Our drive up to APE this year almost didn't happen. Two weeks prior to 'launch' I was hit by a semi and our car was totalled. Like most artists in the comic scene, Mike and I schedule our entire year around conventions; so the idea of not having a way to get up to our first (of a mere two) convention of the year was devastating. I looked into getting a rental from an agency but AAA told me - despite having full coverage - they couldn't insure me for a rental, and the agency couldn't cover be because I'm under 21. (This whole "young for my age" thing is very infuriating. It also disqualified me from a FedEx Kinko's contest where we could have won $10,000 to redo our office... but that's a different story.)

The countdown to APE continued as I filed paperwork about the accident for the police, my doctors, and the insurance companies... trying to get through all the red tape to get my money back for the car. (Too bad we couldn't get the $300 back that we'd just put into it days before the accident as well!) The universe seemed to be on our side however, because we managed to purchase a new car just two days before we left for APE!

Thursday night we loaded up our new car (a station wagon, none-the-less) with all of our merchandise and displays, and everything fit perfectly. There was no way it would have all fit in the sedan, and the accident and the station wagon seemed to be turns of good fortune and put us in an even more excited mood for the trip.

APE is really like a yearly vacation for us: of course we're there to promote ourselves and sell merch, but we always have a lot of friends there thatwe don't get to see anywhere else. And this year was no different from last. We were in the same booth we were in last year, next to the amazing Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson from FunChicken.com. We also spent some time hanging out with the fantastic JFish (Studio JFish) and his lovely girlfriend Jess (Kitty-Ears.net) whom we met at APE last year.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Dave Roman and his fiancee Raina Telgemeier who are two of the most heart-warming you'll ever meet in your life; I assure you. (I picked up copies of Take Out and Teen Boat from their booth, and I couldn't recommend them more. Go buy them, truly.) I also met up with the adorable Leia Weathington (Bold Riley) and Leigh Dragoon (a href="http://www.spidric.com/" target="_">By the Wayside). And next to them was the amazing kids from Real Gone Girl Studios, and I caught up with them a bit (since I haven't seen them since Comic Con last year). Later, Erika Moen nearly bumped into me at the free table, and I almost died from her radiating awesome.