Once Upon A
Time in NYC ...
The 2001
Beauty and the Beast Convention
July 13-15,
2001 at the Holiday
A Convention report by Susan Howe
THE WILLING
DEFLOWERING OF A CON VIRGIN
(aka Suze's
Adventures at the 2001
WEDNESDAY,
JULY 11 I spent the
whole day eagerly making my last-minute preparations for my trip to NYC.
Luckily, everything fell into place. I managed to find a pair of dress shoes
that went with both of my outfits, had everything packed by early afternoon
leaving a half a suitcase of empty space for the goodies I was sure to acquire,
and made it to my beauty salon appointment on time to be primped and polished.
I finally managed to fall into bed at about 11:00am, knowing that there would
be little sleep for me that night... THURSDAY,
JULY 12 I was
awakened by my alarm at the ungodly hour of 3:00am so I would have time to
shower and dress before heading out at 4:30am to catch the 6:10am train from I made it to
the train in plenty of time and we were soon underway. I caught a few winks on
the train, and before I knew it, I'd arrived at Penn Station. Ahhhhh...the Big
Apple. I love this city! I hopped in a cab that quickly weaved it's way through traffic, inching ever closer to the hotel.
I didn't mind the wait. I was so absorbed in watching the people hurrying
about, cellphones and black clothing seemingly a
requirement. I was tantalized as we passed by shops on In a
relatively short time, we arrived at the Holiday Inn Midtown on I was a little nervous, seeing as I'd never actually *met* any of these folks before, but I took a deep breath, boldly strode over and called out, "I think I've found the right place!" I introduced myself as Suze, and was quickly accosted by a boisterous black woman who gave me a big ol' hug and said "One of my Con Virgins!!!!" This, I was to quickly learn, was Sheila Keith, designated Newbie/Con Virgin Wrangler. Well, with a welcome like that, I knew I was going to have a great time! :) I chatted
for a moment and admitted that I was, indeed, the person holding up the But I digress! (there'll probably be a lot of that, so you better get used to it! <grin>) After
registering with the hotel and running up to my room to drop off my stuff, I
rejoined the group. This was when I met our intrepid con reporter, Mary (hi,
Mary!). She was another newbie, like me, but was actually from NYC. As we were
chatting, we were introduced to yet another newbie, Yuko, from At 11:00am, we headed out. I'm going to warn you right now that for a better description of what we did, go check out Mary's con report at http://my.voyager.net/~terrie/cybercon2001.html She works with the Park Commission (or something like that - Mary, help!) and actually knows what the heck she's talking about. Me, I was just wandering around going: "Tree. Pretty!" Okay...maybe not THAT bad, but it was close! Anyway, we
walked the couple of blocks north to Columbus Circle - basically a giant rotary
(which we Massachussites are very familiar with) with
a huge statue of From
Linda Barth was our guide for the tour and I must say, having been to the Park a couple of times before, it was definitely nice to do it with somebody who actually knows where she's going! She gave us a brief history of the park and outlined our route and we were soon underway. Honestly, I can't remember the names of *anything*! (see I warned you!) Check Mary's report for further details. But this is what I recall... We crossed a few lawns and throughways to get to the path heading toward the ballfields. We saw lots of schoolchildren who must have been participating in some sort of summer activity program (they all had on matching t-shirts - how cute!) and as we passed by the softball field, I noticed that the cast and crew from Phantom of the Opera were playing in one of the games (though I couldn't tell who they were playing against). We meandered
along the path, over a pretty bridge when we suddenly came upon the carousel. THE carousel. Well, okay, not THE carousel, since THE
carousel is somewhere in Most of the group made a beeline directly toward the ticket booth. I had a fleeting thought of how ridiculous it must have looked to see this horde of ladies (and a couple of gentlemen! <grin>) descending upon the carousel, giggling and running to claim their horses. I was lucky enough to get one of the outside horses which are actually 3/4 the size of an actual horse. I was surprised at how large it was. I know I'm short, but I don't know how a kid could ride that thing - I couldn't reach the footrest and ended up having to hold on with my knees and thighs (all those aerobics classes finally paid off! <grin>). In just moments we were off! Oh, man, was it fun. We were laughing our fool heads off, having an absolute blast. For just a few moments, we were kids again, completely free from the real world with the wind in our hair, a good steed, and surrounded by laughter and calliope music. It was *wonderful*! And I think that even the folks who decided not to ride the carousel had a great time, too, just watching us and taking pictures (they'll have good blackmail material when they get home!). The highlight had to have been...and I'm sorry, as I said, I'm not good with names...but one of the guys tried a little trick riding, turned around in his seat and got scolded by the attendant. I didn't think I'd ever stop laughing... The ride eventually came to an end and we hung out for a few moments while some folks picked up souvenirs and others, like myself, headed for the refreshment booth to get something to drink. Then we were once again on our way and we headed north toward the sheep meadow (once upon a time, they actually kept sheep there!) and eventually ended up on a promenade with statues of various literary figures. I took a picture of good ol' Willy Shakespeare and we all puzzled over a poet that none of us recognized. We continued along the path and came to a tiny little bandshell. Certainly it was nothing like the one we saw on the show - I think you could have barely fit a string quartet on that stage! Then we headed down a beautiful set of stairs that ended under an arch, the walls of which were covered with paintings. Lovely! We eventually ended up at a large fountain (which was being eagerly sketched by several artists), the "Angel of the Waters" fountain according to Mary (and she'd know!) where we took loooooots of pictures. It was just gorgeous. Then we
headed westerly along the lake. We saw the boathouse and several folks out in
rowboats - looked like fun! We eventually came to the bridge that everybody
recognizes (what...the We continued
northwesterly into the Ramble. This is the part of the Park
that makes everybody think that it wasn't man-made (which it was!). It's
densely wooded, cool and quiet, with few people but lots of animals and
vegetation. It was here that we spotted a raccoon down in a ravine. Knowing
that this must be Arthur, we quickly whipped out our cameras to take pictures.
Arthur endured our presence for a little while, before disappearing into the
brush - no doubt to rejoin Mouse in the tunnels! :) Unfortunately, we had a little crisis at this point. One of the ladies had fallen and scraped up her elbow a ways back and because some of the group had been straggling, we hadn't noticed it until then. A couple of folks backtracked to try to find her, but eventually it became obvious that she and another of our group had headed back to the hotel, though I never did find out exactly what happened (I hope you're okay!). We finally continued on our way looping south and eventually ended up at Strawberry Fields. For those of you who don't know, John Lennon was shot in 1980 right outside the Dakota building (which is across the street) where he lived. There is a large circular monument set into the pavement which simply says "Imagine". Lots of folks come here to pay homage to the fallen Beatle and this time we found a single red rose left in offering. Oh, and Mary reminded me that across the street is the grate where Catherine stops and gives that mysterious smile. I'd forgotten about that! This was the
end of our tour and we stopped for lunch. God bless Bill who was waiting
patiently for us with coolers full of sodas, three different kinds of
pasta/potato salads, pretzels, chips, Chex mix,
Cheese Doodles, a 6 foot sub sandwich (hogie,
grinder) AND a 3 foot sub sandwich. I'm not sure what kind of army he was
expecting, but boy was there a lot of food! We all grabbed some lunch and found a spot to sit. Some folks headed over to sit on the benches, but most of us were content to plop ourselves down on the grass in the shade of the trees. Now, I have to interject one comment here. Someone (and I don't recall who) said that there were a lot of bugs in the Park. Let me tell you, there were not a lot of bugs in the Park. In fact, I was extremely surprised at the lack of bugs in the Park. You see, my property at home abuts conservation land. Wetlands. Affectionately known as "The Swamp". We can't even run outside for one minute without getting the daylights bitten out of us, so, believe me, it was incredibly refreshing to be able to sit outside without worrying about the millions of bloodsuckers lying in wait! Okay...'nuff said. :) So, we hung out, ate our lunch...ate seconds...snacked...and the pile of food just didn't seem to diminish one little bit! We still had more than half of the 6 foot sandwich, the entire 3 foot sandwich, as well as most of the side dishes. What to do? If we couldn't get rid of it, we'd have to haul everything out ourselves (since we couldn't litter). Little by
little we came to the collective decision that we should give the food away. So
the bolder folks in the group (and, no, this didn't include me!), starting
yelling to anyone within hearing distance, "FREE FOOD!!!!". For a while, all we got were some strange looks, but
eventually, a group of tourists from Now, I have to say, of everything we did that day, this was probably the coolest moment. These folks came over and asked us what was going on. We explained that we had brought FAR too much food and that we were trying to give it away. After a moments hesitation, they all eagerly dug in and we got to talking with them. They asked us who we were and we explained about the convention, and before we knew it, we'd made a bunch of knew friends - how cool is that??? Then we
noticed a young family nearby and they soon came over to join us. They were
from After
getting back to home-sweet-hotel, I headed up to my room and decided to just
rest for the remainder of the day. Remember, I'd been up since 3:00am and had
just walked 2-3 miles through Oh, heh...not sure if you want to hear this level of detail,
but I promised you detail and that's what you're gonna
get, darn it! ;) Anyway, so I headed back to my room and after a refreshing shower, I spent the remainder of the night slathering on the self-tanning cream. See, I had gotten badly sunburnt a couple of weekends previously and had these bizarre tan lines. And, knowing that I was going to be wearing two sleeveless outfits, I wanted to even out the tan. Whooo boy. What fun! ;) I don't think I did too bad a job of it, but those of you who were there will have to be the judge! <grin> So, after
that, I threw on some clothes, decided to be decadent and ordered room service
for dinner. After dining on mozzerella sticks,
chicken caeser salad and diet Coke, I set my alarm,
turned on my Brookstone Sound Soother (don't go
anywhere without it!) and slipped off into dreamland... FRIDAY, JULY 13 Woo hoo! Day 1 of the
con! Of course, it was Friday the 13th, which wasn't exactly an auspicious way
to begin the day, but I had high hopes anyway! :) My alarm went off at 7:20am. I promptly hit the
snooze button. My alarm went off at 7:24am. I hit the snooze
button again. My alarm went off at 7:28am. Snooze button. 7:32am. Snooze. 7:36am. Snooze. I think you get the picture. Needless to say, I'm
not exactly a morning person. Count your blessings that I decided against
trying to find a roommate! I finally managed to haul my butt out of bed at
about 7:45am and sloooooowly went through my morning
libations. I was vaguely aware that the festivities were scheduled to start at
9:00am, but even my overwhelming excitement wasn't enough to make me move any
faster! At a little after 9:00am, I managed to make my way downstairs to the registration
room. Now, for those of you who weren't there, let me give a quick overview of
the hotel: As you entered the hotel, there was a medium-sized
lobby with two small conversation areas, a registration desk, a bell desk, and
a small bar area. Continuing straight ahead down a short hallway,
the first door on the left opened into a long, narrow room which was the
registration area/info center. This room opened up into the ballroom - a large,
but rather nondescript function room with a raised stage on one end. This room
was used for all of the larger activities - opening and closing ceremonies, the
banquet, the auctions, and the larger panels. Up one flight on the Mezzanine level were three
rather small adjoining rooms (the appropriately named "Renaissance"
Rooms), one of which was designated as the Dealer's Room, one was the Art Room,
and one was used for small functions such as autograph sessions, small panels,
meetings, etc. Anyway, knowing that I was running a little late,
I decided to hold off on breakfast and head directly to the registration room.
