I ended up going to the county fair anyhow, only I went with Veronica and her family. Had a lot of fun, getting on the rides, screaming until my head hurt, and I saw a few old friends. Denise being among them. I, unfortunately didn't get her number so we could chat. We were there until pretty late, and I ended up getting home around 1:30am.

The baby shower was also that day. It went ok. A lot of familiar faces, and Sara got lots of presents. Mostly clothing, as per usual. But her daughter will have lots of clothes to wear for a very long time... at least until she grows out of it.

Let's see... this week at work, nothing really out of the ordinary happened. Marcella was in a scary good mood yesterday. Always a good thing. And I saw Jason at work on Tuesday. He kinda waved me down when I smiled at him so he could show me his new lip peircing. Ouch. He looks a lot better, but I think he's back together with his ex-girlfriend, or some girl. Because I remember when I called his house before I went to Seattle, his answering machine said something about reaching Jason and some girls name. I immediately hung up. Don't wanna know. Don't want to think about it.

Must move on...

County Fair__________

Saturday, Aug. 13, 2005 - 10:34 am

Which I am now not going to. I was so excited about going today. I haven't been the county fair since 1998. I was supposed to have gone with Sara and the boys. But when I called her yesterday to ask what time we were going, she said that they had gone yesterday because something had come up for today.

So yeah, I'm more than a little disappointed. It wasn't so much for the rides, since Sara and I are the only adults, and she's very much pregnant. But that just kinda put a damper on my entire weekend.

Tomorrow is Sara's babyshower. She doesn't know about it, or so we think. I think she suspects. But it makes me not want to go at all. I would much rather go to the A's game and get my Eric Chavez figurine. But it's family. I have to spend time with them. And I can always go to the baseball game next weekend.

The A's are in first place, by the way. So are the Braves. So maybe I'll get my dream World Series yet!

Fallen Into Place__________

Saturday, Aug. 06, 2005 - 7:21 pm

My bank account just magically opened itself back up, and my entire paycheck was in there this morning. Amazing. I lost a lot of sleep, but made up for it this afternoon. The plan remains the same, however. As soon as these 6 floating checks go through, I will close that account and go to another bank.

My dad found a car. And I think he's still giving it to my brother. I'm hoping he won't, but we'll see. It's a 1997 black Nissan Maxima. Very nice car.

This is a picture of me and Andy Hallett from the Booster Bash. It's the photo op I liked the best.

Reality Bites__________

Saturday, Aug. 06, 2005 - 7:48 am

I really shouldn't have come back. I would have felt better just staying in the magical land of celebrity-chasing.

I came back to work on Thursday to being locked out of the office. This whole huge thing went down because I gave my key to Ron while I was gone, and Monica was running very late. I got yelled at by Marcella (there's a shocker), and Monica was suspended for 2 days. Just a long weekend for her.

Anyhow, my punishment was not having a key to the office at all. Makes no sense since I'm usually the first one there. But that just means Monica will have to try extra hard to get there on time.

And yesterday was payday... well, it should have been, if the fucking bank hadn't closed my account due to having a zero balance. The bank rejected the direct deposit, and now I am money-less until Tuesday. I could deal with that, no problem, if it wasn't for the fact that I have 6 checks floating around for bills that are due soon. I had no choice but to ask my parents for money to cover the checks.

That only served to alert them to my financial situation, and my father decided that the best course of action would be for me to give him $100 out of every check so that he can put it in a savings that's for me. And that's fair. I agree with him. I just didn't enjoy the disappointment in his face. That kinda bit the big one.

Anyhow, my dad crashed his car. Brakes failed or something, and the car rolled down a hill and was totally. Luckily he wasn't in it. But he's been on a search for a new car (used, of course) for about 4 days now.

The thing that get's me, and also angered my mother, is that his plan is to buy a nice, newer car... and give it to my brother in exchange for my brothers old Honda, which isn't in the best condition, visually anyhow. My mom is pissed because they're always getting my brother's hand-me-downs. And I'm pissed because: what exactly has by brother done for them as of late that deserves him getting a new car?!

Nothing I can think of.

But I can be consoled with the knowledge that... they, my car is still prettier than any car they can get.

So there.

(Gawd, how old am I?)

Angel Booster Bash_________

Monday, Aug. 01, 2005 - 8:20 pm

Here's the entirety of the convention from my very frazzled, half exhausted, point of view.

Thursday

The day started off bad. First thing I wake up to is the woman on the radio spewing about a huge accident on Interstate 5... which so happens to be the main stretch between northern and southern California. Now keep in mind that my nerves were already frazzled about the drive in the first place. Now, my cousin and I had to find an alternate route. So a normally 6 hour drive took us around 9 hours. And to top off that wonderful roadtrip, which by the way hit a high of 108 degrees in the fucking Mojave desert, I got my first moving violation. Go me. I was exhausted from having driven for about 9 hours straight, didn't notice that southern California's carpool lane has double yellow lines, crossed one, and got pulled over. Then, of course there was traffic.

Welcome to fucking Los Angeles.

On the positive side: YES! There was one! I was reunited with my bestest Buffy friend in the whole world, Gizelle. She was a breath of fresh air on a horrible day. Was so happy to see her. Even sitting with her at a McDonald's and just talking was enough to calm my nerves.

Friday

I checked into the hotel, where I was sharing a room with two girls, neither of which were there. I checked in early enough so that none of the main events had started yet. Unfortunately, Gizelle had to work, so I was prepared to pretty much be on my own. I made myself comfortable in the great hotel room with a beautiful view, and turned on the telly. Angel was on. How coincidental and happy-making! While watching Angel, I met my first room mate, Mary. Her sis couldn't get the time off, so she was on her own. So we stuck together the whole weekend, which was awesome. New friends are always good.

