Con 04 The night before

by KT
fsktl@uaf.edu

“Last night, the night before, a lemon and a pickle came knocking at my door.”

But it was alright—it was just Bonnie and Julie.

Hit the hotel in the late afternoon on Thursday and checked in. At the elevators, we were standing by a tall, thin, attractive woman dragging an airline roller suitcase behind her. She looked over at me with this HUGE, gob-smacked smile on her face. And said very excitedly and breathlessly, “I never saw so many women in one place before!” I grinned back and said, “You’ve never been to a Xena con before, have you?” And she laughed and replied with vast delighted joy, “NOOOOOO!”

I LOVE con virgins. They’re just always SOOO jazzed. Grin.

It’s “strange” to not be in Pasadena for the convention as we have been for so many years. Different feel, different amenities, different layout of areas. Burbank of course was where the first two cons were held. I came here for the second one (my first) in 1998.

As I walked across the lobby for the first time this year, I suddenly remembered back to ’98 when literally my first view of Xena fans in the flesh was the sight of a woman kneeling on the floor of the lobby, with this HUGE banner unfurled before her, covering feet and feet and feet of the lobby floor. And inviting people to sign the banner because later on she would be giving it to Lucy Lawless. And people were getting down on their knees and writing little messages to Lucy. No, I didn’t sign it. But I enjoyed reading what people had written.

I was so very shy re the Xenaverse then, only lurked online and never posted. I was very unaware of what fans do at these things and was quietly watching everything in wide-eyed wonder, while my body just sang with the excitement of seeing real live OTHER Xena fans. Proof positive that I was not the only person in the world who was frighteningly obsessed with XWP. Gods, it was a heady validation.

And later on the fan did get up to the mike and tell Lucy what she had and did get to leave it there on the stage for her.

Meanwhile, back in the present:

As always, Creation opened Thursday night to let Gold and Preferred people pick up their wrist bands and stick-on badges for the weekend. Registration was due to start at nine that night. We strolled over there around 8:45 or so and bunches of people were already inside and on line. Oh, those anxious fans…

We got on the end of the long, snaking line. (We shoulda started dancing the Conga! I think we should do that next year.)

People on line were jazzed and happy and just having a great time, reveling in being together with other Xena fans. There’s always this real giggly excited buzz that first night since friends who haven’t been able to be together in a while get to see each other again. The vendors were already in place and we got to stroll past tables and tables and tables covered with pictures from the show (and other stuff). I always enjoy that.

One of the newbies wondered aloud what we were on line for, since she already had received her tickets in the mail. We explained the system. You give them your tickets. (IF you’ve gotten them. I never do, but so far my name’s always been on their handy-dandy computer print out.) Then they give you one wrist band which you gotta wear all weekend. You also get a set of stickers, a different colored one for each day, that you’re supposed to peel off and stick on yourself somewhere. This is to help the “muscle” control to know who should be sitting in what section. And it’s also used during the autograph times so that we go in order. “Row A is first, row B is second”, etc. Makes it easy to bust the row “F” folks and send them back to their seats when they try to sneak in with the row “C” folks.

As we waited on line, one of us (not me!) suggested to everyone in hearing range that “If you are right handed, you should put the wrist band on your left wrist. Because, since you have to wear it all weekend, if you put it on the hand you use to wash with in the shower, you can just rip up your boob as you’re reach up to try to soap your left shoulder. I’ve had some bad experiences in the past.” Silence reigned, but I could see that the people around us were thinking it over. My friend got a few grateful nods. Kewl. Already making a good impression on the newbies with our experienced con advice…

We snuck into the performance hall and checked out our seats since the configuration was different from the way they set it up in Pasadena. Good ones! Back out and back onto the line which went very fast once they started registering us.

Then a stop at the pictures tables to get our photos for the autograph signings for the next few days. And then back across the courtyard to the hotel. It was kind of hard to get back up to the room, since every time we headed for the elevator, somebody else we knew came in the front door to register. I LOVE going to cons and meeting up with so many of my Xena friends there. Eventually a bunch of us wandered into the bar and stayed up REALLY late…

Tomorrow: HUDSON!

 

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