{chicon} Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

[alwaysenduphere]

Firstly, let me just thank dawnintheforest for the bajillionth time for allowing me to stay with her and putting up with me. I'm so glad to have met you, luv.

I'm always torn whether to use real names or user names when making things like this, but I'll stick with the usernames, I suppose.

Apologizing ahead of time because I do not have a decent camera anymore as mine is rather aged, so a lot of my pics are through my phone, which, while not a bad quality camera phone, can only do so much. So I don't have many pictures and the ones I do are only so-so.



Thursday: Long story short, Northern Indiana is kinda boring. Although I did get to drive through a wind energy farm which was really cool looking.


But it was a nice calm easy drive until almost literally Chicago,

and then I feel like I lost 2 years of my life driving through. I actually ended up picking Caroline up at her work and then driving to her ginormous gorgeous house. Introductions and so forth progressed and then we tried(key word) to make it to the hotel on time to watch Show down in the bar with everyone. But the directions from online kinda sucked so we got turned around and ended up about 100 blocks away from where we needed to. On the right road though. We met up with cullencharm and crawleysnakes when we finally got there, but we only caught the last 20 minutes and still have not had the time to see the whole thing. :(

Oh goodness you can read the actual transcripts/detailed reports elsewhere, I hope. Although if everyone just assumed that there'd be no reports so I try to remember some things, but it's all just such a whirlwind!

Friday: Details are all going away so quickly!

Pause to take a moment to thank cullencharm SO MUCH again for giving me her sister's Gen Admission pass, so therefore I did not have to pay admission for Friday AT ALL. Saving that $25 made getting a room and pics with Jim and MishMish possible. (Also, what crazy girl skips a CONVENTION to go to SCHOOL? Your sister's a nutcase, yo. Tell her I said so.)

I was sad when they announced Julie wasn't speaking until Sunday.
Alona is so frickin' adorable. Someone complimented her on her boots and she said "these shabby things?" And I definitely thought they were talking about her boobs.
I don't really remember any of the questions, but Alona answered them all so nicely. The only one I know of that rubbed me wrong, and really only one of three the whole weekend was...actually, I don't remember what the question was when she finally got to it. BUT. I know who you were, and I don't appreciate being lumped into the category of "jealous of any women characters on the show." In fact, I can't think of a female character that I've legitimately hated enough to want off the show. And honestly, even if I could I wouldn't want to be generalized like that. So just don't. You wasted our time. Thanks.

I was kind of indifferent toward seeing Traci, but she's just a fun spirited hippy type person. And I love that she's an African drummer (and that I actually knew what drums she was talking about. Oh, my djimbe playing days.)

Participated in the trivia contest, and while I didn't win of course, had the satisfaction of knowing that not only did I not know the answer to what article was on some microfilm that Dean was reading in some episode, neither did like the other 16 people on the stage with me. So we all went down, leaving one standing. Lucky girl.

AND THE HEART OF THE MATTER: MEETING blacklid. I'm sorry sweets, but I totally had a fangirl moment for you when I finally connected two and two. And tahirire, my god where have you been all my life? (don't answer. you've been like RIGHT THERE and I've just missed you. BUT NOW ALL IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD). Also, this is the other Geico commercial I was talking about.

Dinner was cool. OM NOM NOM CHICKEN STRIPS CHICKEN STRIPS AND HONEY MUSTARD.


Karaoke was AMAZING. Of course I love Karaoke, so. But the place was SO PACKED starting off. Somehow we managed to find seats on the floor literally right next to the ...stage, I guess, so that was cool even though my legs kept falling asleep. Alona sang twice with some girls and Traci drummed on the mics and then sang a couple songs.


One of the Creation employees(I guess?), Stephanie, had a spectacular Joplin-esque voice which was awesome. And there was a dude who sang Back in Black that I swear to god, sounded exactly like Bon Scott(I think that's the name of AC/DC's singer). Almost every song sang was a wicked karaoke song. And of course there was a group who sang Wanted Dead or Alive that had the entire bar singing. Awesome. Most of the people singing were pretty good singers, actually, so I was a little intimidated but got up and sang anyway (It's My Life by Bon Jovi, my classic Karaoke son), and was joined by all the amazing folk mentioned above. By the time we sang the bar had cleared out a little and I had three drinks in me thanks to the lovely blacklid. And then Jim showed up shortly before we decided to leave. I'm sure he'd just gotten there not too long before, but still managed to come down and socialize. The man is so awesome.

