HiHo HiHo it’s off to Boston I go…

PLEASE NOTE: This report is the property of the author and may not be copied or reposted, in full or in part, without the author's prior written permission and No Video or pictures may be re-posted or linked without express written permission of the owner!

HiHo HiHo it’s off to Boston I go…

Boston’s Super Megafest Convention Novemeber 21-22, 2009

Friday November 20, 2010

Ok I’m just curious, do I look dangerous? I mean I know there is a real threat of me breaking out into loud squeals at the thought of seeing James and no one wants that. Because for the second time at the airport in Toronto, I was pulled aside for a random search. To be fair the woman searching me was way more interested in going on a break then looking through my stuff (she kept talking about it to her colleague), but still why me? Maybe they’ve been on the hurt for short Portuguese/Canadians – after all they are known for extreme over-packing and maybe sneaking in/out all kinds of stuff.

The flight was a short and uneventful one though it was pretty full. I flew through getting my bag and catching the shuttle, though in the 5 minutes I waited for my bag, I texted Amy Sue to let her know I had arrived at the airport and that I would be at the hotel soon.

Then I get this strange message back from her asking where her damn drink was, huh? I knew Amy Sue didn’t drink and the message just didn’t sound like her, so I texted back with “huh?” Only to get another message saying she’d been waiting 8 shows for that drink! Once again, huh? So, once I was in the shuttle I called her, only to get FROGGY! Oh… Well that made more sense! Ok, Ok, I was on my way and I’d get him his DAMN drink!

I arrived in Farmington at the Sheraton, checked in, and headed to my room. While I was in the elevator, a guy (who turned out to be a dealer named Mike) turned to me and asked if I was there to see James Marsters. Ok, shock comes over me… and I asked why, do I have the look? He said well frankly yes, but it was that EVERY woman he had seen there so far had come to see James. This made me laugh and I said yeah well we’re a highly organized bunch.

I made it my room and found myself in a Rosie hug – that’s always a good thing –followed by an Amy Sue hug! Once again, ALWAYS a good thing!!! They had just ordered pizza and Joyce had come in to join us. We hung around in our room (Rosie, Amy Sue and me were sharing). Then later, after Iesha arrived and dropped off her bags, we went down to the hotel restaurant and Bar for some drinks. We ran into Steve Himber and Helen in the hallway, and got our hello hugs from Steve (Helen doesn’t hug).

We checked out the convention info table only to find out there wasn’t any info – no schedule, no announcements, no pre-ticket pick up, no registration, NOTHING! We did go and see Jeff at the J&J both to say hi, but we got kicked out because the dealer room wasn’t open yet. Once again, heaven forbid we do any shopping early.

Then off to get some much needed alcohol (for those of us that were drinking). We were joined by Charity and Carol (who’s hubby was taking care of the girls upstairs while she had a girls night or nights of her own) and later by Jeff from J&J Collectibles after he had finished setting up the booth.

We had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, and drank a lot. I took some pictures, of everyone toasting our fun, Jeff doing his Captain Morgan imitation, and when the camera turned on me, I took everyone’s drinks and pretended to be a complete lush! The photo might have worked better if I pretended I was drunk and wasn’t laughing so hard!

I waited for Froggy to come back and join us, after all I was going to get him his “damn” drink, but no Froggy. (TEASE!)

Then it was off to bed!

Saturday November 21, 2009

We woke up early, ordered breakfast – well at least we tried, but the phones in our room didn’t want to cooperate. I got frustrated and just started pressing buttons until one worked (I do the same on computers). I finally got one to ring, only it was the emergency. I told them I was sorry, that I was only trying to order breakfast and they put me through to room service.

Rosie got in the shower first, which left Amy Sue and I with nothing to do but get into trouble. Sure enough, when Rosie came out, we were taking naughty pictures with James standees. No doubt Amy Sue now has a collection of these kinds of pictures, which she will blackmail us with later on.

I lingered in bed too long, so I was the last to leave for downstairs. Rosie was already holding our place in line for the James Marsters Q&A, which started at 11:00am. Now the only reason we even knew this was because we got the info from Steve Himber when we picked up our wristbands (just after 10:00am) because they STILL didn’t have a schedule up. I did snap a picture of us waiting in line.

They let us in about 15 minutes beforehand and we all ended up in the front row (well the ones that had the platinum wristbands). This was a very small space – no stage, no mic (really too small). There was just 3 chairs up front that James was not going to use. The promoter had a friend of his doing the guest intros and he told us that he normally started it with some questions to get the guest to feel more comfortable (not that he looked that comfortable himself), but we let him know that James normally just likes to go straight into questions, and he was an old pro at this. By then, Steve and James had come into the room and were standing in the back. I saw them and waved hello to James (Steve wasn’t paying attention to me). James waved back with a smile.

