Trip update

[sam_gamgee]

I'm sure that many of you have been waiting for this...


"What I did in L.A. for a week"

including The Angel Booster Bash (aka The Leary Booster Bash) and the travels of Wesley

by Adrian (aka "the platypus")


small disclaimer: I'm going to keep my thoughts of the con staff/organizers out of this as much as possible, since I want to focus on the positive. Let's just say that I'm thinking of sending them a box of DayPlanners and a bunch of pens.

Just as an FYI - here's my short-hand for the celebs that were at the ABB. Jenny (Mollen - "Nina" on AtS), Drew (Goddard - writer for both), Christian (Kane - Lindsey on AtS), Clare (Kramer - "Glory" on BtVS), Stephanie (Romanov - Lilah on AtS) Leary (James Leary - "Clem" on BtVS), Jonathan (Woodward - "Holden" on BtVS and "Knox" on AtS), Bridget (Brannagh - "Virginia" on AtS), Mercedes (McNab - "Harmony" on both), Julie (Benz - "Darla" on both), Alexis (Denisof - "Wesley" on both), Andy (Hallett - "Lorne" on AtS), Mark (Lutz - "Groo" on AtS), Dayne (Johson - makeup for AtS), Camden (Toy - one of the Hush Gentlemen, Ubervamp, others on BtVS), Scott (Swartz - various demons on both), Jason (Carter - "Repo Demon" on AtS), Steve (Carlson - Christian's bandmate), and Dennis (Christopher - "Vail" on AtS).


Tuesday
Finished packing and headed down to nakedwesley's house, where I hung out with her and bcassie for a while and watched the BtVS ep "Bad Girls" and some other Alexis related things before we headed out to Washington-Dulles airport. Which we got to *10 minutes* after the cut-off for check in because of traffic (even though we still had 30 minutes until take off), so we had to take the first flight in the morning, which was, thankfully, also a direct flight. But the guys behind the counter were cool and only charged us the flight change fee and not the fee plus the difference in cost. Also, thankfully, we had only booked the first hotel for Tuesday and Wednesday night (since we weren't sure what we were going to do on Thursday), so we called the hotel before we left the airport and had the dates changed to Wednesday and Thursday, so it kind of evened out there. On the way back to nakedwesley's house, we somehow missed the exit to go around D.C. and ended up driving through D.C. - which was kind of cool. Though, I didn't get much sleep that night.


Wednesday
Didn't sleep much on the plane either. But I did get to read through "Galileo", since I'm hoping to start on a sequel soon. There was a bit of chaos in the airport when nakedwesley and I thought we had lost bcassie. (She had really just wandered down to the baggage claim with everyone else on the flight.) After we had collected our bags and made our way to the car rental place, I was politely informed that they didn't have the car I had reserved (a Toyota Corrolla, or equivelant), so they were going to upgrade us free of charge to a PT Cruiser. (Though, I did realize that something was up when there was only about 4 sets of keys were on the key ring board and one was in the 'to be repaired' section and the others were in sections other than what I had requested.)

Ate lunch at the McDonald's right outside of our hotel (and I mean *right* *outside*), and afterwards we were hanging out in front of the hotel so bcassie could have a cig and there was a couple there with their 8-month-old baby who was adorable - and seemed quite taken with me. He'd look at me and grin, then look away and the smile would fade, then look back at me and grin, then look away, then look back and grin.

The hotel was nice. We had a lot of fun with the fact that this weird tribal music was playing in the elevator. (And at one point I couldn't help but think of Blair and if a) he was afraid of elevators after 'Dead Drop' and b) if hearing tribal music in the elevator would help him overcome that fear at all.) Our room had a 'balcony' - which was basically a sliding door with enough concrete for me to barely put my foot on (and I'm a size 8) and a railing. But we did have a nice view.

That evening Judy (who we're trying to convince to get an LJ) met us at the hotel and we hung out for the evening. Though, we did wander down the street about 10:30 to find something to eat, meanwhile laughing at the fact that there was a bail bond place across the street, as well as a number of car rental places. And that the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut where we ended up eating had its posted drive through hours as 6 am - 6 am.


