ht_murray | Personal Recap Post for Chicago Con 2008

Well, it's Sunday night, not even 10:00, and Heather and I are in our pajamas, ready for bed, which sadly, is pretty much the story of our whole weekend. We are officially old.

But there's good reason for it. I'm on my night shift schedule, so I stayed awake all Wednesday night, partially just from habit, and partially from anticipation, I'm sure. This wouldn't have been a prolem, except I still had shopping to do on Thursday, so I didn't sleep during the day on Thursday as I normally would have. I couldn't sleep Thursday night, either, what with Supernatural being on, and the flight was at 5:25a.m., so I took like a two hour nap around 1:00 Thursday day night/Friday morning, and another 1 hour on the plane between Houston and Chicago.

The first thing I had to learn about Chicago is how friggin' huge O'hare airport is. I had planned to meet with

pinkoceantides, at the baggage claim, but even as the plane was taxiing in, I could tell there was more than one terminal, so there was no way of knowing which baggage claim to meet at. I don't own a cell phone (yes, I know I'm a freak), so there was no way to call her and tell her where to meet me. So, I decided to wait in the baggage claim anyway, because I knew Aeicha was coming about an hour later, and would be wearing two different colored shoe laces. Again, I forgot which terminal she was going to be at. So, after spending about an hour sitting on a bench looking at everyone's feet as they walked by, I asked how to find the shuttle to the hotel. It was actually easy, I just crossed three streets and it was right there. I knew

heather03nmg was coming in around two o'clock, so I figured I'd sit there until three o'clock, and if no one showed, I'd just hop the shuttle to the hotel and ask if they'd checked in yet. But we did end up meeting in the shuttle terminal. I saw three girls, and one had two different colored shoelaces, and then the one in the heels called me a dork, and I knew I'd found my family. I didn't recognize Heather, because I was expecting curly hair, and she straightened it. So, woe. Anyway, we found each other and got checked in. It was all good.

We'd already missed Gabriel Tigerman, but we did get registered and ate something before Richard was due on. We caught Richard's panel, and were going to get the autographs.

Needless to say, when I was sitting in the auditorium for over an hour waiting to be called for autographs with Richard and Gabe, I was actually falling asleep in my seat. So, when Heather finished her autograph (she was front row), we decided to go back to our room and take a nap. At that point, it had been over an hour in the autograph session, and they were up to row D. I was in row H. So, I said the hell with it. I'd already missed Gabe anyway, since he went before we got in from the airport. The Steve Carlson concert was going to be at 9:30, and neither of us was planning to see it, and there was supposed to be a karaoke party with the guests and the fans at the bar after Steve's concert. So, our plan was to take a nap from 7:30 to 9:30, and then head down to the bar while everyone was at the concert.

Well, about 11:30, Heather and I woke up, and looked at each other, and said, "Well, we could get dressed and go down there... or we could just put on our pajamas and go to bed." Sleep won out.

Which was good, because Saturday was jam-packed. We got Chad, Samantha, Jason, and Malik (not necessarily in that order). There was a break between the panels and the autographs, and I finally got a chance to chat with a couple of the people I was hoping to meet there. Nana56, who's been a loyal reader and just good friend for as long as I've been posting fic, and Tree66, who's the Admin over at Supernaturalville. We haven't really talked much since the whole VS fiasco, but I was kinda surprised, when I met her that I really couldn't find any animosity left in me about it. We actually had a nice conversation, and I wish we'd been sitting closer, because that was pretty much the only time I got to chat with them.

After that, it was more busy, busy, autographs, the Jason Manns concert, and then the dessert party. Photo Ops with Samantha, Chad, and Malik ran late, so that moved Jason late, which moved the dessert late, and we ended up finally skpping out of the dessert party after only one guest had been to our table. It was already 12:30a.m. and the breakfast with Jared and Jensen was scheduled for 8:45a.m., so we wanted to get at least a little sleep. As we were heading back to the room, we ran into one girl already traipsing down the hall with her pajamas and pillow. The seating for the breakfast was first come, first serve, and this girl said she was going to be first in line. She was serious about it. We were having none of it. Though I don't fault those who slept in the hall. I imagine it was a blast, and if my tailbone wasn't already throbbing from having sat in those godawful chairs for the entire day, I might've succumbed to the temptation. But Heather's done quite a few of these things, and she said, for the twenty-some minutes that the guys are actually there, it's not really that big a deal to be sitting right in front.