Then Steve came up to the front, made some announcements about what would be happening that day and when (autographs and photos) plus he gave a promo to the SOPAC event in February and then introduced James.

And while the moderator guy did say a few words, he let James go straight into questions. I was once again lucky enough to ask the first question which was:

“I wanted to ask a little bit of a silly question. What do you like to eat for breakfast, both when you have the time to enjoy it and when you’re rushed?”

James’ reply surprised me. He said that he normally doesn’t eat breakfast until about 4:00pm and just has a glass of milk because he is trying to stay slim. He said that he has gotten used to hunger, but when he does have it later, he likes something like bacon and eggs.

He was asked all kinds of questions – some of the same old and a few new and fun ones. All of which I have forgotten because I am writing this report way later then I should have!

But I did get some on video (not mine but others) including Barbara’s question about what he thought of the Buffy dailies ending up on eBay. So enjoy!

At the end of the Q&A, Steve came up to go over what the schedule was for the day once again and gave a plug for the upcoming “Be My Valentine’s” in February. He also stated that James would be doing a theatre piece, and since James was right in front of me, I asked if he knew what he was going to be doing. I didn’t expect him to tell me if he did. I figured I get a “you’ll have to come to find out” but instead he said “Nope not a clue” which made me laugh.

After the Q&A, it was off to get in line for the James photo ops. It was at this point that I noticed that this convention was not only badly run, but was way too small in space. They didn’t have anyplace for anyone to line up. We were forced to stand in the middle of the hallway leading into the hall, and we had to be very careful as to not stand in front of dealers tables. Seriously, who runs this con? And what were they thinking?

When I got into the photo room and went to greet James, he held out his hand to me to shake it and I stopped dead and asked if I had done something wrong (didn’t mean to it just came out), and he said no why? To which I replied, because you always give me a hug. And he proceeded to hug me hello. (Much better!) Then it was time for our photos.

I had 3 taken, the first was traditional hug, the second was supposed to be me lying my head on his shoulder (but came out more like a hug) and the third was a copy of the mustache picture I did in Philly in August. It would have come out better if my hair wasn’t messed up. (So wish Froggy would point these things out at the time so we could fix them!)

Later that day, after we all got our single photos done, we got back in line for our 2 group shots. The first one was Amy Sue, Rosie, Carol and me in which we were wrapping James up in bubble wrap. So let me explain this picture a little. About a month before, James had been hurt badly on the set of Caprica. He had suffered a concussion and had damaged his back so bad, in fact, that he had to cancel a convention appearance in the UK. When he went to another convention the following week, he wasn’t able to sit, and had to sign autographs lying on a table, poor guy.Well as we (me, Amy Sue and Rosie) were planning on what to do for a group picture, Steve Himber posted that he was going to wrap James up in bubble wrap to keep him safe. I joked to Amy Sue that maybe we should do that in OUR picture and Amy Sue LOVED the idea. We emailed Rosie who also loved the idea and it was on. At the same time, someone else came up with the same idea on the JamesMarstersFans board and suggested that someone do that. Carol stated that she wanted to be part of it, so we contacted her and it was a go. We had spoken to both Steve and Froggy beforehand about it to make sure it was ok and had a back up plan in case James didn’t go for it. But he was game. The really funny part was as we were trying to figure out how to wrap him up, and none of us actually wanted to be the one to do it, Steve took control and grabbed the bubble wrap and wrapped James up himself. If you could see the look of pure joy on Steve’s face, it was priceless! Froggy even got some pictures but refused to show us, big meanie! After Steve finished wrapping him up, we each got into position. We had each brought a prop, so that it looked like we were actually wrapping him up. We all had a good laugh during it and James seemed to be having some fun, so it was great and the photo came out pretty good too.

Next it was the group shot of me, Rosie and Amy Sue. We had decided to go with a see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil picture with James being evil. We explained to him what we were doing and that he just had to look evil and he said he could do that. Amy Sue did hear no evil, Rosie did say no evil and I did see no evil, but peeking out, and James looked in fact quite evil. He told us after that he was thinking evil thoughts during it. I should have asked what they were but I doubt he would have told me. We all thanked him and got our goodbye hugs and off we went.

After that it was off to get our James autographs. The line was long but not too bad. But since Ray Park’s line was a lot shorter, I jumped in it and got his autograph on my Star Wars poster, as well as a picture with him, taken by Amy Sue. Then it was a back to the James line.