Thursday
We went down to Long Beach to the Aquarium of the Pacific - which was cool, even if we didn't get a chance to see the whole thing. We did take a behind-the-scenes tour and got to see how different things worked and even got to feed some fish. :-D (And, FYI, if a jacuzzi has a lot of foam in it that doesn't go away after a while, you probably don't want to be in it.) We also took a boat ride out into the Harbor and saw some pelicans and some sea lions. And the jelly fish exhibit was cool. That evening we went to Cinescape for dinner and a movie - the movie being Dodgeball.



Friday
Checked out of the Holiday Inn and headed over to the Westin Century Plaza - which Judy had booked for us. I honestly hadn't been sure if we'd be able to make it in one trip (the PT Cruiser isn't big on trunk space), but we did. After stowing our luggage and registering, we met up with treebee and went for a late lunch.

Leary's "improv" session was fun. His friends had bailed on him, so we did a Q&A for a while and then he asked for some audience participation to do an improv (that I know of as "Party Quirks", but I think I heard someone else calling it "House Party"), so I (for who knows what reason) went up. One of the girls was the hostess, the sole guy was Barbara Streisand, another girl was Richard Simmons, a third girl was Terror, and I was a platypus (which is all crazywritinfool's fault). Even though I had *no* idea what I was supposed to do, it was worth it just to see the look on Leary's face when he was giving the girl hints and made a comment about quacking and I quacked. The audience obviously laughed and he had a look of 'holy shit' on his face. And then, for the rest of the weekend, I was known as the platypus.

I'm glad I decided to go to the cocktail party (which I had been wavering about for practically forever). I did have a lot of fun hanging out with Judy, crazywritinfool, treebee, bcassie, nakedwesley, psubrat, and eurydice72. And, at one point we were outside and we hear "Can I have you two groups move together?" meaning our group and another group next to us, because Clare wanted to take a picture of all of us. Steve also moved around so that people would have a chance to chat with him and meet him. It was fun watching him and treebee talking about local stuff, even though I hardly knew what they were talking about. And we ended up chatting with Dennis, who is one of the sweetest guys *ever*. (And who we kind of adopted for the weekend, though he and Judy really hit it off.)

After the cocktail party, we headed over to another room to hear Ende and for the dance party. Plus, Andy was supposedly going to sing (though, sadly, he didn't). Leary got up on stage and started playing the drums and generally fooling around (and he's quite good) before Andy introduced the band. The band was good. Leary was highly amusing as he was pulling people out onto the dance floor (myself included). And I think he's a worse dancer than I am, though it was a lot of fun to watch him and Camden (who was actually sober) dancing.

Saturday
The photo op with Christian in the morning. And the fact that he was an hour late due to the fact that staff had changed the schedule and *hadn't* *told* *him* should've been a clue something was wrong. But he was on time for when he thought he was supposed to be there and even apologized. And even though it's a bit of a blur because I was so nervous, I think I said more to him in those five seconds or so than I did to Alexis when I met him at the PBP back in 2003. :-P

Wandered around the signing room with bcassie since she hadn't wanted to go in alone and chatted with Jenny for a few minutes after bcassie got her autograph. Jenny's very sweet and very adorable. And at one point she was like, "Have we met before?" and I was like, "I don't think so. Where do you think you know me from?" and she replied with, "Were you at Houston?" to which I had to respond, "No, sorry. But maybe I have a double running around somewhere."

Drew is a lot of fun to talk to. I chatted with him for a bit while he was in the signing room and it's really amusing once he gets started on either "Alias" or "Lost", since you can tell that he had a lot of fun with his episodes for those shows. Plus, he's a big Marshall fan, so it was fun hearing about that episode and also that the lullaby that Marshall sang to his son was actually Drew's idea and that it was actually about two pages long. When I got my photo with him, he scrunched down a bit, since he's 6'5 and I'm barely 5'4. (So, that's actually why I'm smiling bigger in that photo for those of you who asked - I was giggling right before Froggy snapped the picture.)

