Dragon*Con 2011 Report - Friday

Me and Felicia Day

Dragon*Con Friday is always “Go to the Bank” day, so we usually get a late start. We got to the bank soon after it opened and we got down to the Con before 11 am.

I went with Todd to the Hilton to see if anyone was selling tickets for autographs. There wasn’t anyone so I left Todd, and made my way to the Westin to get in line for the 1 pm Stars of Buffy and Angel panel. The panel was great, with Nicholas Brendon stealing the show.

In these panels, people are given the opportunity to ask questions to the folks on the panel. One of these people was really not nice to Nicholas Brendon, which caused the Whedonverse folks to make an announcement before the Sunday Buffy panel that the celebrities were people with feelings too.

After the panel, I went to meet Todd in the Walk of Fame. He had been saving a place in line for me in the Wil Wheaton line. Part of the line got moved out of the Walk of Fame room and then my part of the line got moved. Since we were actually first, we asked a staffer to re-arrange the line to reflect that. There was a girl that ended up behind me that was really cranky about that. She kept going on and on how we were going to have to wait all day just to get an autograph. I think I waited a half hour or so outside, then the line was really short once we got back inside.

I made a line friend and she took my picture with Wil. He was super nice, especially when I mentioned I was a writer for GeekMom. My line friend took my picture with him, and I waited around to take her picture with him.

Todd was in line for Eliza Dushku, so I joined him. She was also super nice and her line went rather quickly as well for as long as it was. After that, I got in line for the Guild ladies. I had budgeted money for autographs and I was really surprised that Wil Wheaton was only $20. And you got the picture for free if you bought an autograph. Felicia Day was also $20, but the other two ladies from the Guild (Amy Okuda who plays Tink and Robin Thorsen who plays Clara) were only $10 each. And because I paid for all their autographs I got a picture with Felicia Day for free.

They were all super nice and Felicia Day complemented me on my costume. They were all impressed when I told them I had hand sewed it. It was awesome to meet them and now I just need one more autograph on my DVD since I got Vork and Zaboo’s autographs last year.

From there, I said bye to Todd and headed over to the Marriott to get in line for Charlaine Harris’ autograph. It was suppose to be her only autograph session for the weekend (though I had heard that she did another later in the weekend) so I wanted to get in line early. The line was really long when I got there, but it wasn’t long before the line was actually moved into the room where the writer autographs were.

Unlike the TV / movie star, the writers don’t charge for their autographs. You just need to have a book with you. It wasn’t too bad of a wait, though I had no signal on my phone. And she showed up a little early. The line moved pretty fast and she was really nice. I admitted that I hadn’t watched ‘True Blood’ much but did enjoy the books a lot. She said that was all that mattered to her that I liked the books.

I called Todd once I had a signal again and met him in the food court. After we had some dinner, we went to Dragon*Con Wrestling. Todd goes to DCW every year, and it’s pretty enjoyable. I left early though, to get in line for the Masked Ball.

I made some nice line friends as I waited, but that was the highlight of the Masked Ball. I had been really looking forward to it, and it was really disappointed. They didn’t let us in until a ½ hour after it was supposed to start, and then we were held in a lobby type room for another 15 minutes or so. Once we did get in, the room was set up strangely. There were a few tables people could sit at, but most of the rooms had chairs like there were in panels.

Then the band started to play and the music wasn’t good for dancing. If I was going to go to a Masked Ball, I wanted to dance. The music was sort of okay for couples dancing, but I didn’t have my husband with me.

I kept waiting for the tempo to pick up and it just didn’t. That combined with Todd texting “Are you done yet” caused me to leave the Ball early. It was really disappointing since I had really been looking forward to it.

From there, we went home. Once we got Emily settled back down and I got out of my costume, I passed out. I needed the sleep since we were going to be heading to the Con very early the next day.

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