No-Labor Weekend

We survived Dragon-con 2007, had much fun, walked our feet off, came home with much autographed swag, and discovered a new level of geekiness we didn’t realize that we had. After years and years of associating going to Chattacon with the “big yearly drinking event”, because the price of admission included all the beer you could keep down for three days, I was surprised that I wasn’t more sad to realize that I have more fun at Dragon-con sober, going to panels, celeb-spotting, costume-watching, and shopping for geek gear. By the time the evening events were kicking off, we found we were just about exhausted, usually starving, and choosing the option of a bit of sleep so we could get up and get back early over staying up all night and sleeping through the day. We just didn’t manage to have the stamina to do both this year, and really decided that even though we’re technically “local”, it would still be worth it to get a room for some easy stuff-storage and napping, just so we could stay a bit longer. I’d say we hope we didn’t disappoint any late night partying friends, but I’m not sure they actually missed us. Way cooler people than us were there to entertain.

Though, I want to say that the time spent with Rob and Dale & their crew trekking around the Hyatt looking for “Britpop” was both fun and remniscent of many old drunken Chattacon wanderings, especially since it ended up with us all crashing out in some random hallway, goofing off, throwing frisbee and having fun despite the lack of scheduled entertainment. I am sad we never got to throw our frisbee down from the 40th floor, and I do hope someone got a picture of Bert passed out on the balcony outside his room.

Have to thank Rob and Dale again for their outstanding timing, too, as we rush in Sunday morning, certain we’re too late to get into the Adult Swim panel, find a line that streams outside the hotel, decide to give up, then spy these friendly faces near the front about to go in the door. I really did just walk up to say hey, but they yanked us right into line and got us inside. Then, wow… who expected Unknown Hinson to be there, though today in catching up with a weekends worth of emails I find a notice from his MySpace that he would be there if I had only looked. In general the Adult Swim panel sort of sucked, considering all those guys were such asses to anybody who tried to ask them a question. Hard to believe a panel that packed with fans would run out of people to ask questions. Afterwards, though, we managed to stalk Hinson and the others and get some conversation & autographs. JamesT’s timing of wearing that Hinson T-shirt that day was a hit in the autograph line as some of the other voice actors accused Hinson of paying him to wear that around.

Anywho, weird as it may sound, I still think my googly-est moment was coming out of the ladies room and getting to hold the door open for Gates McFadden to go in. Grinning I look around and spot JamesT had seen it happen, then nods at me to look over where Jonathan Frakes was standing outside the men’s room he had just come out of. Yeah, we’re spazzes. I also spazzed when walking through a crowd of people between hotels, we pass right by Mark Sheppard going the other way. I just look at him and start grinning, as my brain says “gosh, he’s on tv” and just melts. Lucky for me, when we saw Lori Petty later on, she said that’s the coolest part about being a celebrity — the random smiles and reactions of people who recognize you. Hope he felt that way, too, or else he probably just thought, “Oh look, that woman is having a heat stroke or something.”

Catching the Mythbuster’s panel was another highlight, with Tory, Kari and Grant. Their blooper reel was cool, and they were pretty entertaining in person. Of course, when you’re on the mythbuster’s build team for a living, I’m sure you end up with a million funny/disgusting stories to tell. The number of times they showed Kari puking/about to puke in the blooper reel alone…. yeah, ewwwww. But funny.

And let me just say, Ellen Muth, that was a weird weird weird girl to see in person. I knew she was a skinny thing from the show, but my GOD, she was a freak in person. She has big bone structure, like broad shouldered, big hands, big head, but she might weigh 90 pounds. You could see the bones in her arms and legs, and her collar bone just stuck out. Her tank top and little skirt were cute, but oh man up close.. WHOA, it looks like somebody dressed up a skeleton. It was sort of sad to see… and made me wonder whether it was a Hollywood thing, a struggling actress thing, or a terminal illness thing.

Anywho, we were sorry not to get to see people in their Pirate get-up Sunday night, and again hope somebody was sober enough to take pictures. Heard about the debacle with the fire marshall and the Hyatt again with the Con’s pirate party. We had succombed to our aching feet by Sunday night and were sucked into watching Chronicles of Narnia and the director’s edition of Ghostrider.

If you aren’t already reading the community, many wonderful links to pictures from con can be found on LJ’s community. I’m still looking for a good shot of the group of Guitar Heros!! Edit: found some!

(ps. Celeb names linked, just for you Kit.)