While we waited, I went up to check out the bidding sheet. They were having 2 coffee with James sessions on Sunday and in order to get one of the 10 spots, you had to bid. Once the bidding ended, they would take the 10 highest bids and charge the lowest of those bids. There were 2 bids already for both the 10:00am and the10:30am. I wanted to put in a large bid on the first one so that it would discourage people from bidding as much – so I did. Turns out it was the highest bid that weekend. This meant I had to bid lower for the second session, because if they went up to the max, I couldn’t have 2 large bids (well I could I just didn’t WANT to pay that much).

I was able to get the autograph session all on video, which is a really good thing now because I swear I didn’t remember a thing! It starts with giving Steve his Christmas gift, a t-shirt I had made by the wonderful Mel at Geek2Chic T-shirts (http://www.geek2chic.ca/). It says, just in case you can’t read it, “If I wanted your opinion I’d remove the DUCT TAPE from your mouth!” He also asked me when I’m going to bring hubby to one of these, to which I replied when he comes to Toronto. I also got some of Rosie giving James his gifts and his reaction which was great.

Then when it was my turn, I was able to give James his Christmas gift and get him to sign my arm. Why my arm? Because ‘well organized always thinks of everything Magie’ forgot to bring something for him to sign this time – just plain forgot! Oh well, he did say that my skin was really soft so that’s super cool.

Also he liked the t-shirt – a red t-shirt that said “True North, Strong and Free!” After all I am Canadian and I wanted to give him something to reflect that! I told him that if it didn’t fit (I got him a small since he likes them tight), he could give it to Sullivan, and he told me they were wearing each other clothes now. Also, just because both Rosie and Amy Sue had done it, I asked if I could also touch his hair (it looked wonderful all curly and fluffy). He said yes, and leaned towards me so I could. I only stroked the side of his hair a little, since I didn’t want to mess it up and it felt wonderful!!!!

Once I was done, I noticed that Brent Spiner’s autograph line was very short, so I hopped over and got his autograph on my Star Trek poster.

It was funny how he was asking me who had signed (like I remember…). It was also funny (to me) how he told me to follow him on Twitter. I got it all on video, so here it is.

After the autographs, Amy Sue, Rosie and Iesha (who had joined us during the day) and I grabbed some lunch. They had set up some snack type food in the lobby and we grabbed some stuff and took it to our room to eat. It allowed us to decompress a little.

After lunch, it was off to the main room again. Rosie wanted to go through the autograph line once again to get some items signed for a friend (and see James again). The rest of us were waiting around for the auction to end.

As we were waiting, I saw a man that looked really familiar walking towards me. It took me a second until I recognized it was Christopher Golden, whom I had met in person in Atlanta just a couple of months before. I stopped him and said hi and asked what he was doing there, just because if he was signing or something I wanted to let people know. He wasn’t. He had just stopped by because he lives in the area and had brought his son to get Brent’s autograph. He was nice enough to introduce his son to all of us and I introduced him to everyone with me, saying he was the GREAT Christopher Golden who had written all the good Buffy books. Iesha told him he had written one of the only Buffy books that didn’t suck, which wasn’t Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in Row. So I asked if she had read that one because it was sooooo good. (It really is, I highly recommend it to anyone who is a Spike fan!) That and Blackout are the BEST! I also told him that I had enjoyed meeting him at Dragon Con because I could then confirm he was a real person. Up to then I was convinced no ONE person could write that much. He laughed and told me he actually was writing under another name as well (something I knew only because Shiai at Slayer Lit had told me). I told him that I wondered how he found time to sleep. Seriously that man writes a LOT!!! It was really nice of him to stop to talk to us, he was a pleasure to talk to!

The line moved closer to the table and I made the decision to ask James something. I asked Steve first if it was ok if I just asked James something and didn’t get an autograph (well I asked Helen first and she told me to ask Steve). Steve gave me a look, like hmmmm I don’t know but then smiled and said ok.

Rosie said I should go before her, so when I spoke to James the second time, I told him that I had a request for the concert. I said that he didn’t have to but if he didn’t mind I would LOVE to get the set list. He told me that if he remembered he would give it to me, but that he doesn’t always because he is sometimes so disgusted with his performance that he just wants to get off the stage. I wasn’t too happy that he was putting himself down, so I told him that all the concerts I had been to had been WONDERFUL (and they really had!). He did go on about how he sucked and I told him that if he kept putting himself down that I was going to slap him. He kind of pulled back and said “no don’t”. I was only kidding and told him so and that I didn’t like hearing him put himself down because I really liked his music! One day I’m going to have to convince him that fans don’t like to hear anyone, including the artist himself, putting down someone we like. After all, it makes us feel like our taste in music isn’t good and most of us thinks our music taste is very good!

