DragonCon 2009 - Day 3 & 4
Sep. 16th, 2009 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulWell, I wore Morgan out and by Sunday morning, she needed to give her tootsies some TLC. Being Dr Saunders is SRS BZNS and her toes were not quite ready for the job. So I let her hang out in the room and take care of her feet while I played around in the hotels.
For Sunday, I put on my khaki pants, green tank top, and Yoda backpack - yes, my super-ghetto Luke-in-Training "costume" (I use that term VERY loosely).
I don't remember how it happened, but I ended up at the Walk of Fame. Felicia was there and I decided that this was it, this was going to be the day I got her autograph!!!! I got in the loooooong line and waited (did I mention she was the queen of DC? Because she was, once again she was one of the few with a long wait - I think Tom Felton and James Marsters were here only equals that day).
Anyway, I had my Froggy photo from the day before in my little Yoda folder. I was feeling pretty good. People kept walking by and saying "whose line is this?" and we'd all say "Felicia Day!!!!!" like happy fanboys and girls. They would respond with a "who?"and then we'd take their DragonCon badges away and have them escorted out and then we'd all exclaim a different thing - "DR HORRIBLE!" "THE GUILD!" "BUFFY!" "GEEK GODDESS!" (that last one was ususally me). The lady behind me in line was very chatty and nice, telling me about how her husband and her watch The Guild and use it as a way of guaging their crazy for WoW. She said she had to tell Felicia about that.
The line inched closer and eventually I could see Felicia and suddenly my brain flipped. Like, I think it literally just flipped over in my head - because 5 seconds before I was totally calm and collected, chatting about this and that, and then suddenly I was standing across from Felicia, trying to say something intelligible and instead I felt my eyes well up with tears and all I could really say was stuff like "wow" or "oh wow" or "it's you wow". Her handler tried to help me out by saying "It's okay, she's just like you!" and I said "I know, that's why she's so cool!!!!!" The nice lady in line behind me came over and helped me settle myself down and got me centered again. Then I babbled at Felicia about how I followed her on GoodReads and that she should add "Readers Advisory" to her resume because I am a librarian and I use her reviews. She responded with a "Oh but I read such crap!" and I said "I know, and that's what is great because then I don't have to!" or something along those lines. Then she let me get a picture with her and I meandered off, in shock from the whole experience because, wow, Felicia is awesome.
To ease my pain of embarassing myself in front of Ms. Day, I wandered into the Art room downstairs. And I wandered over to Jason Palmer's table, someone I've always admired ever since I saw his artwork at CIII. I started to browse the stuff he had on his table and he was very nice and chatty. So was his wife, who had jewelry she was selling. I flipped through the two books of prints he had and listened to him talk about submitting one image for the Godfather DVD box art ("they wanted all these violent scenes on the cover, saying kids today like Grand Theft Auto. I tried to tell them it was a bad idea, but they insisted and then they wrote me a note back saying my art was 'too violent'"), World of Warcraft ("A woman asked me to try her a picture of an elf and I said 'can it be a night elf?' and she said 'what is that?'. I've never even played Warcraft and I knew!" - I told him not to play because then he'd probably never draw again; he agreed) and other random stuff.
So I ended up buying his Kaylee t-shirt and some really cute jewelry that his wife had made. Then I bought two really nice BSG prints. He signed both prints a second time with his shiny gold pen. I can't wait to frame them and get them up on the wall. Some day I will have fandom room and these prints will be displayed, along with my autographed photos. I also went into the Dealers room and picked up my autographed copy of Last Unicorn which is awesome.
Eventually, Morgan made her way down to the hotels. We went to the Dollhouse panel, which featured - hey, you guessed it! - Felicia Day! Even though she only appeared in ONE episode, and that episode never even aired, she was there, ready to chat. The rest of the panel was from a Dollhouse podcast - ubergeeks. The room was far too small and they had to close the doors early and a lot of people didn't get in. But we did! A lot of the panel was conjecture about season 2 and what, if anything, Epitaph One was all about. Felicia had some fun shooting anecdotes (that was her actual hair, she warned us never to get your haircut when you're having a life crisis or you might end up with a mullet) but you could tell she was also a fan of the show and she took part in the conversation about where Joss might be heading with the themes.