I did manage to update my twitter feed pretty frequently during the panels for both Friday and Saturday. Friday's is here:

http://darkmerrick.livejournal.com/269401.html#cutid1
Let me tell you how hard it is to summarize in 140 characters, phew. Which is why I stuck to mostly just their short answers, and some of the actual cool stuff was missed.

Saturday:

Jake couldn't come because he'd gotten called in for auditions but I'm so glad they managed to swing Richard Speight instead. Coolest. Dude. Ever. Again, I totally can't remember most of his actual q/a's, but SO COOL AND FUNNY. And of course what I can remember? The pumpkin panties story. He did also tell a shortish story about Jared's dogs, a different story (at least I think it was him and was a different story. lol. Anyway, SOMEONE told it) about going
into Jared's trailer to pick up a can opener or something, but not being warned that the dogs were in there, so he got a good view of them being total growling guard dogs.

BUT YES, the pumpkin panties story. I'm sure you've heard it by now, but:
Richard walked into his trailer one day to discover a pair of folded "pumpkin-colored bikini briefs" as he described them, sitting on the counter. He first thought they were a gift from one of the actors he'd worked with, who'd said they'd left him something. Turns out they'd left him two beers and a thank you card. Then he thought the panties were a "gift" from Jared and Jensen, but when he brought it up to them, they didn't just play clueless, they were. So he
decided to pin the undies to the production office wall with a "Yours?" attached. Turns out, the undies were MISHA'S. He'd spilled soup on himself and had to change and wardrobe had accidentally left them in Richard's trailer after washing. They were apparently a gift from a fan and Misha had been short on other underwear to wear.(although I suppose Misha could've been joking about those details, hard to tell).

Aldis is so frickin adorable. He makes the best faces, too. There was a moment he layed down on the stage like a lounge singer or something that was just priceless. Also, he's so intelligent! He makes watches, if there's anything he could do without consequences, it'd be rob a bank. They teach some wicked stuff to him on Leverage and he could ge away with so much shit, but he doesn't really GET what Hardison does. He thinks he could do Eliot or Parker's jobs pretty well, though. Also, there may or may not be a scene of a shirtless Hardison coming up in the near future where we'll all see his bulging biceps, of which some woman asked a question about his workout routine and he said it was kind of more a competetion between him and this other dude where sometimes they'd do up to 400 push-ups a day. There was also a woman whose room was right across from his who started out kinda cute offering to bring him coffee but then mentioned she'd like put her ear up against the door to see if she could listen in. Which is kind of...weird, in my book. But definitely loved Aldis being a Star Wars fan and actually owning a Star Wars game, but using the word "dope" to describe the new Star Trek movie (among other times he said "dope"). And if he could come back to the show, he'd want to be the little dude on Sam's shoulder going "HAHA I KILLED YOU." I think those were my favs.

After Aldis, I moved up to row H in gold where...pretty much everyone I knew was sitting in that area. While I'm thinking about it, Peggy, who Caroline was sitting next to, made a winning video, had a neat costume idea for the contest, and apparently also made one of the centerpiece designs at breakfast. She was pretty cool. But yeah, from row H is where we watched Steve Carlson's panel, mostly out of pity because like NO ONE was there, but he was a pretty chill cool dude. Totally better looking in real life than any pictures I've ever seen of him.

We had Chipotle for lunch, and while I got the mild sauce, what I failed to know is that it had pretty strong onions in it. WAAAH ONIONS. My mouth tasted terrible for like hours afterwards. It was very distracting during Jim's panel.

How great is Jim, showing up and giving all even though he still wasn't 100%. He said he was a little dizzy still. Someone asked him a question about a zombie apocalypse and referenced Left 4 Dead, which made me a happy camper. Misha interrupted his panel to insult his dress style, as Jim was in a tshirt and jeans and Misha wore and entire 3 piece suit, complete with fuscia tie and argyle socks.

At some point in this day, I think returning from Chipotle, Caroline and I ran into Richard in the hallway and both of us definitely held eye contact for like 5 seconds before saying "hello." BLECK. I told myself I would not act like a awkward fangirl as much as possible. This was moment number two. Moment number one was butting into a conversation to say hello and goodbye to Jim down at Karaoke night.

The costume contest. There are people who are insanely creative, and there are people who aren't. I helped crawleysnakes with her costume, which dude, was pretty frickin' awesome. I think it speaks for itself:

She made it to the final round, but sadly placed fourth. It was a tough competition by that point though. The winner was a man dressed as Coach Dean who was even in character, pretty funny stuff.


