6-21-2007, Thursday 5:10 / 4:10c pm
Wow. What a long and tiresome trip. Though, I must say, it was quite enjoyable towards the end. After the first four hours, I got so bloody exhausted the giggles set in. I was still dreadfully tired, but Mom and I took turns driving. I drove from 10 to 12, and Mom said she couldn’t sleep and would rather drive. So, I tried to sleep and failed miserably. I ended up staying awake to talk to Mom and keep her awake. I ended up driving again from 3:30 to 6 ...or 7...considering that we did loose an hour when we crossed the time zone.
We picked up Jen (my Twin-san) and headed to McDonalds for breakfast. Then we made her drive the rest of the way. My God...such an excruciating task. Driving 4 hours, insanely giddy from not sleeping at all in the past 24 hours, getting more and more car sick but the miles just keep stretching on. We finally got here around 11:30 and while our room was empty, it wasn’t clean. So we waited 45 minutes till it was ready. Gotta say...this hotel has been a tad on the weird side. Forget the fact that there’s some major construction going on in the lobby, but when Mom went to check in and get the key, she mentioned to the front desk man that we had Jacuzzi and he offered to “help us test it out”...um…*fake laugh* no.
When we finally got to our room, which is on the 3rd floor, and hanging right over the pool, we unpacked a bit. Then we headed to Wal-Mart to buy things we’d need (disposable coffee cups, paper plates, cups, food stuffs, etc).I also managed to get some post cards to send to everyone back home.
So now, we’re just relaxing...occasionally watching Retrace & snacking. That’ll be all for tonight...I hope.
6-23-2007, Saturday 11:43 pm
Wow. You know, we haven’t been half as busy as we could’ve been, and yet I still haven’t written much of anything. First off I have to say…this hotel is just weird. Not only are their cracks in the balcony above us (causing rain to trickle down onto our balcony from those cracks, but Jen says she only walks around barefoot in the hotel room and her feet are black. And that’s not even mentioning what happened late Thursday night. We were getting ready for bed, and Mom had decided to let us have the king size bed and she’d take the sofa sleeper. Well first off, we couldn’t get the sleeper out of the sofa =..= So, we call for help down to the front desk and a nice chinese man comes up, takes a look around and says “I know this room. Hole in couch.” There is a hole in the back of our couch, and a tiny pointy metal thing sticks out of it! He asked for a towel, and put the towel over the whole and told us not to movie it….O..O Que? Later we found out that the toaster and blow dryer didn’t work either. Then my cousin Faren comes over, and he’s a builder, and he says this place looks like it’s about to fall apart...great. Oh well. On to the good (no great!) parts of the convention.
Friday was easy-going. I think I woke up around 8, but I didn’t actually get up till 9. Our first panel was at 11, so we didn’t need to hurry. We went to FanFic 101 with Kathy Pagge. There might’ve been 12 people there. It was a great panel and I recorded it with Zeis, learning to use my fanny pack as a base for the camera.
There are 30 minute breaks between the panels. So we went to the room for food. Then we attended a “Grimorum Making” panel. It was actually some artists/art students showing us how to make books. They’re usually used as sketch books, but you can use them as “convention books” or anything else. It was a lot of fun because everyone’s so relaxed and fun.
There was a long break between then and the “Opening Ceremonies” which was fun, if slightly excruciating. They usually have a projection screen, but this time they only had a big screen TV…of course that meant if you were sitting anywhere behind the 3rd row, you were unable to see said TV. So we all stacked our chairs on the sides of the room and sat on the floor. Jen and I kept having our legs fall asleep, even though we were on the front row. They showed us the original preview for Gargoyles given to the press when Disney decided to go ahead with the show, and they had the volume up really really loud to mimic the effect it had on the reporters. There was a lot of crashing and roaring, and when the lights came on and Greg Wiseman started out with “So...” I said “What?!”. My ears were still ringing slightly @..@ But he went on to tell us that all of the reporters had kids and Disney was releasing this ‘kids show’ that looked and sounded very scary. So the obvious question was, ‘What type of kid show is this.’ …the obvious reply was ‘It’s better than Barney ^..^ Very cool.
