Well, what can I say?  I did it again,  I went to Comic-Con for another year, but it was their 50th, so how could I pass it up?.  I guess we are all getting old and this time, I was half naked.

What?  Well, not exactly, but I felt like it!.

If you recall, in times past, I explained how often my sister would wear the skimpiest outfits she could manage to muster up.  Me?  Not so much.  I’m too self conscious of my middle and age, but I’ve trimmed down a bit, so I thought that for the 50th anniversary I’d see what I could do and this is what I got.  But…. Before I show you what I did, let’s quickly review my past ventures.  In general, I try to pick characters that are age appropriate though there aren’t many.

So here is the chronology of past Comic-Con’s

My first was in 2015 or was it 2014?  No, it was 2015.

I went as Rosita of “The Walking Dead” and believe it or not there are critics!   One guy told me my hair wasn’t dark enough,  and I shoulda’ been wearing short shorts. Well, dag nabbit, she wore long pants too!  My sister was the green lady, better known as an Orion Slave Girl from Star Trek and her son was a character from some video game. And… it took me over a couple of hours to paint her green.  Aren’t I a nice sister?

 

2017 – Year Two:  I went as The Queen of Hearts – my grand daughter was Alice and I don’t recall what my sister did.  Oh yeah, she was a minuscule clad Spider Woman.  For some reason, I didn’t get that pic.  ooops!

 

2017 Year Three:  I went as Queen Hippolyta of Wonder Woman – my sister was Wonder Woman and my grand daughter made a beautiful Storm (see below)- I made all their costumes, which my sis revamped to suit her. Even though Queen Hippolyta,  looks young,  she is Wonder Woman’s mother, so I went with that.

2018 Year four:  I went as Edna Mode from The Incredibles, my daughter wore my Queen Hippolyta costume and made it look great!  My grand daughter did some steampunk thing, and my grandson did a Dastraquil thing.  We never met up with my sister that year, because I was beat and we couldn’t find each other.

I was fortunate to meet up  with The Incredible clan for the above picture.

 

2019 – Year Five was this year.  Ugh!  Talk about feeling old.  I went as several things and I had energy to spare on the first day, but for the next two days I lacked the heart to do all I had hoped.

My second and third day I went as Jasmine or some facsimile from Aladdin. At least this young man called me Jasmine to his Aladdin. 

It was my compromise to my sister, but as you can see, I added a veil across my tummy in the above photo. My idea was to accommodate my sister’s known desire to be provocative. She thought it would be fun.   I thought I’d be bold enough to do so, but as you can see,  I chickened out.

Since, I make all my costumes, this was a good compromise.  I didn’t feel like making hers again and or another as detailed as my previous three. As I may have mentioned on other posts, taking up belly dancing was something my other sister, Di and I had done many years earlier in order to relieve stress from caring for mother.

My sister Di is on the back left and I on the back right.  Well hidden. However, it is obvious my sisters like to dance and I go along for the ride.

Sherene, as you all know from my burlesque post is a dancer and loves to show skin.  She also belly dances and she’s dang good at it.  She’s considerably younger than I.  The point is,  between the two of us, we already had a slew of costumes to fit the bill, so it relieved me from making costumes to from scratch.

So for two days I was a harem girl, which there were plenty of in Aladdin, but surprisingly enough not many at Comic-Con and no one seemed to care.  Generally, people are lined up to take pictures of her in her scanty attire, but not this year.  I guess we’re all getting old.

Photo of Day three:  Not sure who the dudes are, but someone thought we should get our pictures taken together.

Okay, so I’m not half naked, but did you notice, I skipped Day One ?

For good reason.

Because of Day one, I felt so insecure about Days two and three.

Things that clouded my brain were, why in the hell am I doing this?

Act your age!  Stop trying to look young! Your time has passed. I – AM – OLD.  I should act my age!  All because of … my Day One.

MY DAY ONE:

I was Grandma Tala of the film Moana.

It was absolutely amazing.  I looked and felt my age. The only reason I felt my age was that Grandma Tala is slightly bent and carries a cane and… aside from me tripping people up with it, which I did several times, it was hard work. It hurts to be hunched over. I normally stand extremely erect. Otherwise, it was gratifying playing this lovely old lady.