I quickly spotted the "Con Virgins Start Here" sign and saw Sheila
waiting for me. As I approached the table, there was some quick scrambling
amongst the con committee members and suddenly they broke into a rousing chorus
of "Like a Virgin". I couldn't help but laugh, knowing that everybody
here had the same twisted sense of humor that I do! After the laughter died down, Sheila handed me my
first bunch of con goodies. She gave me a totebag
with the convention logo on it which already contained a bunch of papers, the conzine, and other goodies. She gave me a rolled up poster
and told me that it was of the Olivia painting (which was cool, since I'd never
managed to pick that one up), and a special bag of goodies just for us newbies. Then she handed me my envelope of convention
tickets (to the banquet, etc.) and my name badge...which I promptly handed back
to have her help me assemble (yeah, I'm pathetic). Then she asked me if I wanted to be a "Con
Virgin" or a "Newbie" and showed me the little purple
"ribbon" that I was supposed to affix to my convention badge.
Apparently, a lot of folks were going with "Newbie", but I proudly
proclaimed myself a "Con Virgin"! (what the
heck, huh? probably the only time I'll get to claim *that* again! <grin>) After gathering up all of my loot, I headed into
the ballroom to await the start of the opening ceremonies and to look over
everything that I was given. The first thing I did was to flip through the
schedule. Oh crap. The talent show rehearsal was scheduled for
immediately after the opening ceremonies. I made a quick mental note to myself
that I needed to run back to my room and grab my CD as soon as the ceremony was
over. I then realized that the rehearsal was supposed to go until 12:30pm.
*groan* No breakfast for me... LEARNED LESSON #1: Always make sure that you have
snacks and breakfast foods in your room. I quickly learned that you never know
when you're actually going to get the chance to eat, so it's best to have some food
on hand. Drinks, too! Then I happened to look at my name
badge...*really* look at it. And I realized that it said I was from After manually correcting my information in the
books, I asked what would be the best way to fix my badge. Lori offered to try
to create a new one, but I told her that it wasn't necessary. Between us, we
managed to come up with a small piece of paper and some tape and I just wrote
in my real hometown ( Now that my badge was straightened out, I headed
back into the ballroom for the opening ceremonies. I took my seat and continued
to flip through the paperwork in my little con tote. The ladies next to me were
talking to a woman who was sitting in the next row up, but I wasn't really
paying too much attention until the ladies introduced me to the woman in front
of me....Linda Campanelli - one of the writers of
Beauty and the Beast. I think I shook her hand and said some sort of
pleasantry, but my mind was going "Writer. Famous
person. Sitting in front of me. Shaking my hand. Oh. My. God."
Why, yes, I think I *was* a little starstruck, but remember, I'm a con virgin, okay? At least
I didn't make a big fool of myself and managed to keep my eyes from bugging out
of my head. I think. :) Anyway, I think I still wasn't totally awake (or
was still reeling from my Linda encounter) because my memories of the opening
ceremony are a little fuzzy. But basically, our beloved M.C. Myhr took the stage and got us all warmed up for the
weekend. Now, I'd never met Myhr in person before,
but I'd read *plenty* of stories about him on the 'net (as I'm sure you have,
too!), so I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for. Happily, he was just
as funny and irreverent as I was led to believe and as one of the Con Virgins,
I was definitely game to play along with the plans for an "orgy" that
night! Ah, yes, people after my own twisted heart! ;) After making some announcements about the hotel
facilities and the upcoming activities (and Becky said that NovTek
showed a music video, but I've *completely* blocked that out for some reason -
adios short term memory!), Myhr introduced the
celebrity guests for the weekend: Linda Campanelli,
Jay Acovone, and Edward Albert! There was much cheering, applause and picture
taking as they came up on stage. To me, the stars looked pretty darn tired, but
I figured that if I was having trouble getting up and I'm from this time zone,
imagine how these It was immediately obvious that the stars had
great affinity and love for one another. They joked around, poked fun at each
other, and generally entertained all of us just by being themselves. This was
followed by a beautiful tribute by our international fans. As the theme music
played, each of them stepped up and recited the opening lines in their own
language...French, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese...it as simply gorgeous!
After a short while, the ceremonies wrapped up, the celebrities headed off to
do whatever it is they do, and I made a beeline for my room to grab my CD for
the talent show rehearsal. I ran back down to the ballroom and was surprised
to find it relatively quiet. There were a few people hanging around, but nobody
seemed to be in charge. I sat and waited for a little while, but when the
"Tunnel-ettes" took the stage to rehearse
their moves, I finally went in search of a leader. I asked around the
registration area, then finally bumped into Zenobia/Melissa, who was supposed to be running the show. I
asked her about running through my song and was alarmed to learn that they
didn't yet have a working CD player (**PANIC**) and although I could check the mics, I would have no music. Zeni
took down my room number and told me that she would call me when the CD player
was set up, but that was the best she could do. LEARNED LESSON #2: If you need a prop or toiletry
or accompaniment or whatever, never assume that someone else will provide it
for you. Bring it yourself! I spent the next little while freaking out a bit,
but finally, I decided to head back to my room and at least practice the song
with my little personal CD player. No speakers, but at least I could run
through the song a couple of times. So, I did that and listened to the
professional recording a couple of times, too - good thing, since I picked up a
couple of nuances that I hadn't noticed before. Improvement.
Improvement is good. :) Then I decided to dump everything out of my tote
bag and go through it. There was LOTS of stuff! First, there was the tote bag
itself, which turned out to be very handy for carrying things around over the
course of the weekend. In the paperwork, there was a schedule of events,
information from Mailboxes, Etc. (who were on-hand to help you ship home any
items that you couldn't pack into your luggage), the program with information
about the rules and events of the weekend, the Olivia poster, a little book for
photos with the sticker "My First Beauty and the Beast Convention" on
the cover, some magnolia-scented light rings (which made everything smell *so*
nice), two little packets of tea (Earl Grey and Cinnamon), two notecards (one with a lovely printout of one of Sandy Tew's pictures and one with a beautiful poem about
friendship), and the conzine. Have I left anything
out? I was immediately drawn to the conzine
and started flipping through the pages. I had submitted a whole bunch of
sketches to Cathy Moran and she ended up using...um...8 of them, I think, in
the conzine. This was very special to me since I had
done all but one of the sketches 11-12 years ago, when the show was still on
the air, and I had never thought that they would see the light of day again,
let alone be published anywhere! I teared up as I saw
the very first sketch of Father...with my maiden name signed to it! <laughing> In case you're wondering which ones are mine,
they are all of the small ones. I'm not sure why they ended up being so small
in the middle of the page, but they look good, so I'm not complaining! :) After sorting through everything, I put my
schedule and the conzine back into my tote and headed
for the Dealer's room to check the place out. What a madhouse! My
goodness...every table was crowded as all get out - undoubtedly, everybody was
trying to get in there first to snatch up the best deals. I wandered about the
room, assessing what was there. Mailboxes, Etc. had set up a station near the
door, though it wasn't staffed yet. Directly across from that were two ladies
with a profusion of 8"x10" pictures of every star/show/movie
imaginable, including some rather embarassing old
photos of some of our celebrity guests! <grin> There was a table next to the entrance to the In the corner was a replica of Vincent's chamber,
including a full Vincent costume hung on a large manequin.
