While making my packing list for dragon*con on Monday afternoon, I began thinking about what clothes I wanted to take. They needed to be comfortable, easy to move in, sweat-absorbing (because anyone who thinks they won't sweat while racing around to set up for the enormous costume contest is seriously deluded), and somewhat funky.

I think the real rule for photographers is to never stick out. At dragon*con, being normal makes you stick out. Since I want to borrow Brian's camera to snap photos of the costumed attendees, I really need to avoid sticking out too much.Being the gawky non-geek-with-a-camera, no matter what my badge says about being a staff member, is not the way to get permission to take photographs of people at dragon*con.

So what the heck do I do to avoid standing out at dragon*con?

My list is pretty short. Most of it includes the rasta hat. The plan involves…braids. Four, actually. Two fat pigtail braids, one falling over each shoulder, will encompass most of the hairstyle. To go with it, I'll probably take two small hanks of hair from the center of my forehead and make a small braid going down each side. (Once you straighten out the curl, my hair is close to two feet long now. It's quite interesting to see.) Since I can hide the barrettes under the hat, I can hide the fact that my tech-staff-blue locks are actually clipped into my hair.

That should do it. The rest of my dress shall be my usual ordinary dress: single-color shirts, jeans or shorts. For the jeans I'll have two options—my standard sneakers (good for days when I have to do a lot of standing still) and my combat boots (good for when I fear I'm going to get the size 6 feet smashed by heavy equipment or clumsy humans).

It's hard not to envy the people who are coming to dragon*con in full regalia. Last year's memories of the enormous swordfight in the lobby between the Klingons and the Jedi are some of my favorites of the convention. The fact remains that a) I'm there to work, and b) I'm just not the dressing-up kind of domesticat.

I'll braid the hair up a bit differently than usual, but other than that, I'll be the same old domesticat I always am. I'll just be sure to get pictures of the really inventively (un-)dressed attendees to make up for it.

For now, duty calls…