Fangoria Conventio Report & Ottawa Weekend Report. June 28, 2007 - July 1, 2007

Magie’s Convention Report and Vacation Weekend. (Secaucus, NJ, USA & Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

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Personally I enjoy reading Convention Reports that are full of details, so this one will be full of all the details I can remember. If you don’t like reading long reports, then I will start with a very condessed review.

Short review of the convention Friday only:

Arrived Thursday Morning, checked in to the Hotel (it was a very nice Hotel). While I had hope to meet up with Lizz and Wendy. They were both delayed. So I didn’t meet up them until Friday.

Friday was a crazy day, but I made it back to hotel for the Photo’s with James Marsters. I got to give him his gift, a 7 inch figure of Kurt Cobane, playing a guitar. He really liked it, and told me, how he has gotten his Son into Nirvana now. James was sooooo friendly touching and hugging!!! I quite enjoyed being all grabbed by James. The Q&A was great, even though it started 20 minutes late. The Autographs was wonderful, James was VERY talkative, and spoke to everyone. So much so that it took a very long, long, time to get through. He spent a good 3 to 5 minutes with every one. Steve was going nuts, trying to move every thing along, he kept reminding James to hurry up, he told me (Steve) that he didn’t care how long it took, but for the fact that they had to be out of the room by a certain time. I did make James blush, with my comment (but in a good way).Unfortunately, that was it for me, because I had to leave very early.

Full Convention and Trip Report:

Thursday June 28, 2007

My day started out early, since I had to be at the airport at 5:15am to check in for my 7:20am flight. I don’t know why, I always end up with the early flights. This time my trip through US customs was OK, I learned from last time to NOT tell them I was going to a convention, so I just told him I was going on vacation and meeting up with friends. He did want to know where my friends were from, but I BS a bit and made him laugh, so it was nice to not be yelled at.

I arrived in Newark right after 9:00am, was able to find the airport train, and then the train to Secaucus. The problems only started once I arrived at the Secaucus station. I was supposed to call the hotel and have them send the shuttle to come and pick me up. But, my cell phone would not work in New Jersey, which is fine; expect that the pay phone there was not working either. And of course there were no cabs, I wondered around looking for another pay phone and couldn’t find any. I tried to buy air time with Verizon for my cell phone, so that I could use my cell phone. But, first the automated messages asked for my credit card info, then my zip code (don’t have a zip code since I am from Canada) them, my address (how do you put in your street name on the phone?) I got so frustrated, I hung up! I was getting ready to throw my phone or start crying, since all I wanted was a ride. When a cab pull up. I was happy to see him. There was so many people waiting for a cab that he had us share it, I personally did not care, I just want to get to the hotel. I finally got to the hotel and then had a fight on my hands. I knew I was going to they early, so I asked them for an early check in, I was assured I could get it. I called the day before and once again I was told it was no problem. So when I got there and was told that check in was at 3:00pm, I had to get the supervisor involved. But finally, they gave me my room. The room was great, and I hit the king size bed for a nap!!!

Later, I went out to the outlet mall for some shopping, Secaucus has quite a few outlet stores. I didn’t find much, but still bought a couple of things. I made it back to hotel, and waited for both Lizz and Wendy, but I had already been told that there were weather problems, so I figured I would not see them that night. But I had a great dinner, and ended up hearing from Lizz later. Poor Wendy only got in at 11:30pm. And I was asleep by then.

Friday June 29, 2007

The day for me started early (and just so everyone knows, I am NOT a morning person). I was up at 6:00am to be ready for the tour bus to New York. The bus left at 7:35am for a tour of New York City. I had never been there, so I was really excited about going, unfortunately neither the tour itself nor the guide were very good. But I did get to see the city and that was great.

We saw Central Park,

St. Patrick’s Cathedral,

Rockefeller Plaza,

Grand Central Station,

and ground zero of the world trade center.

We also drove through the several areas of the city. But, the tour was just a little taste of the city. I so have to go back, and do it right. And next time, I will take hubby since I think he will really enjoy the city. I was back at the hotel just before 3:00pm.

Just in time to get ready for James. The first thing was James’s Photo shoot, even though the

photos were extra and not cheap the line for them was long, and everyone was so excited to see James. I saw many familiar faces, so to anyone that saw me and I didn’t say hi to, then let me say “Hi” now. James was so great during the photos. He was sweet and soooooo hugging!!! I gave him a gift just before the photo shoot it was a 7 inch figure of Kurt Cobain. He liked it, he told me that he has just gotten his son into Nirvana, and what Sullivan first reaction to hearing them, and how he play in on the piano. The photographer was also great, he was nice and offered to burn the pictures onto a CD for anyone who wanted them (for a fee) but since I wouldn’t be there for the next day when they were ready. I jumped at that. I also got to see them, and they were great.

The first one was James and I hugging, the second was him giving me a kiss on the side of the head, and the third was him holding me, during the Spike tough thing. I LOVED THEM!!!