Anyway, we dashed out of there after only having been visited by Malik. Chad, Richard, Samantha, and Gabe were still making the rounds, but we didn't stick around. We also missed the fainting and the paramedics, so good on us, I guess.

As it turned out, we woke up early and were dressed and ready by six a.m., made our way down there, and ended up at the end of a line that stretched down two hallways and up two sets of stairs. But we were still relatively close to the front, because two hours later, when they actually started letting people in, people were lined up behind us all the way to the elevators, which was practically the other side of the hotel. We didn't do too bad. The girls who camped out all night ended up about one table closer than us, and we were just more to the side. Turned out it was more to Jensen's side, too, so yay us. It was practically impossible to take pictures in there, though, because we were so packed in that my camera just wanted to focus on the backs of people's heads. I'd have had to stand and risk the wrath of fangirls to get a decent shot, and I know people will be posting way better quality pics than I can get with my camera, anyway. So, I didn't sweat the pics.

Man, the atmosphere for the convention up til then had been pretty good, mostly laid back, from my perspective, everybody just enjoying the break from our lives and the good company, but as we approached zero hour on the J2 countdown, the room was buzzing with a whole other kind of giddiness. No alcohol involved.

I think, when those boys walked in, they could've pretty much stumbled in and passed out on the stage for the twenty minutes, and we'd have all still been sitting there with these stupid dork grins on our faces. But they didnt do that. They were quite delightful, a real hoot actually, even though Jensen looked like he needed another pot of coffee, still funny and adorkable. They also reminded us that they were still on Pacific time, so two hours behind us, and most of us weren't looking too sharp.

The breakfast itself, was okay, I mean, if you like being packed in like cattle, having everyone scooting their chairs and asking people to move, as though it's actually possible for everyone to be able to get a direct line of sight to the stage. The food wasn't terrible, and it was actually kind of interesting when Adam started asking where people were from. People came from Beijing, Israel, Singapore, Tokyo, just a really, really diverse and amazing turnout.

After the breakfast, they had Jared photo ops, and I didn't have one of those, so I went back to the room with Aeicha to freshen up a little bit, went right back to line up for the J2 photos, sat through that whole line, went back to the room for five minutes or so again, and went back to line up for Jensen photos.

The photos went by sooo fast. Most of the wait time was spent in the auditorium waiting for your row to be called, but once it was called, it took almost no time to get through everyone. I was standing in line with Aeicha and Shay for the J2 pic, and Shay had done fine for her Jared pic but was having a panic attack about meeting Jensen. Aeicha had to pee. Between the two of them, it was high drama all the way into the room, which was good, because it kept me distracted. I didn't even have time to get nervous. Poor Shay got in the room all right and then burst into tears when she saw Jensen. Both boys tried to console her, and she was trying to apologize, but she just looked at Jensen, and... so Jared put his hand over Jensen's face and said "Just don't look at him, he's ugly." The pic actually went pretty well, after that. I think both boys are still a little shell-shocked when they get to Aeicha and then me, but I'm more happy with the way my J2 picturned out than my Jensen solo, so that's the one you get to see.

Shay apologized to Jensen for flipping out when she had her Jensen solo op, and she asked him for a hug, and he gave her one. He was actually not standoffish at all. He put his arm right around my waist, and the girl ahead of me put her arm around him. Heather had just had a birthday and asked for a hug, and she got one, too. I never would have asked, but I'm more than happy with the experience I had.

Photobucket

I have to say, that despite the photos being basically a cattle call, that went really smoothly, and I wasn't even nervous, although, I was pretty sure I was melting and would look like crap when the pics came back. I actually did and am not really pleased with how they turned out, but I did really enjoy the little bit of personal time with them. Both boys were amazing, sociable, really friendly, quick to just put their arms around me, even though I'd heard Jensen didn't like to be touched. Two of my friends asked for Jensen hugs and actually got them, so hey, now I wish I'd have asked, but I'm not really a hug person.

I will say, though, that it was really sweet. I wasn't intimidated by them in the least, and they both looked me right in the eye, said hi, and thank you. I mean, what else can you expect from seven seconds or so. Really, of the entire convention, I'm most impressed with how well that went, and I credit the boys for that, not Creation, though I do thank Creation for the opportunity.