We went back down to the Walk of Fame and I added Ron Glass' signature to my Serenity poster which I had picked up back when the movie premiered and Morena Baccarin had signed it. I figured I can start collecting signatures on that. I also went over and shook Bruce Davidson's hand (Senator Kelly from X-Men) and told him my mom and I first saw him in Lathe of Heaven ("Oh, George Orr!" he said). I also muscled my way in and go Kandyse McClure's ("Dualla") autograph. She is really tiny, but those gorgeous eyes are real. I told her she had some of the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen and she said "Oh, they are my daddy's!" in a really adorable way. We chatted a little bit about other projects she is working on and I told her she should tell her fans what she wants to do and then we'll start sending letters/emails/tweets to get her out there. haha. I also go Allesandro Juliani's autograph right before he left for the day. Didn't get to chat as much, though I can tell you he is more obsessed with Gaeta/Gaius than![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
demonqueen666! All of his favorite moments on BSG were the scenes with the two of them interacting. I asked him which photo was his favorite from his stack and both of the ones he picked were Gaeta and Gaius in conversation. So I guess that makes it canon, yes?
We went wandering after that and then ended up in the same room for what was supposed to be a Casino Night w/ Karaoke. But unfortunately things didn't go as planned, and the room that had been booked for 3 hours was now only available for 1. So they hooked up their PS2 very quickly and told people to pick SingStar songs. It was a bit ridiculous but amusing. We were mostly killing time until Jessica told us to come to the hotel room to watch the Masquerade.
The Masquerade is the official costume contest of DragonCon but it was a lot more fun watching it in a room full of hardcore DCon goers than in the big theater. We could shout more obscenities at the puppets the hosts INSISTED on using for way too long. But the costumes were amazing. I still can't believe someone built a Big Daddy! And the Apparition Abolishers (Steampunk Ghostbusters) were just such a cool and original idea. If you play around on YouTube, you can find lots of clips from the Masquerade. Oh, anddwrd took some official photos that can be found here. What was even better was we got to see these costumes that so many people had put their time and effort into...and then stuff our faces with chinese food! THIS is why you go to the con with someone like jellibean - she knows all the cool peeps.
After that, we wandered the Marriott awhile, just looking at all the amazing costumes. I finally found a Splicer and posed for a cheesy picture with her. We said goodnight and goodbye to Jessica since we knew we would be heading out the next morning and then once again made our way back to the hotel, completely exhausted.
Monday morning was rough. Morgan was getting the start of the con crud. I still felt okay, and I really wanted to go back down to the hotels. I can't remember why I wanted to go down there so bad...I was on a mission though. Yes, I was going to redeem myself! I went back down and got into Felicia Day's line. I was down to my last bit of cash and I had an idea - I wanted Felicia to sign a photo like a tweet. Plus I wanted to apologize for freaking out. And I did. I managed to get all the way up there, snag a huge stack of Guild bookmarks, and then talk to her like a normal person. She said she would be at Farpoint in February (Baltimore area convention) and I asked if anyone would be at PAX in Boston in March and she said she was going to that too! She signed my photo "@orangerful, you give good tweet <3 Felicia" and I said goodbye without crying all over her. Totally worth it.
Then we went back and smooshed everything into the car. Somehow it all fit, even though we had both acquired some loot. We drove back to WVA - both of us with scratchy throats - both of us trying to convince ourselves that it was just from talking too much and not Con Crud. But alas, by the time we got back to WVA, we were both feeling sort of funky. It hit Morgan first, but when I went to sleep, I could feel it creeping in. I felt pretty craptastic in the morning and all I wanted to do was get home and get to my own bed where I could pass out and drool on the pillows and not feel bad about it! So I shoved my stuff back into the car, we grabbed a yummy biscuit breakfast at Tudor's Biscuit World, and then I drove home. Sniffling and chugging water the whole way, but I made it back around 4:30pm, then AD left for class, and I curled up in bed.
Yeah, Dragon*Con WORE. ME. OUT. But it was a lot of fun. It made me wish I had the talent to create costumes. And also made me want to start drinking coffee again because everyone stayed up later than me haha. It was a good time though. Crazy fun (she says now before her credit card bills arrive).