After my conversation with James, I stayed to take some pictures of Rosie while she was talking to James. Then James left, to go do James things, and the rest of us just hung around and talked and waited for the auction to end – all the while watching to see if we got out bid. Steve also left but said he would be back when his Blackberry said 5:00pm so he could close the auction. And he was true to his word. When it was all done, the first session had 10 people all paying $60.00 each for the half hour and the second had 11 people (Steve asked us if it was ok to have 11 and we all said sure) all paying $110.00 for the half hour. Rosie and I were in both groups.

Once the auction was done, we all walked around the dealer room to kill a little time and then we were off to dinner. We had a little while before the concert started at 8:00pm and originally we had a larger group going out, but some people like Carol and Rob decided they needed to stay and get in line for the concert because the hadn’t bought tickets before hand. We all could understand that. Nothing worse then coming all that way and NOT getting in. It was probably a good thing for them because the room was full, and if it wasn’t sold out then it was close to it.

Instead, for dinner we had myself, Amy Sue, Rosie, Iesha and Kim (a newbie). Kim was nice enough to drive us since she had her car and we ended up at Friendly’s (again!). It seems a James fan thing to do now!

I had the Clam Boat again, because, hey it was really good the last time! Iesha kept making fun of me because I picked corn as a side. I like clams and corn so why not? How we didn’t scare Kim away with our special brand of crazy I have no idea. In fact she has joined the fandom since then, I guess crazy attracts’ crazy…

Once dinner was over, it was a short drive back and we all got ready for the concert. The convention organizers had cleared out half the main hall (the part where the autographs tables were) and pulled the wall that divided it close so it made a much bigger room.

Amy Sue, Rosie and I ended up in the front row on the right side, which was great! I did notice a full band set up on the stage which I found weird until someone told me it was for the Monkees concert going on after James. Oh yeah! I forgot they were playing.

At just after 8:00pm, Steve Himber came out and introduced James. He said his hello’s and he went straight to playing. Here is the set list of what was played:

For What I Need

All that She Wanted

Truth is a Heavy Stone

Fall of Night

Don’t Worry Son

Vandals

Moon Shot

Lay About

Civilized Man

First Love

Good Bye

London City

Finer the Gold

Looking at You

Angel

Dangerous

Smile

I have to say that while I was taking pictures the whole time, most came out like crap because of the poor lighting. I mean the really bad-couldn’t-they-get-a-spot lighting! I didn’t want to keep using the flash because that can bother people or worse, piss off James, and when I didn’t they were just terrible! Oh well, what can you do…

During one of the first few songs (don’t remember which one now), James accidently stepped on the cord to his guitar and unplugged him self. He laughed and since he had just started, he plugged the guitar back in and started the song again. Then during Truth is a Heavy Stone, he did it again! This time since he was already a good way through the song, he continued unplugged and even jumped down from the stage and walked down the center aisle while he was singing. It was terrific! Jean later told me he had said “Hi Jean” to her during that walk, how cool is that?

All in all it was a GREAT performance and I know everyone loved it!!! The best part for me was at the end. The stage was a good distance from the first row, so when James finished playing no one jumped up and grabbed the set list. Instead, James bent down picked it up and said that he was supposed to give it to someone and started to look around. I, of course, jumped up and he smiled and came down off the stage to hand it to me. He also said “See I remembered!” And I replied with a witty “yes, you did!” (smacks own head!). He also blew me a kiss after I took it! I just about melted right then and there!!!

Most of us filed out of the room, but a few stayed for the Monkees. I had planned to catch it myself (since it was included in my ticket), but I was tired and I wanted a drink! So a large group of us went to the hotel restaurant/bar. We ended up having a blast, lots of laughs and joking around as well.

At one point I left so I could go to the front desk. I wanted to send a drink up to James room as a thank you for the giving me the set list, but on my way I ran into Steve Himber and Helen and he told me James was pretty tired and had just gone to bed. Oh, well…

Then after a while, as we were sitting in the bar and guess who walks in – JAMES! He headed straight to the bar. I believe it was Rosie who saw him, none of us moved at first. We waited to see what would happen.

Then, after we saw that he was staying for a while, I got up and went over. He was talking to a few fans and I waited until he was finished. When he was, he turned to me and said “Hi darling.” I said hi and I told him that I didn’t want to disturb him, but that I was hoping I could buy him a drink to saying thank you for giving me the set list. He said sure and I that I was welcome for the set list. He also said that I should consider it an early birthday gift. (OK – DROPS DEAD FROM SHOCK!) I think I actually stood there blinking at him for a few minutes and then replied with, “How did you know my birthday was coming up?” He smiled and said, “Because you told me before. See I do remember some things.” WOW!!! Really you could have knocked me over with a feather.

