Fan Expo – Too Many Crowds

I bailed on Fan Expo early today – or maybe I beat a strategic retreat. By a little after 4 I’d done everything I wanted to and still had the opportunity to do today, and I was tired of being in a crowd and the phones not working well. But I didn’t want to go back to my hotel room because there’s a Browncoats shindig downtown in about two hours.

So I’m loitering in the VIA Rail part of Union station nibbling on snacks and enjoying how well the iPhone works without 9000 other phones next to it – until the battery runs out. And I’m thinking about what I accomplished today and the disappointments.

Accomplishments:
Met Alan Tudyk in his autograph line. Got my copy of “Those Left Behind” signed, bringing that comic up to 5 big damn signatures, and 6 for the blueprint book, which has Melinda Clarke too. Alan loved the shiny detail in the blueprints, and he signed over the cockpit on the cover of course.

Played a little fragment of a Settlers of Catan game with a nice fellow from the board games room.

Got a pretty good seat for the Lost Girl panel, loved hearing the cast banter back and forth and seeing the blooper reel.

Got into the Spike and Drusilla joint Q&A and asked Juliet about what it was like to reprise the role of Dru for Angel season 2.

Got a Charmed comic and a Jennifer Crusie ‘Smart Pop’ book about Charmed signed by Rose McGowan.

Disappointments:

Didn’t stay for the Lost girl autograph session. I didn’t think I had time, but – well…

Didn’t get into the Alan Tudyk Q&A session. 😦 😦 if I got into line right after Lost girl i’d have probably made it. But I swung by Rose McGowan’s autograph stall for a number ticket that I didn’t need in the end because only one other person was in line when I got back for signing. Also bought a hot dog which I did kinda need. And if I got in to see Alan I probably wouldn’t have gotten in for James and Juliet because they were next in the same room.

Continuum: couldn’t get to their panel because it was in the same time slot as Spike and Dru. After I got my Rose autographs I tried to sneak into the Continuum room to get my poster signed, but the volunteers wouldn’t let me because they needed to clear the room ASAP for the next panel. Ah well.

I guess it’s like I said after my first Fan Expo – with that many other people in the event you have to expect that sometimes their plans will conflict with yours and then you have to adjust your expectations. I think from an objective viewpoint I managed a pretty kickass day.

But I was really looking forward to hearing Alan answer fan questions for an hour. Sigh.

UPDATE! The Browncoats shindig was great, nice to see the gang again, including a few who just came to party at East Side Mario’s and didn’t go to Fan Expo this year. And I’ve added a few large photos that I took on the Fujifilm where appropriate – the smaller ones were taken on the iPhone and resized to upload over 3g. 🙂