I’ve spent the last few days making notes of all of the things I wanted to make sure and include in this blog. Things I wanted to make sure never to forget (as if I could!! How many times in your life does John Barrowman cop a feel?) things I wanted to share with my friends… (because let’s face it, I know you guys have been waiting with bated breath)…. And I’ve come up with A LOT. This could take a while. Grab a pillow and a cold drink. And if you don’t feel like reading all of this, but would like to leave a comment as if you did, might I recommend any version of the following:
“Awesome! That sounds like a super fun weekend!”
“You met all of those people?! That’s amazing!”
“I can’t believe it’s not butter!”
“Where’s the beef!?”
“When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say yes!”
“In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, ‘Au revoir, gopher’.”
My sister in law was my victim… I mean guest on this excursion. We rode in to Atlanta the day before so we could register the night before and then be sure we were there super early on Friday to get the day started without having to be up at 3 am. Uncharacteristically for me, the ride up went smoothly. ALMOST the entire way…. until my Tom Tom decided to have a complete meltdown and try and take me down a closed road and every single time it recalculated it wanted to take me BACK to the same closed road… but I digress. We made it to the hotel. Checked in. No big deal. Found out the hotel had a shuttle directly to where we pre-register. Awesome. We ride over in what for Tabatha was a very scary ride… since I’ve survived the hotel to airport ride of NYC this felt more like a Sunday drive with Grandma. We arrive and soon realize the line goes out of the building down the sidewalk around the building and almost meets back up where it starts. And after WE finished checking in, the line DID end where it started and then snaked back a ways. I’ve never seen so many people in my life. At least until that point. Saturday in and around the Torchwood panel would soon be taking that honor. And in the interest of keeping this blog from becoming a contender to be longer than War and Peace I’ll move on to Friday.
Cue fast forwarding sound…….
Friday:
Friday was so jammed packed I don’t even know where to begin! The whole day seems like a giant blur of activity that I can’t even really remember what happened when. I BELIEVE the first activity was going to the Froggy Photos booth to see if they had posted photo times… which coincidently they had NOT. So we went ahead to the True Blood panel. This was the ONLY panel of the weekend we didn’t have to wait in line for. We walked up and they told us to go ahead in and pick a seat while the panel before finished. I didn’t know anything about the panel, but apparently some famous person from the Gaming world was there. Mark Meer? All I know is when I told my brother he was really jealous so I guess in some circles he is a big deal. After that panel disbanded, we watched some Dragon Con TV while we waited. Dragon Con TV is HILARIOUS. Anyone that read my blog of last year may remember some of the stuff they showed. This year they had things such as a commercial where a woman is complaining about ants and she calls “Dalek Exterminators. Call 1-800-4-Davros” and I’m sure it’s not funny unless you see it but I laughed a LOT. There also was something for “Star Wars Episode IV: The Legend of Curley’s Gold.” Again, funny if you see it.
The True Blood panel started with only three of the five actors there. Hoyt and Luna showed up as the panel went on. I must say… I always like Hoyt. But the actor who PLAYS him…. Maybe he was having a bad day…. I don’t know… but he seemed so bothered to be there. Not a fan. Not much happened during the panel to talk about. They told behind the scenes stories, answered questions… that sort of thing. At one point a man starts to ask a question and he preferenced it with “I haven’t seen the last three episode but…” and the girl that plays Luna interrupted with “A#&hole.” And then said she was kidding a bunch which she totally was but he says, “Don’t worry I’m about to this around on her, I’m in the service and I was deployed.” I felt SO BAD for her. He wasn’t being mean he was just kinda saying it like yeah but I could tell she felt horrible. I saw her wipe a couple of tears from her eyes. It was awkward even though it was kinda all in jest. I mean he really WAS deployed but I don’t think anyone was being malicious.
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| True Blood Panel |
After the panel we find out when out photo times are and they aren’t until the afternoon so we decide to check out the Once Upon A Time panel. It was actually really good! The guy that plays Jiminy Cricket was there as well as one of the head writers and the Blue Fairy. It was a really good panel to sit in on and I’m glad we caught it.
