Friday, July 29th:
Friday night was the cocktail party...Eurydice72 and I did the fangirl thing with Drew Goddard and got our pic taken with him. He's very tall and extremely funny. I also briefly spoke to Leary who was having a great time as always. Other than that, we pretty much chatted and hung out with Live Journal friends (sharvie, sam_gamgee, nakedwesley, oanimation, spikegurl, ghostgirl13 and treebee along with a few others whose nicks I didn't catch) which was definitely the highlight of the evening.

Saturday, July 30th:
Saturday consisted of photos at 8 am with Chris Kane who is just so damn pretty in person. I want to pet him and hug him and call him George. ::nods:: He has beautiful eyes and now I'm debating whether or not I want to go to the Kane concert at Moonlight Rising in a few weeks. I have to think long and hard about that. The thing that's even making me consider it, is the fact that it's not even 40 minutes from my house. Anyway, photos with Chris went very well despite me being somewhat hung over from the cocktail party the night before. Drinking a coke to end the hang over is absolutely the best advice I'd ever heard...it's worked three times for me now. Oh, and photos with Andy Hallett...almost two hours late. At least we were ushered throuh because we had luncheon tickets. I got a pic with Andy and Mark Lutz who is also very pretty to look at.

The luncheon itself was incredible! In fact, yours truly, along with some help both nakedwesley and sam_gamgee, managed to corral Adam Baldwin and get him to sit at our table for lunch. *eg* It was freakin' amazing. He sat next to me and we chatted about Serenity and how much I disliked the ending. I told him what I disliked about it -- he had pretty much already guessed -- and with some serious persuading on his part, managed to get me to agree to go to at least a matinee when the movie comes out in September. I'm such a sucker for a pretty, snarky, hockey loving man. :) Needless to say, I'm a very happy camper. He also talked about what it's been like to be acting since he was in the 5th grade and that The Inside has definitely been cancelled. Apparently Tim Minear was on the phone with FOX begging them not to show the remaining episodes so that he can get the rights to release a DVD set for those of us who actually enjoyed watching the show. I will definitely buy it. Mr. Baldwin also made it clear how he felt about a certain network that will remain nameless. *eg* Honestly, I can't think of anything else we talked about - one reason being is that I was just so excited to be sitting next to him and talking to him that my mind is drawing a blank. :) As for his Q&A, he did grace us with a few lines of "The Hero of Canton". Hilarious!! He's taking some time off from acting for a bit so that he can travel, relax and spend some time with his kids. Such a sweetheart. I've become quite the fan. In fact, I snagged a rare, unpainted Jayne figure that was supposed to be sold at San Diego Comic Con but Universal said no, not until after the movie was released. There were only 500 made and this one was donated by Adam and signed by him. I won't tell you how much I paid for it in the auction, but it was worth every penny, especially since I then ran into him in the lobby later and had him date it for me. ::sigh::

After the Q&A's Eury and I went back to the dealer's room to browse and then we got ready for the banquet. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing the banquet was. Even though I did have a low badge number, I didn't get to sit with Alexis Denisof - he had to cancel last week and in exchange for backing out, he did the banquet. I really, really wanted to sit there, but wound up at a table next to him sniffling and being grumpy. At that point, I was just so pissed off due to the lack of organization that when Drew Goddard and Jenny Mollen walked into the room, I made a beeline to them and told them that we had saved two seats at our table if they were interested in sitting with us. I figured since we paid an outrageous amount of money for the banquet, we were getting celebs at our table, damn it!! You see, Drew and I had built a good rapport starting with the cocktail party because I told him that I'd love to go to a con where it was just Jossverse writers. I think flattery will get you everywhere with a him. I also got him to sign my season 7 disk of Buffy that has "Conversations With Dead People" (a first for him, or so he says) and a back issue of Angel magazine that had an interview with him (one he hadn't seen before).

