Dragon*Con happens every Labor Day weekend, which means that every January I start having Dragon*Con unpreparedness dreams.

This year my earliest dreams involved arriving at Dragon*Con but not having any piece of my costume assembled.  Thus I spent the first two days of Con running around trying to buy costumes and wigs, haggling with vendors over the price of spandex or chainmail, and since Dragon*Con is only three and a half days there goes my fun.

Last night’s unpreparedness dream literally had the feel of a nightmare, with all the terror and panic that typically comes with nightmares.  Since my costumes are also nearly assembled, the dreams become more specific.  I know what I am dressing as this year, I have all my components on order, but in last night’s dream the FX Theatrical contact lenses I had ordered for both my costumes had never arrived.  I was at Dragon*Con without my contact lenses, and it was a disaster.  (Here is a link to one of the pairs of contacts I have ordered, the other pair is the one that I am most worried about so I will not show you a picture because that will jinx it.  Yes, these contacts are expensive, do not judge.  This is my one joy in life).

So I’m pacing around the Con in my costumes, howling to anyone who will listen about how devastated I am that I don’t have my amazing contacts.  For some reason one of the costumes I was pacing around in was a spandex Catwoman costume, which is ridiculous because I so don’t do spandex because, as my friend David likes to say, I have a really fertile look about me (for those who don’t understand this means that my hips and my boobs are enormous) and spandex isn’t the best way to highlight that.   Oh also this Catwoman costume didn’t have the ears or the mask so it was just me in blue/purple spandex, running around and crying.  I think my parents were there too.  Regardless, it was all extremely scary.

Oh you know what else was scary about the dream?  I hadn’t read the schedule at all, so I didn’t know what was happening or when or where, and I am a planner you guys, and it was just awful.  I was so relieved when the alarm clock went off because it meant that the whole thing wasn’t real, I mean it was real, in my mind, but, thank goodness it was just a terrible horrible dream.

We Dragon*Con costumers, we are planners, and we spend months working on their costumes.  I’d like to say that I am alone in these Dragon*Con unpreparedness dreams, but I know for a fact I am not.*  So next time you have one of those dreams where you have forgotten to study for a test or forgotten to complete an assignment for work, just remember that the dream could have been about you running around, sans costume, at one of the biggest fan conventions of the year.  Remember that, and be relieved.

*I know this because there is a thread about it on the Dragon*Con LiveJournal community.  Go ahead, laugh.