We chatted about a few things while I was waiting for his drink to be made and so that I could pay for it. I don’t remember what he was drinking other then it was tall and clear. It wasn’t a gin and tonic, more like a vodka and tonic, but I’m no longer sure. He did say that he thought that they had some stupid drinking rules in the city. He said they would only bring up ONE drink an hour to his room and that he wanted more than that. I agreed that it was silly, because you could drink as much as you wanted in the bar, but they wouldn’t bring more then one per hour to your room? Most people have 2 glasses of wine with dinner, so that’s just weird. I did wonder what would happen if you had more than one person in the room. Also a really funny thing was that I mentioned to James that Steve was also in the restaurant (just in case he hadn’t seen him). He very seriously said, “Don’t tell him I’m here!” I laughed and said OK.

Then I thanked him and left him to his drink. We all kept an eye on him – hard not to when James is in the room. It seemed he was having a great time holding court with some fans and just talking away. He was even taking pictures with people (with their camera for free).

Then, some time later, came what I call Mikegate! One of the dealers at the convention named Mike, same one from the elevator, came over to our table and started talking to us. He was joking a lot, just having fun and messing with us. I think he was hitting on Iesha, but he was grabbing Kim a lot (since he was standing right behind her). She was not happy about that and I can’t blame her. I do remember telling him to leave her alone because she was new and he would scare her away but I don’t think he got that.

Well at one point, and I really don’t know how this happened, other than maybe Iesha joking that he should go and get James and bring him over to us. Well he did JUST THAT. The funny part was, as we were watching this, we all started saying things like “he’s actually going over there, he’s talking to him, OH GOD HE’S BRINGING HIM OVER!” “No, No, NO!!!” Well James did come over – brought over by Mike – and he is in a GREAT mood. He hugged and kissed Squirl and a couple of others at the other table and tells Mike that he loves us. I can’t remember all of what was said, a lot of good humor joking. BUT I did get some of it on video! Enjoy!!! I know we did.

James went back to the bar area after talking to us and we all just sat there and were like WOW! Oh and just a note James did turn down SEVERAL drinks, since people kept offering. He said he had had enough, but he didn’t turn down mine, hehehehehehe…

None of us wanted to leave while James was in the bar in fear of missing something. Rosie finally dragged me out of there at around 12:30am. We did hear later that James left about half an hour later and we didn’t missing anything – good to know!

Sunday November 22, 2009

I took longer to get ready than both Amy Sue and Rosie (big surprise there), so they left me behind to finish getting ready. I cut it close, but as I went down in the Elevator I met up with Steven (cute guy we had met during the weekend that was also a James fan), who was also going to the coffee with James. He was nice enough to give me his arm and walk to the room. Well, I actually just took it and he let me hold on like a gentleman. We ran into Steve Himber along the way and I was able to pay him for the coffee sessions. I asked him if James was already there. He said no that he was just on his way up to get him.

We arrived just after 10:00am and I went for the coffee right away. Hey, Magie needs her coffee in the AM. The funny part was we told Helen that they would have to get more sugar for the next session and she they scolded us for only leaving 2 packs.

The session was taking place in the same room that Froggy was using for pictures. Guess most places were being used for double purposes. Steve came in shortly, followed by James, who was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. After we all said good morning, I noticed that James didn’t have a coffee but had a small container of milk, which I thought was interesting. James started answering questions, first about working on Angel and working on Moonshot. He let us know how his back was doing (he had hurt it the month before). He told us about working with Camden Toy.

I asked about working on Angel on the episode “Damage” because I had always wanted to know what it was like working with the little girl and how he had to chain her up and pretend to torture her. He didn’t seem to remember any of it and we figured out that it wasn’t him at all. He shot his scenes on his own and it wasn’t him carrying her – in truth you never see his face in the scenes with her. I’m usually pretty good at spotting the stunt man, but I guess not in this case. Well that answers that! He did say that the actress playing the grown up slayer (the insane one) was TERRIBLE! She didn’t know her lines and figured just because she was pretty she wouldn’t have to know them. He said she made a fool of herself and everyone thought that she would come in the next day better prepared but sure enough it was the same mess.

This lead into him telling us how he really disliked the actress that played his Mother on Buffy – how not only did she come on to him but that her sons had come to the set and he thought they looked defeated and he thought she was likely a cruel person.Then he was asked what he was doing for Thanksgiving the following week. He said he would be at home but neither of the kids liked turkey so all he had to do was cook a chicken. James said he was doing the cooking and he was a pretty good cook. I then said that he would have to cook dinner for us some time and James joked that Steve was going making a note about this one! Steve did say he did have quite a large dining room. Hmmmmm dinner at Steve Himber’s cooked by James! I’d go for that!!!