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| Once Upon A Time Panel |
After the panel we head over to the Hilton where my first picture is going to take place. It was a bit before time so we found a spot outside the room where a plug was and sat to charge our phones. As we are sitting there I see some AWESOME cosplay including a man dressed as the first Doctor. He was fantastic! I actually ended up talking to him in line. He was getting 21 pictures and they are NOT cheap. He must have been a super rich guy. As Tabatha and I were sitting waiting I see a man riding in on a scooter wearing a hat and quirky colored suit and I immediately say, “Tab that’s him!” The ‘him’ being Sylvester McCoy. Just riding in by himself like no thing. Then I see him park the scooter and get off and just stand around so I figure I was wrong and he was just an awesome Cosplayer. Finally they call for anyone getting the Sylvester picture and somehow I end up at the front of the line and as I stand there I see Peter Davidson and Sylvester McCoy sitting in chairs chatting away. The 5th and the 7th doctor just sitting there. Talking. And I’m RIGHT THERE. PS. He WAS the man on the scooter turns out. He’s wearing a knee high boot. I thought at first he was just old and couldn’t walk and I was sad but he apparently hurt himself. Poor cute sweet man. Finally they tell me to walk over and he hobbles up and I say hello or something. I can’t remember. My mind was basically blown already. I’m standing next to THE DOCTOR… in a room with TWO Doctor’s in it. Amazing moment. He says, “What’s your name?” And I tell him. And he says, “Stephanie? Well, step up Stephanie.” And we step up to the line for photo and after they take it I turn to him and say “Thank you SO much.” Because I’m beyond giddy. He was just so smiley and friendly and seemed genuinely happy and interested in being there and he said “Cheers.” It was marvelous. Superbly so. Amazing amazing moment.
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| Sylvester McCoy and I |
Right after my photo we head over to the Marriott where our pictures with John Barrowman are to take place. We still have some time so we walk up to the Walk Of Fame (the autograph room) where a lot of the celebrities are and walk around. We see SO many amazing people!
Billy Dee Williams (!!!!!!!!!!!!) (I’ve breathed the same air as Lando Calrissian)
T-Dog (Irone Singleton)
Adrian Paul (There can only be one!)
George Takei
Ernie Hudson
Mitch Pelggi
Lee Majors
Data from Star Trek
Ed Asner (!!!)
Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange OMG)
Tommy the Power Ranger (who OMG had a SERIOUS fan base. They weren’t playing around. He was LOVED.)
There were SO many people in there but if I name them all it’ll just be a giant list of names I’ve dropped. I just wanted to say the ones I was particularly happy I was able to lay eyes on. It’s very surreal to walk around a room filled with people who you geek out over.
Afterwards, we walk back down to the Froggy photos booth for out Captain Jack photo. And let’s just say that FROGGY photos is right. Because SOMEONE was feeling very Froggy. Mr. Barrowman. Wow just wow. He wouldn’t LET you do a boring photo. That man is high octane energy filled with pure craziness. Watching other people get their photos was seriously entertaining. There wasn’t anything he would not do! Grabbing body parts when asked… dipping women, grabbing butts… having his butt grabbed… you name it. When it came my turn I wasn’t even sure WHAT to think. I walked up and said HEY! As I grabbed him and he said hey back. All I remember was that he was soaking wet with sweat but he smelled great anyway. Right after my turn was Tabatha and then we wait around the corner to see what pictures he does with this guy who was in boxers a bow tie and fez only. He had already called the guy out and then when he had to move in line yelled “hey where’s the naked guy!?” so we HAD to see what he was going to do. Having said that… I won’t put it all in the blog. Let’s just say they took quite a few photos. Insert wink here.
John Barrowman is a true entertainer. He made sure everyone that paid to see him got their money’s worth. You can tell he genuinely cares about his fans and wants them to have a good time. I felt that way about everyone I met personally over the weekend. It was SO wonderful because you KNOW they don’t have to be that way. They can fake a smile take a photo and say thanks for coming and that’s what people would really expect. But asking someone their name, smiling, pulling them into a hug… these are the things that make a moment unforgettable.
And back to the news…. After we walk away from the photo center Tabatha informs me that John Barrowman grabbed my butt. Ha!!! I was so into the moment I guess I didn’t notice. And as it turns out… he TOTALLY did! Captain Jack Harkness…. Sigh….
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| notice hand placement |
After the photos we decide to head back to the hotel and have dinner. It’s been a long fun filled day, we didn’t sleep much the night before and Saturday was going to be a super long day. Rest time. And I forgot to mention that at some point during the Walk of Fame Tabatha got her picture made with Rutina Wesley (Tara from True Blood and she was VERY sweet!)
