Confronting fears and Xena

Two week ago, I boarded a plane for Los Angeles, CA to do two things. The first was to confront my fear of amusement park rides. And the second was to make an annual trek to one of those fan conventions. Yes, I’m not afraid to admit my inner geek.

First things first, the amusement park fear is not what you think. I love amusement parks. The characters, the atmosphere—it’s all fun. But I really don’t like the rides. It all started over a decade ago when my best friend and I went to the 4-H fair.

A couple of spinning rides later, I swore off any type of amusement park rides for the rest of my life, including Ferris wheels and merry-go-rounds.

But I went, I saw, I conquered my fear of rides. That was the theme of the weekend after all. And you can’t just go to Disneyland and not ride on any rides. It’s sacrilegious.

I have never been to a Disney park before. So when I started planning my annual trip west last year, I decided to tack on an extra day to take in Disneyland. I decided, I might as well as conquer this fear of amusement park rides.

First up was Space Mountain. The darkness probably cured whatever fear I might have had, it was a fun ride. I enjoyed myself. I made it out alive. If I could handle that ride, I can handle almost any ride—or so I thought.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was also a fun ride. It’s on the water and is mostly animatronics, so no big danger lurking with Jack Sparrow and Blackbeard. The attraction was redone a few years back to add in the popular characters from the movie trilogy. Complete with water explosions, gun battles and singing pirates, it was awesome fun.

Ah, the Indiana Jones Adventure Ride came next. I think I blindly followed my friends into the line not fully knowing what we were doing.

When my friend Sarah bailed on us, I knew then that this wasn’t a ride I should consider doing. Nervous? Yes. Not a roller coaster, whew! But it was a bumping, fast and wild turns sort of ride which made my stomach queasy while making the way up the long, winding rope laced trail.

I almost kicked myself out of line, fearing that I can’t handle it. I sucked it up and boarded the ride with my friends Paul and Cindy. After all, I didn’t spend $110 for admission (and transportation from my hotel to the park) for nothing. I’m going to make the most of my trip west, even if I have be picked up off the ground to do it.

Carpe chakram!

I survived the Indy ride, which revitalized my desire to see the movies and as I write this, I’m sporting my cool Indy fedora hat. I received compliments back at the hotel from everyone, including hotel staff that probably got a kick out three of us standing next to each wearing the same exact hat.

And I conquered my fear of amusement park rides. Though, I don’t think you’ll catch me on a roller coaster anytime soon. I’m still not up for that yet. But I know that I can go on merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels without fear of getting sick.

Of course, my trip west wasn’t to just see Mickey and his friends, it was take part in a time honored tradition of the fan convention.

Think Star Trek, only instead of Klingon’s you have Xenas, Amazons, Gabrielles, and Bacchaes running around slaying and sucking the life out of people.

Okay. Get the laughs out. Call me a geek, nerd, whatever. You can’t call me anything that I haven’t been called before. It comes with the territory.

If there’s one thing about a Xena convention, it’s that we can form our own United Nations.

Within my circle of friends we have: Israelis, Germans, Swedes, Irish, Scottish, British, Spanish, Canadians, Swiss, Russians, Aussies, Kiwis… the list goes on.

Even if some of us can’t speak the other languages, we all have one language in common: Xena.

We’re a multicultural, diverse group of folks who all have this crazy obsession. And we’re probably better—no, strike that—ever been on a Xena message board before? Thankfully, we have a keyboards as our chosen weapons. Otherwise, it might get a little messy.

This convention marked the 15th Anniversary of the series. The series stars—Lucy Lawless (Battlestar Galactica, Spartacus: Blood and Sand) and Renee O’Connor (Diamonds and Guns)—appeared along with other notable favorites from the series.

They talked about their experiences on the show, what they’re currently doing, and appearing for photo ops and signing autographs.

While the convention wasn’t all that spectacular (compared to previous years), it was still great fun hanging out with people who won’t laugh at you when you can recite an entire episode or discuss the finer points of the relationship between Argo and Xena.

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