After the photos was the Q&A which started about 30 minutes late because James had to get through that long line. James was great, he was in a great mood, and asked for embarrassing questions. It was also really nice because no one asked the same old Spike questions. Everyone asked great questions. Once the Q&A was done, James went to sign Autographs.

Now I have been to a few of his autographs signing, ones where he was in a good mood, and was happy, ones where he was not in as good of mood. But he did get to through them all pretty fast. He has to, since there are so many people. But this one, he talked to everyone for a long time, even people that didn’t ask him anything, he just talked and talked. Steve (Himber) was getting really upset with. Though he did tell me (Steve) that he didn’t care how long it took expect for the fact that they had to be out of the room by a certain time. And I have now confirmed who the song “Dangerous” was written about, it was widely believed it was written about Michelle Trachtenberg, well I can now confirm it was in fact written about her. I watch/heard James tell another fan, as he was signing a copy of the BTVS season 6 DVD, point to Michelle and said that she drove him crazy. And how she wanted him to be her boyfriend but was only 15, and how even wrote the song Dangerous about her. I swear I was standing there, wanting to say “I knew it!” But didn’t. When it finally cam to my turn, James was sweet, and I told him that I thought his laugh was sexy, he asked “Really? I always thought it was goofy!” Then he said that I was making him blush! But by then, Steve had moved beside him, and was talking about getting a cattle Prod. Which was my suggestion (as a joke to Steve). So he didn’t speed too much time with me. And with that my James time ended (so sad).

After the autographs, I went to have dinner with Wendy and her husband, we had a nice visit and it was very nice meeting Fredrick. Lizz did join us a little later, so it was nice to have a little minnie get together. Then it was off to bed, since I had to be up VERY early.

Saturday June 30, 2007 – The whole reason I had to cut short my time with James is that I had a Wedding to go to, but let me just say that 1 day with James is just not enough!!! I woke up at 3:00am (which a lot of time is when I go to sleep) I was at the airport by 4:15am to be able to check in for my 6:20am flight. But, I get there and the Air Canada ticket counter is still closed. Ok, no big deal, I will just use the automatic check in machine. Ok, done and have my boarding pass in hand, but then I find out I have to waiting for the ticket counter anyway because they have to check my bag. Great! So I waited around when I could have slept an extra hour.

Ok, get though everything and the plane was on time, so off back to Toronto I go, since that is where my connecting flight to Ottawa was, I slept the entire flight (which wasn’t long anyway). I get in to Toronto, get though Canadian customs (which are soooo much nicer than US customs) and get to the Air Canada counter, since I had hope to changed my flight and take the one that was an hour earlier. Well it turn out that the trains were running due to some strike and the 9:10am flight was over booked, I could go on stand by for that flight but there was already 50 people on the stand by list. So I had to wait for my 10:10am flight. Have I ever mentioned that I hate just sitting around waiting!!! Oh, well I get to Ottawa, had to wait for Rick (who did not listen to me as to where I would be waiting) and as soon as I saw him, I started yelling (I know not the nicest way to greet your husband) but I said the line that he then repeated the rest of the weekend “I’m on a very tight schedule”. We went to the hair salon, they did my hair in record time and even gave Rick an hair cut. We then headed back to the hotel, and got dressed. And while we left a little later than I had scheduled, we still made it the church with plenty of time. The ceremony was nice, and the church was very pretty. When we left it had started to rain, but it was raining with the sun out, which if nothing else was very pretty. We then drove around a bit, and then headed to the reception. It was at a golf club, and was very nice. The only problem was that first it was cold. Rick had to give me his jacket at some point, and then the speeches went on FOREVER. They talked for close to 2 hours. This was at the end of the night I had been up since 3:00am and then had to listen to them go on and on, and on. The grooms parents went on for a good 20 minutes, but it was the Bride and Groom that insisted on thanking everyone who ever lived, and talked for 45 minutes. After that, we got the hell out of there. I was tired and REALLY WANT TO SLEEP.

Sunday July 1, 2007 – Canada Day. Here is some advice, if planning to go sight seeing in Ottawa, DON’T DO IT ON CANADA DAY. We did go to Parliament Buildings, but they were having a big thing so we couldn’t see the Building themselves (as in go in them) we hung around a little, and then headed to Byward Market (downtown) to check it out and I wanted to get Rick a Beaver Tail (Since he never had one). But we could find parking (all the lots were full) I had to jump out and get the Beaver Tails. So by then, we just decided to head home. The drive was a little hard because we were both tried and I fell asleep, making it hard for Rick to stay awake. But we made it back to Toronto in one piece.

So that was it, Magie’s adventures for now. I did manage to learn a few things; first 1 day of James is not even close to enough. Second, I have to go back to NYC and spend a few days. Third, if you don’t really want to go to a Wedding FIND A WAY OUT OF IT!!!!

Magie