Thursday

The Place: Atlanta, GA
The Day: August 28, 2003
The Event: The night before Dragon*Con

The saying is "getting there is half the fun." Good thing that isn't true or the weekend would have been a flop.

Otts, hippiechick, wish, and I were all supposed to meet at the Atlanta airport, all coming from different points in and out of the country. We set it all up so we'd land between 7 and 8 in the evening. Should be fine, right?

Having the farthest to fly, I was on the plane most of the day. Due to bad weather, my flight landed 45 minutes late. Ok, not so bad. I turn on my cell phone and have a whole slew of messages from wish and hippie. Neither was going to land til almost 11pm. Wish's plane was broken and hippie's... well, that's a story in and of itself. We'll just say it was a combination of being late-ish to the airport and weather. Top that off with me having NO was of getting in touch with Otts, and I was a rather put out gal, let me tell ya.

So I caught a van to the hotel and checked in. Mind you I've never been to Atlanta, but I'm always up for an adventure. So I got to the room, set up my laptop, got the digital camera out, and went exploring. There were already people in costume! I thought it was a bit early for that, but guess I was wrong. I finally got bored of that, called Nora, chatted a bit, and then called the front desk to leave a message for Eric since they wouldn't tell me what room he was staying in. It paid off; I got a call half an hour later saying that HMC HQ was in 1045.

I head down to the room and just as I get there, out walk three guys. What's a girl to do other than smile and say "I'm fiat! Who's who?" And that's how I finally met Mac, Eric, and Otts! Yep, Otts found himself in the same situation I was in and met up with the guys at the hotel. Mac and Eric went out for more alcohol, and Otts and I went inside to meet the others: Jonathan, Jen, Elaine. The first thing Jonathan said to me was "I love you! I really love you!" Yep, the writer of the Weekly Ascension was three sheets to the wind.

Eric and Mac came back and we continued to work on the vodka. Never thought vodka and pink lemonade would be tasty, but it was. The "HMC staff meeting" features everyone being intoxicated to various degrees, Jonathan being the worst. Mac was gonna send him back to their room, but he feared for the X-Box. Jonathan's reply was "I will not tear up the X-Box. I AM the X-Box."

Hippie and wish finally made it to the hotel, so Otts, Mac, and I went upstairs. Hugs and "oh my God, it's so good to meet you" all around. It seems that I was the only one who got the wireless internet access to work, so Mac sat down at my laptop to do... something. But he was drunk enough that he couldn't find the mouse button or work the touch pad correctly. So as I physically removed his hands from the keyboard to show him how to work it, Otts said "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the webmaster of Hellmouth Central" to which Mac replied "I don't use a laptop." It wasn't too long after that that everyone went to their respective rooms and to sleep. Must've been, oh, 3am.

Friday

The Place: Atlanta, GA
The Day: August 29, 2003
The Event: Day 1 of Dragon*Con

Morning came too early, but we all had to pick up our badges, which meant standing in a LOOOOOOONG line. We barely got a cup of coffee (my only one all weekend) before heading downstairs to stand in line. And just ahead of us was our first "freak sighting."

(Now I have to stop here and mention that being a "freak" or a "geek" was a good thing this weekend. I mean, we were here cuz we loved something or another at the Con, and a lot of people showed it by dressing up. Hell, I even donned the red leather pants. But there were some costumes that just made you shake your head and think "why.")

So back to us standing in line. This guy was wearing a thong, a belt, and a piece of blue cloth draped over him and strategically tucked in here and there. He had "Lips Down on Dixie" and some other stuff writing on his body in red lipstick. I just shook my head. (Later I found out that he was part of the cast of the local "Rocky Horror Picture Show.") The line moved pretty fast, but hippie had to go stand in another line cuz she bought her ticket from Ticketmaster. (Note to everyone ­ DO NOT do this. It was a pain.) So we stood in a line that would humble Disneyland and FINALLY went out for breakfast at the Hyatt's restaurant/salad bar. We chatted a bit with Mac, Eric, and a now sober Jonathan. Funny thing is that I kept calling people by their screen names instead of their real ones. Oh well, I wasn't the only one.

Wish, hippie and I headed down to the Dealer Room and got in line to buy passes for photos with the Buffy stars. Now, what was stupid about this is that the line opened at 1pm, which was the same time that James Marsters was giving his first Q&A. C'mon people, don't you think that those who want a picture with JM will also want to see/hear him?? Never mind the fact that the autographs and pictures were in what they called the "Walk of Fame" which was the way far back corner of the Dealers Room. It was enclosed, hot, stuffy, and just not a fun place to be. From our place in line I could see James C. Leary (Clem), Iyari Limon (Kennedy), and Danny Strong (Jonathan). Danny didn't look very happy. Guess he was hot and stuffy too. Anyway, we got our picture passes, as well as pictures for Dusty and Ladyhawk who hadn't arrived yet. Then we went separate ways.

