paint the sky with stars

What's this! An actual recap of FanExpo stuff? AMAZING.

No pics yet. Will work on that but this requires less bandwidth and time.

First off, in general I must say this was the best run FanExpo has ever been. The only hiccups I saw were some volunteers not being as good at organizing as others and no posted autograph times. Other than that though, things were pretty good. And now onto the panels ...

( Play-by-plays for the panels ... at least what I remember of them )

First day of FanExpo was fun but ... interesting. I wanted to pop into La Senza before going over so that Alison could see my costume but then apparently a streetcar caught fire at Spadina station or something? IDK. But there were shuttle buses. And they didn't come. So then we found a group of people in costume and were going to split a cab ... which also didn't come. So we started walking and then after awhile we saw an almost empty shuttle bus which let us on between stations and took us to St George. So, an hour and a half after leaving home we finally got to the convention (I decided not to bother with La Senza at that point).

And then we see this MASSIVE LINE OF DOOOOOOOOM. And we hoped it was for people who hadn't bought tickets in advance. Nope. That line was even longer. So probably another hour or so spent then. But finally we were in.

We popped into the dealer's room first and saw a few interesting things. Went to the autograph area and not only found out how much Tahmoh is charging but also saw him, which was snazzy. Then we went to a Q&A with Peter Mayhew (aka Chewbacca), followed by one with Dean Stockwell (who has had a MUCH more prolific career than I thought ... guy has been in movies with Frank Sinatra, Katherine Hephburn, Errol Flynn!).

Then we left and did go to La Senza, because my schedule for next week has shifted around a bit AGAIN and I needed to find out what the new shifts were. And now we are back. And it is good.

So, today was...interesting.

It started great, with a Q&A panel for Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris on Voyager as well as a lot more behind-the-scenes stuff than I realized, including Chuck, Supernatural, some other stuff...he hasn't actually acted since 2001!) which was hilarious. So glad we went in for that one.

Then things started to go downhill. We wanted to go to the vendor room for a few autographs. We missed Thomas Dekker before and hoped he might come back but didn't (not unexpected though or overly disappointing). Then we got in line for the meet and greet with Scott McNeil. It wasn't a very long line so I thought we'd get through quickly.

We didn't. We were there for over an hour because everyone was taking like, five minutes with him and finally we just bailed because we wanted to catch Aaron Douglas before the panel and we were already late to meet people.

Then we got to Aaron Douglas...and I realized I had forgotten my Last Supper photo at home. So I didn't get an autograph because I don't really want one just of him that much. But I did get a picture of us together which was okay. I was in a really pissed off mood though.

Then we got Margaret's picture with Mary which turned out GREAT (so jealous) and went to Aaron's panel and it was awesome, so definitely ending on a high note.

All and all, FanExpo was pretty fun. But it wasn't as good as it could have been. For a professionally run convention, there were a lot of kinks and just plain failures in logic (they didn't have a microphone set up for people asking questions in the panels, for example!). I'm planning to write an email to the company or something with suggestions. And maybe make myself look like a good person to hire to help or something. Who knows, might work. Might not. It's worth trying anyway.

So then we were done and I still had con funds left so we went to the Eatons Center and bought some stuff at La Senza, then went to Best Buy and I now own the 2.0 box set of BSG (so I have the entire series now, HURRAH)...and then I spotted season 1 of How I Met Your Mother for $20 and picked it up as well. So slightly overspent but not by much and I'll just deposit my cash into my bank account and I'll be fine when the bill needs to be paid.

Still SUPER disappointed at the lack of Mary, since again, that was going to be the highlight of the con. But yeah, it was a good time. Just not as good as it maybe could have been (it definitely is the weakest con experience that I have).

Ooooooooo! Thomas Dekker and Emma Caulfield were just confirmed as FanExpo guests. So awesome!

I even have an appropriate icon, hurrah!