Sunday finds me waking up to find there's a huge bruise on my outside right thigh and a pretty ugly gash on the inside of my right ankle. I have no clue how either of those things happened as the Scrabble game never got physical and Saturday night was probably the most sober I'd been the entire convention. Sidenote to Scrabble game: nothing like finishing a game and then having Rob Shearman critique your board to make you feel inadequate. ;)
I continued the usual routine of going downstairs to the lobby to check my email and the weather. Snow was in the forecast as in the early morning the projection was just for 2 -4 inches. By late morning it was starting to snow, but not stick to the ground. Not having seen proper snow in 14 years I had to go outside and catch some on my tongue. At that point though people were saying the forecast was now for close to a foot of snow. This was not cool since I had driven up there and would naturally have to drive back. I had about an hour long freakout as I tried to decide whether to leave right then to beat the weather or take my chances. One drive later to gas up the car and do some other things calmed me down enough to decide to stay.
Based on issues with the schedule Sunday quickly became dubbed "Colin Baker Day". I really wish the schedule hadn't had so many conflicts so I could've seen more than one Q&A session. His sessions were slightly different in that he was on stage by himself and you could walk up to a microphone in the center of the aisle to ask your question. When you got up there he'd ask you your name and then get everyone to say "hi" to you. His sunday session was a lot of fun and helped solidify my newfound love for him thanks to Big Finish. Probably the funniest/saddest question was a woman who went "Are you still acting?" He handled it way better than I. My response would've been, "Go to the dealer's room and find the table with a ton of CD's. There will be plenty with my face circa 1984 on it. Go buy some, listen to them, and then come back with a better question." This is why I'll probably never be allowed to speak at a convention.
But I still go to the zoo with people so it's all good.
After that I quick ran to the dealer's room to get Kate Orman's autograph on some items. I had missed out on her autograph the day before due to the line being so long and her having a panel to be on at 5pm. I had caught her earlier and asked if she'd stick around a bit after Sunday's signing explaining I was going to see Colin. She graciously agreed and then I think I won long time/creepy Kate Orman fan award by producing one of the items I had for her to sign, a Data fanzine from 1994 that had two pages worth of drabbles by her and some really horrible drawings by someone else. The response I got were wide eyes and a very surpries "Fuck off!" said in a good way when I brought out the 'zine.
With that I had an hour to kill before it was time to queue for Colin's autograph. That line wasn't too bad and I watched as the woman in front of me thanked Colin for staying well past quitting time years ago at some convention to sign autographs. Apparently the organizers were going to cap the line but when Colin heard about what was about to happen he told them to bugger off and signed for everyone that wanted one. Colin thanked her and said that it wasn't right to make people queue up and then not let them get what they had queued up for. My turn and I gave him a DVD cover to sign to Tim. To this he said that if I had come yesterday I could've gotten something that he mistakenly addressed to a Tim but that they had found someone named Tim to give to. I thanked him but pointed out that my Tim might've been a tad confused when I came back with some random item with his name and not the DVD cover I was given.
I had Colin sign my Big Finish book and mentioned how I was of the many converted to his Doctor thanks to his work with Big Finish and how they'd done a great job in rehabbing his Doctor. As I walked off I wished him a safe flight and he did the same to me. I couldn't help myself and pointed out that I had actually driven. He and his handler asked where I drove from and rather matter of factly said, "only Houston". Then we talked for a few minutes about that which ended with him wishing me a safe drive. A very nice moment for me.
This pretty much concluded the convention proper portion of the weekend for me. John and I were starving and had no parties to hit so we walked to the mall where I managed to miss the Chicago hot dog stand and get Taco Bell instead. On the way out I spotted a store that sold nothing but bar stuff like pint glasses, beer taps and neon signs. Naturally I had to go inside. I grabbed a Molson Twin Label pint glass with the Molson logo on one side and the label Can I Buy You A Lager on the other. I was eyeing a Phillies glass when I heard a voice similar to Jeri's from Strangers With Candy saying, "That's the thing with boob jobs. They're trying to make everything perfect." The voice went on to say, "Take a look at my breasts." I was afraid she was going to say something about them being fake to which I would've had to interrupt the conversation and tell her to get her money back. To the relief of my imagination which was still working out hilarious scenarios involving That Which Broke My Mind (tm) Friday night she then said "They're not symmetrical." It was on this note that it was decided that it was time to leave the store.
I briefly found myself in the lobby by my lonesome with the Magical Bucket of Booze. Jon Blum is writing an article on Who fandom and was interviewing New Who fans all weekend. I caught the tail end of one of the interviews. I won't spoil it, but the young man being interviewed had a very adult and deep reason for what he gets out of the show which made me feel slightly inadequate.
Those feelings disappeared though with the final night with the Magical Bucket of Booze. At one point I was holding court with Simon, Lisa, Jason Haigh-Ellery, and Laura Doddington. The Magical Bucket helped Laura not break a New Year's resolution and she was impressed that the Magical Bucket of Booze was also recyclable. Lisa and Simon were singing the praises of myself and the entire Time Team to Jason which left me dead chuffed. I preached to the choir (Laura) regarding Lisa's skills as a director and threw out there that she should come back to Gallifrey since the other Key 2 Time folks will be back there. Then I could do another Gallifreyan Edition of the Time Team for the first Key 2 Time story.
The snow had kept falling all day and eventually once the sun had gone down the snow actually started to stick. I tried to get Rob to make snow angels. One Culture Club song later I think I had convincer him I had no evil intentions of just pushing him in the snow. But alas there were no angels to be made at that point. That came later when I convinced Jarrod to make some with me. There are photos somewhere of said angels being made. That was fun but clearly I wasn't drunk enough as I could feel how cold and wet my backside had become.
