So, I’m feeling a bit under the weather this afternoon – combination of a cold coming on, lack of sleep with the Spring Forward, and tiredness from the convention weekend. But still I’m really pleased that I went, and in general satisfied with my choice of strategy for Toronto Comicon.
A little background – since I first started going to conventions in Toronto, two years ago, I’ve always made reservations for hotel rooms close to the venue, to stay in the big city for the duration. And I usually tend to pack heavy, both for what I take to the hotel, and even what I take from the hotel to the convention itself, though I’ve been trying to moderate the latter, since lugging around too much as I hurry from panel to panel or make my way across a busy sales floor is really tiring.
This spring, I decided to break all of those patterns. I didn’t stay overnight in Toronto at all, and I tried my best to restrict what I put in the messenger bag that I took with me on the bus each day – a half-dozen digital gizmos, including iPhone, work blackberry, and ipod nano, some handy snacks, sunglasses, and a clipboard with my tickets and the con schedules. That was pretty much it.
The days were on the long and tiring side – I had a lot of fun, both at the convention and watching videos while on the move, but leaving my apartment around 8:30 and getting home around 8 in the evening made for a long day – and then, I was struggling to log some NaNoEdMo time and do a few other things while I was home.
I still think it’s better than taking out a hotel room for a little two-day convention at least, so I’m going to try the same strategy next month for Wizard World. (There’s a Browncoats shindig the Saturday night of Wizard World weekend, and so I’ll probably be rushing to order my food quickly, pay quickly, and get home so that I can get up to bus back in on Sunday morning.)
Oh, the sacrifices that you have to endure while saving up for a car. 😉
Let’s see, what other memories from Comicon can I share with you since Saturday’s post? The Star Trek panel was great – Robert Picardo seemed to sense that he was getting more attention and was uncomfortable with it; he asked several times if anybody had a question for Nicole DeBoer. I was really impressed with Nicole in the Q&A – I hadn’t planned to get her signature or do a photo op with her, but I ended up doing both on Sunday, after I had raided the last of my emergency cash at home.
I don’t remember doing much on Saturday after the Star Trek panel other than waiting around for my photo op with Charisma Carpenter – I think that I dropped in on one more Q&A or panel… right, it was Peter Mayhew.
Sunday morning, they made everybody wait outside the building for a while before letting us come down the escalators, which I didn’t have to do on Saturday, but it was alright. I started talking with the gentleman in line ahead of me, who was a bus and train designer who wanted to talk to Peter Mayhew about some picture choices for a model bus decorated with pictures of Peter and Chewbacca – it was fun hearing about it.
When I got in, I was the first to get Nicole’s autograph – she was actually sitting there at the autograph desk with her handler, looking around as lines formed up for some of the other stars nearby, with a ‘Won’t somebody come up to me?’ look on her face. 🙂
After that, I picked up one more Angel graphic novel, looked for the ‘Dollhouse’ DVDs that I’d spotted on Saturday, but the Season 2 box set had been sold off, so I didn’t bother getting season 1. I ordered them both off amazon.ca today, and that was a little cheaper, even after sales tax was added.
I lined up as early as I could for Nicole’s photo op session, because I wanted to get into the John de Lancie Q&A afterward if there was any room – actually I was asking the photo op people if there was anywhere I could start the line and not be in the way, which was tough because they were dealing with the John DeLancie photo op for the day, an additional Robert Picardo shoot for people who hadn’t been able to get in the last time, and the John deLancie Q&A line stretching out into the photo op area. I managed to get in for the second photo, though, after a family group with two small children, including a boy who was so excited that I didn’t have the heart to stand in line ahead of him and gave up my place.
I got a seat in the back corner of the room for John’s Q&A session – it was great, he was funny and self-deprecating, and talked about how he’d gotten involved in acting, which related to his life-long struggles with reading and dyslexia apparently, which was something that I hadn’t heard about. I went out and then came back in for the Terminator panel with Kristanna Loken and Edward Furlong, which was alright, but I checked my twitter feed, saw that Magie had tweeted that she was already lining up for the Charisma Q&A (in the same room,) ten minutes before, and decided that I should go and join the line myself.
Charisma’s Q&A session was great – I got a spot in the second row, she was funny, talked about all kinds of things, including early Buffy, getting killed off on Angel, guesting on Supernatural, Miss Match, watching Angel with her son, the Expendables… all really cool things. I asked a question about Cordelia’s first kiss with Xander, which she didn’t really answer on topic, but the answer ended in a great story about her first on-screen kiss with Hobie Buchanon from ‘Baywaytch’ and threatening to kick her co-star’s ass if he didn’t quit trying to molest her.
The Kelworth Files 