I was later to learn the story of how, many years before (sorry, I don't
remember - was it at the first convention?) all of the convention goers pooled
their money to purchase the Vincent costume for $4000 at the auction, donated
the costume to Ron Perlman in thanks for his wonderful work on the show, who
then turned around and "permanently loaned" it back to fandom, and
now "Vinnie" goes on the road each year to be displayed at the
convention. Very cool. I took lots of pictures! :) Across from that were the "Orphans"
tables - all of the goodies sent in by fans who didn't
need a whole table to display their wares. My lord, there was a Next to that was the con table, which offered
extra convention totes and conzines, as well as waterbottles and convention t-shirts in white, pink and the
ever popular purple (they actually sold out of the purple!). After circling the
room a couple of times, I finally settled here and bought an extra conzine for my friend Debbie (hi, Debbie! the care package
will be on it's way by tomorrow, I promise!). After depositing the 'zine
into my tote, I decided that it was simply too crowded in there. They had
started bringing in lunch stuff and the place was just overrun with people. So,
eventhough I had still not yet managed to get
anything to eat (see LEARNED LESSON #1), I headed downstairs to the ballroom to
get in on the Beast Bingo. I walked in on this, not really knowing what to
expect, but I quickly got the idea. Instead of spelling out the word
"Bingo", you spelled the word "Beast", and instead of
numbers, each space contained a character name, episode title, or something
having to do with the show. You paid a dollar per card and Judy ("She Who
Must Be Obeyed!") called out the letter and item. Cool! I paid my money and got in on the act. I lost the
first game, but won the second! Woo hoo!!!! I headed
up to the front and picked up a little black and white picture of Vincent in a
pewter frame as my prize. Not wanting to jinx myself, I switched to a different
card and continued to play. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose. Lose... Well, we finally
got to the last game and I decided to change cards again. Seeing that my
original card (lucky #12!) was in the stack, I plucked it back out. And
wouldn't you know...I won again! Well, okay, it was a simplified game and three of
us ended up winning, but that's alright. Each of us got to pick a prize - I
chose a real By this time I was absolutely *starving* and
couldn't wait any longer. I headed back up to the Dealer's Room and scrounged
through the remains to make myself a turkey sandwich with pasta salad. I
grabbed a glass of water and wandered back out into the common area and found a
seat at the nearest table. A whole bunch of con committee members were there
(hope I wasn't intruding!), so I just sat back, ate my lunch, and listened to
the conversation. Ahhhhh....food at last! I snagged a piece of chocolate cake (yeah, I know,
my diet kinda went out the window this weekend, but
hey! I didn't have breakfast...I think I'm entitled! <grin>)
and rejoined the group for a while, then wandered back into the Dealer's Room.
By this time, the crowds had thinned out enough so I could actually get near
the tables to check them out! I ended up browsing through the 'zines at the "Orphans" table, trying to figure
out where in the world I should start. That's the tough part about being a
newbie, you know you can't buy *all* of the 'zines
('cause I'd end up even more broke than I was), but you don't know which ones
are good and which ones aren't so good. Obviously I must have looked confused
because both JoAnn and another woman (sorry, I don't
think I ever learned your name!) offered to help me out. As I flipped through
the boxes, they gave me the gist of what the 'zines
were about and helped me pick out a couple of them. I think the first one I
plucked out was "Heartsounds" and then JoAnn insisted that I buy "When Angels Fall"
(very sad, but very good - I'm holding you to that!). JoAnn
became my 'zine patron for the weekend, keeping an
eye out for "must have" 'zines and setting
them aside for me. (Thank you!!!!) But that was it for the moment, and as it was
getting to be time for me to go to my autograph session, I went over to the
nearby room where it was to be held. But, I found a note on the door saying
that the autograph session had been cancelled and that we should report
tomorrow morning. Making a mental note about the time, I decided to head back
down to the ballroom to catch Edward Albert's panel about his organization
"Band of Angels". It was already in progress, so I quietly slipped in
and took a seat near the back to listen. Edward made it very clear that his
mission for the weekend was to try to recruit more members to B.O.A. (and boy,
was that true!). He spoke at length and with great emotion about B.O.A., how it
started, what they do, as well as some of his own personal experiences. For those of you who don't know about it,
basically, Band of Angels grew out of the Edward Albert Fan Club. They are a
group of people who...well...for lack of a better term, help each other out. It
may be something a simple as a sympathetic ear, cards when you're sick, or a
note just to say you care, but these folks are always there for each other and
their extended friends and family. It was truly moving to hear all of the accounts of
how B.O.A. has changed people's lives, though I must admit that it was Edward's
account of finding poor Sam Dunn in the canyon, foot nearly sliced off by her
wayward horse, that really got to me. Maybe it's
because I'm a big ol' softie or maybe it's because
I'm a little blue-eyed redhead, too, but his description of taking her mind off
her pain and shock by "taking her to Ireland" had me nearly in tears. As he wrapped up the meeting, Edward asked if
there were any questions or requests. Being none, he called it a day and began
to pack it in. I felt so strongly that I needed to tell him how much he had
moved me. Now remember, I'm still starstruck. As I
walked toward the stage, my brain just kind of went on autopilot and my speech
center was reduced to something like "hummunahummunahhummunah..."
But I continued to walk toward the stage. As the first person finished talking
and headed off, I saw my opportunity. I walked right up to Edward Albert and said,
"I have a request". He turned those fabulous baby blues on me,
smiled, and said, "Certainly. What can I do for you?".
I don't know how the heck I managed to keep it together, but I smiled back and
said, "May I give you a hug?". He smiled
even broader and said, "Well, have you heard about my hugs?" Some
devilish impulse (otherwise known as my real, non-starstruck
self) took over as I grinned and replied, "No, I haven't, but it better be
good, since mine are!" Laughing, he wrapped his arms around me and
proceeded to give me the BEST hug of my life. We swayed side to side and as he
snuggled closer to me, he started to sing into my ear "Baby love, my baby
love...". Okay, God, I can die happy now. :) After a moment, he released me and I told him the
real reason that I'd come up to the stage. I'd wanted to let him know how much
he had touched me and that I was very much looking forward to becoming a part
of the Band of Angels. His face suddenly lost that charming grin and he looked
at me with a little frown line crinkling between his eyes. He told me that he
appreciated hearing that, since he felt that he hadn't really gotten his point
across today. In that moment, all feelings (okay, maybe not ALL)
of starstruckedness (hey, new word!) fell away and I
realized that this was just another person with as many (if not more!) foibles
and insecurities as I had. We weren't celebrity and fan,
we were just two people having a conversation. Wow. I smiled at him and reassured him that although I
couldn't speak for anyone else, he got through to me. He grinned, gave me one
last quick squeeze, then I moved off to let the rest of the line through. Did I say "wow" already? :) Where to go from there, huh? *whew*! Well, I
decided to go make another pass at the Dealer's Room, since I knew that I was
going to need to keep running back to see if anything new had been put out or
unearthed. JoAnn grabbed me and showed me another 'zine that she'd set aside for me. I purchased that and a
little pewter Vincent and Catherine pair, then headed
back to my room to rest up before the big night. I sorted through all of the goodies that I'd
bought and started to organize everything into little piles (I probably haven't
mentioned this, but I am obsessively organized - yet another reason why it's
probably good that I roomed alone!). After laying out my clothes for the
evening and ironing out the few wrinkles (everything traveled surprisingly
well), I turned on the TV and dozed through the news. Not much rest for the wicked, though, and I was
soon up again, running through my song a couple more
times, putting on my makeup and my outfit for the evening. I'd asked Zenobia earlier which of the two outfits I should wear for
each evening. She finally helped me make the decision by telling me to save the
dressier outfit for the banquet. Gotcha. So this
night, I ended up wearing a white sleeveless jacquard vest with gold buttons
and trim and matching plain white pants, white satin shoes, gold hoop earrings
with rhinestones and sparkly bracelets to finish it off. I was very excited
about this outfit primarily because I managed to find a pantsuit in 16 petite.
Do you know how hard it is to find petite pantsuits? No hemming! Woo hoo!!! *ahem* Anyway...after pulling myself together, I
threw my camera, schedule, a bottle of water, and music into the tote and
headed down to the ballroom at about 6:15pm, hoping I could get a few minutes
to practice. Thank goodness, I got that chance. I handed the CD over to Zenobia who took down the track number and her husband(? Zeni??) Chris ran the sound system. I ran through the song once
and determined that I did, indeed, sound just as nervous as I was. Crap. But at
least I got to run through it once. The rest of the performers and costume parade
participants made their way in, followed by the audience. But
no celebs. We waited. And we waited. But they still didn't show up. I
got the chance to know my seatmate and fellow talent showee,
Brooke Hardy. She is what my grandmother would call "a pill". <grin> We got along famously and kept each other
entertained while we waited. Finally, we decided to just go ahead and get the
show on the road. Myhr got up on stage to make a few
announcements (in his own inimitable style) and ran down this year's Top 10
List: Top 10 Part-Time Jobs That Vincent Does For Mad
Money 10. Subway inspector 9. Spokesmodel for
late-night hair-removal infomercials (OUCH!) 8. Sell hair to wig maker 7. Writer of romance novels (woo hoo!) 6. Model for the cover of romance novels (WOO
HOO!!) 5. Strip 'o Grams (YEAH, BABY!!! - Sheila, we all
know that was you!) 4. Voiceovers for commercials and animated movies 3. Webmaster for Jo Anderson website (after a
mixture of cheers and boos, Myhr commented, "That
was *supposed* to get a groan!") 2. (couldn't hear it and
Mary missed it, too - anybody know???) ....and the number one part time job that Vincent
does for mad money is.... *********drum
roll********* 1. Underground escort service! (WWWOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!) When the fervor died down, we heard some buzzing
going on near the back of the room. Suddenly, there was a great amount of
cheering and applause as a guy who I'd never seen before made his way toward
the stage. Myhr introduced him as David Schwartz,
associate producer of Beauty and the Beast. He had just spent three days trying
to get to NYC from Then it was time for the show to begin. It started
with the costume parade. Jackie Skalski was first up
as a wood nymph. Myhr was *very* disappointed that it
wasn't a naked wood nymph, but we can't get what we want all the time, right?