James said that he was a good wife, that he did it all, he cooked, he cleaned and did everything! Hmmmm… any way I could get him to over to my place and do all of that? NOW THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING HUBBY WOULD FINALLY LIKE!

I did ask that since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and always on a Monday what Americans did on the Friday after their Thanksgiving, did they get that day off from work? Most people said yes or they took it off. Oh! OK. James then asked why it was called Black Friday and since I knew this (ha! Expansion came from the Canadian!) I told everyone it is because it’s the day that most retail store goes into “the black” on the books. I then explained that in Canada we have Boxing Day (day after Christmas) in which we have all our big sales, Rosie said it was the same in England.

Since this lead to a discussion on holidays, I asked James how his girlfriend felt over the fact that he was leaving her alone for Valentine’s Day once again this year. Since my husband was making a stink this year about me leaving him alone again.

He never really answered the question, but went on about how if a girl was with him she had to be with him. He also talked about how he was concerned that his girlfriend was telling him what he wanted to hear. She had taken his niece to see ‘New Moon’ and when he asked what she thought of it and Robert Pattinson, she had told him she didn’t like it and that she thought Robert Pattinson looked worse than in the first movie. He thought that maybe she was just telling him what he wanted to hear but I pointed out that maybe she really felt like that.

Shortly after, Steve Himber said that our time was over (for the first session). Rosie, me and Iesha stayed behind since we were in both session, but we did get hugs even though we were staying, which is always good.

One of the first things James talked about in the second session was doing the Dresden Files books and how hard they could be and how tired he was after reading them. I did ask (saying that I was being purely selfish) if he could do the voice for Toot Toot (which I LOVE!!!). He said in Toot Toot’s voice that he doesn’t do it unless he was being paid. I just love, love, love it when he does that!

I also told him how, because of the Dresden audio books not only did I get into them but also after taking one on a long drive with hubby, he also got in them (and has read every one since). He thought that was great!

He also talked about doing Caprica and how he didn’t think his character was dead even though he gets blown up.

James also talked about technology. I told James how it was just so weird that people felt this need to be connected but that they didn’t interact at all anymore. He agreed. I also mentioned it would be really great if he was Twitter and gave us updates BUT he said "Never gonna happen. Never gonna happen!" Awwwwww. Magie sad now, Magie wants James Tweets!

Then Iesha asked James if he would do the tongue dill (its where he kind of turns his tongue around) for us, since some of us wanted to see it. He did it and I asked how he does it, because as hard as I may try, I can’t do it at all. I can’t even come close. He laughed and said. “Juilliard!” I laughed and said you had to go to Juilliard to learn that and he said, “Juilliard was good for something!"

I did get this on video BUT Steve told us no video so I’m not allowed to post it. SUCKS FOR EVERYONE ELSE because DAMN James tongue action is something to be seen!

It was after this that Steve began kicking us out since our time was up. None of us wanted to leave (even James), but he had a Q&A to get to (and us too). I did get another hug goodbye and I thanked him for doing these sessions. He said, “You’re welcome darling.”

I hurried out and headed over to the small Q&A room, only to find that most of the front seats had been taken. What pissed me off was that they were taken by gold ticket holders, which meant that even though I paid more for my VIP ticket, I had to sit behind them. I really should have said something to the convention about this (still might!).

I was about 4 rows back and, as a result, did not get to ask the first question, which grrrrrr!

I taped some of the Q&A again – including my question, which was “how did the girls he wrote songs about feel about them”, interesting non-answer if you ask me.














Also I found some video on YouTube for the Q&A (which were taped by Joyce) so here are the links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfGEyxR7Lko&feature=PlayList&p=0FF087A0AAD90E76&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=65

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY8SukcFBTQ&feature=PlayList&p=0FF087A0AAD90E76&playnext_from=PL&playnext=2&index=66

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC3v2bvSdbw&feature=PlayList&p=0FF087A0AAD90E76&playnext_from=PL&playnext=3&index=67

After the Q&A, we headed out to the autograph line up for James. There wasn’t anyone else’s autograph I wanted to get so he was it. There really wasn’t much time between the Q&A and the photo ops, about an hour for the autographs, so I asked Steve if James was signing after the photo ops. That way, we could line up for the photos now and then take our time after the photos to line up for autographs. Steve said he wasn’t sure and it was better to be safe and get them now if we wanted them. OK… So we all went to get in line (me, Rosie, Amy Sue, Iesha and Kim).