Saturday: (Busy busy day!)
One thing that it’s important to know about a convention is that there are at any given point about 6 billion people trying to cram into a small area that is super hot and super muggy and doesn’t always smell the best. Also, these people generally ALL want to go to the same panels that you do. So if you REALLY want to see a certain panel, you need to line up SUPER early. I’ll come back to this… but it will be important. And ps it’s common curtsey to wear deodorant when you are going to be crammed in like that in such hot conditions. And make sure it’s a good brand. Sweat activated. And I DO NOT know how people were wearing such thick, huge, face covering, sweat boxing, heat holding costumes. I tip my sweat soaked hat to you.
On the same note, apparently this should also be done for the parade. (the lining up early part that is) Silly me thought, it’s outside, the route is long, there will be plenty of places to stand…. Yeah…. Not so much. There’s not much to say here really. It was SUPER hot. And SUPER crowded. Poor Tab (who’s pregnant) became sick pretty quickly and had to go back inside but I missed the parade last year and really wanted to see it, so I stuck it out. The parade was amazing! I took lots of video and lots of pictures (obviously to anyone who looked through my photos). Sylvester McCoy, Tommy the Power Ranger, Billy Dee Williams, and someone who I STILL am not sure who he was… were the grand Marshalls. And the rest of the parade was filled with hundreds of amazing costumes! It was so fun to watch!
At one point in the parade I made “friends” with a kid (whom I’m not sure I should call kid… she was soooo tiny and looked like she was about 13 but told me she was 16). She told me there were a lot of people being rude to her and she couldn’t see and her parents were in the parade and her phone was going to die but she wanted to take photos but if her phone died she didn’t know how she’d call her parents…… I couldn’t very well abandon this tiny girl. I told her she could use my phone. She said “There are such mean people and then nice people like you…” What could I do? I let her hang around me during the parade then I stayed with her during the foreverlong it took her to find her parents and let her use my phone. I couldn’t very well drop a kid off with no phone and no parents in the middle of a million people in Atlanta. Good deed done. And we DID find her parents.
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| Billy Dee Williams |
This is the video of Sylvester McCoy and a lot of Doctor Who cosplay in the parade
It took me ten lifetimes to get back into the Marriott and when I did I had NO signal. I really didn’t have much of one at all the whole time I was there, but at this venture there were SOOOOO many people you could barely move and I couldn’t even send a text out. How in the world was I going to find Tabatha? I tried to call her about 15 times and tried to text double that. I was imagining what I was going to tell Luke about how I lost his pregnant wife. I wandered around looking for the Torchwood panel because she told me when she left she was heading that way…. well as it turns out there was a Warehouse 13 panel in the room the torchwood panel would be in so about 123,456 people were congregated in that area. I found a small hallway and managed to get a text out and then by some magic I saw Tab walking around (this was probably after 45 minutes of looking) and found her. Probably never been so relieved to see someone in my life. So we grab some pizza from a vender and try to be ready for when the Torchwood panel lined up. This was around 2 hours before the panel. We wait and wait and then they tell everyone to go away because the Torchwood lineup wouldn’t be yet but we stay around… Long story short they totally mess up how they do the line and even though we waited forever we end up REALLY far back in the line…. And we wait outside in this line…. But it’s all good. I just REALLY REALLY want in on this panel. And am I soooooo glad we made it in! This panel was AMAZING!!!!! From beginning to end. It was almost the entire Torchwood cast and they are all equally crazy! John Barrowman fell out of his chair TWICE. They told a TON of inside stories. Funny stories. CRAZY stories. I videoed A LOT. But will not be posting most of it. (Due to the semi adult nature of what they were saying) It was one of the most entertaining hours ever.
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| Torchwood Panel |
We now interrupt this story telling to go back in time to Saturday AM and mention something I previously forgot to mention and don’t feel like going back adding in…. We were sitting outside of Starbucks eating breakfast and who should limp by but Sylvester McCoy. Wearing his hat. Suit Jacket. His boot. And striped boxer shorts. And no I’m not kidding. Just walking by like No Big Deal. I’m the Doctor. I’m in the Hobbit. I’m awesome. I’m in my shorts. Drinking coffee. There’s was nothing to be done. Smile and continue with breakfast. That man is adorable.
And now back to my regularly scheduled ramblings….