:) She did a beautiful little dance to get things started. Then the supposedly unknown
person (who everybody knew! <grin>) dressed as a Winterfest
candle made her way up onto the stage (and in that costume, it was quite a
production!). She did a hysterical little dance to "Be Our Guest",
then hopped off the stage and revealed herself to be Claire Sieffert.
I think she was VERY glad to have all that tinfoil off
her head! Next up was Annik Perrot
as a helper dressed for Winterfest (gorgeous cape!
even if Myhr did tease you about the
"pockets"!), followed by Renee as the Then there were a couple of tunnel people, Caitlin
dressed in "Catherine's Wedding Gown", which was very reminiscent of
the "Angel" outfit in "Remember Love" - gorgeous! She was
followed by "The Purple Lady", who I think I heard saying something
about her entire outfit being donated, and the parade finished up with a tunnel
couple. After that, it was time for the Talent Show to begin!
The first act requires a bit of backstory. Apparently
at last year's convention, Phil and Judy were eagerly awaiting the imminent
birth of their "Critter" and did a routine at the Talent Show where
they dressed up as Mulder and Pregnant!Scully,
with the gist of the jokes being about how Agent Scully ended up in her current
condition. Well, this year, Mulder
and Scully were back. "Scully" says that she has obviously had the
baby, and that if we can keep a secret, they'll tell us who baby William really
is. At this point, another "agent" (complete with badge and earpiece)
walks up from the back of the room, holding Next up was a puppet show by Carol & Genie in
which Puppet!Vincent appeals
to a picture of Catherine (aptly held in place by Stagehand!Myhr)
singing and dancing to "Rags to Riches". The routine was both
hysterical and awe inspiring. You ladies are *incredibly* talented! And
coordinated! And I've heard rumors about a past retelling of a certain
fairytale...any chance we might get to see that at the next con? Pretty please???? After that were the "Tunnel-ettes" (aka The Chesapeake Helpers Society) dancing to
" This was followed by an
beautiful acapella rendoring
of the song "Annabelle Lee" by Annik. You
are a brave person, Annik! You did an awesome job! Well, long about this time, it's getting to be
yours truly's turn. I stepped up beside the stage,
trying to calm my nerves when what should I see? Edward
Albert sneaking in through the back entrance. Oh, god, as if I wasn't
panicked enough, now the celebs decide to show up just as *I'm* about to get on
stage. Ack! (turns out that
they turned right around and headed back out but the damage was done - thanks
guys! <grin>) Myhr gave me a lovely (and funny) introduction and then it was
time for me to do my thing. Now, everybody else said that they couldn't tell
that I was nervous, but I'll let you in on a little secret....I was TERRIFIED!
And, of course, despite the fact that I'd been drinking water all night, the
moment I set foot on the stage, I got the worst case of cottonmouth. I am so
afraid to see the video and find out what I looked like. If you'd just known
what was going on in my head. The song was going okay (a little shaky, but
okay) - luckily I'd practiced it enough over the previous months so I knew it
cold - but every time there was a brief break, I was frantically trying to unstick my lips from my teeth! It was as though I hadn't
had a drop of water in weeks! Anyway, the song I did was based on "Broken
Vow" by Canadian artist Lara Fabian (on her self-titled album). I loved
the song, but it has very sad lyrics (about the woman's lover leaving her for
another woman, etc.). As I was trying to find an appropriate song to sing, I
kept coming back to that one, because the music was so beautiful. Finally, a
little idea formed in my head. Maybe I could re-write the lyrics! So, I gave it
go. Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard. After a couple of drafts, I finally came
up with lyrics that I liked and that were appropriate for Beauty and the Beast.
Renaming it "Solemn Vow", I performed it in the show. Lots of folks have been asking me about the
lyrics. I was going to post them to all of the mailing lists, but I was asked
if they could be included in an upcoming fanzine, so I can't post them
publicly. However, if you e-mail me (suze1@mediaone.net) directly, I would be
more than happy to send you a copy. :) Anyway, I finally made it through the song and (::blushing::) I got a standing ovation. I was very pleased
that you all liked it so much. As I made my way off the stage, I know that Myhr made some sort of comments, but I was still trying to
calm the beating of my heart and missed it. Several folks tried to talk to me,
to tell me how well I did, but I had to mumble an apology through my glued-on
lips as I made a beeline for the water station! Water, at last! After gulping down several glasses full, I slowly
made my way back to my seat, accepting hugs and congrats all the way, while
Brooke sang "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" to great success.
She was absolutely *awesome*! After that, Sue Haley sign-sang to "Because
You Love Me", which was beautiful (wish I could do that!) and after
warning us all that she was "stoned" (what WAS in that wine,
Claire???) Claire Sieffert proceeded to sing a
gorgeous little song "Your Heart Will Lead You Home". This was followed by Jackie Skalski
doing another dance number to a selection from "Dreamland" (and she
was worried about her performance - honey, I know *I* sure as heck couldn't do
*half* as good a job as you did!), and we wrapped up the night with a
surprise... Judy, Karen and Miranda did a hilarious stint as
"Vincent's Vamps", Vinnie himself finally running up on stage and
tackling them! They were a fiesty crew - even
*biting* Myhr upon their exit! ;) The show wrapped up early enough to give us a
short break before the auction. I took the opportunity to run upstairs, wash
off my makeup, change back into my comfy clothes (I did leave on the thong that
I'd worn to stave off pantylines...they're right you
*do* kinda get used to them after a while! <very big evil grin>), grabbed my credit card and headed
back downstairs. After a few moments, Myhr
reintroduced Edward Albert and Jay Acovone, who would
be our auctioneers for the night. They were auctioning off a bunch of clothes,
donated by costumer Judy Evans, that had actually been
created for the show. Surprisingly, the night got off to a slow start. I
actually managed to walk off with a shirt worn by Roy Dotrice,
Father himself, for a measley $15! But the good
bargains were not to last... After a short time, David Schwartz showed up, and
I was soon to realize why he's a favorite at these gatherings! :) Edward
slipped off to bed, Myhr quickly realized that the
show was being stolen and took a seat and soon it was the David and Jay show!
Oh, my god, were these guys hilarious! You could tell that all of us were tired
and punch drunk (especially toward the end), but we laughed until our sides
hurt. I ended up buying the nondescript "Bob Saget's big-bottomed sweat pants" for $10 and splurged
on one of William's outfits (worn by the late great Rich Brinkley) for $75. Not
bad for a huge hand-made over cloak/coat/thing and matching scarf. Just about
everybody got something, but Merrie got the big prize
when she scored Dark Vincent's pants! Sweet! I wish I had your credit limit,
honey! :) By the time everything wrapped up, it was quite
late and we'd all pretty much had it. I think we were all very happy when the
last item was finally auctioned off! I went up to the table, paid for my
goodies ($100, not too bad!) and carted everything back up to my room. After sorting and organizing everything (and
assessing how much room I still had in my suitcase), I hopped into bed, flipped
on the Sound Soother, read for a few minutes, and was soon back on my way to
dreamland with thoughts of brilliant blue-eyed smiles, raucous jokes, love and
laughter floating through my head... SATURDAY, JULY 14 Day 2 of the con, and by
now I've got a pretty good idea of how things worked. I'd checked the schedule
the night before and nothing was getting started until 10:00am, so I decided to
set my alarm a little later and get a few extra winks of sleep. When the alarm started going off at 8:20am, I hit
the snooze button a couple of times (see Friday's installment for an example of
my wake-up routine) and promptly dozed back off. But something must have
happened because I suddenly woke up realizing that I hadn't heard the alarm go
off for quite a while. Crap! Did I shut the thing off in my sleep??? (believe me, I've been known to do that *very* often...) I
checked the clock and it was now a few minutes after 9:00am. *whew* I wasn't
all that late. I never did figure out what happened, since the alarm was still
turned on. Weird. Anyway, I took a shower and got dressed, put the
two conzines, my schedule and my camera into the tote
and headed out. I took a quick pass by the registration room to see what was
going on. Good thing I did, since I hadn't yet signed up for a seat at the
banquet and the tables were *very* full. I managed to snag the last space at
Table 10, which, according to the seating chart, was in the first row in front
of the stage, to the far right. Not a bad location! I made a mental note of
where I was supposed to go, then peeked into the
ballroom. NovTek was starting their workshop about how to create music
videos. I really wanted to check that out (being interested in multimedia for
the Web, etc.), but just then my stomach started to rumble, and I decided that
today my body would get first priority and headed off to the hotel restaurant
for breakfast. The restaurant was rather small, but not very
crowded, so I was seated right away. I ordered OJ, water, and cinnammon french
toast with a side of bacon. I wasn't fooling around - I had no idea when my
next meal would be! The fare was pretty standard, but I have to admit
that the cinnammon french toast was actually quite good. While I was waiting for my breakfast and then
while eating, I started to read the conzine. I read
the information about this year's charity, The New York Foundling Hospital.
Wow. I don't think a more perfect cause could have been chosen. The hospital
was started back in the late 1800s by a small group of nuns who were
brokenhearted over the number of babies being found drowned in the Hudson each
week, because their mothers couldn't care for them. To this day, the hospital
offers sanctuary for mothers and babies alike to help them toward a better life
through education, foster homes, adoption, etc. I couldn't help but think that
this is the sort of place that Vincent might have ended up in if he hadn't been
brought to the Tunnels. After reading this info and the dedications (to
our beloved Jamie "Myhr" Murray, who is
retiring, and Beah "Narcissa"
Richards, who passed away earlier this year), I started in on the stories. I
didn't get very far, but I loved the prologue! :) After finishing my breakfast, I peeked back in on
the music video workshop, but decided that it was too far along for me to try
to join in on. So, I headed upstairs to peek in on the "Father's Fan
Fare" workshop, but I wasn't (and I'm still not!) sure what was going on.