A BIG THANK YOU TOfaeriesfolly, jellibean, and dwrd for helping me on my adventure. If Jessica hadn't posted those pictures of good times every year, if Morgan had not agreed to get in a car with crazy old me, and if Derek hasn't been nice to me even though we've only spoken very briefly online...I don't know if I would have gone on this adventure. but I'm SO glad that I did. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIN
For Sunday, I put on my khaki pants, green tank top, and Yoda backpack - yes, my super-ghetto Luke-in-Training "costume" (I use that term VERY loosely).
I don't remember how it happened, but I ended up at the Walk of Fame. Felicia was there and I decided that this was it, this was going to be the day I got her autograph!!!! I got in the loooooong line and waited (did I mention she was the queen of DC? Because she was, once again she was one of the few with a long wait - I think Tom Felton and James Marsters were here only equals that day).
Anyway, I had my Froggy photo from the day before in my little Yoda folder. I was feeling pretty good. People kept walking by and saying "whose line is this?" and we'd all say "Felicia Day!!!!!" like happy fanboys and girls. They would respond with a "who?"
The line inched closer and eventually I could see Felicia and suddenly my brain flipped. Like, I think it literally just flipped over in my head - because 5 seconds before I was totally calm and collected, chatting about this and that, and then suddenly I was standing across from Felicia, trying to say something intelligible and instead I felt my eyes well up with tears and all I could really say was stuff like "wow" or "oh wow" or "it's you wow". Her handler tried to help me out by saying "It's okay, she's just like you!" and I said "I know, that's why she's so cool!!!!!" The nice lady in line behind me came over and helped me settle myself down and got me centered again. Then I babbled at Felicia about how I followed her on GoodReads and that she should add "Readers Advisory" to her resume because I am a librarian and I use her reviews. She responded with a "Oh but I read such crap!" and I said "I know, and that's what is great because then I don't have to!" or something along those lines. Then she let me get a picture with her and I meandered off, in shock from the whole experience because, wow, Felicia is awesome.
To ease my pain of embarassing myself in front of Ms. Day, I wandered into the Art room downstairs. And I wandered over to Jason Palmer's table, someone I've always admired ever since I saw his artwork at CIII. I started to browse the stuff he had on his table and he was very nice and chatty. So was his wife, who had jewelry she was selling. I flipped through the two books of prints he had and listened to him talk about submitting one image for the Godfather DVD box art ("they wanted all these violent scenes on the cover, saying kids today like Grand Theft Auto. I tried to tell them it was a bad idea, but they insisted and then they wrote me a note back saying my art was 'too violent'"), World of Warcraft ("A woman asked me to try her a picture of an elf and I said 'can it be a night elf?' and she said 'what is that?'. I've never even played Warcraft and I knew!" - I told him not to play because then he'd probably never draw again; he agreed) and other random stuff.
So I ended up buying his Kaylee t-shirt and some really cute jewelry that his wife had made. Then I bought two really nice BSG prints. He signed both prints a second time with his shiny gold pen. I can't wait to frame them and get them up on the wall. Some day I will have fandom room and these prints will be displayed, along with my autographed photos. I also went into the Dealers room and picked up my autographed copy of Last Unicorn which is awesome.
Eventually, Morgan made her way down to the hotels. We went to the Dollhouse panel, which featured - hey, you guessed it! - Felicia Day! Even though she only appeared in ONE episode, and that episode never even aired, she was there, ready to chat. The rest of the panel was from a Dollhouse podcast - ubergeeks. The room was far too small and they had to close the doors early and a lot of people didn't get in. But we did! A lot of the panel was conjecture about season 2 and what, if anything, Epitaph One was all about. Felicia had some fun shooting anecdotes (that was her actual hair, she warned us never to get your haircut when you're having a life crisis or you might end up with a mullet) but you could tell she was also a fan of the show and she took part in the conversation about where Joss might be heading with the themes.
