Hurricane Who - finally my report...

Oh, God, I'm going to struggle to remember all of this...here goes nothing!

Wednesday at 2, I leave from an insane day at work and head to Ohio...the plan is to meet Kel (kel_reiley) at a Starbucks in Toledo. This does not go as planned. It results in my navigating her via my GPS map as she passes the Toledo zoo about a million times. We drive to Cincinnati and retrieved Tracey (lionnessvalenti) from her dad, then took off again. I passed out. I wake up in Zombie-land, TN, ie, where Kathy (beesandbrews) lives. Thanks to the GPS for allowing us to navigate there. Later, I get a photo-ticket mailed to me for $50. Apparently, there was speeding. Thanks, TN.

We drive through the night to FL, now that we have a full car. Florida repeats the same billboards over and over again, which offers us much entertainment. Apparently, the fun spot is HUGE, Florida has free orange juice, and abortion kills babies. Who knew? We meet up with Maureen (emyrldlady) at the hotel, shower, get changed, and head out to the pub night at the Cricketer Arms.

In order to comfortably fit in the car, Kel lies down in the trunk, then later pops up and terrifies a UPS driver. The pub is fun...I am seriously homesick and make my husband send me videos of my dog. Apparently, it's decided I should show GDL the videos of my dog, and goaded into it, I do. He woofs at the screen and tells me he misses his dogs, too. We meet Leah (space_monkey52) and Ben, who I mishear as Dan, and then proceed to drive nuts calling Dan the entire weekend. Yeah, I do that. Louise Jameson comes over to our table to say hello, and eventually, I realize who she is. Met Kerry (kerryblaze), and also saw Michelle (phantomsgyrl) again, and her friend...oh my God, I legitimately can't remember if it was Darell or Darnell because we joked about it so much.

I see Tony Lee, who is wearing a waistcoat (I'm corrected after calling it a vest), and decide I have a crush on him because, well, he's wearing a waistcoat. This happens every con. I decide someone else is WAY more interesting than GDL. Like at Torchsong, when Mark Sheppard was the COOLEST GUY IMAGINABLE. GDL is cute and all, but it's Ianto I have a crush on, and I never have very interesting interactions with Gareth. I eventually wind up harassing Tony, who is hilarious and fun, and showing him my dog video, as well. Since it's my thing that night, apparently. Simon Guerrier is also completely sweet and funny...in fact, every guest I talked to the whole weekend was incredibly fun and friendly, hanging out with us, drinking into the morning.

We get home Thursday night and crash. Friday starts the programming. Maureen, Kathy and I head to watch the writer's panel, since they were all so funny the previous night. Rob Shearman, Tony Lee and Simon Guerrier are hilarious, witty, and enjoyable. They were followed up by GDL. We then go listen to Tony Lee talk vampires and zombies, and sparkley vampire unicorns. I dart out after this to go have dinner with my parents, who live in FL. Had delicious steak, and came back and met up with people at the bar.

Went to Just a DWNY Minute with...crap, I can't remember who since we they did it twice that weekend. Tony, Toby Hadoke (also RIDICULOUSLY hilarious), Simon, and someone I can't remember, I think. Instead of using buzzers, they use those little remote controlled dogs you can make bark and walk, which they have ENTIRELY too much fun with. Tony's gets called Rabies, thanks to his friend, Jessica, and I eventually take a broken Rabies home with me, after he's replaced by Rabies 2.

There's a pool party that night, and I wander off to get changed, then go over to meet up with Kel and Tracey, who have moved into V's (count_to_seven) room. I walk in to find them chatting with a man later dubbed Beardie, who is in the background of like, EVERY picture. I'm then read aloud fic about hamsters, which I won't elaborate on, except to say IT WAS DISTUBRING. I eat Dalek!fail cake, drink some Pimms, watch V shove her face in some cake, and then we head down to the pool.

Inflatable Daleks and gators abound, and I DRINK A LOT. Enough that, despite drinking water until 4am after the pool party ends at about midnight, I am ridiculously hung over the next morning. Yeah. The pool party gets shut down early, probably NOT because of the volume of my laughter... Have I mentioned the hotel is pretty much awful? We're sharing with a dog groomers convention, too. We continue the party in the hotel bar, then the lobby when we're kicked out of the bar. All I will say is that SHENANIGANS ENSUE and that's the end of me talking about my drunken behavior. I meet an insane amount of people, including Zach (rassilon42), Ira and his fiancee (I can't remember her name, but she walks me to the bathroom at some point), Jason, Berkeley...and a lot of other people I don't remember.

Saturday morning, after "sleeping" for about 4 hours, I am extremely hung over. Eventually, me, Maureen and Kathy drag our asses down to breakfast, where Tony joins us for a bit. We then head to a talk on The Moffatt Era with Rob Shearman, Simon Guerrier, and Toby Hadoke and then Doctor Who Comics with Tony Lee, Tammy Garrison and Katy Shuttleworth. Then it's on to Gareth, who talks with Jarrod, who did an absolutely AMAZING job running and planning this con. After Torchsong, this was SUCH a breath of fresh air. Huge kudos to him.

There is napping and general hanging around until we go see “Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf,” performed by Toby Hadoke. It's touching and hilarious, and very well received. Pretty much the best kind of crowd with all of us fans...I feel content and happy to be among everyone. Then we headed back to the room and get dressed for Halloween! I don't cosplay. Part of me would like to cosplay, but it seems that the people who do it are so good at it, that intimidates me. I dress as a gypsy, thanks in part to Maureen's clothing! We hang in the lobby bar, I steal original Rabies from Tony, and we drink an extra hour thanks to daylight savings time! Nigel Fairs offers to take his shirt of for V, and hilarious pictures ensue.

V dons Jason's hat (he's dressed as the Brig) and looks like a Nazi way more than girl!Ianto, IMO. She vamps on the couch for us, then me and her and Kel do really terrible re-enactments of Children of Earth promo photos for Tracey. Zach wears a gas mask ala The Empty Child, and we all take turns wearing it. At one point, Kel wears the gas mask, Brig hat and a feather boa. She looks awesome. When the bar closes, we get kicked out and head to Jason's room, who graciously allows us in there. We made it for about 30 minutes before we got kicked out of there, as well, then headed to the lobby again.

It's another 4 am night, followed by about 4 hours of "sleep," then onto Sunday's activities. We go to the Writers Roundtable with Rob Shearman, Tony Lee, Nigel Fairs, Tammy Garrison and Simon Guerrier. Then we have another hour with GDL. We hang around until they do the audio commentary on Children of Earth - Day Four. What should be kind of sad actually winds up being sort of hilarious, because people start bawling incredibly loudly about a half hour before Ianto dies (yeah, it doesn't count as spoilers anymore). Also, lots of commentary about gas masks, John Barrowman has a butt chin, and everyone cheers when Ianto first shows up on screen. The closing ceremonies follow, and then the Save Ianto Jones people do a raffle for a gift basket. They make the mistake of handing the main girl the mic, and she goes on for a LONG time about how much Ianto means to her. I'm sorry, perhaps I'm kind of a bitch, but it was RIDICULOUSLY awkward until GDL cut her off, and I laughed into V's shoulder while pretending to cry.

Then it was time to say goodbye. And goodbye was hard to say. I had a really wonderful time with wonderful friends and guests. Totally fun and just the right size for me. Hopefully I can go again next year! ...annnnnd now I want to go to Gallifrey. That requires flying. Which I'm not such a fan of.

Link to pics to follow in a friends-locked entry, since I try to keep a bit of separation between LJ & RL.

So, who wants to fly to Chicago, then fly with me to LA in February? Why do I put myself through these things for cons?