It was longish, but we got through it pretty fast. I had to remember what I had really, really wanted to tell James and, in fact, was the entire reason I had come to the convention. It was brought on by a conversation I had had with him. I really wanted to make it clear the entire reason I came to see him was because I admired him as an artist. Not that James has ever said anything to me, but more of a sense I got from him that when his looks go so will his fans. I really wanted to make it clear that for many that was NOT going to be the case.

I got it all on video because, let’s face it folks if I didn’t do that, I would NEVER remember what he said to me. The James fog that attacks afterwards so you can’t remember your own name let alone what was talked about!

I was having the set list signed from last night as I was told (by Rosie) that is what you’re supposed to have done with it. Hmmmm… I didn’t know that and I was happy to have something for him to sign (since once again I had forgotten to bring anything that weekend). Amy Sue had suggested that I ask him if he had found a plumber since the set list was written on the back of a list of plumbers in LA. But I didn’t.

Now I was able to give James some gifts, first just a couple of items for the kids. Then his favourite treat, maple candy, and in addition I printed out and put in a booklet a full walkthrough of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds video game. He had told us at Dragon Con that he couldn’t get past the 2^nd level and really wanted to get to the Spike level, so I gave him a walkthrough to help him get there.

After I gave him his gifts, I realized that Steve hadn’t handed him the set list, so I reached over and grabbed it from him and put it in front of James. Steve said he was sorry (no big deal) and told James that it was to Magie with the one “G”. James signed it “To Magie, Bite Me,” which was cool.

Once we were done with the autographs, it was off to the photos. Once again we had to line up in the hallway and try to stay out of people’s way. But today’s line wasn’t as long and there were less people at the convention, so it wasn’t as bad.

When it was my turn to go up to James, I got a hug right off. This time he didn’t even try the handshake. Then I showed him the 3 pictures I wanted to do, but I started with an idea I got after seeing James in the muscle t-shirt the day before and having the biceps showing. I thought it would be funny if he flexed a muscle and I stood behind him making an “Oh” face. It came out that you can’t see my face as much as I would have liked but you still get the idea and I like the bored look James has!

The second and third were pictures we had done before, the second was James kissing my nose, which didn’t come out as good as before. And the third was me kissing his nose, but he bent down for me and it didn’t look as good as the first time (which is still one of my favourites ever).

Once the photos were over, we all headed back to the main hall. There were a lot less people around now, so we got to just hang around and watch James. Rosie got back in line for her second autograph, she was having some CDs signed for a friend (I believe) and I took some pictures – including one of my favourites of Steve and James together. Which looks really, really good! And a funny one of James and Rosie. I loved the way they are playing around.

This is truly one of the best things about smaller cons, James (or any of the Celebs) have the time to play around and enjoy themselves!

We all hung around until James left and we said goodbye to him. Soooooo sad no more James (or so I thought!).

Iesha was complaining loudly now that she wanted to get some food because she was hungry. She also had to get going since she was driving home and wanted to make it before it was dark, but like most of us she didn’t want to leave while James was still around.

So we all headed in the restaurant/bar for some food. And after a while guess who walks in? If you guessed anyone other than James Marsters you’d be wrong! We were, I believe, all a little stunned, since we all thought James had left. Normally when a con ends (and sometimes even before), Steve takes James off to catch a flight. So I guessed their flight was later or maybe just James was later and Steve had already left.

Well James Marsters walks into a bar and… Magie gets up and goes to buy him another drink! There were a lot less people in the bar today, so it was a lot easier to talk to him. I really didn’t want to disturb him and as I was walking up I heard him thank a couple who were sitting there for the drink (heart sank). So I said that I had wanted to buy him a drink but if he already had one… He said no he would drink it quick and I could get him another one. He was drinking the same as last night but once again I forgot was it was. The bartender was busy ignoring us, so it took a while to order it and even longer to pay for it. I had thought to just go buy him a drink and thank him for the weekend and leave, it turned out I talked to him for a bit, maybe 15-20 minutes.

I really wish I could remember everything, but the entire time all that was screaming in my head was “I’M TALKING TO JAMES MARSTERS! ON HIS OWN TIME!” I do remember him talking about how no one remembers his birthday, to which I know I gave him a funny look and asked him what he was talking about because (the fans) always make a big deal about it! He thought about that for a minute and laughed and said yeah I guess you do but that his kids didn’t remember his birthday. I said oh well they are still young, give them time before life is not all about them. He shrugged and said that he still didn’t know when his parents birthday were and followed that right up with but they were bad parents anyway. Awwwww well that sucks!