And Andy was two hours late. (But I'm almost positive that he's the type that would be late to his own funeral. I don't think he means to, he just can't be on time.) Although, he also wasn't feeling very well, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. So those of us with any photo ops with him that were also going to the charity luncheon were ushered through first. (Thanks for letting me jump in with you, nakedwesley!)

At the luncheon, we got Mark to sit with us, but then he had to go back and finish his part of the photo ops with Andy. Which was about when Adam came in. nakedwesley went up to talk to him, since they went to the same high school. After a couple minutes, psubrat and I wandered over to where they were to see what was going on and he introduced himself to us. (And we got there right in time to hear Adam admit that he's a geek. :-P) At that point nakedwesley asked him if he wanted to sit with us and he accepted. It was a lot of fun hearing him talk about different projects he had worked on and also about his kids.

The luncheon was also when the check was presented to the L.A. Food Bank. And I know that there was a check there for about $10,000 and, I think, another for $15,000. Plus, I know more was raised through the auctions, so yay us.

When Mark came back and saw that Adam was sitting with us (but we had still kept Mark's seat for him), he pretended to be indignant and sat at the table next to us.

Adam, Stephanie, Christian, and Steve's panel was very funny, since they kept busting each other's butts for practically everything. Someone in the audience also got Adam to sing a bit of "Hero of Canton". And Steve's favorite chick movie is Princess Bride.

The charity auction was fun, aside from the bidding war that went on between nakedwesley and this other guy for a seat at Alexis' table. The bid was originally set at $50. Then some guy in front of us muttered that it should have started higher - like $500. So this other guy bid $500. There were a few times that he almost stopped, but then didn't and a few times Leary was like, "Look, this is getting insane. Why don't you two just both take it and split the cost and the time." It finally got up to either $1800 or $1850 and Leary was like, "Okay, look. I'm setting it at $2000. Which of you wants it?" So Kath got it. And then when we were paying for it, I inadvertantly rubbed it that we had also gotten the other banquet ticket for Alexis' table to the guy who lost.

The beginning of the banquet was a bit of a disaster because the staff couldn't decide whether to let people in by badge number or "first come, first served". So there was a bit of drama at Alexis' table because practically everyone wanted to sit there. And then I felt bad that not everyone could sit where they wanted, even though none of it was my fault. But that finally got sorted out and we had an enjoyable evening (aside from the "open bar" closing early and our table being coffee-less). Alexis brought Joss as his "date" since he felt bad about not being able to make it the whole day. And Alexis seemed to have a lot of fun with the "Rain of Fire" Wesley doll that nakedwesley had brought with her. He was very gracious with everyone and took pictures with a lot of the fans, since he had only been able to make it to the banquet on account of some family matters. And I had a geeky moment when Alexis was asking everyone where they were from and when it was my turn, I said, "Delaware." And he was like, "Oh? Which part?" (He grew up in Salisbury, MD, which isn't very far.) I told him and he was like, "I know where that is - I've been through there," and we shared a laugh when I responded with, "Yeah, Delaware's, like, three exits on I-95 between Philadelphia and Maryland." And I actually talked to him this year. Though, I had to be careful not to giggle when nakedwesley, who was sitting on the other side of him, mimed to me to make sure that I talked.

When we were heading out to get the bus to the Key Club, we saw Andy making his way out of the hotel and asked if he was okay and he told us that he was on his way to the hospital - something about getting glass in his butt or something and we asked if he was okay and if he wanted a ride or someting and he thanked us for his concern and said that he'd be fine.

Aside from the fact that we ended up sitting on the bus in front of the hotel for more than half an hour, I had fun at the Key Club. The bouncer, upon seeing my ID, was like, "I was born in Wilmington and when I tell people about Delaware, they just don't get it." I had to laugh and respond with "I know what you mean." I was kinda miffed that they actually started on time, so by the time we got there, Common Rotation was almost done. I've, obviously, seen them a number of times before, but I knew a few people hadn't, so I was upset on their behalf (and so's Jordan, after psubrat told him what happened - and it doesn't help when they were mostly back lit, so they could see that hardly anyone was there). But I was *really* happy that I got to see Kane, since I've been wanting to see them for a few years and, like Common Rotation, there's just something about seeing them live that's just, like, whoa. Aside from the room being on the small side, the music being on the too loud side and there being a few too many people in the room, the meet and greet afterwards wasn't too bad. Christian made his way around the room, meeting people, chatting with them and thanking them for coming. After getting to psubrat, another fan, and I, he was dragged off to one of the con organizer's table, so psubrat and I decided to go outside and wait for the bus back. And wait. And wait. And wait. :-P