It looked like a meeting, so I decided not to intrude and headed on into the
Dealer's Room. It was nice and quiet at that hour of the morning,
so I was able to leisurely browse around and speak to the various folks who
were running the tables. I had a nice long discussion with JoAnn
Baca and Sandy Tew (it was so nice to get the chance
to chat with you, ladies!), then started to see what else I could pick up. I
ended up buying several 4"x6" photos of Jamie Murray's artwork (damn,
that man is *talented*!), two 8"x10" laser prints of Claire Sieffert's artwork (gorgeous pastels!), and two
8"x10" black and white prints by Sandy Tew
(one of Vincent and an absolutely phenomenal one of Catherine). I knew that I
wasn't going to be able to afford anything at the art auction, but these were
the next best thing! Oh, and I just realized that I forgot to mention
that on Friday I picked up my one and only t-shirt of the weekend. I'd limited
myself to one because I do NOT need any more t-shirts - I just cleaned out my
closet and bureaus and have 6 trashbags full of
clothes (1 just full of t-shirts!) and I really don't need to start filling
them back up again! Anyway, I saw a beautiful white t-shirt with a picture of
Vincent and Catherine done by Sandy Tew on the front.
It was the only one available and it happened to be in my size, so I snapped it
up and wore in on Saturday. Okay, all caught up now! :) So, by the time I finished making my purchases, it
was time for me to make my way back to Renaissance Room C for the autograph
session. It was in full swing by the time I hopped into line, but things moved
along quite quickly. While in line I met Judy and Miranda (who were two of
Vincent's Vamps the night before) and chatted with them while we waited. As we
got up to the table, I enlisted Judy's help in taking a couple of pictures of
me with Edward and Jay (thanks, Judy!) and hopefully everything will come out
(I really need to get my pics developed!!!). I was a good girl and stuck to the suggested
guideline of only have 1-2 pieces for the celebs to sign. I decided to have
them sign the two conzines - one for me and one to my
friend, Debbie (sorry to ruin the surprise, Deb!). Edward, David, Jamie, Jay
and Linda were all there to sign autographs and they were all incredibly nice
and patient, posing for pictures, and goofing around with us as we moved
through the line. I was soon through the line and decided to run up
to my room for a quick break and to drop off my purchases and precious conzines. I rested up for a little bit, then gave my
husband a call to check in and make sure that he was all set to pick me up on
Sunday evening. I told him how excited I was to be there and that I was having
a wonderful time, and how bummed I was that I was going to have to miss the
closing ceremonies (and rooftop party) because my train left so early. Then my
husband, who is Mr. Predictable himself, managed to shock me by saying: "Well, if you're having that good a time, why
don't you stay an extra day?" What? Excuse me? Is this the same person who made
sure that the last thing he said to me as he dropped me off at the train
station was "Don't spend too much money - remember we're broke!"? Who
are you Mr. Pod Person and what have you done with my husband! After I managed to regain my power of speech, I
asked him if he was sure about that. He replied that if it was going to ruin my
enjoyment of the weekend to miss the closing ceremonies, go ahead and stay an
extra day. It was only going to cost one more night at the hotel. Okkkaaaayyyyy....We agreed that I would check and make sure I could make
the appropriate changes to my reservations and if it worked out, I'd go for it.
I quickly hung up before he could change his mind and went to work. I ran
downstairs to the registration desk to see about extending my stay. This was
going to be the trickiest part. After some finagling, I was able to make a
second reservation for Sunday night, and although I couldn't get the convention
rate, I only had to pay an extra $20. Not bad! Then I ran back up to my room, called Amtrak, and
got my train ticket changed to Monday afternoon at the same time (4:30pm), but
since it was a lower-class ticket, I saved about $20, which made up for the
extra $20 I had to pay for the hotel. Sweet! With all of my new plans in place, I called back
my husband and told him that I would, indeed, be staying for an extra day.
After thanking him profusely, a little thought popped into my head.
"You're just feeling guilty because you're going off to I was now bursting with excitement and dying to
tell someone, so I grabbed my tote, ran back to the Dealer's Room, and
screeched to JoAnn and Sandy that I was staying an
extra day!!!! WOO HOOO!!!! There was much hugging and rejoicing and comments
that I was well and truly "sucked in"! <grin> I was starting to get hungry again, and I saw the
hotel staff swooping in to clear off the lunch fixins
and bring in the cake. I quickly threw together a salami sandwich as the staff
was *literally* hauling the plates off the table - I was grabbing things out of
their hands! Then I got a glass of water and went to pick up a piece of carrot
cake. Someone (sorry, I don't remember who!) was ahead
of me and turned around with two pieces in hand. Thinking that she was being
kind and handing one to me, I thanked her and went to grab it. Needless to say,
I was quite startled when she asked me what the heck I was doing! Oops. She was
picking up a piece for someone else and I was trying to make off with it. I
apologized and handed the cake back to her, then reached down and got one for
myself. Then I headed into the common area and went to sit
down when who should come along but the same woman, laughingly asking me why I
was trying to steal her seat! My god, it was just not my day! But everybody
took it in good humor and I moved to the next seat over. I managed to finish my
lunch without incident, then decided to see what was
going on now. I wandered into the Then, I thought I might drop in on the Writer's
Workshop, but when I saw they were actually *writing*, that scared me off (I
was hoping for tips not work! <grin>) and I
headed downstairs to try my luck again at Beast Bingo. I played about 4 hands,
but Lady Luck wasn't with me today. One of my tablemates won 3 times, though! As we were wrapping up, the con committee came by
to let us know that they were raffling off two seats at the head table at the
banquet that night. I figured that I didn't have a chance in hell (especially
with the way my luck was going that day), but since the money was going toward
a good 'cause, I handed over my $20 and got two chances. Then it was time to start the Q&A. After a
quick run to the ladies room, I settled in to watch the proceedings. The con
committee had been after us all weekend to submit questions for the celebs on
3"x5" cards...and then only asked a few of them. Oh well, it was a
good idea, ladies! :) I decided that discretion was the better part of
valor and didn't ask any questions, myself. I figured that I'd just ask some
stupid newbie question that had been answered a million times before, so I just
shut up and soaked in the atmosphere. Edward, David, Jamie, Jay and Linda were
all up there and patiently answered all of the questions that were sent their
way. I certainly can't remember *everything* but there
were some good ones. Several questions about the writing process (how to get
from those ideas in your head to an actual script), which episodes/scenes were
their favorites (everybody seems to universally like "A Happy Life"
as the eptiome of B&B episodes), what they're up
to now, ummm....help me out, guys! My brain is swiss cheese at the moment... Oh, I remember one. You may have heard this
before, but I hadn't. Edward told us about how excited he was to finally have a
scene with Ron (in what? "Walk Slowly?" I need to watch these
again!). He was so excited to be able to work with him and was all gung-ho. The
time finally comes to shoot the scene and Ron is about 50 away down on a dock
or something. Edward says his first line then Ron responds...<Edward mouths
saying a line>. Huh? Edward says his next line and Ron again responds, just
mouthing his line. Edward thought at first that they were just screwing with
him, but it turns out that when Ron does the Vincent voice, it's very soft, and
didn't carry the 50 feet between them (apparently they used a body mike to pick
it up). So throughout this scene that Edward was so looking forward to, he has
absolutely no freakin' idea what Ron was saying and
had to be cued to say his lines! What else...Edward related his 911 stories
(shortened versions of the ones he told us in the B.O.A. panel), David told
about shooting the big ending of "A Happy Life" in the wee hours of
the morning (with a bunch o' fans standing watch on a nearby hill the whole
time), uhhhh....that's all I can remember right now.
All I can say is that it was very funny and everybody seemed to be having a
great time. And, yes, Becky, I think it *was* Jay who
suggested that we continue the Q&As
the next day because this is the part that they *like* to do! They'd run over
as it was, so the suggestion was eagerly accepted, with time TBA. It was now nearing 4:30pm, and as I had a bit of a
headache, I decided to head up to my room to rest for a while before the
banquet. Now, as Becky mentioned, the elevators were more than a bit of a
problem over the course of the weekend. I don't know how bad it was for the Well, being the independent (and impatient!)
person that I am, I just went in search of the stairs. Stairs...stairs...hmmmm...nothing on the first floor...maybe from the
mezzanine...stairs...stairs... No stairs. What's up with that? Isn't that breaking a fire
code or something??? Well, it turns out that the only stair access from the
ground floor is outside, BUT it's locked from the outside - so you can go down,
but you can't go back up. I don't recall if it was at this point or perhaps
earlier in the weekend, but the line got so long at one point that the hotel
staff led us around to the outside and opened up the door so we could take the
stairs up to our floor. My god, what a pain... Anyway, I eventually made it up to my room,
organized my stuff, laid out my clothes for the evening, took some ibuprofen,
stripped down to my skivvies, turned on the TV (X-Files, I think), and dozed
for a little while. But, soon enough it was time for me to be getting ready to
go. I did my makeup (might have overdone the eyes a
bit that night - I'll have to check the pics to see),
then slipped into my banquet dress. This night I was wearing a sleeveless, dark
blue sheath with a woven, sparkly overlay, slightly scooped neck (the top
reminded me of a racing bathing suit - it had that sort of cut), deeper
"V" in the back, and ultra-fun fringe along the bottom hem. I paired
that with my white satin shoes, sparkly bracelets and big ol'
dangly rhinestone earrings (which, upon first spotting in the store, I
immediately deemed my Catherine Dress Up Earrings!