We had a very unexpected and pleasant surprise at the banquet. The man himself, Joss Whedon, showed as Alexis Denisof's date. Joss said he heard there was food, so he came. It was a total fangirl moment for me...all thoughts of how pissed off I am at him (because of Serenity) went right out the window. After Joss made his grand entrance, using a cane because he hurt his knee while running, Drew and Jenny sat down at the table with us. Drew and I talked at length about what I thought of last season's Alias (flat except for the Rambaldi eps) and the season finale of Lost (weird and meandering). Both of which he has
absolutely no comment on. ;) I asked him what was up with that damn weird sphere floating above that Russian city in Alias, along with the zombies the sphere created. He said he'd be very happy if there was no mention of it ever again. I agreed. Also, the actress that played Sydney Bristow's sister survived the finale but won't be on this season. I asked why they just didn't kill her because it would have been a more powerful storyline...again he said no comment. ;) Hee!! Drew loves me. Especially since we started talking about action figures (Alexis was at his table playing with the Rain of Fire Wesley) and how I'd buy an action figure of the writers if they made them. We've decided to lobby Diamond Select and make our case because we know there are at least three people who would buy them -- including his mother. :)

Eventually Joss came around to our table and we all chatted for a bit. Drew did most of the talking, but we did jump in every now and then with words of love and praise. From the moment he arrived, to the time he made his way to our table, he was mobbed. Not in a bad way though. People were polite and in a bit of shock at him being there so there wasn't any pushing or shoving or yelling to get his attention...except for Julie Benz with a disposable camera yelling, "Mr. Whedon! Mr. Whedon! Can I take your picture??" It was really funny. After she finished snapping candids of Joss, she ran over to Alexis's table and started shouting the same thing to him. "I'm your biggest fan Alexis!! Can I have a picture?!" She's so beautiful and funny. It was a joy meeting her. Anyway, back to the Joss. He really liked Eury's slave bracelet that she bought in Toronto, so if it shows up in his next project, don't be surprised. Also, I kindly asked if Eury and I could get a photo with him and he said, "No, I don't do things like that." Kiddingly, of course. I pretended to be all sad and quiet, sitting in my seat with my hands folded - that's when he told me that he'd love to do a pic with us. So yes, my dear friends, the Joss had his arm around me. Woohooo!!!!

nakedwesley and sam_gamgee won the two seats next to Alexis at the banquet, so I was introduced to him at one point, which was very sweet of nakedwesley to do. I totally lurve her for doing that. ::deep sigh:: Anyway, Alexis stayed until well after 8 pm so that he could come to our table - because he promised me a picture - and I did get a pic and a hug. Such an amazingly kind man. Just a really gentle soul and I'm glad that I got to see him, at least a little bit, since he was the whole reason I bought my tickets in the first place.

After the banquet, we got on the bus to go to the Key Club to see Common Rotation and Kane. Well, we were all on the bus before 9 - when CoRo was supposed to go on stage. However we didn't leave until 9:30 which meant we only caught like the last five songs of CoRo. I was not a happy camper and I let Jordan and Eric know what happened because Jordan wanted to know why the club was empty. He and Eric were not pleased. Grrrrrr.

Kane is fantastic in concert!! Chris Kane has a great voice and he has an awesome stage presence. You can tell he loves what he's doing up there between the singing and the jamming. I got their CD a few months back when we found out they were going to play at the con, and I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed. However, now that I've heard them live, I appreciate them more. If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend seeing them.

After the concerts, we had a meet and greet with Kane. Not so much of greet or a meet. The room we had it in was in the basement of the Key Club and they had the bass cranked up so loud that you had to shout over it to talk. I was exhausted plus I had no desire to go throw myself into the masses just so I could get face time with Chris. Fortunately, Chris came to us. He shook my hand with both of his and thanked me for coming to the concert. Seeing those blue eyes bore into me, along with that sweet smile and that silky southern voice, just made me melt. Guh! ::is dead:: Once we talked to Chris, we left the club and waited forever and a damn day for the bus to come back around for us. It was almost 1:30 am when I got back into the hotel room and I was so wound up from the concert that I didn't fall asleep until after 2:30.

