whiski_sour | DragonCon...Saturday (Reply)

This was the day I wore my tank top that said, "I Promote Literacy" printed right across the bust. I had a guy ask to take a picture of it. Afterwards, his wife says, "I normally don't stare at breasts, but I made the exception in this case. That's hilarious." Yeah, that shirt will go back next year.

Saturday began with the Stargate Megapanel which featured Cliff Simon, David Nykl, Torri Higginson, Rainbow Sun Francks, and Beau Bridges. And, RJ.

RJ is a track member serving in the Canadian military. Two years ago, he was sent to Afghanistan and the track gave him a nice send off. This year, he was back, and so he got a proper welcome at the beginning of the panel. Not only did the celebs give him a standing ovation, but Beau Bridges invited him to sit with them and answer some questions during it. It was great.

The curse of the furries continues. Last year Chris Judge asked about them; this year, Rainbow did. It did not end well.

I like the Stargate panels because Marsha knows the audience will ask show related questions, so she asks random ones. This panel she asked what they'd done the night before and what they watched on television when they were eleven. Out of the seven panelists (I'm including RJ 'cause Beau had him answer the question), three didn't have TVs at that age. Guess which ones. Heh.

I was just geeked I got to hear Radek without the accent.

After another trip to the dealer rooms (in which I actually bought stuff!) and some food, we headed to the Stargate track room for the Interactive Episode panel. Basically, it was the SG-1 episode "Window of Opportunity" done Rocky Horror style. Oh man, was it fun. Lots of audience participation. And for once, I got to be among the special snowflakes; I was one of the few chosen to draw a smiley face with ketchup and mustard on a paper plate. If you've seen the episode, you know why.

Now, I'm not going to list every celeb we saw wandering around because like I said, it's common place (we saw over twenty and a few more than once), but I do want to talk about this particular instance just because it was so surreal and awesome.

Carrie and I were sitting on a bench by the escalators on a lower level of the Mariott trying to decide what we're going to next. As we're discussing it, Grant Wilson from Ghost Hunters walks by and proceeds to take a picture of someone in costume. We didn't even have a chance to recover from that when I spot Lou Ferrigno, who stops in front of us to talk to someone. As I point him out to Carrie, we both realize he's talking to Sean Astin. The Hulk and a hobbit, having a conversation. Surreal.

And then what happens? They part ways and Lou goes into the GYM! I don't know why it was so awesome to see a former professional bodybuilder, to see the Hulk, go into the gym, but it was.

I barely recovered in time to register that David Nykl was going down the escalator next to us. I whimpered, I'm sure.

It all happened in the span of about fifteen minutes. It was just wild.

After that, we went back to the hotel, changed, and came back for people watching. We put on our pretty clothes for the night. I wore a skirt. Trufax.

While people watching on the Atrium level, I saw the GI Joe that had marched in our parade group last year on the Lobby level. I ended up running into him later and we talked for a bit. He marched in the parade again this year as GI Joe, but wasn't stuck in the miscellaneous group. Baron from Hawaii. Cool guy.

At some point, I went out for a smoke outside of the Atrium, which is above the entrance. I took a picture for a drunk guy and his new friends (one of which had a granade belt full of Old Style...and I'm pretty sure he'd already refilled it once). Then there was screaming from below us. We all rush the railing to see what was going on, but couldn't see anything. The guy next to me suddenly exclaims, "There could be live sex down there! I don't know!"

And then I got hit on by a dude named Claudio from Florida.

Pictures we didn't take: Swedish Chef, Fry, and people who shouldn't have been showing so much skin. No, really. There are limits.

On the way back to the hotel, we had an interesting encounter with two BSG cast members (names withheld to protect the drunk) on a street corner that gave rise to our DragonCon catchphrase, "That's what happens when you drink cheap beer on a street corner".

My last memory of the night was passing the filking panel on the way back to our room and thinking, "Oh, yeah, no."

This was the latest night for us. We didn't get to bed until after three.