<grin>). Very sparkly and
festive. And I have to make a small side note about how
wonderful it was to be able to wear these fun outfits this weekend. Over the
course of the past year and a half, I've lost about 57 pounds and these were my
first new dress-up outfits in *ages*! I was especially proud of the fact that I
was brave enough to wear two sleeveless outfits - I hadn't done that in over 10
years! So, it may seem a little egotistical, but yea, me! :) Anyway, after getting myself in order, I put my
camera and my schedule into my tote (yeah, that really completed the outfit! :P) and headed downstairs. They hadn't opened up the doors yet, so we were
all standing in the hallway, taking pictures and making conversation. And, yes,
this is when I officially met Becky! (hi, Becky!) I have to say, I saw some amazing outfits. Lots of
folks were conventionally dressed-up, as I was, but there were a couple of
ladies in beautiful renaissance-style dresses, several folks in Tunnel Togs,
and Lisa was dressed as Vincent, but with a beautiful outfit of plush velvet.
Gorgeous! The doors finally opened at around 6:30pm or so
and we funneled ourselves into the ballroom (mooooo)
to find our seats. As I got into the ballroom, I headed for the table in front
of the stage to the far right. I found an open seat and plunked myself down,
stashed my tote, and started to chat with my tablemates and listen to the
wonderful string quartet that was playing on the stage. After a few minutes, someone wondered about the
fact that there were only three chairs left at the table - not enough to seat
all four of the chamber music players who were supposed to join us for dinner.
I started to get a sneaking suspicion, then checked
the table number. Sure enough, it was wrong. Or, well, *I* was
wrong! I was seated at Table 11 instead of Table 10. But what had happened to
Table 10? Obviously the seating chart had been changed, but where was my seat? I expected it to be next to Table 11, but no such
luck. After a few minutes of searching, I finally found Table 10, in the middle
of the room, toward the back. Darn it. Not as good a view as before, but oh
well. I explained my confusion to my tablemates, grabbed an open seat, stashed
my tote again, and started to settle in. As I was settling, the con committee got up and
started to announce the two winners who would be sitting at the head table.
There were two seats labeled " "And the winner of 'Boardwalk' is...." Lah de dah. Shuffling the tote...straightening my dress... "Suze Howe!!!" Uh. What? Did I hear my name? MY name? Being called? Up there. At the head table. Me. What? I won. I won! IWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, get a grip. Smile! Get your stuff. Accept
hugs. Keep smiling. Oh. My. God. Keep walking. Keep walking. Don't trip. Keep
walking... So...my brain kind of went on like this for quite
a while. I finally made my way up to the head table and although the celebs
weren't there yet, I could see by the name tags that I was being seated between
Edward Albert and David Schwartz. Did I say Oh. My. God.? Yeah. I gratefully accepted the assistance of someone's
husband (Bruce, was that you???) who escorted me to my chair and got me
settled. I quickly stashed my tote (again!) and tried to get my brain to start
working again. Since I'd been playing musical chairs all night, I kept
wondering when someone was going to tell me that it was a mistake, but nope! No
mistake! YAHOO!!! The string quartet played on as the con committee
took their seats. And I must say a quick and VERY heartfelt thank you to Pat
and...um, Cathy, was it you? who
gave up their seats at the head table so that they could be raffled off. THANK
YOU both so much!!! Then the celebs came wandering in and I soon found
myself seated in a place of honor between Edward and David and near Jay, Linda,
Jamie, and the rest of the crew. I'm not sure why karma was working in my favor
that day, but I'm not going to question it! :) They were all *so* nice. I was rather nervous at
first, because I was now sort-of on display. Lots of picture taking was going
on, so I was trying to remember to smile and look pleasant and keep my knees
together like a lady, and all those things that your grandmother tried to
instill in you when you really weren't paying much attention. So, I was a
little tense there for a while... The Summerfest Banquet
opened with Edward reading the traditional(?) opening
speech (I hadn't heard it before, so I don't know if the same thing is read
each year, I think so, though). As it came to an end, David lit the candle at
the center of the table, then used it to light my candle and Jay's, and we in
turn lit the candles of those next to us. Throughout the room, one person at
each table lit their candle, then passed the light
around until the whole room was filled with light. The house lights were dimmed
and we all lifted our candles into the air, as we shared a moment of silence.
You could have heard a pin drop. It was absolutely one of the most breathtaking
moments I've been witness to. Then Edward wrapped up his speech, the candles
were blown out except for the one in the very center, the house lights came on,
and party began! Ann...who's last name I
can't remember...was there as a representative of the The waiters came over and took our meal cards,
filled our water glasses, and came around with caesar
salads and rolls. <laughing> Those celebs aren't
afraid of veggies, that's for sure. I was amazed at how quick the salads were
gone. Me, I was too busy watching and listening and being so absorbed that I
barely ate two bites (but what I had was pretty good!). As the food was being passed out to the rest of
the room, NovTek started showing several music
videos, and I totally lost interest in my own food. God, I can't remember what
the songs were (damn this swiss
cheese memory!), but the first few were hilarious! Every time "Elliot
Burch" or "Joe Maxwell" would appear on the screen, the ladies
would cheer and catcall. Well, I couldn't be left out, even if they *were*
sitting right next to me! Edward just kept smiling and shaking his head at
our craziness, but I think he really loved it! ;) Then they showed a beautiful tribute to Beah Richards with clips from her long film career, as well
as clips from B&B. It really was gorgeous, guys, thank you. At this point, the lights came back up and the
string quartet got back up on stage to play. I continued to pick at my food as
I quickly became wrapped up in the conversation between Edward and David (it
was hard not to since they were talking right over me!). They talked about David's
trip to The waiters came out with our dinners (I think I
was the only red meat eater at the table - oops!) and I continued to pick at my
meal as Edward and David started to ask me about my interests. I told them
basically what I did, and that I was going back to school to get certified as a
webmaster. Edward had talked in his panel on Friday about
going through a so-called mid-life crisis, trying to figure out who he was and
what he was doing. I piped up and told him that I'd gone through a similar
thing a couple of years ago. I found myself working 80 hours a week at a job I
didn't like, overweight, unhappy, and utterly depressed. I went into therapy
and ultimately, the conclusion was very simple - you are in charge. If you are
unhappy, figure out what makes you happy! Simple concept, but
at times extremely difficult to execute. But he understood exactly what
I was saying and we had a really great conversation about it. As we were musing on the string quartet, I
mentioned that of the many talents I have, playing a musical instrument is
*definitely* not one of them, although I'd always wanted to learn how to play
the guitar. Edward's eyes twinkled as he said, "I could teach you."
Huh? "Yeah, pick any song and I can have you playing it in an hour."
Yeah, he's joking with me, right? But no, he said that he'd come up with a way
to play any song with just three chords. He explained it to me, and I
understood the basic concepts, though I'd have to try it out for myself. He
said that he'd taught Richard Roundtree how to play
"Amazing Grace" just by using those few chords and that if I caught
him later, he'd be happy to show me the same. Unfortunately, I never had the
chance to catch up to him, but Edward, if you're out there,
I'm going to hold you to that! ;) Anyway, around this time, I started to realize
that drinking that 1/2 liter of water before coming down to dinner was not such
a great idea and if I didn't make my way to the powder room soon,
things were going to get rather messy! Luckily, the waiters were starting to
clear things off to get ready for dessert and the celebs were starting to get
up and talk amongst themselves, so I decided to take the opportunity to run to
the ladies room. Ah, sweet relief! When I came back, no more than five minutes later,
I found water sprayed all over the table and everyone in hysterics. I turned to
David and said "Geez, I leave you guys alone for five minutes and all hell
breaks loose! What happened???" As you may have guessed, I'd loosened up
quite a bit by this point. And NO I was not drinking anything stronger than
water! I'm just bubbly by nature! ;) Well, it turns out that Jay unexpectedly threw out
a line from the movie "Arthur", just as David had a big mouthful of
water. The result: Classic spit take. It was probably a good thing that I
wasn't there or I'd have gotten soaked! Everybody was milling around by this point, so I
ate my tiramisu (*awesome*!) and chatted with various folks from the con
committee. I eventually saw Ann, the woman from the NY Foundling Hospital, sitting
all by herself at the end of the table, looking a little lost. So, I got up and
went over to talk with her for a few minutes. I told her how impressed I was
with her organization and that I was glad that this was the charity they
decided to donate to this year. We talked about the hospital for a little
while, then she let me know that she was planning to slip out as it was getting
a bit late, so I said goodbye and headed back to my seat. I idly observed the decorations while I was
sitting there. There were also a few pieces with a single red
rose and single white rose wrapped together with some sort of glittery wire. I
think there was one per table and a couple of extras that were supposed to go
to a group of folks who had problems with their dinners (I heard later that
there were some serious issues with the waiters skipping whole tables and then
running out of chicken, but I didn't know anything about it that night). But
David handed me one of them, so I tucked it away in my tote before it could get
taken away from me! And since I couldn't get a centerpiece, I quickly
looked around for what else I could take home as a souvenier.
I took my Summerfest candle and my placecard ("Boardwalk"), then
I quickly snatched up Edward's, David's, and Jay's placecards,
too! Yes, I admit to my theaving tendancies,
but can you blame me? ;) Right about this time, David brought out his cellphone and called Ron. Yeah, he just casually called up
*Ron Perlman*! While I was sitting right there! He was trying to convince Ron
to come over for a few minutes to surprise everyone, but apparently Ron's kids
were with him that weekend and it was getting late, so he didn't want to do it.