Simon handed out an anniversary edition of his fanzine "Concrete Elephant" that might have the best synopsis of Romeo and Juliet I've ever seen. The back of the 'zine encourages people to make their own and pass them out at Gallifrey.
I continued the usual routine of going downstairs to the lobby to check my email and the weather. Snow was in the forecast as in the early morning the projection was just for 2 -4 inches. By late morning it was starting to snow, but not stick to the ground. Not having seen proper snow in 14 years I had to go outside and catch some on my tongue. At that point though people were saying the forecast was now for close to a foot of snow. This was not cool since I had driven up there and would naturally have to drive back. I had about an hour long freakout as I tried to decide whether to leave right then to beat the weather or take my chances. One drive later to gas up the car and do some other things calmed me down enough to decide to stay.
Based on issues with the schedule Sunday quickly became dubbed "Colin Baker Day". I really wish the schedule hadn't had so many conflicts so I could've seen more than one Q&A session. His sessions were slightly different in that he was on stage by himself and you could walk up to a microphone in the center of the aisle to ask your question. When you got up there he'd ask you your name and then get everyone to say "hi" to you. His sunday session was a lot of fun and helped solidify my newfound love for him thanks to Big Finish. Probably the funniest/saddest question was a woman who went "Are you still acting?" He handled it way better than I. My response would've been, "Go to the dealer's room and find the table with a ton of CD's. There will be plenty with my face circa 1984 on it. Go buy some, listen to them, and then come back with a better question." This is why I'll probably never be allowed to speak at a convention.
But I still go to the zoo with people so it's all good.
After that I quick ran to the dealer's room to get Kate Orman's autograph on some items. I had missed out on her autograph the day before due to the line being so long and her having a panel to be on at 5pm. I had caught her earlier and asked if she'd stick around a bit after Sunday's signing explaining I was going to see Colin. She graciously agreed and then I think I won long time/creepy Kate Orman fan award by producing one of the items I had for her to sign, a Data fanzine from 1994 that had two pages worth of drabbles by her and some really horrible drawings by someone else. The response I got were wide eyes and a very surpries "Fuck off!" said in a good way when I brought out the 'zine.
With that I had an hour to kill before it was time to queue for Colin's autograph. That line wasn't too bad and I watched as the woman in front of me thanked Colin for staying well past quitting time years ago at some convention to sign autographs. Apparently the organizers were going to cap the line but when Colin heard about what was about to happen he told them to bugger off and signed for everyone that wanted one. Colin thanked her and said that it wasn't right to make people queue up and then not let them get what they had queued up for. My turn and I gave him a DVD cover to sign to Tim. To this he said that if I had come yesterday I could've gotten something that he mistakenly addressed to a Tim but that they had found someone named Tim to give to. I thanked him but pointed out that my Tim might've been a tad confused when I came back with some random item with his name and not the DVD cover I was given.
I had Colin sign my Big Finish book and mentioned how I was of the many converted to his Doctor thanks to his work with Big Finish and how they'd done a great job in rehabbing his Doctor. As I walked off I wished him a safe flight and he did the same to me. I couldn't help myself and pointed out that I had actually driven. He and his handler asked where I drove from and rather matter of factly said, "only Houston". Then we talked for a few minutes about that which ended with him wishing me a safe drive. A very nice moment for me.
This pretty much concluded the convention proper portion of the weekend for me. John and I were starving and had no parties to hit so we walked to the mall where I managed to miss the Chicago hot dog stand and get Taco Bell instead. On the way out I spotted a store that sold nothing but bar stuff like pint glasses, beer taps and neon signs. Naturally I had to go inside. I grabbed a Molson Twin Label pint glass with the Molson logo on one side and the label Can I Buy You A Lager on the other. I was eyeing a Phillies glass when I heard a voice similar to Jeri's from Strangers With Candy saying, "That's the thing with boob jobs. They're trying to make everything perfect." The voice went on to say, "Take a look at my breasts." I was afraid she was going to say something about them being fake to which I would've had to interrupt the conversation and tell her to get her money back. To the relief of my imagination which was still working out hilarious scenarios involving That Which Broke My Mind (tm) Friday night she then said "They're not symmetrical." It was on this note that it was decided that it was time to leave the store.
I briefly found myself in the lobby by my lonesome with the Magical Bucket of Booze. Jon Blum is writing an article on Who fandom and was interviewing New Who fans all weekend. I caught the tail end of one of the interviews. I won't spoil it, but the young man being interviewed had a very adult and deep reason for what he gets out of the show which made me feel slightly inadequate.
Those feelings disappeared though with the final night with the Magical Bucket of Booze. At one point I was holding court with Simon, Lisa, Jason Haigh-Ellery, and Laura Doddington. The Magical Bucket helped Laura not break a New Year's resolution and she was impressed that the Magical Bucket of Booze was also recyclable. Lisa and Simon were singing the praises of myself and the entire Time Team to Jason which left me dead chuffed. I preached to the choir (Laura) regarding Lisa's skills as a director and threw out there that she should come back to Gallifrey since the other Key 2 Time folks will be back there. Then I could do another Gallifreyan Edition of the Time Team for the first Key 2 Time story.
The snow had kept falling all day and eventually once the sun had gone down the snow actually started to stick. I tried to get Rob to make snow angels. One Culture Club song later I think I had convincer him I had no evil intentions of just pushing him in the snow. But alas there were no angels to be made at that point. That came later when I convinced Jarrod to make some with me. There are photos somewhere of said angels being made. That was fun but clearly I wasn't drunk enough as I could feel how cold and wet my backside had become.
Simon handed out an anniversary edition of his fanzine "Concrete Elephant" that might have the best synopsis of Romeo and Juliet I've ever seen. The back of the 'zine encourages people to make their own and pass them out at Gallifrey.
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