I’d like to tell you a story about a fangirl. A fangirl who finally has a few empty hours to catch up with blogging while on a flight from Chicago to Boston. Or rather did– got most of this penned out on the flight- and now I’m finally sitting down in Baltimore adding the finishing touches (two days after- oops).
Anywho! Our story begins a few days before New Year’s Eve- when I somehow found myself with a tumblr account.
I didn’t know what it was, and I still can’t figure out exactly how I got there, but all I knew was that there was a ton of nifty fanart there and hey look! Funny cats!
It was a website full of eye candy, of art and stories and music, of articles and quotes and tutorials, and it sucked me in and chewed up my time and it was as glorious as it as addictive. And through it I discovered the power of fandom. This great creative mixing pot of writers and novelists and enthusiasts, coming together, clashing and bouncing off each other like atoms- fuelling the fire and every other metaphor and cliche. Fandom means loving something unabashedly-wanting to learn more- look deeper- enjoy these stories, these shows, these movies, these comics and bands- and we fuck being quiet about it.
And thus a tumblr addict was born, and as I was scrolling through my dash one day, I stumbled upon a link to a livestream. One of my favourite fan artists was drawing and chatting to people and I couldn’t resist- I’d loved her stuff for ages, back from when I was on deviant art, and so I clicked the link.
We started talking, there was a whole crew of artists already there from all over the world and we all loved supernatural and we all loved art. We talked and talked and talked, we enjoyed ourselves and ended up planing to meet up in a new live stream the next day.
As the weeks went by we switched it up- we kept drawing together, but we took turns on who hosted the stream, we helped each other and started talking about things outside fandom and art. We swapped Skype names and just kept talking and somewhere along the way we became the ‘Huggers’.
So that’s the backstory.
The awesome part is that it’s two years later, and I’m now on a ‘Huggers World Tour’.
I met ‘Ammosart’ first up, and it was perfect because she was the one who started that first stream, she was the founder of the Huggers, and I still cant quite get over the fact that I just had the pleasure of hanging out with Mrs Ammo in Chicago for the past 11 days. It has been surreal and fantastic.
We had a Marvel movie marathon, we played co-op Uncharted and I went from dizzy and lost- fighting with the in game camera controls- to preferring the t-bolt dragon rifle and unlocking the sniper boosts over a few days. We drew together and read comics together, her cats shed on me, Boss Ammo cooked amazing food, Mr Ammo made sure I tried all of his favourite local treats. Leaving Chicago was horrible.
Staying in Chicago was wonderful.
I’ve been bombarded by classic American foods, ( HORCHATA! Oh Horchata, I already miss your deliciousness- this drink was something else. A Mexican creation of rice milk, cinnamon, sugar and some secret ingredient I’m sure- I suspect rose water but am likely entirely wrong- either way- this drink was divine and it was cruel being introduced to it when it doesn’t exists in Auz)
…
Hmmm.
Where was I? ah yes! listing the wonders of Chicago! I’ve seen brands that only exist to me on tv screens, I was taken to comic book stores, I tried amazing strawberry ice cream, true Chicagan deep-dish pizza, these amazing deep fried little button mushroom things, Chicagan cheese and caramel popcorn, I saw a mariachi band, the mirrored bean, sears tower, experienced a Chicagan taxi ride ( quickest I’ve ever had if you get my drift- sheesh!), ate breakfast hash in a proper diner, I saw popup Halloween costume shops and indulged in my adoration of Captain America ( I got a truly horrifying awesome/tacky mask)- I finally got my hands on my the captain America shirt that I have been wishing for and wanting for the past four months- gah what can I say?
That week was full of awesome new things and awesome people.
On top of all that ( and all the things I know I’ve missed and am saving for anther post) I was given the royal local guided tour-topped off by a trip to Detroit curtsey of Mr Ammo for a baseball game.
Now that was an experience in and of itself.
I don’t think any of my descriptions of Detroit could do it justice- it is so different and worn and proudly beautiful- I took gigs worth of photos as we drove around, from second hand bookshops to abandoned railway kingdoms, the city is stubborn and static and full of momentum and contradictions and stunning architecture.
I could blather on for pages more so let me cut to the chase- this would be a very different trip if it wasn’t for the Huggers.
~Jess
Dingobait 