After Jensen photo ops, they had the panels, and Jared was first, then they were together and then Jensen alone. I'll talk more about them in the next post, because this is just basically the post about me and my time there. I will say that that was amazing and worth every bit of money and hassle it took for me to be there. Just fantastic.

After the panels were over, they started the autographs, and it took forever for the line to actually start moving, because they auctioned off a whole bunch of giant banners from the convention that were basically vinyl displays of the boys, like promo pics the size of a wall. And when they auctioned them off, a lot of them came with autograph tickets, so the boys could sign them, along with the regular autograph you were already getting if you had a gold ticket or whatever. And because he banners are so huge, they take up the whole autograph table and need, like, a couple of people to roll them out. So, it's basically one person taking up the whole table, when usually there are like ten or so that can sandwich in there. That really held up the line. I heard whispers, before they got to my row, that they were going to cut it off at 5:45 whether everyone had their autographs or not, because the boys had to catch a plane, which is understandable, but not really fair. People were definitely worried. I got mine, though, and at the rate the line was moving, I bet everyone else did, too, but I don't know. It was cut quite close, though.

After that, Heather and a friend of hers, Kathy, who's one kickass British chick, and a couple friends of Kathy's, Libby and Furbs (not her real name, but apparently a nickname given to her for having big eyes that looked like Furby's) and I all decided to walk to Chili's.

It was snowing. Yes, snowing, and freezing cold. All I had was this heavy sweater, and all Heather had was this little hoodie, but we went anyway. Like half a mile hike to Chili's maybe more, and that's when it was really apparent how close we were to the airport, because the planes were right over head and in a pretty constant flow. Really, low, too, like flashbacks from La Bamba low. We all made it to Chlii's without losing any limbs to frostbite, and had a really good time, I think. Despite my resolution to kick back a little on this trip, I ordered Coke. (Apparently Dr. Pepper isn't popular in restaurants in Chicago,) I completely decided to forego the alcohol. I was like, I've never been drunk in my life. I have no idea how alcohol will affect me, this is not the place to experiment. So, I didn't.

Then, we went back to the room. I took a little nap while Heather checked her email, and we waited for the pictures to come back. Finally, it was after nine o-clock, and we went to check for the pics. They we back, and I don't hate them, but I have decided I need a haircut for Christmas, and maybe a tan. Cuz, dude. I look like a friggin' vampire. Pictures collected, I came back to the room, and here I am, trying to remember the important parts of the panels to put in my next post, even though this will all be up on Youtube by the time I have internet access again. Sucks to be me.

As far as like personal drama, I didn't really have any. Poor Heather bought an upgrade to first row from Row K, and her ticket was A-35, but the seats only went to A-33, so they sold her a seat that didn't exist. When she asked about it, they said the fire marshall wouldn't allow them to put seats there. They told her and her friend Kathy to sit in the empty seats, because a lot of people didn't come in until Saturday or Sunday. So, basically every time we went back to the auditorium, Heather had to find a new chair, even though she paid for front row. Every time I sat down in my seat (H-18, which was really an awesome seat, right on the aisle), I'd look over and see Heather either standing or trying to convince someone to let her have a chair. It was really crap.

Celebrity encounters outside the auditorium, well, since we skipped out on the karoke party, these were pretty limited. Chad was just like everywhere, but we did have one cool experience Sunday morning on our way to stand in line for the breakfast. We totally missed our turn to go downstairs and were walking down the hallway, saw a dude standing outside a side door trying to get in, but it was locked. Heather was about to open it, and I was questioning how wise it was just to let some random dude in the side door, when I recognized it was Malik. He was pretty cool, and we got kinda flustered, because he was asking why we were all so cute so early in the morning, and we said to have breakfast with Jared and Jensen, and we followed him all the way to the elevator before we realized we were going down the wrong hall. We probably looked like total stalkers, but it was cool.

Other than that, I'd say the weekend went pretty smoothly, provided we don't get snowed in here, which would suck moldy dog logs.

I haven't cut the wristband off yet. I guess that means it isn't over.

Current Mood: exhausted

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

susannaheanes.livejournal.com

Soooo cute. And yes, they really, really were awesome. It was an amazing experience.

btw - YOU ARE GORGEOUS, BB. And yeah, I totally saw you. *cries*

From:

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Personal Recap Post for Chicago Con 2008

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