Sunday
Did the BtVS and AtS site tour (which was free, even though the bus to and from the concert was an extra $5), hosted by Camden and Leary - who were a little too perky at 7:00 am. Though, I suspect it was the coffee more than anything else. We went to the Sony building (exterior for Wolfram and Hart), Torrance High, Buffy's house, Shrine Auditorium (though, we couldn't remember what episode of AtS it was in), the Los Altos Hotel (exterior for the Hyperion), and one of the larger cemetaries that they used (which also, supposedly, has a section of gravestones where all the names are names of characters) - the name of which is the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetary and it's a subsidiary of Angelus Funeral Homes, Inc. Interesting little fact - George Hertzberg (Adam), Danny Strong (Jonathan), and J August Richards (Gunn) all went to USC at the same time.

Went to a panel with Bridget, Mercedes, and Drew which was fun. Also went to one with Christian, Julie, and Mark - also a lot of fun. And it was interesting hearing both Christian and Julie say that they thought their characters were soulmates. And also hearing Christian say that he didn't think that Angel could kill Lindsey himself.

bcassie and I volunteered to help with the autograph line - not that they really needed the help, since everyone was very well mannered. I got an autograph from Christian and chatted with him for a few minutes about his parts in "Into the West" and how proud of it he is, and his new project ("Close to Home") and how he was one of the reasons I had decided to keep watching AtS because I had seen him on "Rescue 77" - which I think surprised (and I think also delighted) him, since probably 5 people saw that show (one being his step-dad, two and three being me and my mom and who knows who the other two were). Got an autograph from Stephanie - who's a sweetie and mentioned her episode of "The Sentinel", since I'm sure she may have enjoyed a bit of break from all the Angel stuff. Got an autograph from Dennis - even though I admitted to him that it felt weird asking for one after I had talked with him all weekend. But he was like, "I'll definitely sign something for you." So he signed my notebook and went to hand it back to me, paused, and was like, "Wait! I forgot to put my name." So he did and when he was signing it for real, he asked if I wanted a picture with him, and had gotten everything I wanted and stuff. I said that I did and reminded him that I had gotten a picture with him the night before at the banquet.

Andy and Mark agreed to do a panel because Andy had missed the one earlier in the day and it was hilarious. It's hard to describe what happens when you get the two of them together to someone who's never seen them before. Andy was playing some phone messages people had left him for the audience to hear. Mark was having fun with the large Lorne doll that was up on stage - including performing CPR and putting it in *ahem* compromising positions. At one point Andy went behind one of the video screens that had been set up to change (I think because he was cold) and Mark had this kid, who he thought had a question, stand up on his chair to ask it and started going, "Now, when I saw now, I want you to ask your question, okay? Now go ahead. Don't be shy. Just ask your question. Now, now, when I say now - and I mean now - I want you to ask your question." and he went on like this for a couple of minutes with everyone - the kid included - laughing. Then, all of a sudden, we heard from behind the screen "MARK!" Mark immediately stopped and was like, "I'm sorry. What was your question?" The kid, still laughing, was like, "I didn't actually have a question."

We were going to have crazywritinfool's slash panel, but that kind of got pre-empted, though we did agree that she and I had a mini-panel over dinner.

Got to see Leary's short film Stunt C*cks, which I'm happy I got to see. And got to hear him do some stand up.

Afterwards, Judy, treebee, bcassie, nakedwesley, and I went up to the room and hung out for a while. In which they kept laughing at me because I kept fading in and out.



Monday
Judy, bcassie, nakedwesley, and I went to Venice Beach and had lots of fun, even if it was overcast (though sunny when we left the hotel) and on the cool side. bcassie, nakedwesley, and I did manage to go swimming for a while - even though I was the only one out of the four of us who had a proper bathing suit. When we were finished on the beach, we walked on the boardwalk for a while and bcassie was able to get a new suitcase since one of her other ones broke (plus, she needed a bigger one to put Sharkie in).