David passed the phone around to all of the celebs, having them each lend their
voice to the plea. I realized too late that I should have asked David
if I could give it a go, too. He probably would have done it and even if Ron
didn't come over, I could at least say I talked to him! But, no, I wasn't
thinking that clearly at the time. And, unfortunately, they couldn't convince
Ron. Darn it! Things were winding down at this point, so Jamie
called for a 20 minute break for folks to change or go to the bathroom or
whatever, then we'd meet back in the ballroom for the
celebrity auction. I knew that this wouldn't be enough time for me to fight the
lines to the elevator, get up to my room, wash off my makeup, change my clothes
and get back down to the ballroom before the whole thing started. So, I decided
to just make another run to the ladies room then head back and claim my spot
again. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stay at the
head table or not, but I figured, what the hey? The
place was pretty deserted, as most of the con committee was busy with the
auction and the celebs were up on stage, but I got a hell of a view! (...snip ...) Well, now that we're all good and revved up, it's
time to spend some money! The celebs hopped up on stage and started hawking
the goods. I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to spend much, since I'd
already spent $100 the night before. Yeah. Right. What
was *I* thinking??? <grin> They did have some neat items. I know that Merrie, Mary, and a couple of other folks spent some *big*
money that night! They had Cullen's outfit from "Fever", Olivia's
dress from "A Gentle Rain" (which was the running joke that night,
since David couldn't remember what that one was about...the guy...with the
car...and the drunk driving...and Piper Laurie...and...nevermind...),
a set of Linda videos, a set of Ron videos, pictures of the actors, press kits
for "Madigan Men", posters, puzzles...you name it, they had it! My first purchase of the night was the poster of
Vincent, seated. I already have this somewhere, but to up the price, David
started promising that if he could get out of there by 11:00pm, he take it over to Ron to have him sign it. Well, I had to get
in on that and started the bidding at $50.00. Well, apparently there are some
perks to being a Con Virgin and sitting at the head table, because David didn't
take any other bids and let me walk off with it for $50.00. (you're
a sweetie, David!) My other goodies of the evening were a special
edition video from the Kingdom By the Sea II con in I also picked up a black and white photo of
Vincent that was signed to Aurea (I later found out
that she wasn't sure if she'd donated that or if it accidentally found it's was
into the pile...oops!) by Ron, and my big prize of the evening was a Vincent
and Catherine magnet for $25. I know, I know, everybody was probably thinking I
was totally off my nut, but I've got a big fridge magnet collection (which I
started after I realized that my t-shirt collection was taking up too much
room) and this would make it complete! There were still some items left over, but as the
hour was growing late, they decided to start wrapping things up. Now, just a little side note. All this time, since the dinner, David's cellphone has been sitting on the table, right next to me.
One of the reasons that I stayed seated at the head table was to make sure that
nobody walked off with it. Not that anybody would, but you can't be too careful
and I didn't want the celebs to get a bad impression of us. But, the whole time, I keep thinking that the last
person called was Ron Perlman. All I needed to do was pick up the phone and hit
redial! I had fantasies about calling him up and telling him to "Get your
ass over here!", but my conscience wouldn't let me do it. Darn it.
Wouldn't let me check who was on the speed dial, either. David, you owe me one!
;) Anyway, David came back and picked up his
unadulterated phone, and I headed over to the table to pay for my stuff. But,
since David had promised to take everything over to be signed by Ron, I just
piled all of my things together and put my information onto a card to go along
with it to Ron's apartment. I waved arrivederci to my stuff (hoping that I
would see it again!) and headed out to the lobby. A bunch of folks were congregating in the bar, so
I decided that I could stay up a little bit longer and wandered in. I was
invited to join a group of folks (mostly con committee) in the corner, so I
went and got myself a strawberry daqueri with We hung out and chatted and chatted some more and
we got to know each other (or, rather, I got to know everybody else), and just
had a wonderful time. Well, before we knew it, they were kicking us out of the
bar. Huh? I checked my watch - it was only midnight! Sheesh...at
home we'd still have at least two more hours of drinking time to go! But, no, they were very adamant and we moved to
the little conversation area adjacent to the bar and continued our gabbing. As
the night wore on, the gossip got juicier and I probably learned far more than
any Con Virgin has a right to...I'm pretty sure that I well and truly lost my
title that night! <grin> Chris wandered down after a while and mentioned
that he was ordering pizza, so he got one for us, too. And I am *so* glad that
he did because since I hadn't eaten much at dinner, I was now STARVING. No
pizza ever tasted so good! We continued to chat until about 2:30am or so, but
by this time, we were getting increasingly dirty looks from the hotel staff.
I'm not sure what bee got into their bonnet, but we finally decided to go ahead
and call it a night. I headed upstairs, and by the time I had washed
off my makeup, changed clothes, etc., it was after 3:00am. I seem to recall
reading for a couple of minutes, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Soon the
Sound Soother was on, the alarm was set, and I was snoozing away, trying to
catch a few hours of sleep before I had to be up again... SUNDAY, JULY 15 Alarm. Going off. Should probably do
something about that.....zzzzzzzzzz.... Needless to say, after staying up until the wee
hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning, I was not exactly a big bundle of
energy when my alarm started going off a few hours later. But I did manage to
drag my carcass out of bed around 9:00am, got cleaned up and dressed, swung by
the cafe to grab a diet Coke (caffeine being a necessity at this point), and
headed into the ballroom for the Celebrity Brunch. This was pretty low key. I got a spot at the table
to the far right of the stage (where my seat *should* have been at the banquet!
<grin>) with a bunch of ladies who I hadn't met
yet and honestly don't remember the names of (please don't be offended, not
only am I bad with names, but I was seriously sleep-deprived - not a good
combo!). We chatted for a little bit and were soon lucky enough to be amongst the
first tables to make our way to the buffet to get our breakfast. They had a relatively decent selection and I think
I ended up with scrambled eggs, a couple of triangles of French toast, a couple
of pieces of bacon and some sort of breakfast pastry. Unfortunately, because
there were so many of us, by the time we were finished, there were still some
people in line waiting to get their food. Once everyone was settled, the celebs got up and
continued the Q&A session from the previous day. Again, I honestly can't
separate what was talked about on Saturday from what was discussed that
morning, but if anybody remembers any specific details, speak up! (I do
remember, however, that Jay Acovone spent a good deal
of time looking at the pictures that David had brought with him - I still want
to know what was in that bag!). When the Q&A wrapped up, Edward Albert and
Jamie Murray got up on stage to auction off a bunch of Edward memorabilia, as
well as whatever was left over from the night before. It got to be quite hilarious
as Edward and Jamie tried to entice folks into bidding higher amounts. I got
sucked into it, too! I tried to pick up the Silver Surfer action figure
(Edward did the voice of SS on the TV series), as I'm a big Marvel comics fan,
but was soon outbid. Darn it. Then I reeeeeaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyy
tried to get the Invasion America book, since I was a HUGE fan of the
mini-series (the Jonny Quest mailing list I belong to - which is filled with
anime fans - went nuts over it, too), but Mary, who has much deeper pockets
than I, finally managed to run off with it for around $200. I was so bummed,
but it couldn't have gone to a better home! :) In the end, the only thing I did get was one of
the Summerfest candles autographed by Ron Perlman.
They'd bumped the price up to $60 per candle, and since I was afraid that
nobody would buy them, I went ahead and picked one up. I think the single funniest moment, though, was
the auctioning of one of Jay Acovone's headshots.
Poor Jay, if he only knew... The opening bid was $5 or $10, but Edward wouldn't
accept it - asking for only $0.05! Finally, someone bid $0.02 and the race was
on! There was a heated bidding war and the price went up a penny at a time.
Then someone bid $0.50! Then a dollar! Then I bid two dollars! Whoo boy! But Edward thought it was going too high, so I
reached into my pocket, pulled out all of the change that I had, which amounted
to $0.25. I slammed the coins down on the table and called out "I'll give
you twenty-five cents, *cash* *money*, if you sell it to me right now!"
Edward grinned, walked over to my table, and counted out the change. I swear,
he was ready to give it to me, when someone in the back called out "A
PENNY!!!" and Edward spun around and called "SOLD!!!" We were all in hysterics. I don't think that any
of us had as much fun trying to *under* bid each other! And, in all fairness,
Edward put $20 into the pot for driving down the price. :) Once all of the items were gone, it was time to
set up for the Art Auction. I went back to my room briefly to organize my
things, but then I headed for the Dealer's Room. I knew I couldn't afford
anything at the Art Auction, so I figured that I'd take advantage of the fact
that the Dealer's Room was all but empty. I scrounged around the tables, trying to see if
there was anything that I missed. 'Zines...pewter
statues...various rose pins... Oh, wait, what's this? Underneath some t-shirts
and other stuff on the "Orphans" table, I spotted the corner of a
mauve mat. Moving the items aside, I uncovered a beautiful color print by an
artist that I didn't recognize. Where had this been hiding? I picked up the print to check the price tag, and
found a whole *bunch* of prints underneath! A print of Vincent by
Dragon...beautiful works by other artists that I didn't recognize...and then I
found it. My prize of the weekend. In that pile was print #1 of a limited run of 250
of Beth Blighton's portrait of Catherine and Vincent
entitled "Come Take Me". Whoa. I picked it up and checked the price
on the back. $7.00 I blinked. Was that right? Only
$7.00 for the first print of a limited run of a very well-known B&B
artist??? SOLD!!! I quickly forked over the few dollars, astonished
at my find (although, I now wish I'd bought the Dragon print, too! <grin>). Yippee!!! There...I now had everything I needed.
