The Calm...Before The Con

Right now, hundreds of booths await the masses. The booths range from completely stocked and prepared, to untouched with only chairs, a table, and a sign. By tomorrow afternoon, the relatively quiet in the hall will be replaced by noise, the sound of thousands of feet shuffling across concrete floors, the sounds of laughs, cries, screams, sighs...it will envelope the space, drive out the quiet. 

It's comic con time again.

And many of these people, those setting up, will do this all again next week...only the location will change. 

I've been involved in this particular comic con for ten years. The first one opened my eyes, not only to what is possible when thousands of people work together toward a common goal (a successful con...), but to a life I never knew existed...the life of the traveling artists. I remember that first show. I mooched some table space for my books--actually, they were anthologies in which I had stories. During the down times, I found myself wandering among the aisles, chatting with vendors, discovering more about them.

It's a modern-day traveling carnival. 

Not everyone at this convention travels. I don't have the numbers as to those who live here and do this and a few shows each year and those who travel city-to-city, state-to-state and do this for a living. Those that do travel the country--a different city/con each week--fascinate me. I can't imagine that life, but I'm sure many of them can't imagine doing what I do...sit at a desk for forty hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year.

It's all about perspective.

I have the upmost respect for what they do. It takes hard work, determination, and something else...courage. It's not a life for the timid, that's for sure.

In a little over twenty hours, the floor will come to life. Commerce will commence. Goods will be exchanged for money, either cash, credit, Venmo, PayPal. It will be a long three days. Right now, however, it's the calm before the con. There's a beauty in that, too.