Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

Clearly we are insane, because after all the traveling we have done this summer we went on yet another trip. And not any trip mind you, but we all, including Lotus, went to San Diego for Comic-Con. Now for those of you living under a rock you might not know what comic-con is. And I ask, "How is that possible? It was even featured on an episode of Entourage for Christ sake." But in case it is possible you haven't heard of it, comic-con is technically the largest comic book convention in the world, but to call it just that is really selling it short and not doing it justice. It is mostly known for it's costumed participants. Fans of sci-fi, superhero and other genres dress up as their favorite characters and wander the San Diego Convention Center. Or as my dear cousin Monica put it fondly, "the weirdos", but they are only one portion of the 150,000 people that come to this event. Yes, you read that right. Yes, that is a lot of people in one place costumed or not. Besides being a mid-July Halloween Ball it is also a great display of artistry. My favorites are meeting the smaller up and coming artist. Last time we went I met a wonderful young Israeli woman who had illustrated a really charming comic about her conflicted feelings about the current relationship between the Palestinians and Israeli's. This year I got to meet my name doppelganger. There is a comic book artist named Esther Pearl Watson. She has a comic strip in the back of my favorite magazine and our lives have run parallel enough that I am often asked if I created that comic and she is often asked if she worked at Pixar. It was nice to meet her, but a little awkward . I like my name and the uniqueness of it. I assume she is the same way so though I think we were both happy to put a face to the other "Esther", we didn't become bff's or anything.

This is also the occasion that all the major studios have displays and give presentations for the up-coming tv and film releases. So that's a huge draw. And for some reason there are always a lot of scantily clad women and washed up tv stars hawking signed photos of themselves.


Lotus and I only lasted a few hours at the actual convention. But before I felt the panic attack come on she got to meet a princess, Wonder Woman and played with Lego's. She was in heaven. The crowd got too much for me, so after a bit Lo and I headed back to the hotel pool so Nate could go to some presentations.




























We finished that day doing some amazing people watching in the Gaslamp district in San Diego. Lotus kept pointing out all the princesses and how beautiful they all were, and for this I blame Nate. I tell her every day that princesses are evil, but she is now caught under their damn spell and I am doing my best to breathe deep and ignore it.


The next day we had breakfast in La Jolla with my cousin Monica and Norm and their son Kevin and his wife Michaelle. They were so sweet. Monica and Norm drove all the way from Orange County and I can't tell you how great they are. But Lotus immediately fell in love with Kevin. I have a lot of cousins and Lotus has A LOT more. It hard for poor Nate to keep it all straight. I can't do that whole "first cousin, once removed thing" so they are all just cousins and he wants to know how we are all related. I don't know why it matters, but if wants to worry about it he can figure it out. Lotus is now potty trained, so this means we need to check out every potty every where we go. Sometimes numerous times. After the third visit to the potty during breakfast she informed me that "next time I want Kevin to take me". Kevin is great with kids, but I think potty duty might be too much for even him. I told her not to press her luck or her play date with her twenty something cousin might come to an abrupt end.

After breakfast Kevin and Michaelle went to Sea World with us. Lotus was in heaven. Michaelle and Kevin just doted over her. Kevin is super tall so her could lift her up so she could see all the animals. She got to pet a dolphin and taught Kevin how to walk like a penguin.
It was so freaking cute. Kevin has always been the sweetest kid and so it's lovely to see how he is still the sweetest adult.

We spent the rest of the time in the pool and lapping up the San Diego sun. It would have been the perfect vacation, but when we got to the airport the next day to leave, there was a mix up with our flight. Meaning we weren't on it, being that about 150,000 people were leaving San Diego that day there was no chance of getting on another flight that day. So we rented a car and drove. It wasn't the funnest 10 1/2 hours I have ever had, but it wasn't the worst either. We made it home and that's all that matters.