I woke up late Saturday and still had to walk up to Wal*Mart to get a few essentials. I woke Kim up and told her about the late-bus thing then I walked up to Wal*Mart and got a bunch of fruit to eat during the day as well as a calling card to top up my phone. I caught the bus and we sort of went right by Kim standing at the other stop for the other bus. Oops.
So, I got to the con just in time to catch the tail end of the parade. I saw the pirate ship, the Klingon Biker Chicks, the Star Trek people, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Dark-Hunters and the Star Wars people. So, of course, riding high on the euphoria of seeing Sherri and Ash as well as cardboard box Star Wars characters, I realized I'd lost my badge. I hurriedly pushed my way through the crowd, retracing my steps to where I'd had it last. It was gone. Completely gone, as in $90 right down the proverbial drain. Rather than panic, I made my way to the info booth in the Hyatt. The gentleman there was sympathetic when he told me I'd have to buy another one. My heart thudded right around my feet at that point. He then told me to try security first to see if anyone had turned it in.
I held on to some hope, as everyone at the con had so far been extremely nice and it seemed like a decent crowd of people. However, the silly thing was a four-day pass. Anyone on the street could save themselves $90 just by keeping it. So, I got to security and much to my delight, I had lost it about fifteen minutes before and someone had JUST turned it in. The lady said this was the fastest one had been picked up that she could recall and gave me some duct tape to secure it to the clip better. I did so immediately, thinking, please let me get to Robert Englund in time!
So, first panel, Robert Englund. Is it only nice guys that can play horror roles? Oh, by the way, Kenneth Johnson just sent him something about V: The Next Generation. Yay!!!!! And I have to pick up his Phantom. It sounds bone-chillingly awesome.
Second panel, Susan Sizemore. Snarky, funny and smart. I like this woman. She mentioned that at some point she might out the Primes and this could be lots of fun. Who knows? She signed Creature and was totally impressed with James Hong's signature on it.
Third panel, Tammy. It was an hour with Tammy and since Sherri was in the room next I figured I could just sit comfy through two of my favorite authors. Tammy talked about some of her characters and herself. She was asked who her favorite character was and she had to pick two: Kel and Tris! Yes, my favorites. Oh, and she talked about the fact that Kel's squire is going to be one of the girls from the book Squire who asked her about being a knight. Of course, this will be a few years off since she has other books she has to write first. I can be patient, especially since I really like Beka Cooper. A few of the people got up and told her how much her books had supported them through really bad school experiences and it choked her up. She said something to the effect that it was the highest praise anyone could give her and she always appreciated hearing it.
Fourth panel, Sherri. Oh, wait, not Sherri because they kicked us out of the damned room and would have made us go to the end of the line even though we had technnically been there at least an hour longer than anyone in line. So, I went to the Magic and Religion in SF/Fantasy panel instead. It was interesting. Nothing spectacular, but not boring either. I did get really hungry in it and started eating my plums, carefully and as quietly as I could.
After I ate, I went to the fifth panel, Gay Themes in the Dr. Whoniverse. Given that I can't really remember the original series very much, I was lost until they talked about Dr. Who and Sarah Jane. Torchwood I'll be getting as soon as we get Dish, but I still have to catch up on the past seasons. Just from his appearances on Dr. Who, I know Jack will do just about anything that is even remotely alive. The panelists and audience seemed to agree that in the past nothing was overtly gay and on rare occasions a tad homophobic, but that the new seasons are much better. I have to admit, I never really latched onto any gay themes in the shows although the one panelist swears Maria is a "budding lesbian" and Sarah Jane is her first girl-crush. Okay.
Sixth panel, Eureka! A panel about the show and unfortunately, Kevin Grazier has worked in the government sector too long and is REALLY good at keeping secrets. He gave NO spoilers, the rat, but he did sign Creature for me. He seemed to get a kick out of it.
Seventh panel, Alternative Sexuality in YA Literature. I hit a lot more book panels than I thought I would. I figured I'd be going Star Trek mad and I never got to one of them. Anyway, the theme is clear from the title and we spent most of the time swapping names of books and authors we thought had decent parts or treatment of GLBTs. I plugged Misty and Tammy. One woman really disagreed about Misty and I can see her point. She points Van through hell. He even gets raped in one of the books. Not that that had anything to do with his sexuality, he was simply convenient to a bunch of raiders at the time. If it had been a female Herald, she'd have been raped too, but she does use the "he's gay, so his father treats him like crap" plot device. Other gays she gets to treat better, but maybe that's because none of them are the ultimate hero and heroine. Firesong is a snippy little bastard in the beginning, but that's because of his inherent magical abilites. He grows up. Anyway, one lady was actually able to remember the name of one of the books I remember the plot of but nothing else! Choosing Time, possibly by Octavia Butler. I'll be checking it out as soon as I get home and finish cleaning my room for the dish installation.
I went back to the hotel after that and fell asleep after listing the panels I wanted to see Sunday and Monday (about 1am!). Kim got there about 3:30 with a friend who needed to crash for the night since he'd had a wee too much to drink to make it as far as he lives. We have a couch in the room. And I've already forgotten his name. Nice guy.
Oh, and just for the fun of it, the entire weekend I was surrounded by seas of orange from the Clemson fans. Apparently, they were losing, badly, on the way back to the hotel.
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