We went to the Library Alehouse in Santa Monica for lunch - which has very good food. And I was even proud of myself that I parallel parked, even though I kinda cheated because I was able to just pull into the spot.

In the evening we went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the King Tut exhibit - which was *really* *amazing*, even if we were let down that Tutankhamun himself wasn't there. (For some reason we thought that the mummy would actually be there.) But the details and colors on the items - many of them looked like they were brand new.) And we joked about what would happen if the person who had to put all the hieroglyphs on made a mistake on the last one (because one of the items had hieroglyphs *all* *over* it) or if he accidently messed up on the pharoah's name, so that instead of being called Tutankhamun, he'd be called "Bob" or something.

Stopped at Gelson's (a little grocery store across the street from the hotel) on the way back to our room and had a little picnic out on the balcony for dinner. And then, since we decided to get the internet for the day, we found out that there was a new part of Protocol, so bcassie, nakedwesley, and I made Judy let us read it.

Tuesday
Judy had to leave early to catch an early afternoon flight. The other three of us hung out in the room until 3 pm before leaving. (Thanks to the late check out being at 4 pm).

We went to the La Brea Tar Pits and took advantage of the free Tuesday to check out the museum. I'm a big fan of fossils and seeing the skeletons was pretty kick ass - especially the complete Mammoth skeleton. And there's even still a bit of the tar pit that can be seen (though from the safety of outside a fence).

We drove over to Santa Monica via Beverly Hills and then down the Pacific Coast Highway to Marina Del Rey for dinner. We decided to go to Shanghai Red's for dinner, thinking that it was Chinese (and the fish pond outside with the giant goldfish didn't do anything to disway us), but it was actually a seafood place.

After that, we had to head back to LAX and dropped off the car on the way. After bcassie got bounced around from line to line trying to check her bag, since she was going first to Washington-Dulles, and then from there to England. But the nice lady at the counter checked her bag all the way through so Cassie wouldn't have to worry about it, plus gave her all her boarding passes so she wouldn't have to worry about them either.


Wednesday
Thankfully, I was able to sleep for most of the flight home. nakedwesley and I said our goodbyes to bcassie in the airport, since she was going to just stay there until her next flight. Almost thought that I had lost my parking ticket to get out, but then nakedwesley reminded me I had put it in my wallet so I *wouldn't* lose it. Made it back to nakedwesley's with no problems and I crashed on her couch for about two hours before heading out again. Made it home in good time with a stop at the Maryland House rest area (where I ran into *a bunch* of Boy Scouts) and to get gas once I got off my exit of I-95. After stopping to get something to eat, I arrived at home where my dogs were *very* happy to see me (and I them).

After getting a nice shower and throwing in a load of laundry, I crashed on the couch for about 40 minutes until my dad came home and wanted to get something for dinner and hear all about my trip.


And that's all, folks. I should have my pictures back in a day or two, and I'll see about getting them up somewhere.

Comments

[spikesleman.livejournal.com]

Oh, it sounds like you had a TON of fun!

Random comments:

Awww baby-flirting!

Driving through DC -- always a challenge!

The King Tutankhamen exhibit -- ENVY ENVY ENVY JEALOUSY JEALOUSY

I'm just waiting eagerly for the pics!!

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

I *did* have a ton of fun. :-D

LOL about the baby. Yes, he was adorable.

Driving through D.C. was fun though, though the signs for 495 weren't always the most helpful.

And, yes, the King Tut exhibit was *very* cool. :-D

Pictures will be here soon. :-D

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks for the report. :-) Glad you had a good time.

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. :-) I had a great time.

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

It was so great hanging out with you guys! Being an attendee after all this time of working cons was a new experience because I actually got to meet new people! And we had a great time despite the lack of organization.

[sam-gamgee.livejournal.com]

And it was great hanging out with you and Eury too! :-D And I'm sure that being simply an attendee was fun, though I know you must've been pulling your hair out at times.

Hopefully we can do something sometime.