I'd managed to pick up several 'zines, pewter
figurines, art prints, clothing from the series, several different items with
Ron Perlman's autograph... I couldn't ask for anything more! :) While it was quiet, I decided to take one more
pass at the The costumes were absolutely gorgeous and I could
place almost all of them. There was the burgandy
velvet gown that Catherine wore in the pilot, along with it's
matching coat and scarf. There was the red dress (possibly just the long
over-jacket, I couldn't quite tell) from "Dark Spirit". There was a
formal outfit of Vincent's (complete with ruffled shirt), which I couldn't
place. There was the long robe with the geometric print that Vincent worn in
the B&B movie (during his recovery), another outfit of Vincent's that I
couldn't place (they're too similar!), a pale peach dress with a lace top and
handkerchief hem which I *think* Catherine worn in "Temptation", and
the "Angel"'s long flowing white dress from
"Remember Love". After that, I signed my name to the back of the
Friendship quilt (which contained the signatures of previous con-goers for the
past 10 years), and headed downstairs to check out the end of the Art Auction. I heard, in passing, that Jamie's new B&B
piece went for $925 (which seemed like a whopping amount to me!), so I was
curious to see what the rest would go for. There were about 5 pieces left when
I got to the ballroom. Some intriguing non-B&B pieces, a beautiful pastel
by Claire Sieffert (which went for several hundred
dollars!), and the showcase piece was the original artwork for Jamie's first
book cover, which went for $1600. Wow. After the auction finished up, I caught up with
Jamie saying "You stud! I heard your piece went for big money!" He
turned to me and looked a little sad and I was afraid I'd offended him. He told
me that he had put a high minimum on the book cover, half hoping that it
wouldn't be sold, since it meant so much to him. In an instant, I understood
how he felt. As an artist (of any kind, writer, painter, whatever), your
artwork is kind of like your child. You nuture it and
fuss over it and work *so* hard on it. Each piece is special, but something
like this...well, you can't put a price on it. And to give it up, for whatever
amount of money, for whatever the cause, is still very hard. So, I just gave him a hug, told him that I
understood and that he should just remember all of the kids that would be
helped by this (as a portion of the sale price would go toward the designated
charity). I don't know if this helped or not, but I was pretty damn impressed
with him. We had a little bit of time to kill, but had been
told that there would be ice cream served at 3:00pm, so I hung out, chatted
with the ladies at my table, and just chilled until the hotel staff brought out
the ice cream. And, yes, my diet was still being thrown out the window! About this time, I needed to make a break for the
ladies room, but we had been told that they were going to air the outtakes
video again (the one described in detail in Saturday's installment) and I
didn't want to miss it. I headed back out into the registration room and
spotted Phil at the NovTek table. I told him that I
had to run to the ladies room, and that he shouldn't start the video until I
got back (geez, I'm not bossy at all, eh? <grin>) He just laughed and
told me that as soon as everybody had gotten their ice cream, he was running
it, so I'd better hurry. I took a quick peek back into the ballroom and saw
that there were only about 10 people left in line, so with a quick "Don't
start it!" tossed over my shoulder, I *ran* to the nearest rest room! Scant minutes later I was back, and as I ran by
Phil, I told him it was okay to start the video now! I think he just shook his
head at me as I raced back to my table. They did, indeed, start the video up
again (as soon as they scrounged it up), and this time I was smart enough to
take notes (which is how I was able to remember it all for my report yesterday). The crowd was a bit more subdued, now that we'd
seen it once, but we were still enthralled. What fun! Once this was done, it was time to start the
closing ceremonies. I know I'm going to screw up the order that everything
happened in, but I'm going to try to get it all in there! Sue Haley got us started by sign-singing and
although I know I know what the song was, it has totally escaped my brain at
the moment. <thinking> <thinking>
<thinking> <goes to Jeff's site hoping that the pics
will jog her memory> Hey, they did! Sue sign-sang to "The Rose"
and it was absolutely *beautiful*. Then members of the con committee began to
introduce each of the celebrity guests. Their introductions were interspersed
throughout the proceedings. I believe they started with Jay or Linda, I can't
quite remember. Then members of the Colorado B&B club got up
and explained that at last year's con, during the banquet, they were supposed
to give a special award out to someone who had done so much for B&B fandom.
But because of the wonderful chaos that resulted from Ron Perlman's drop-in
visit, the ceremony got jettisoned and the poor guy ended up getting his award
in the hallway later on! So, they wanted to make it more officious and
brought David Schwartz up to acknowledge his work with B&B fandom. And, in
honor of him, they decided to call the award the Schwartzie
Award and it was now time to announce the 2nd annual recipient - Betty Neiswender - for her contributions and dedication to
B&B fandom since day one. Unfortunately, I don't know Betty, myself, but
from the crowd reaction, it certainly seemed well-deserved! :) At this point, one of the con members (I believe
it was Karen?) got up to introduce Myhr. She gave a
very heartfelt and teary speech about how much he's meant to all of us in
B&B fandom and how much we are going to miss him, now that he is retiring.
Then the wonderful folks from NovTek showed a special
music video that they created as a tribute to Myhr
and Jamie. It was absolutely gorgeous and there was not a dry eye in the house
(mine included!). Jamie was obviously overcome and the celebs all rushed over
and gave him a huge group hug. It was truly a special moment. As we all tried to recover our composure, David
took over and called up onto the stage all of the con committee members from
this year and last year and everyone who had contributed to the weekend through
volunteering, submissions to the conzine,
participating in the Talent Show - though those of us in the audience knew the
stage couldn't hold all of us who had contributed and we ended up staying in
our seats! <grin> Then David put on a very
interesting rendition of "Over the Rainbow" and encouraged us all to
sing along. We tried, but the words had been rearranged so much that we just
kind of shrugged our shoulders and hummed along as best we could. :) After that, we had a tribute to Eddie Albert
(Edward's father), which concluded with a phone call to Eddie. Edward got his
father on the phone, which was rather hilarious in and of itself as he kept
repeating to his dad that, yes, he would be home tomorrow and would stop in and
see him! :) On cue, Edward held out the phone and we all sang (as much as we
could remember of) the "Green Acres" theme song. Eddie was apparently
touched and said that he loved us all, so Edward held out the phone again and
we all yelled out that we loved him, too! It was so cool! Then all of the con committee members were brought
up on stage and introduced and each was given a red rose. After all were on
stage, Aurea (this year's co-chair) passed the light
(a Summerfest candle) on to Lyn, who would be the
chair of next year's convention, and aired a preview video of the highlights of
next year's con. And that was it! The crowds dispersed and folks
wandered around to give hugs and take pictures and say goodbye to those who
were leaving. I was *so* glad that I had gotten to stay for this! I made sure
to get one last hug from all of the celebs and the new friends that I had met, then retired to my room to collapse! It didn't last long, though. I wanted to make sure
that I was as packed as I could be before I went to the rooftop party, since I
wasn't sure how long I'd be up and I *knew* that I wouldn't want to have to
deal with it later that night or the next morning. I must say that this was THE
single best packing job I've ever done in my life (okay, maybe second to the
trips to performing arts camp when I was in high school and had to bring enough
stuff to last a month in one bag!). I was able to fit all of the clothes and
toiletries that I'd brought back into the back, as well as all of the goodies
that I had gotten over the course of the weekend! Woo hoo!!!
The bag was considerably heavier, but it had wheels, so I wasn't too worried!
;) After getting everything as packed away as I could
and laying out my clothes for the next day, I grabbed my camera and headed up
to the pool. This was pretty neat. At the top of the I took a lot of pictures of the skyline as the sun
was setting, then I staked out a spot and got some dinner (pretty basic
barbeque fare, although the buffalo chicken drumsticks were quite tasty). I
chatted with the folks at my table, and eventually found myself talking to
Claire Sieffert for the rest of the night. It was
great! She caught me up on all of the doings at the various conventions for the
past who knows how long. So I now know the good, the bad, and the ugly about
everything that has happened over the past 10 years! I think I can waive my Con
Virgin status goodbye! ;) The hotel staff kicked us out at 11:00pm so they
could shut down the pool area. I was pretty wiped from the weekend's
activities, so I decided to call it a night. Of course, when I got back to my
room, I got involved in watching the first part of "The Mists of
Avalon" on TNT and ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning.
(I never did get to see the second part though, darn it!) As that finished up, I snuggled down into my bed,
turned on the Sound Soother one last time, and drifted off to dreamland with
plans for how I was going to get to next year's con floating through my head... (...snip...) And that's pretty much it for my first convention!
:) I have to take a moment to say that this was one
of THE best times I've ever had. The instant I walked into that hotel, I knew I
was home. I've been to other fan conventions (I go to the New England Parrothead Convention every year), but I've never had such
a feeling of *family*. Although I know you won't believe me, I can be very shy
in new situations, but I felt so immediately comfortable with all of you, that
I could just be myself, and that's *very* rare. So, I want to say thank you to the con committee
for putting on a great weekend. I know you had your trials and tribulations,
but I think everything came off wonderfully! Thank you to the celebs who
graced us with their presence. I especially bonded with Edward, David and Jamie
- I hope that I'll get to see you all again soon! And last, but certainly not least, thank you so
much to all of the wonderful people that I met this weekend. Some of you I had
talked to a little bit online and some of you I didn't know at all, but I
enjoyed meeting each and every one of you and I am *so* looking forward to next
year, when, God willing, we'll all see each other again. Oh, and yes, I am hereby committing myself to
attending next year's convention. How can I not go??? Despite the fact that
I'll be going to Orlando two times already next year, I'm going to save my
pennies and find a way to go a third time. I just can't miss this again! So, until then, be well and I'll see you around
the 'net! :) Love, |