Philadelphia 2019 - Marvel Edition

For quite a few months now I have been wanting to make a side trip from New York City to Philadelphia to go to the Marvel Exhibit that the Franklin Institute was hosting. Once the wheels were motion, it was the perfect side stop on our way to the Big Apple for more Marvel goodness.

The Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes exhibit brought all the MCU awesomness to the public, but also brought along comic book history, images of original comics, photo ops with your favorite hero statues, and more. I was excitedly overwhelmed by what was presented to me and it made my heart swell with nerdy goodness! The Netflix series were part of the exhibit as well as the MCU, but so were past images, like the old Spider-Man cartoon and the original Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies! Forget all the financial and studio drama... this was pure fan goodness.

Let me rephrase... studio drama as it relates to Spider-Man. The Fantastic Four were greatly under represented, except for a photo op model of Grim and the X-Men were naire to be seen, except for a few comic images here and there. Additionally, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't really represented either. I know you can't get in everything all the time, but there were some holes. Like Grim, Hulk only had a few comic books and then a giant version of him for photo ops.

Some things had a truly unique portrayal, such as the Ant-Man exhibit, where you actually watch a little digital Ant-Man run around an area and share facts (see images down below). Into the Spider-Verse had images being displayed on a wall, which was interesting. The Grim photo op had different characters in the window behind him. There weren't voice overs or other things like that. It was a walk through with some interactive qualities.

We didn't go during the day, so it was cheaper, because we didn't have the whole museum pass tacked on, but that didn't stop there from being lots of people. They send you in via groups, though, so as not to over-pack the exhibit. Attendees were polite enough. I only say this, because you never know what types of nerds are going to show up. There were clusters, but for the most part it was a nicely organized and spacious exhibit (except for the gift shop).

This was a great start to our road trip. We even found un-metered parking in downtown Philadelphia. So we sure did start out with a win! It was totally worth the $40+ in tolls we took getting to Philly in the first place.

General Marvel

Black Panther

Spider-Man

IronMan

The Avengers (the other guys)

Netflix Marvel

Guardians of the Galaxy & Captain Marvel

Accomplished Geek Girl: Homecoming

It is finally happening... I am going to New York City. I have never been so nervous for a trip before.

I don't even know how to tackle something as geekingly epic as going to NYC. And before you think to yourself, "uh... duh... it's so easy!" I have a stumbling block. This is one a 24/7 trip to NYC. I am going there to attend a teacher's reading curriculum institute at Columbia University. So my days of tourism won't start until 4:30PM at the earliest! Let's not forget that the tourism aspect is also after a long day of going to "school."

For years I have looked at maps of NYC. Several years ago my husband, our friend, and I started playing the Marvel TSR. Base of operations was, obviously, NYC. I know so many locations and places and where things are, but now that we're going there it feels so incredibly overwhelming. There's a mix of wanting to visit locations from our game (like where our characters live), but there's also the need to see the staples of the city itself.

Many of our locations are going to be personal and related to our game, but we're also going to be going to some crazy places. Have I mentioned there's a detour to Philadelphia to see the Marvel Exhibit at the Franklin Institute?

Finally, I have my t-shirts in full theme! Maybe over-packed due to t-shirts, but I don't care. You have to be prepared for everything!

Arriving "home" in NYC just feels like I've always been waiting to be there. Almost as if it's a homecoming and I'm seeing all the people I've only been able to keep in touch with through messages and pictures. It is so surreal, but it feels so right.

So let the travels begin! Hopefully I'll be able to manage the daily postings, but I'm thinking this could be a really great way to return to what I have missed for so long!

The Ta-Ta Towel

One of my co-workers was moving to another school. During one our team meetings, it was somehow mentioned that there are these things called Ta-Ta Towels. I think it popped up on my Instagram feed as a commercial or something. Shark Tank approved item. We all had to know what these were and my co-worker actually kept saying she was going to order one and it became a joke for a while.

She never did order one, but when we were thinking of things that reminded us of her and her funny personality, this came to mind. So as part of her gift, I made her a Narwhal Ta-Ta Towel.

I used the following video.


I bought narwhal fabric and then pink terry cloth. The first time I thought I had my measurements right, but I did not and I ended up making more of a bikini front than a Ta-Ta Towel. I also brought the wrong elastic. Mine was much to thick and it just didn't do what the towel required. So after fixing the elastic mistake and taking better measurements, I made a relatively functional Ta-Ta Towel. (Honestly... not really functional... I think it's more the thought, effort, and potential usability.)