After the Torchwood panel of epicness (henceforth it shall be called) we ate an early dinner and then walked over to the vendors to shop. There was SOOOOO much stuff! I only ended up buying a Daryl Dixon bobblehead. Oh yes. I did. Totally not embarrassed. I’d buy it again. Daryl Dixon AND a bobblehead. Here’s my money. It’s yours.
Afterwards, we head to the Westin to get in line for the Walking Dead panel. We made some friends in line. One if a dentist from Mississippi. He seemed cool. It’s easy to talk to someone when you are sitting in line with nowhere to go for over an hour. Even boring things become life changing interesting. “Oh, you prefer THAT way to do wisdom teeth extraction? Tell me more tell me more. Like did he have a car? Or an over bite?” But he was really nice actually. It’s just funny how easy it can be sometimes to talk to someone you’ve never met in your life and never will again.
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| Walking Dead Panel |
Sunday Sunday SUNDAY:
Sunday…. Sad day! Last day! Exhausted… spent too much money…. But SO not ready to leave! It’s been such an awesome experience…. But all good things must end…. But not before I make the most out of the day! We get up. Pack out stuff. Load up the car and check out. This time I drive over to the con and actually manage to get around without running over any power rangers or fairies or spidermen… I was pretty pleased. We head into the Marriott and have breakfast. Then the autograph room. The fun room. Walk of fame! Gotta get out last minutes sightings done. As we are walking around I hear Tab say, “There’s Mickey!” And yes. There he is. Noel Clarke. Mickey! I get a little nervous and have to talk myself into going over to him. I want to… but I’m feeling chicken. Finally after I see someone else do it I go over. He’s so cute! The accent in person is killer. “hey baby! You know it comes with a hug, right?” and I said something like I’ll take it. And then before I even know I’m going to say it “Wow, you smell AMAZING!” “You smell great too. We should just stand here smelling good.” And I said something else I don’t remember. And let me tell you, he gives great hug. It wasn’t an A frame lame hug it was a BEAR hug. And let me ALSO tell you, he really DID smell amazing. I want to bottle it and spray it on my pillow at night. After the photo I said “Let me see if I look crazy.” So we pulled it up and looked and he was like, “No, you look awesome.” He was such a sweet guy! Truly. Good ol’ Mickey.
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| Noel Clarke and I |
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| Tabatha and "The Blue Fairy" |
Afterwards we walked the room again and the Walking Dead people still weren’t there so we decided to go out sit for a bit. We were sitting on a ledge UNDER the escalator and I was marking people in the Dragon Con guide that we had seen when I said, ‘I wish I knew what time they would be here.’ And as SOON as I said it Tabatha hit my arm and I looked up right as Michael Rooker aka Merle Dixon walks directly in front of us and down the hall. He was wearing sunglasses and a leather coat and a hat. She thought it looked like him but when he talked she knew for sure. His voice is VERY recognizable. We grab our stuff and follow him. He checks out of his hotel and then walks toward where we are asking the person he’s with where they need to go and Tabatha says, “Go down these stairs and it’s directly underneath us.” And he says, “I love you! Thank you, baby.” And I gotta admit, it was REALLY cool. Just the way he said it, I guess. Tab was on cloud nine, of course. So we waited a few minutes and then walked back down to the Walk of Fame just so we could see them. Tabatha had planned on getting a picture but after he told her he loved her and called her baby she was set. No picture needed
We then proceeded downstairs to where William Shatner was supposed to be set up. We found a seat on the ground against the wall and waited. After about twenty minutes we finally figured out that he wasn’t coming out to the table, you bought your autograph or pictures at the table and then went to a giant line and waited to go back into a room where he was. Didn’t realized The Shat would be under such lock and key. Like he was the great and powerful Oz. So sadly I was never able to see him. But I saw so many other awesome iconic people I’m not too worried. I mean Billy Dee Williams! Malcolm McDowell! Lee Majors! Ed Asner! John Barrowman! Ernie Hudson! And the list goes on. After we walked back up to the Walk of Fame one last time we decided to hit the road back home. It had been a super long super fun filled weekend but it was time to end. I really was very sad for it to be over. It was an epic epic time and I can’t WAIT for next year. You can bet I’ll be back! Who knows… maybe I’ll even dress up next year…. Yeah, I won’t. But still! I’ll be there! And I can’t wait!