MISHA. Okay, it's not a secret that while I enjoyed Castiel when he first showed up, he kind of gets on my nerves most of the time now. And Misha, while pretty funny, I did not think was anything special. WELL. I still don't. lol. But he is frickin' hilarous and I did get lost in his friggin' blue as hell eyes during our unplanned photo op with he and Jim that I posted here. SO I HAD A MOMENT, OKAY.

Someone DID ask a question about fanfic, to which the audience groaned, to which Misha noted that when the question gets asked the audience always seems to groan. Find the video, it's great.

Richard interrupted Misha's panel and we got more details on the pumpkin panties incident, including a description of them being "threadbare" and well-stretched, like a "well-hung" man had worn them. CON HIGHLIGHT, Right there.


Know what else was a highlight? I got to also watch Misha's panel from Row H, as the girl whose seat was near Caroline's had to unfortunately work that day. I'm sorry you missed the panel, whoever you were, but also thanks! haha. So then we went to the line for our photo op with Jim and Misha together, which we'd been easily talked into by...crap, I can't remember her name, who was sitting on the other side of Caroline.

But while we were in line, one of the Creation folk talked to us for a bit, and we got a couple of great stories. Firstly she seemed so stressed out and kind of like she hated her job. Mostly jaded, I guess, since it seemed she'd dealt with Jared and Jensen and the con stuff more than enough. She said there were three things you needed in order to do her job:
1. Not be a fan of the show. She'd never seen an episode.
2. Not mind staying until the end of the dessert party then promptly meeting Jared and Jensen at the door at some god-awful hour in the morning (which makes me think that rumor about them being in the hotel Sat night is FALSE). Also, not minding getting called to bring some benadryl in at 4am.
3. Not minding cleaning puke off of people (which makes me think that the boys get a little TOO rowdy sometimes, huh?)
She told us a vague but good story about how she was discussing something with Jared and Jensen and zinged Jared pretty good to the point where Jared said "DAMN" and Jensen said "OUCHH, we should call YOU Jensen." lol. There was apparently also a jar sitting in the green room with her name on it, as a bail bond fund, lol, and Steve dropped a wad of cash in it and said "I could get on board with that." /random stories

But anyway yes, Misha and Jim. Photo ops are so ridiculously fast and almost not even worth the money, as I hardly remember the moment at all. But I did get to touch both Jim and Misha!

I had to wait a long time for Jim's autograph because I had tickets and not gold or silver, but I did get to see a few moments. One, Tracy, the girl who Misha somewhat legitimately recognized when she asked her question, had a milkshake with him for their "third date" and sat with him while he signed autos.

Then later, it seems someone brought him something that RESEMBLED a beer bottle (although I'm not sure it actually was as I was almost completely across the ballroom. It was a green glass bottle, okay. WHICH WAS CHAMPAGNE) to which he loudly popped the top off, held it up as "cheers" to the whole room, and then promptly spilled a portion of it down his chin. HEEE.

And yes, what you've heard is true, Jim did sign autographs for nearly 8 hours. I got mine around hour 7, finally. The wait was insane, but I wouldn't have missed getting his autograph for anything. He mentioned to the girl a couple in front of me that his hand didn't hurt so much anymore because his bladder hurt more. What a trooper. Anyway, when I finally got up there, he said my name and I said something along the lines of: "Yeah. You actually met a Karleen with a "k" in California who had you sign a book for me and she sent it as a graduation present to me, and it arrived shortly after I'd learned my boyfriend had cancer. So I just wanted to let you know how much it meant to me to be able to read it and learn that what I was feeling were some of the exact things you felt too. So I just wanted to thank you for that." I was shaking by the time I was done talking, but I got it all out coherently, and you know what he said? "Thank you for sharing that with me, and I hope everything turns out okay." He thanked ME. puddle of goo and humbleness, thy name was Carleen. (Also thank you once again, kefira for even giving me the book so that I could say such things)

And then I went up to my room, debated going to bed, and almost did before sort of starting to write everything down, but then Caroline texted me with a "come to the bar?" message, and I can never turn down a trip to the bar, and I'm SOOOO GLAD I didn't. Because now I can say that I got kicked out of a bar with Jim, Richard, and Aldis. lol. Misha left not long after I arrived, shortly after last call and my last delicous Ameretto Sour and shortly before Caroline came back with our tequila shots. But Aldis and Richard were deep in a game of pool, which we watched a bit of once blacklid and tahirire popped up and finagled us a decent table with broken chairs that Dakota insisted on breaking more. Fun dude, that Dakota. /random stories that aren't gonna get told as they're better as just memories.