We were also shown the preview for Bad Guys and an Atlantis/Gargoyles crossover...and we were assured that the comic book would be a continuation of the Gargoyles series, with Pendragon, Timedancer and Bad Guys to follow. That will be something to look forward to. I’ve already bought the 4 issues of the Gargoyles comic that are out, so I can’t want to see everything else. There was so much discussed at the Opening Ceremonies, but I only taped the first part of it, because I knew a lot of it was ‘off limits’. Jen got up and just left because her legs were killing her. I followed not too long after because they didn’t last too much longer.
Now today was much the same...till evening. We attending “From Fan to Pro with Karine Charlebois. That was interesting but really better for artists. After that was “World Building” with Daroneasa, which was very fun. We all talked with her about building the worlds in our story from the ground up; everything from society to religion to families. It was great. But it only lasted till 3, so we headed back to our room. Mom and my cousins (who’d come down from their place to go sight seeing with Mom) wanted to go to the Aquarium, but they decided to wait till later because it doesn’t close till 11.
So, Jen called her boyfriend and told him about what we’d been up to. She eventually got around to telling him that I’d purchased some swords from a place called China Bazaar, and he told her that was what he wanted as a souvenir. So we headed back (and I bought a couple other things). Then we got back and went to the Aquarium. Well, we went to Gatlinburg and ate first. Then we went to the Aquarium. Twas fun, but my legs and feet were killing me. I bought Jen and me some sea turtle souvenirs.
We went back through Gatlinburg, and she got us these things from Kilwin’s...they’re rice crispie treats on a stick, dunked first in caramel then in chocolate and laced with darker chocolate. ...her Mom calls them sex-on-a-stick. We also stopped at a little shop called Lavis Jewelry that had these really cool fairies. I bought a mage-looking fairy with a crescent moon staff, and Jen bought a hanging fairy holding a hatching dragon, it’s just like the one I got for Reiko last Christmas. She said that she has a lot of dragon figures, and it wouldn’t make sense to just buy a fairy. There were some lovely dragons that both of us loved, but the smallest was $50 and the price kept going up from there O..O
6-24-2007, Sunday
Wow. What a busy day. Evidently the Radio play was pretty awesome last night (or maybe it was the blue mug..yeah, definitely the blue mug ^..^). Our first pane of Costume Tip Trading with Jennifer Anderson …turned into Costume Tip Trading with Lynati. I don’t know where the head of the panel was, but she couldn’t make it so Lynati (who’s a veteran of Gargoyles everything) took over and answered questions and included everyone. It was great…but I’m not into the costume thing. I thought Jen would enjoy it though, since she likes to cosplay a lot.
Next we went to Gargoyles Physiology & Culture, and that was headed by Greg Weisman, Lynati and Jade Griffin. That was only getting good towards the end, and then we had to leave because we were dying of hunger. But I did manage to tape all of what we did see. So that was good. I’m not so crazy about evolution, so the whole first part about their actual biology and how they may’ve evolved wasn’t thrilling. But to see Greg Weisman light up while discussing Gargoyles culture was great. It’s funny too, because he’s not an expert in biology and such so he’d ask Lynati and Jade Griffin questions like “Would that be possible?” or “This is how I see it, tell me if I’m right in my layman’s terms.” It was really great.
We had wanted to go to the Bad Guys panel that was going to be a showcase for the upcoming Bad Guys comic, but we ended up being late, and then decided we’d rather not disturb them and walk in right in the middle. That was a bit of a bummer, but hey, we had to get food @..@
The Banquet was fun. We had one of the girls who joined the “Order of the Phoenix Gate” sitting at our table. Turns out, Thom Adcox had decided to get a tattoo after one of his panels. Well the people in the panel were like “What’re you doing now Thom?” and he said “I’m going to get a tattoo.” So they all went and got the same tattoo of the phoenix gate. The girls got it on the small of their backs and the guys got it on their bicep except for Thom who got it on his ankle. It was pretty sweet. I have to say, that’d be one awesome tattoo to get, and I don’t even like tattoos that much. *shrugs*. After seeing that, Jen was itching to go out and get a tattoo. I think she must’ve thought about it the whole time we were at the table ^..^ I don’t even know the names of the people at my table, but they were all cool. There was one girl that actually had a tattoo of wings coming out from her shoulder blades. That was uber leet as well. The only thing that was annoying was that there was one girl (whom I shall not name) who kept barraging the guests with questions, mostly about Puck and all running together. At one point I leaned over and said “Maybe one of us should ask what Puck’s favorite color is before she gets the chance to ask another 3 questions.” It was annoying, but funny at the same time.
