exterior even in the face of nearly uncontainable excitement is pretty much as natural as breathing. So when she took a break from goofing on my geek glee during yesterday morning’s drive to Star Wars Celebration V and let a hint of her own sneak through in a grin, I knew we were in for a fun day.
While 2009′s mid-sized Penguicon 7.0 marked her first convention experience, her day at Celebration V was her introduction to group geeking and fandom on a colossal scale. Because we have family here in Orlando – and because she was unsure of how much Star Wars she’d really want to handle – my daughter opted for a one-day pass.
We packed in a lot. And she shared with me the high points of her day: Meeting Bonnie Burton , whose book she enjoyed last year; constructing a tile for the giant Lego mural in the main exhibit hall; the TK Helmet Project display; and receiving a tiny original sketch from artist Katie Cook.
Her favorite thing was the R2 Builders‘ room, and her least favorite was the walking: It’s a nicely spacious convention center, and the Celebration is spread out enough that hallway congestion hasn’t been a problem, though yes, that does come with a price to one’s feet.
We arrived at 10 a.m. and went just about nonstop until just after 6 p.m., when we decided to just relax and grab a snack. She was pretty worn out (I think she fought dozing off during a panel featuring a couple original Industrial Light & Magic model builders), but when we walked past the main hall doors shortly before they were set to close for the evening, which one of us remembered that we just had to go get our pictures taken in the giant Empire Strikes Back action figure package bubble?
Not me.
And that made my day.