But yeah, the bar closed and they booted us all out finally, but Aldis and Richard and Jim (who had come down after finishing signing, which was TOTALLY unneccesary but totally awesome. I'm not sure he ever made it to the dessert party) stayed a little while longer outside the bar talking to folks. I observed from a distance, NOt being a total clingy fangirl, go me. Which is where I discovered that tahirire is an epic Star Wars books fan too! DESTINED FROM BIRTH, I SWARE. You think I'd have figured it out earlier since Tahiri was one of my fav book characters, but uh, not quite all that sharp this weekend, huh. Anyway, made me dust off my New Jedi Order books and possibly read them again. I'm so behind on the new series of books now that I'll probably not catch up since I also don't really like where the story is going. You can't KILL Mara and turn Jacen evil and expect me to still LIKE it... Sigh.


Anyway, yeah, I'm sure it all loses some of its luster being re-told and not experienced, but that was Friday and Saturday. I'll have to make Sunday's post tomorrow, it seems, as I'm still running on about only 18 hours of sleep since Thursday evening. Not that I really remember too many specifics other than "holy crap JENSEN AND JARED" because I was so exhausted. Also the internet's bein' a little bitch right now and uploading these pictures was a pain in the ass.

Saturday's tweets: http://darkmerrick.livejournal.com/269732.html#cutid1

Comments

[ckll.livejournal.com]

Girls just have fun there :D

[bitterbird.livejournal.com]

awww that sounds sooo amazing

fangirls FTW!

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

sounds like an awesome time!

[mnemosime.livejournal.com]

YAY, I'm so glad you had so much fun, and thanks for all the info \o/

[thegrlwhowaited.livejournal.com]

It sounds awesome. The costumes and the coach Dean.:P

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

YOU. HAVE. A NEW. TAG. *snuggles it*

Doooood. I am SO tired right now, I can haz no braine, n'kay? *snores* BUT ILU!!! *spectral clings*

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

I DO. I HAD TO, yaannoo?

I know what you mean. I'm still not quite back to sanityland. &hearts

[blacklid.livejournal.com]

I was looking for you and you found me first! ;P OMG, I'm so glad we got to meet and hang out all weekend. What an awesome time...

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

Guess I'm just that good. XD
MEMORIES, DA DA DA DA DOO DAA DOO. ...or something. BUT YES YES, best time ever. And seriously, more socialization than I've had in probably 6 months, so thanks for that, too, heh.

[miss-faith-hope.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a blast at ChiCon, I would love to go one of the bigger conventions and meet some of these talented actors I haven't been able to meet in person yet. Once again thanks for sharing this report and sharing with us your ChiCon experience.

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

Definitely do it sometime, it's well worth the hassle and empty wallet.
:D

[cullencharm.livejournal.com]

I see me in that picture up there, I do. I feel famous. =] And I'm totally saving that picture because it looks way better than the one on my phone... because my mother doesn't know how to use it. Haha.

And how did you FORGET to mention that you saw Misha and everyone else at the bar that night?! GAH. Lol, and Caroline had texted me to see if I wanted to come too, but I was already getting into bed. FML.

Pshhh Misha! =p

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

FIERCE. How hard is it to press a button? LOL.

I didn't mention that? WHOOPS. But yeah, I think he ordered a round of shots for everyone and then left shortly after last call. I thought for a second he'd stop and talk to me while Caroline was at the bar, but ALAS, no luck.

[schnueffi147.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this wonderful report! I always love to read up on people's personal experiences of the cons.
Sounds like you had an AWESOME time! YAY :)

[kefira.livejournal.com]

YAY for say something to Jim and having him reply like that *HUG*

Also - I am such a bad fangirl - I don't know who hafl the people you name are in relation to their characters :(

Glad you are having so much fun!

[alwaysenduphere.livejournal.com]

<3

Let's see.
Richard=The Trickster/Gabriel
Alona=Jo Harvelle
Traci=Pamela the psychic
Misha=Castiel (I hope you know THAT one)
Aldis=Jake from season 2 that killed Sam, also Hardison from Leverage

[xxtornxxapartxx.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun :D

[force-oblique.livejournal.com]

OMFG this is just so epic!!!!
I am so glad you had fun and Ginger tahirire is so amazing!! <3 I love her!