Also I did get to play photographer for a few people that came up and wanted pictures. I was happy to do it mostly because it felt like I wasn’t just standing around basking in the joy that is James (looks innocent…). One of the pictures I took even ended up on Twitter (posted by the couple that was in it).

http://twitpic.com/qkbef

Then James and I talked about New Moon, he told me again how his girlfriend took his niece to go see it and how she said she didn’t like it, but he thinks she is just saying it to make him feel better and he wasn’t happy with it. I then told him that while I did like it, I did think Robert Pattinson looked worse in this one so maybe she did too and she wasn’t just saying it. He agreed maybe that was true. By then he had finished my drink and I had finally paid for it, and as he was about to leave I told him that every time I was asked if I was team Edward or team Jacob that I said I was team Spike! He laughed and said “YEAH!” Then I told him that I should get him a “Then Buffy Staked Edward. The End.” T-shirt (as a joke), and he stopped walking (we were headed out of the bar area), looked at me and said “Yes! Please!” I was a little stunned and asked “Really?” he replied with “Yes!” OK, I can do that!

We then said good bye and he was off and I went back to our table floating on air!

We all sat around after eating and talked, Iesha finally tore herself away saying all the while “I am so glad I did not NOT come!” and left for the drive home. We also lost Kim as she had to get home as well (though she was closer).

Amy Sue and I went to our room with Rosie since she was packing to leave. We both were staying an extra day but Rosie had to leave that night. We walked her back down to lobby and stayed with her until she left. It is always sad when one of us leaves.

Amy Sue and I ended up talking to Froggy, who was waiting on a few people so they could go to dinner. He was telling a story of a fan taking pictures with James that was so funny both of us had tears in our eyes. Both Squirl and Froggy invited us to join them for dinner, but neither of us were hungry (having just eaten), so we were supposed to join them later for drinks.

Which we would have done except I was not feeling well later on. All that drinking (I’m not much of a drinker, so a little is a lot to me) was getting to me and my acid reflux was playing havoc on the back of my throat. Now normally I would ignore this and keep drinking or whatever, but I was worried that I it could cause trouble with my upcoming surgery (getting my tonsils removed) later in the week.

So instead I stayed in and edited my pictures from the weekend. Amy Sue was sweet enough to keep me company the entire night. She is one of the nicest, sweetest people you will ever meet! Now having said that don’t let her sweetness fool you, she is also evil and takes incriminating pictures which I can only guess go into a folder marked “In case Blackmail is ever needed”.

So it was a pretty quiet night for us both. I think we even had dinner in our room.

Monday November 23, 2009

Amy Sue had to get up early so she could catch her early flight. It was so sad to say goodbye to her as well. It’s just too bad that my friends live so far away from me! But I guess it makes getting together that much sweeter!

I went back to bed after Amy Sue left, both because I’m not a morning person and because I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. I just couldn’t get to sleep as much as I tried and I think I kept Amy Sue up with the light from my computer, but she was too nice to tell me to turn it off.

I woke later, ordered breakfast, lounged around since the hotel was nice enough to give me a late check out (and when I say late, I meal like 5:00pm late) since my flight was later that night.

Then I hit the gym, did some time on the tread mill and hit the pool. I had to wait to go swimming since all the lanes were taken but once one freed up I was able to do some laps. Probably worked off one of those damn drinks.

I was disappointed they didn’t have a whirlpool and I tried their sauna instead. Didn’t really like it that much I have to say. Found that dry heat isn’t all that much fun. Give me a steam room any day and I’m a happy girl.

Then it was back to the room to pack up and get ready to leave. I got the shuttle to airport which again was at night so I saw NOTHING of Boston (guess I’ll have to go back one day and check it out).

I did start my report while waiting for my flight, but all good intentions for having it done right away somehow went out the window, especially since it now 4 months later and I am only now finishing it! BAD MAGIE!

I will say that the only funny thing on the trip back was, when I got to Canada Customs, the guard questioned the fact that I went away for 3 days and bought nothing (photo ops and autographs don’t count). I told him well we didn’t leave the hotel, to which he asked so what did you guys do that whole time and I told him “LOTS OF DRINKING!” He found that funny.

Ok so that’s it, my full report from Boston Super MegaFest Convention. Oh and for anyone wondering, my surgery to take out my tonsils went fine. Was in a lot more pain than I thought I would be but the drugs were good and the healing took a lot longer than I ever imagine it would, but if nothing else I lost weight from the not eating for 2 weeks. See all things have a silver lining.

Magie

I’m not able to post all the pictures I took because there are just too many but if you’re interested in seeing them you can do so here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85344102@N00/sets/72157622734443187/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85344102@N00/sets/72157622734665655/

Special Thanks to Ali for editing this post!

Comments are always welcome! So if you enjoyed it please say so!