We went back down to the Walk of Fame and I added Ron Glass' signature to my Serenity poster which I had picked up back when the movie premiered and Morena Baccarin had signed it. I figured I can start collecting signatures on that. I also went over and shook Bruce Davidson's hand (Senator Kelly from X-Men) and told him my mom and I first saw him in Lathe of Heaven ("Oh, George Orr!" he said). I also muscled my way in and go Kandyse McClure's ("Dualla") autograph. She is really tiny, but those gorgeous eyes are real. I told her she had some of the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen and she said "Oh, they are my daddy's!" in a really adorable way. We chatted a little bit about other projects she is working on and I told her she should tell her fans what she wants to do and then we'll start sending letters/emails/tweets to get her out there. haha. I also go Allesandro Juliani's autograph right before he left for the day. Didn't get to chat as much, though I can tell you he is more obsessed with Gaeta/Gaius than
demonqueen666! All of his favorite moments on BSG were the scenes with the two of them interacting. I asked him which photo was his favorite from his stack and both of the ones he picked were Gaeta and Gaius in conversation. So I guess that makes it canon, yes? We went wandering after that and then ended up in the same room for what was supposed to be a Casino Night w/ Karaoke. But unfortunately things didn't go as planned, and the room that had been booked for 3 hours was now only available for 1. So they hooked up their PS2 very quickly and told people to pick SingStar songs. It was a bit ridiculous but amusing. We were mostly killing time until Jessica told us to come to the hotel room to watch the Masquerade.
The Masquerade is the official costume contest of DragonCon but it was a lot more fun watching it in a room full of hardcore DCon goers than in the big theater. We could shout more obscenities at the puppets the hosts INSISTED on using for way too long. But the costumes were amazing. I still can't believe someone built a Big Daddy! And the Apparition Abolishers (Steampunk Ghostbusters) were just such a cool and original idea. If you play around on YouTube, you can find lots of clips from the Masquerade. Oh, and
dwrd took some official photos that can be found here. What was even better was we got to see these costumes that so many people had put their time and effort into...and then stuff our faces with chinese food! THIS is why you go to the con with someone like jellibean - she knows all the cool peeps.After that, we wandered the Marriott awhile, just looking at all the amazing costumes. I finally found a Splicer and posed for a cheesy picture with her. We said goodnight and goodbye to Jessica since we knew we would be heading out the next morning and then once again made our way back to the hotel, completely exhausted.
Monday morning was rough. Morgan was getting the start of the con crud. I still felt okay, and I really wanted to go back down to the hotels. I can't remember why I wanted to go down there so bad...I was on a mission though. Yes, I was going to redeem myself! I went back down and got into Felicia Day's line. I was down to my last bit of cash and I had an idea - I wanted Felicia to sign a photo like a tweet. Plus I wanted to apologize for freaking out. And I did. I managed to get all the way up there, snag a huge stack of Guild bookmarks, and then talk to her like a normal person. She said she would be at Farpoint in February (Baltimore area convention) and I asked if anyone would be at PAX in Boston in March and she said she was going to that too! She signed my photo "@orangerful, you give good tweet <3 Felicia" and I said goodbye without crying all over her. Totally worth it.
Then we went back and smooshed everything into the car. Somehow it all fit, even though we had both acquired some loot. We drove back to WVA - both of us with scratchy throats - both of us trying to convince ourselves that it was just from talking too much and not Con Crud. But alas, by the time we got back to WVA, we were both feeling sort of funky. It hit Morgan first, but when I went to sleep, I could feel it creeping in. I felt pretty craptastic in the morning and all I wanted to do was get home and get to my own bed where I could pass out and drool on the pillows and not feel bad about it! So I shoved my stuff back into the car, we grabbed a yummy biscuit breakfast at Tudor's Biscuit World, and then I drove home. Sniffling and chugging water the whole way, but I made it back around 4:30pm, then AD left for class, and I curled up in bed.
Yeah, Dragon*Con WORE. ME. OUT. But it was a lot of fun. It made me wish I had the talent to create costumes. And also made me want to start drinking coffee again because everyone stayed up later than me haha. It was a good time though. Crazy fun (she says now before her credit card bills arrive).
A BIG THANK YOU TO
faeriesfolly, jellibean, and dwrd for helping me on my adventure. If Jessica hadn't posted those pictures of good times every year, if Morgan had not agreed to get in a car with crazy old me, and if Derek hasn't been nice to me even though we've only spoken very briefly online...I don't know if I would have gone on this adventure. but I'm SO glad that I did. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FIN
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-19 04:39 pm (UTC)It sounds like you had a wonderful time, I'm glad you went! :-)
Catherine
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-25 05:12 pm (UTC)Yeah, I'm totally jealous! lol!