We headed to the room again for the break between things, and a storm cropped up. It wasn’t mush, just a bit of rain with high winds and thunder and lightning. Of course, this hotel is so shoddy that the door started shaking. Jen was on the phone with her boyfriend, and she was laying on one side of our king size bed while I was on the other side writing post cards. The wind kicked up, and suddenly she’s launched herself into my lap O..O Twas amusing. Then she says to her boyfriend that “It’s like a hurricane outside!” and I’m like “Turst me, hon. This is not hurricane worthy ^..^” That made it even funnier.
The Masquerade was fun, but shorter than I thought it’d be. We did get there early, just to make sure we’d have good seats. Of course, Jen’s camera died 3 seconds into the whole thing =..= Oh, and of course, we were sitting in front of a lot of uber leet people, and I was too paralyzed to introduce myself. I just figured I’d be bothering them. I mean, they came to have fun at the gathering, not be pestered by some fangirl . So, I held my tongue and place and just watched the Masquerade. I tell you what, they had a lot of really nice dresses on the contestants (that I’d never have the courage to wear), but the Gargoyle that won for best in show was just awesomeness on a stick. And they had a lady that was a “Belly Dancing Fae” and let me tell you, she could really belly dance well for a lady her age. I hope I have that much control over my body in 20 years =..= She was awesomeness. It really made me want to get those belly-dancing pants that I’d see in the dealers room too. But alas, my Jen had inquired about them and the lady had only brought one. Anyway, after the awards were given out, we left. We’re not good dancers (or minglers evidently >..<).
Oh yeah, speaking of the Dealers room, we had so much fun there (and I spent a lot of money there). I bought 2 chain-mail bracelets from Vox, a ‘sea horse’ painting from kth-dragon, and a fairy painting for Jen. It’s really great to buy from artists directly, because they’re always so happy that you’re buying from them. We spend a lot of time there just talking and hanging out. There was a beautiful replica of the Phoenix gate that was a necklace, and I really wanted it, but it was up for auction, and we weren’t staying that long, and I didn’t have the money for it anyway. The artist alley was pretty cool too. I recognized a lot of stuff from artists I've admired for such a long time. It's a little sad that this is our last day too. On one hand I really wish I could stay, but I know it's not at all practical. Ah well. Such is life I suppose.
6-25-2007, Monday
Probably the most miserable day, but only because I get so car sick and we were traveling all damn day. We decided to leave that morning, if only because we had spent so much money and we just really needed to get home. So, we left around 10 that morning, after loading the car down with all our crap + all the crap we bought ^..^ We headed to Gatlinburg as a favor for a friend. Lori had given me money to buy her some wine. It’s her favorite and it’s only sold in that area. So we go and find it…and they don’t have it. It wouldn’t be ready for two more weeks. Le sigh. It would’ve been a total loss except that we saw a pet store right next door, and the owner had her pets in the store with her. I love those types of shops. I got myself a Doxxie shirt, and I think Jen got herself a English Bulldog shirt, pen and bookmark...she and I are such dorks. We’re not even dog owners yet! But anyway.
We drove for hours till we finally got to Atlanta. Jen drove the whole way (thank God). And we ended up leaving Atlanta right in the middle of rush hour traffic. We were not happy campers. It took us about an hour to 45 minutes to get out of Atlanta. Just down-town Atlanta, not the whole city, mind you. I think we left around 3:30 or 4ish, and Mom drove for a while, but she wasn’t feeling great. I was borderline panic-attacking, so I just laid back and tried to relax. We pulled off around 5 to go to the bathroom and get some nachos and cheese (gotta have the basics), and I took over driving. I drove from 5 to 11 that night, and we were about 60 miles away from New Orleans when we pulled over to get gas. Mom took over after that, and I just stayed up to keep her company and talk. We got home around 12:30ish a.m. I think I showered, and then went to sleep. We woke up…I think at 12 p.m. We were unpacked and happy…even if the day was very short. I guess it made up for the day before that was so damn loooong.
That has been my gathering experience. I enjoyed it if only because I got to spend a lot of time with Jen. Spending tons of money on cool swag was fun too ^..~
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