another 463 notches were just added to my geek belt...

Apr 24, 2005 00:36

Wow. I'm tired.

(for those of you who don't know...)
Celebration 3= huge star wars convention in Indy...

My weekend:

Friday-
Dumb classes in the morning, a chem test I hopefully didn't suck at. Then I went home and took a nap for a little bit, and around 5 we headed out to Indy to pick up our badges for Celebration 3.

Original plan: pick up our badges friday afternoon, go back to muncie, hang out at our party/the carnival, then go back to Indy to get in line for George Lucas around 3. Have fun in line binding with other star wars fans, then see a cool lecture by george lucas, then spend the day at the convention.

What actually happened:
the 1 hr 15 minute drive took two hours because it was crazy rainy and there were tons of wrecks. We FINALLY get there a little after 7, and get our badges. We head over to the fan club booth for alex to get his lanyard that gets him into cool stuff (and try to get one for me so I could join him...) Well, the people running that booth left at 7. It was 7:30 by the time we got to it, and they were supposed to be there until 8. So we went to customer service, explained that WE were in the fan club and needed our lanyards to get in line for george lucas, and the guy found some SOMEwhere and gave them to BOTH of us!!!! (which was cool because I would have had to pay 40 bucks adn join the fan club otherwise...) By this point we were pretty tired and hungry, but the rain was still pretty bad, so we walked across the street to circle center mall and shopped a bit and decided to stay overnight since people were saying they were going to get in line at 12. (mind you then show was at EIGHT THIRTY AM) While we were walking through the skywalk (how fitting!), we saw a guy in full darth vader costume pushing a stroller. yeah, we got a picture. Oh, and they had security dressed like storm troopers, which was pretty cool...

So we're at the mall. It's 8:30 pm. All the nearby hotels are booked (and way too expensive anyway). It's still raining and very cold and very windy. So we shopped some, got some Ben And Jerry's, and then at 10 we saw "A King's Ransom" (which was the PERFECT "its cold out and we're tired and need to kill some time" movie). That got out around 12, which was when the REAL fun began when we headed to the first line...

It's Midnight. There are 2 lines forming to get into the George Lucas Show: one for fan club members, one for everyone else. They were going to let in 70% (of the 3000 that could fit in) fan club and 30% from the other line for the first show, the same for the second show, then flipped around for the third show. Well, the fan club line started at the side of the convention center (in the rain), and continued about a half a mile... and this was at midnight. People were huddled together under ponchos and umbrellas, and everyone looked pretty miserable. Meanwhile, the line for "other" was about 30 people long, and under the awning in front of the convention center where taxis drop off and pick up. Well duh. So we got in that line and were happy that we were going to be out of the rain (we had no ponchos or umbrellas, adn each of us was wearing A T-SHIRT anda light jacket. NOT optimal clothing for being out in the rain all night.). About 30 minutes later, one of the volunteers announces that we were in the wrong place and our line was supposed to be behind the convention center. So he gets a big sign and snakes the line around backwards and leads us out to the rain. We immediately befriended the people in line with us and huddled under their umbrellas. It was 12:39. (we took a picture of me in front of the clock) 45 degrees. Still raining hard.

So Alex decides to go find a gas station or something to get us some trash bags to get under, since we had NOTHING in his car that would have helped us. Meanwhile, the friends of the people in line near us were smart and said they were going back to their hotel room, and would just wait until the show was online. But they at least went and got us hot chocolate. which helped. By this point, I was completely drenched. My kangaroo sneakers were very squishy, my teeth chattering, and my handas adn feet completely numb. Two hours later, Alex comes back with a plastic bag saying "I got some stuff for us. What do you want, a poncho or umbrella?" Well, both of course. So I put the poncho (which was about as thin as saran wrap) on, adn held up the umbrella, and helped alex get his poncho on. BUt there was more in his bag. He steps out of line and yells "PONCHO'S AND UMBRELLAS FOR SALE, 5 BUCKS! I JUST BOUGHT OUT THE BEST WESTERN GIFT SHOP!" Well, let's just say he definately profited. A lot. After selling a few to people in our line, he went over to the fan club line, and when he came back, he had ONE umbrella left, which he used.

I was pretty freezing and starting to get concerned about hypothermia, so I took alex's car keys and went to sit in his car for a little bit. He was parked in the parking garage right across the street. While he held our spot in line, I walked to the 5th level and spent about 5 minutes trying to get my hands to stop shaping and unlock the car, adn my fingers were NOT functioning at all. I called alex, and he said to just keep trying, adn I FINALLY got the door open. I sat in the car for about 20 minutes, and thawed out, which helped a LOT. It was a few minutes after three when I went back downstairs, and we chatted for a few minutes, and then Alex went up to the car for his break. At this point, the fan club line had started to wrap around the whole center, and was actually pretty close to the end of our line. Well, as SOON as Alex was upstairs, the same volunteer guy from before came and yelled "WE'RE ATTEMPTING TO GET YOU GUYS INSIDE WHERE IT'S WARM AND DRY! WE'LL GIVE YOU A FEW MINUTES TO PACK UP, BUT PLEASE GET READY NOW!" (some people had set up tents). Well, I frantically called alex, whose phone was off since it was about to die. No answer. I called again like 20 seconds later, adn he answered and i was like "COME DOWN NOW!!! THEY"RE LETTING US IN!!!! HURRY!!!) well, by the time I saif "hurry", he was already down 3 flights of stairs.

So they started moving our line towards the road. We notice that they're doing the same thing with the fanc club line. (which was already moving across the street, by the hyatt) Well, the GENIUSES running the thing MERGED the two lines once we crossed the street!!! Let me just say, this pissed off WAYYYYYYYYYYY too many people. The fan club people were yelling at us for cutting, but we were like "WE'VE BEEN HERE AS LONG AS YOU HAVE!!!" Yeha, it got ugly. Well, so they moved the line to wrap around the hyatt, adn the plan was to take us through the skywalk adn put is in various rooms in the convention center. Well, after about 200 people (NOT including us) had gone through Hyatt's lobby, they locked their doors and said no one else could go. We were about 30 feet away from the door. We could see everyone else walking through and getting into the convention center. So we waited here another 2 1/2 hours. Then an Actor from Episodes 1-3 (he's in the senate- he's blue with horns and he yells out "order!!" in the movie..) came out in a business suit holding a huge box of cups of hot chocolate from Steak and Shake, and he gave them out to all of us. He then said "Hey everyone here who was going to buy my action figure- DONT! Instead, give that money to homeless people who live like this every night..." A nice gesture, but we were still waaaay too cold. Finally, around 5:55 am (at 6, they were SUPPOSED to be giving us wristbands saying that we were definately in to see the show), a bunch of strom troopers come out andstnad next to the line, blocking us. They begin top snake the line back around itself to take us...BACK WHERE WE HAD BEEN!! It was really surreal adn awesome to see a storm trooper directing traffic in downtown indy at 6:00 AM. Anyway, they brought us inside to there roomes that had poles with curtains on them forming lines (like at six flags sort of...), and we all just crashed there, waiting. Around 7, they came in with writsbands and told us that we were all in the first show, adn we were welcome to go take bathroom breaks if we needed to, and they'd start putting us in our seats around 8:15. Pretty much everyone was just laying on the floor sleeping (or trying to anyway). My jeans were soaked up to my knees. It was bad. Everyone took of their soaked shoes, so it didn't smell too great in there either.

Finally, at 8:15, they woke everyone up and brought us into the show...

... the rest of the day, to be continued...

To see pics of all this, go here:
http://www.thedreamseed.com/alexander/05-04-23.php
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