I headed down to the Buffy Track room for "Welcome to the Hellmouth," the introduction for the weekend. I didn't see any of the hellhounds, so I sat down to look at the program for the track. And oh my God oh my God oh my God, I almost had a heart attack. I submitted a piece of fanfic for a contest they were having and it won for Best Comedy!!! I couldn't stop shaking, even when Mac and wish joined me for the session and told him all about it.

It was neat to see the people who run the track, who I'd been chatting with via Live Journal. The session was short, just outlining what was going on for the weekend. They talked about the raffle they were doing, explained the "door prizes" and prize tickets, and asked for people to come volunteer to be in the Rocky Horror-style production of OMWF. Naturally, I signed up, and at wish's suggestion, I signed Otts up too. (Did you know he can sing?) I saw some great Buffy costumes: Drusilla, Spike, and Season 1 Giles, all very real looking. (Turns out later I'd get to know all of them.)

Wish and I went back up to our room to meet up with Hippie and Otts. And guess who showed up? Ladyhawk and Dusty!! So there was yet another round of "It's so good to see you! How've you been? Have you seen James yet?" Then wish announced that she had Nighthawk's latest "State of the Harem" address to read. Which she did. Us ladies where in fits of laughter, while Otts tried to ignore us by studying the listing of sessions for all of Dragon*Con. Then Spike4Ever and LifesaShow stopped by, and all the fun started all over again. Once sanity was restored, we decided to get dressed and go find dinner; S4E and Lifes went to get their passes first before things got too crazy.

So the six of us went downstairs to a nice Italian place with a big aquarium. Otts and I snuck out early to go to the OMWF/BHPS (Buffy Horror Picture Show). There it was decided that Otts would be Giles when Giles had to sing and the guy in the cool Giles costume (who turned out to be HMC newbie Jason!) would be Giles for speaking parts. We similarly double cast Buffy, Spike, and Tara. (The girls just split the show in half, while the Spikes divided the parts by stuff that was more Spike or more William.) Then we got to me (as Anya) and my counterpart. Someone suggested that since Anya's part didn't divide so well, we should just both be Anya at the same time, giving Xander two partners for "I'll Never Tell."

Otts and I then headed to the session to talk about Season 4 of Angel, which not so coincidentally had our very own Eric and Mac on the panel. It was very amusing, especially when Eric got frustrated with something. Someone was complaining about how Connor was written so that no one would like him but that we should have given him some slack cuz Connor's just a teen, and Eric disagreed, saying "I don't like teenagers!" I ended up giving a mini theology spiel when some guy didn't like something in the Jasmine storyline that had to do with God. Then we, of course, had to touch on the Spike thing. That got a little hot, (no, not like that! Be good!), and Eric finally said something along the lines of "Look, 'to shanshu' could mean to make orange juice for all we know. *laughter* Look for Spike working at Orange Julius next year!" Otts leans over to me and says "I bet a lot of people would like to drink the juice of Spike's oranges." Now, I've never had Orange Julius before, and now I don't think I'll be able to without doubling over in laughter. (Which apparently I did a lot of this past weekend.)

Then it was show time. We had a ballroom with a big projection screen, sound system, and stage that held something like 350 people. There were so many people who wanted to see the show that we had to promise a second performance.

Trying to describe that show would be almost impossible. I got to rock out to "Bunnies," do a three way with Xander and the other Anya for "I'll Never Tell," and just generally have more fun on stage than I've had in ages. Otts looked simply dashing as Season 4 Giles. The gal playing Dawn really needed to put some underwear on that fit her cuz let me tell you, I saw too much of her for not knowing her name. The two Spikes were fabulous, as were the two Buffys. What am I saying? We all rocked the house!!! And then we got to do it again!

After the show, I heard someone yelling "is there anyone from Hellmouth Central here?" Of course I spoke up, and I got to meet SevenofTN! (Side note, but this time, HMC was getting to be a household name among the Buffy people at Dragon*Con. Go us!)

Otts and I finally went back upstairs to meet up with the others and spend some time drinking beer/coolers and talk. I feel asleep before the others, but I think it's safe to say that by 4am we were all in our rooms asleep.

Coming up next, Saturday's Adventures.