I think we wandered around a little bit... hit the autograph room where there were quite a few new faces for me. They were all new for Mary, since she was essentially a convention newbie. Well, like Gizelle (and they hadn't even met at this point), she seemed to fall instantly in love with Jonathan Woodward (Knox). Not my cup of tea, but no one there really was.

My cup of tea had to cancel due to a family emergency.

Anyhow. I think I got one autograph that round in the room- Scott L. Schwartz. Played a few big demons and vampires throughout both shows' runs. Well, he was very kind, very personable, and he took some nice pictures with me. A funny bitey one, which I want on my wall somewhere. And it was a small thrill, but throughout the weekend, he remembered my name and made it a point to say Hi a couple of times. Makes that very memorable. Especially when other guests didn't even bother to look up at you when they signed your photographs. More griping about that later.

There were a few Q&A sessions. All had their cute, funny aspects. Cute little barbs thrown at eachother. Questions that ranged from the hilarious, to the down right strange. From the very first Q&A, however, the people on the schedule were fiddled around, for one reason or another- running late, still filming, etc.

During the James Leary Improv show, Mary volunteered to go up from a "Who's Line Is It Anyway"-esque dinner party game, where a person is cluless about what the guests are trying to portray. Mary had to portray "Terror" and she gave a killer blood-curdling scream, no pun intended. But the hostess of the dinner party was clueless. How many mammals do you know that lay eggs? I won't even dignify that with an answer.

The dance party was okay. I didn't go to the Cocktail Party, so I met Mary there afterwards. She was a table with a group of older British women who I attempted to be civil with, but they didn't so much as acknowledge me. So I didn't even try. Mary was a bit tipsy, but she was having fun dancing and whatnot. The type of music that Ende was playing wasn't really easy to dance to-- lots of 80's cover songs. Not my thing, so I didn't stay long.

Saturday

Early this morning, my other roommate, Mimi, recieved a phone call that ended up cutting her trip short due to an emergency back home. I was very sorry that I didn't get much of a chance to talk with her. She seems like a wonderful lady, and huge Andy Hallett fan. She even runs a website, and had a gift basket made for his birthday full of things that fans of his sent in.

Gizelle met us at the hotel room for a long day of events. Starting with the Photo Ops. This was a pleasant surprise in comparison to Oakland last year. Very short lines that went by relatively quickly. There, we met Dylan. Totally gay, totally awesome. I need him to just follow me around and tell me that my hair looks fabulous and flat, which is what I was going for. But it didn't work. He was lying to me. My hair was frizzy because of the darn humidity, but it felt good either way.

The photo ops were uneventful. First sight of Christian Kane... and... Swoon! He is yummy! Andy was very late for his photo ops. They were done last, but well worth the wait. I was the first in line for his photo op, so he was deciding whether to take off his overshirt or not. Inwardly, I wanted to scream "take them both off!" But no such luck. He's adorable, and he's tall.

Enough said.

When the photo ops were finally done, we ran over to the nearby mall for a quick lunch. We met Melissa in line for the photo ops, so she came along and we chatted, and had a good time. Gizelle and I bought matching bracelets that were too cute. A little momento between friends. Gotta love it. On the way back to the hotel, we spotted Clare Kramer and Julie Benz on their way over there to shop.

Then there were more Q&A's. Once again, they were all very funny. It's interesting to watch the actors interact with eachother. They're like a close-knit family. A very funny, close-knit family.

One question for the panel that Stephanie Romanov was sitting in was: Can you tell us your favorite joke?

They all though it through, and Stephanie said the following:

Q: What are three words that represent the word "small"?
A: "Is it in?"

And the crowd goes wild. I was cracking up, and so was Adam Baldwin (who I was giddy to have seen! YUM!)

Last but not least, the Key Club for the Kane concert. Getting there was an adventure in itself. In a nutshell, we lost the tour bus, ended up in Beverly Hills, found the bus again, and made it to the Key Club in plenty of time for the concert. Common Rotation played, and Amber Benson was there to watch her man, but I didn't want to bother her. Poor Gizelle was exhausted, so we left about halfway through the Kane portion of the concert. It's country music. Not big loss, although he was fun to look at.

Oh yeah... Joss Whedon made an appearance at the banquet, which I was not at. So I'm still fuming a little about that. So many times throughout the weekend that I said to myself: Damnit! I shoulda bought that ticket!

Sunday

This whole day was a blur. I was exhausted by this point, having gotten around 8 total hours of sleep that entire weekend. But there was a lot of wandering around. Another Q&A which was supposed to feature Andy Hallett, who was late... again. The autograph sessions were the only time that I realised how many people were actually at this convention. The lines were long.

But wait, back to my little gripe. Remember the mention of someone not even looking at me when they signed for me? That was Christian Kane. Aside from that hurting my feelings a little bit, as he was a highlight of the convention for me, the man was literally drunk almost the entire weekend. It was a little disappointing, but other aspects of the convention made up for it.

And then there were the goodbye's. I had to say Goodbye to Mary, and goodbye to Gizelle. Don't know when I'll see them again. Mary and I briefly discussed the possibility of going on the Slayercruise in 2007. Plenty of time to recover financially, and darnit it, it would just be lots of fun. We'll see.

Overview

The entire experience was fun. The convention itself left me wanting. But it was a first convention for this group of promoters. So I hope they will take this as a learning experience and be a little more organized. I know they have little to no control over the guests, famous people will do what they want after all, but there needs to always be a plan B in cases where actors are late or can't make it, which was continuously happening throughout the weekend.

But all that may have gone wrong and may have sullied the enjoyment of the convention... the people always make it awesome. The fans. The friends, old and new. It was something that worth it, no matter what.

See you in 2007!