Sunday, July 31st:
We had to get up at 7 for the bus tour of the BtVS/AtS sites. The tour itself was a lot of fun. James Leary (Clem) and Camden Toy (Knarl, Ubervamp, Prince of Lies, Gentleman, etc.) were the tour guides and were just way too chipper for that time of the morning. I was impressed. We stopped at the Hyperion, the cemetery, the high school, Buffy's house, the Shriner theater and the Wolfram and Hart building. We had a great time and I took a lot of pics which I'll share when I get home.

After the tour, Eury and I went down to the dealer room and bought more stuff. We're out of control. Seriously. Out. Of. Control. We've been very naughty. Is it bad that two of the dealers recognize us on sight and know us by name? Let's not even discuss how the hell I'm going to get all this stuff home. Yikes. Not much happened after that. We briefly caught the tail end of Chris, Julie and Mark's Q&A. I took more pictures. Then we came up to the room to wait for autographs. Eventually we got those too -- Clare Kramer, Julie Benz, Jenny Mollen, Drew Greenberg, Chris Kane, Steve Carlson (Kane), Andy Hallett, Dayne Johnson (makeup artist) and Stephanie Romonov. The "bonus guests" were Mercedes McNab, Scott L. Schwartz (who's a *huge* Flyers fan), Iyari Limon (Saturday), Robia Lamorte (Saturday), Mark Lutz, Jonathan Woodward, Dennis Christopher, Jason Carter, James Leary, Camden Toy, and Kiss Me Jane. And while I was in the autograph room, I talked to Drew again because I'd forgotten to ask him what it was like to work with David Anders. His reply..."It's awesome!!" He also went on to say that he's trying to talk them into making David a cast regular which then led him to ask me the question, as a fan, would I buy Sark coming on board the team to work with them. I told him that I could see it becuase they did it with Sloane. However, some of the other writers don't agree because they'd already been there, done that Sloanwise. I insisted that we, the fans, would totally buy into it because we really adore Sark and if he could give us Sark/Sydney, we'd be very happy. He said that he was working on it!!! I guess we'll have to wait and see what comes of it.

Andy missed his Q&A due to some personal reasons so he and Mark Lutz sat with us for almost two hours after autographs and answered questions. We had a blast!! They're just way too funny to be on stage together. Two very silly men. Someone's cell phone kept going off so Mark took it and answered it. Then he started randomly dialing people in her address book and leaving messages on their answering machines. Andy played some of the messages that his dad and Dayne had left on his answering machine. We all just sort of sat there in a cross between laughing our asses off at the language and shock because we couldn't believe his dad was leaving messages like that. I'm so glad that Andy felt compelled to give us our money's worth, he's really a great guest when he's available.

As if Eury and I didn't spend enough cash this weekend, we stayed for the auction and bid on some more stuff. I wound up walking out with Vampire wine imported from Transylvania and a Stargate photo signed by Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Michael Shanks. No one was bidding on anything so I practically stole that item at $30. I'm quite proud of myself for that one. *g* Once the auction was over, Leary cornered us and whined until we agreed to come to his show. However, we snuck out after he played his Stunt C*cks movie. The stories that he started telling were ones that I'd heard so I felt like I didn't miss much. Plus I was so exhausted that even Chris Kane being there just wasn't enough to keep me. I pretty much crashed after that since I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

Overall, I have to say that I had a fantastic time, but honestly, it wasn't because the organizers put on a fantastic event, because they really didn't. It's because my friends and I made it a great time together.

So there you have it...Booster Bash in a very large nutshell. If I happen to remember anything else, I'll pass it along.

Brat
Signing off until next con season