BUT,  what got me is how people love her.  I actually couldn’t figure out if people love old people or was it just because Grandma Tala who is so beloved and all their love for her was transferred over to me?  Day two and three were so anti-climactic because I wanted to stay her.  I almost forfeited my plans for Jasmine to be her again.

Initially, when I looked in the mirror after making myself old, I questioned my sanity wondering, Why would I even go there?  I didn’t and don’t like seeing me old, but I couldn’t help it. I enjoyed being this free, loving spirit that her character embodied.   I was through most of the day before I thought to take pictures of those taking pictures of me, so the pictures that follow don’t come close to what there was. One young couple from the Netherlands were the most excited, so I had to get one of them as well but then a beautiful young lady dressed as Moana came running toward me shouting “Grandma Tala”. Here are a series of pictures of some of these folks and their photos taken with me

As Grandma Tala, the public loved me!!  What surprised me was how many young men from teens through thirties got excited at Grandma Tala!   My costume was complete with the temporary tattoo that Grandma Tala was noted for, a manta ray! I even memorized her lines from the movie, but never got to use them.

And, even though I’m somewhat tawny, the splotchy-ness comes from  hubby slathering on my “tan”.  Covergirl came out with a makeup that doesn’t wash off, but it is hard to smooth on evenly and especially so if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Unfortunately, or maybe I should say fortunately, hubby isn’t in the habit of putting makeup on and I don’t think he was much into getting his hands into it.  LOL

It was amazing, but I couldn’t walk more than a couple of feet and people were stopping me, taking pictures and praising me. Telling me I was the best Grandma Tala they’d ever seen and I’m guessing I was the only Grandma Tala out there.

 

People from across the way were mouthing, “You are beautiful”. Thumbs up and shouting “You are amazing!” and it went on like that all day!

So what was it?  I kept asking myself rhetorical questions as to the why she or I was so popular, posing several questions to myself about what it means.

Is it that there are few grandma’s that even look like grandma’s?  I was looking at a scene the other day, of a friend doing a part opposite Jane Fonda and well, look at Jane Fonda. She’s still gorgeous and absolutely doesn’t look like a cuddly grandma, regardless of her 80 plus years and her grandma state of being.

I don’t look like a cuddly grandma, even though I’m not as old, though you’d be hard pressed to believe that from the above photos.  If you ask my grand daughter, I am her cuddly grandma and she has on occasion complained that her mom isn’t and my daughter would admit to that as well, even though she loves her grand kids immensely.  Funny how that works, looks don’t impair cuddles. Are there not enough grandma’s that look like grandma’s and possibly part of why everyone fell in love with Grandma Tala?

My ex, posted a comment that he liked my hair. What did he mean?  Did he like seeing me grey and looking old or just grey? He’s not mean spirited, so I’m guessing he just meant grey.

My mom had beautiful gray hair, so if I had more of it maybe I’d feel differently about having it.  The reality is, I have very little gray hair, but aside from that, even pretending to be old made me feel old.   I was hurting in places that generally don’t hurt and my mind wanted to fog up.  I loved it and hated it all at the same time.  How does one grow old gracefully?

For me, part of my energy level comes from NOT looking old or catering to my age, but then there is this thing that tells me “why not??” Yes, sometimes I wish to give in to it.

For me, I look young because I think young.  I eat right and exercise.  I do not have a cupboard full of medication.  I take a few herbals. I do puzzles, read and write to keep the mind alert.  I’ve seen too many people give into aging and yes, a part of me wishes she could resign herself to looking her age, but I can’t and won’t.  To give in means to give up and because of that,  I want you to know I will fight, kicking and screaming to my grave.   Age is a crown of glory or so Grandma Tala has proven, but Grandma Tala died way too soon, leaving her beloved Moana without her.  There is so much telling in age, but I soak up what I’ve learned and hope I will live long enough to share my Grandma Tala wisdom to those younger than I and for years to come.

However, when I do get old, I won’t look half bad, huh?

BTW, that paint was hard to get out of my hair and I think my tan rubbed off onto my PJ’s for days. What if I’d been green?  The tat is almost completely gone now.

More pictures from Comic-Con: