Gathering 2002 Report!
Sorry if I forgot somebody's name! I have a lousy memory at times. Plus I'm sure I'll add stuff as time goes on and I remember things.
June 27th - I take a Red-eye flight...
In order to save money on flight tickets, I took a 12:15 a.m. flight out of Sacramento. It should have left at about 12:15. We didn't leave until almost 1 a.m. The refueling truck had a fuel feed problem and spilled fuel at the where it was getting fuel. Cute, real cute. Finally got refueled. As they braked during taxing, we got to hear lovely grinding brakes. What a lovely sound to hear! Finally get airborne and I'm on the way to Dallas/Fort Worth for a layover then connect to Norfolk.
The plan was to sleep as much of the flight as possible. Nope. They ran out of pillows and where's mine? In the checked luggage. I tried to get some sleep anyways. Right as I was about to slip into sleep, a baby right behind me started to cry. Then one in front of me. Then one across the aisle to the right. Nothing like being surrounded by babies. They finally get quite and I'm able to doze off for a little over an hour. Anyhow, I get into Dallas/Fort Worth 30 minutes late. Not too much of an issue since my next flight doesn't leave for 2 hours.
To pass the time, I started writing this and worked on some fiction stuff. When going to board the flight to Norfolk, I got picked for the random screening/ search thing. I must be intimidating. This time I grabbed a pillow as I went for my seat. The plane took off a few minutes late, though I didn't hear why. I had already zoned out before we even back away from the gate. I managed to sleep for roughly half this flight. I would have slept more, but the a/c was cranked up so I was freezing. And where's my sweat jacket? In my checked luggage.
Get to Norfolk and get my luggage quickly. I then find the shuttle service which is 30 feet from the baggage claim I was at. Nice. Got to have nice little tour of Downtown Norfolk since he was dropping someone off there. Then he had to get gas for the car. Instead of a drive I figured to be roughly an hour, it turned into one over an hour and a half. Plus the driver had to call the hotel for directions. The one time I don't print directions to the hotel. I swear, Murphy's Law loves me.
I check in and get my stuff stored in my room. I head out to the small lobby. I ran into a few folks and chatted. I ran into Hudson, Goliath116, Kythera, and Ziaus (sp?). We talked in their room for I don't know, half an hour or so. Then moved out to the lobby for a bit as well. Found out Hudson plans on moving to Sacramento sometime. So that means he'll be living somewhere near me.
While chatting, Jubilee showed up with a bunch of stuff for the con. I helped out in moving things. We moved the art panel supplies and sodas to my room since I was on the first floor and had no roommates.
June 28:
Got up at 8:30 and ate a small breakfast. Stomach hadn't adjusted yet. Anyhow, around 9:15, Kelly and Tore showed up to haul stuff downstairs. After we moved it all downstairs, we set it all up. Took us a good 20 minutes, maybe more. Had to try to figure out the best way to set it up with what we had and the somewhat small room. The good news is we had no parts left over. After that, I got my con badge and stuff. I went back to the room since nothing was open yet. Did some writing and TV watching.
I hit up the art room after it opened and decided to get the voting out of the way. Chatted with Kelly while Karine brought in more of her art. Wandered over to the dealers room. I picked up a shirt for Cindy. I picked up my con shirt, a Gargoyles pin and pre-ordered a 2003 calendar. Hit the room again before working the registration desk. Had to keep room service out so they wouldn't notice the soda. All I needed was a couple towels anyways. But there were more than enough for me anyways.
I came down to the reg. desk at around 4:50, since I had to work at from 5 to 6. I wanted to make sure of what to do. After I took over, I mumbled to somebody I hoped that it wouldn't be busy. Jennifer Anderson overheard me and laughed. Of course I reminded her about the registration desk from the previous Gathering and how I was working it at the beginning. She remembered that. I checked in two pre-registered folks and sold registration for three others.
Adam took over one of the other chairs by me. Also John joined the two of us. We talked about Murphy's Law of Combat for a bit. We closed up at 6. I gathering all the important stuff so when Jubilee came along, we could take it up to her room. After we dropped that off, we hit the opening ceremonies.
Greg Weisman went through his usual spiel. Noticed quite a number of new folks. Look, a bunch of Con Virgins! Eh, fresh faces, always good news. Toon Disney noticed the Gathering and sent a bunch of free stuff. When we were told that, we started chanted "Free Crap!" I got a T-shirt, which was really cool. After that, I got a ride to McDonald's for dinner. I don't remember who gave me the ride, but it was the first time I got to ride in a Corvette. After that, I helped Jubilee move more stuff up to her room. Then Siryn, Jubilee and I moved the soda from my room as well. We put some in the con suite and the rest in Jubilee's room. This year they planned to ration the soda so it wouldn't get totally used up. Joined the MST3K thing that Jade Griffin was doing. I don't remember which episodes of Gargoyles we made fun, I just know they were part of The Goliath Chronicles. They were evil, but we had fun ripping into them.
June 29:
Got up after 9. Managed to almost get 8 hours of sleep. Had another small breakfast and took a shower. After that, I headed up to the con suite since I was supposed to run it a 10. I like how the volunteer schedule they printed showed me working, but the e-mail I got didn't. Not too much of an issue to me, since small mistakes like that happen. I got to run up and down the nearby flight of stairs since the ice machine near the con suite was busted. Gee, another work out, just what I needed! After, I guess 5 or 6 runs, we had enough ice to keep the soda somewhat cool. Siryn told me I was such a sweetheart for taking care of doing that.
After a few, A Fan showed up and we chatted. Somebody else showed up and we loaded a tape to watch. After a few attempts at starting an episode of Gargoyles, Greg Guler showed for a Q & A session. I decided to stay and listen to it, since the person who was supposed to run the con suite wasn't there. Well, she might have been, but I didn't notice. Mandolin said she was going to K-Mart, so I tagged along and went there as well. She got some stuff for herself and I picked up a couple bottles of Gatorade. After all, one can only drink so much soda.
After that, I went back up to the con suite. Chatted with Kathy, Patrick and A Fan for a bit while. We talked about some random stuff and I did some minor writing while doing so. After we left, I headed back down to the room for a nap. But I didn't quite succeed. I did some writing and left when room service showed up at 4. Went to the lobby for a small bit and got a picture of Greg. Went back to the room after a while to take care of some minor things.
Went to the Banquet when it came time. It was a hot dog, hamburger and some macaroni & cheese. To drink with it was ice water. Sat down with Goliath116 and we plowed through the small meal. After a bit, I wondered down to the masquerade. Took a number of pictures. Stayed for a little of the dance before crashing for the night. And once again, it took a while to doze off.
June 30:
While waiting for the stuff for the brought down for the registration desk, I got the cel for Siryn that I was donating to the Charity Auction. I brought along the art display book that I keep my cels in. I showed what I had to Siryn, Greg Weisman, Mooncat and I think one or two others. Mooncat looked at me, "So you must be the BrooklynX that buys all those Gargoyles cels!" Guilty as charged. Siryn thanked me for bringing them along to show her. A couple others thanked me showing them off as well.
Went down stairs to see if the stuff was ready at the reg. desk. Jubilee spotted me and asked me to watch a table in the dealers room while she went to get the money boxes. I sold a couple things and made sure she got the money when she returned.
Helped run the registration desk, though nobody would show up to register on the last day. Found out Hudson was scared of the stuffed Stitch doll. He kept turning it around or making it face the table. I wanted to say something or laugh, but just decided to ignore him and keep turning Stitch around or sitting him back up. Greg Guler passed by me while I was showing a couple more folks my cel collection. He asked if I drew them. I told him I didn't and that they were the actual cels from the show. He seemed impressed. After a while, we shut down. We moved the stuff up to Jubilee's room. I then helped move stuff to the room used for the up coming charity auction.
While there, I got a Broadway and Bronx sketch done by Roy Sato. I also scored a pre-production sketch of Goliath done and signed by Greg Guler. It's a sketch of what he looked like before the final version seen in the show. I got in a bidding war with Siryn over it. I ended up outbidding her and she yelled out, "You bitch!" in front of everyone. There was a few stunned looks to that. I know she meant it as a joke, so it's all good.
At one point Siryn made announcement that her markers were missing, along with Adam's knife. While waiting around for something, I overheard that someone had found them. I raced upstairs to find Siryn, hoping she hadn't left yet. I found her and informed her that her marked had been found and that Kelly had them in her room. She sent me to get their room key. So I raced back downstairs, got the key and then she got her markers. Had to love her reply. "Thanks for helping me find them, but you're still a bitch." Of course I replied. "Yeah, I know."
After a little while, I helped Kelly and Tore tear down the art room. We moved the stuff upstairs to a waiting truck. After that, we headed out to dinner. It was the three of us, the Gathering 2003 staff and a couple others. We stopped at Kyoto, which is a sushi place. Everybody else had sushi and I had soup. I'm not a big fish fan. The soup was good. We talked about several things. At the end, a couple of the others were, "Next time, you need to get sushi."
We headed back and I helped move the unclaimed art up to their room. We said goodbye and parted our ways. I went back down to my room and started up the packing for the flight the next day.
Somewhere during the day I got some of the commissions I had done by Karine lat year. One was of my gargoyle character, and three of my Puppy Pack character Shaun Pup. She also showed me what she had done so far of a fourth Shaun Pup commission. She said she had started that one over since it hadn't turned out the way she wanted. Oh well, not too much of an issue to me. But there was a surprise in it that I'm sure somebody else will get a kick out of. I'm not saying what though, don't want to ruin the surprise for somebody.
July 1:
Sleep eluded me. I got maybe 1 hour of sleep. Said goodbye to Kathy, Greg Weisman and a few others. I had been waiting to pay back Mandolin some money she lent me. Greg asked if I was going to join them, but I said I couldn't do to work issues. I wish I could have stayed one more night and had gone to with them to Busch Gardens. He understood and I guess he hoped maybe at the next one I could tag along for something. Who knows.
Also suddenly remembered to get a small something for my mom. She had given me $5 to pick her something and I almost forgot. Got her a Cocker Spaniel figurine. Didn't notice it had it's eyes crossed. Doh.
The shuttle showed up at 10 and took me to Norfolk. I slept for 15 minutes of the drive. While waiting to check in outside, the computer crashed. They sent us inside. Went to the gate and the zipper on my pants set off the metal detector. So I got searched. After that, I went to the gate and waited for the flight. We left a couple minutes, but not a big problem.
I dozed off on this flight for about half of it. Was informed that we would get to Dallas/ Fort Worth 10 minutes early. Then we got closer and found out it was raining. That would make us 10 minutes late to the gate. Then it became SNAFU. A thunderstorm shut down the airport. We had to circle for 20 minutes before turning to land in Louisiana for more fuel. Got airborne again and raced to D/FW airport. They said the flights would be held. I get off and race to find my flight back to Sacramento. Except I found it had left and probably left before I even landed. ARGH!
I was not happy. I talked to one of the gate people to secure a seat on the next flight. Thankfully I got a seat on that one. I ended up getting home at 9 p.m. instead of 5:30. What a screwed up way to end a pretty good con. And if I hadn't gotten a seat, my luggage would have beaten me home.
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Pictures of the con.