Comic Con FanX

Josh asked to go to Comic Con FanX as his birthday present and forfited all gifts until April in order ot make it happen. Then I signed the rock shop up as a vendor at Comic Con and it ended up that not only were we VIP guests, but we were also running a booth. In addition to going I signed Josh up for a Jedi training day, and signed us all (as in Josh's dad, Sean and Quinlan, and my mom) up to go to the Star Trek reunion pannel and then signed Josh and I up to go to the Red Carpet Event.

On Thursday Da (Kurt), Sean and Quinlan joined us for the Con, and for the Star Trek Reuinion! Talk about a thrill. I spent some (very little) time at the rock shop's booth, and even less time chatting with my ma (Gay Lynn) who came down to see the Con. I was fully dressed as Sakura from Naruto and had a hard time walking around without having my picture taken (which was awesome). At the businest time it took me 1 hour and 20 minutes to walk from one end of the Salt Palace to the other due to picture taking. What a unique experiance.

Thursday evening we headed to Denny's after the con and got 'breakfast for dinner' and ice cream. It was a wounderful evening. Our view from the Raddision's 12th floor room was stunning. Talk about a new way to see the city! And, breakfast was served to us on a cart in our room the next morning! (how fun is that?)

Friday we woke up and wore our VIP shirts back to the con. I started out running the booth so that Fredrick and Zeke could see a few panels but got distracted early in the morning and ended up joining in for photo ops, panels, and fun. I did spend a great deal of the time at the table, and even sent Josh to drop Evie off to grandpa McElwain for a lunch date! (Inara was too tired and instead fell asleep on my dad's lap).

Late afternoon my mother took Evie and Inara back to the hotel and Josh and I headed to the Red Carpet Event. We went to everything, and to several other panels and were having a blast. The red carpet event started a bit late (no big deal) but neither Josh nor I had eaten since about 11:00 am that morning. So we quickly wore out and decided to find some dinner. We walked out of the club called The Hotel and saw a steak house 'Christopher's Steak House and Grill' right next door. Now keep in mind at this point I was starving my feet were tired, and we had already dropped about $2000 on Comic Con. So it was a toss up as to rather or not I wanted to pay for a steak. But wow it was steak and I was starving and the stomach outweighed the wallet.

We walked it and were seated imediately! It was great. We got some lemon water and ordered a glass of wine.... just as.... *DRUM ROLL* the entire cast of Star Trek the Next Generation (minus Picard) AND Nathan Fillion walked in! We watched them walk past our table to their private room for dinner... and then we listened. We were litterally only one of 2-3 tables with people seated in the entire resturant. We waited, and debated, and waited. We chatted with our server (who was a hoot) and said we wanted to crash the party, he giggled with us and tried to help us figure out a plan. Finally just as dinner was winding up (amazing food by the way) we figured it out!

We ordered a bottle of wine and had it delivared with a note to their table that said "To our heroes past and present, thank you. Josh & Adrienne" Our server and their server came running up to our table... 'comeon comon' they nearly shouted in a whisper. We were escorted back to the private room where Johnathan Fraks said "this was very classy", Denise Crosby said "I just love Ports thank you!" and Brent Spiner said "To Josh and Adrienne' raising a glass! AT that Nathan Fillion grabbed 2 extra glasses from the table and poored us wine to sit with them! We told them about our experiance at Comic Con, about the rock shop, and asked a few questions of our own. It was magical! We were told later that Picard was there (and there were 2 empty chairs when we walked in) but we did not get to share wine with him.

We drank it standing up and chatting for about 10 minutes. Then withe every bit of me that wasn't scremaing inside Josh and I told them that they requested a private room for a reason, it really was just a gift, and thank you so much! We all toasted, clincked glasses and then we left! We left our server a $70.00 tip and put the wine glasses in our to-go box... when Nathan Fillion pours you wine you drink it. And, then you keep the glasses.

I think we may have made it a block down the road before I sat down and started screaming! I have never been so star struck or fan girl'ed so hard in my life! And, it FELT GOOD.

The next morning it was back in costume and back to the Con bright and Early for the Nathan Fillion Pannel. it was weird, it was awesome, it was sureal to see him again on stage. He gave us his bucket list of things to do on the Big Screen so we wrote them down thsu we could watch for them in Castle and othe future shows:

Nathan Fillions Bucket List: 

1. Use one of those dynamite plungers
2. Walk away from an explosion
3. press a detinator button
4. Defuse a Bomb (CHECK, because he did that)
5. Land an Airplane
6. Play my {his} own double
7. Crack a safe
8. Light something (explosive) with a cigerette and/or cigar

Later that afternoon we got our photograph taken with the entire Cast of The Next Generation (including Picard) and my mother. It was expensive and it was again totally worth it!

Then we helped find a missing 2 year old girl, and went back to get our photograph taken with Nathan Fillion. We took the wine glasses hoping to at least get them in the photo. Not only did they make the photo but he remembered us and said "that was so sweet of you guys we talked about that all night!" yep they talked about us!!! Think I'm lying? Look at the photo for yourself! ------ and the actual 8x10 print is signed by him.

The con finished up with a signature, dozens more photographs, and a very very L-O-N-G night of walking displays and rocks (why do we sell rocks? I always ask myself that when it comes time to clean up from these shows)... back to the truck.

Unloading finished up just before midnight and then it was home for sleep. Lots and lots and lots of sleep! Sunday was Easter... and Easter is awesome! With thobbing feet and still walking on clouds Easter was full of cooking and Easter Egg hunting. Easter Post coming soon.

Oh yes and Fantasy Con is coming in July - Comic Con coming again in September... I'm doombed to be broke. Broke and happy.

After the Con I heard people complaining about lines (wasn't a problem for me) the price of food in the con (we left to eat several times and stayed once)... and other various tid bits of complain'ism. So I wrote a list of my own:

10 Things I Love About Comic Con and The People There:

1. You can't move without bumping into someone... and it's expected, and acceptable. People just smile and sometimes even compliment you for knocking into them.
2. You'll hear someone scream every 2.5 seconds, and instead of being annoying it just gets your blood pumping.
3. When someone walks by and says they've lost ____ (badge, keys, kid, pass, photo op) everyone drops everything to help look.
4. Instead of critizing your parenting style because your kids are still in their super hero pajamas and 'getting dressed' meant putting on a tiara to go with them, people high five you!
5. If you're dressed up (like many of us were) you'll be asked for pictures... and....
6. It's the only group of people who share all their photos and ask people to tag themselves! Seriously I haven't seen this happen outside our geek/nerd culture.
7. A huge number of people in this group were doing charity work, and are coming up with ways to do more next time!
8. Being overly dressed, under dressed or nude is cool.
9. Meeting celebrities that are just as pumped up by the con as we are!
10. Standing in line for hours means you get to make new best friends!